Happy Holidays!

Ohhhhh Santaaaaaaa?

This one is of MY kids...


Santa used to come visit our house every Christmas Eve when the kids were little. We would go to early church service, come home and bake a little cake for Jesus, then the kids would be ready for bed and supposedly winding down.


One particular Christmas Eve Kenny was rowdier than usual...nothing I could do would get this kid to settle down. He was bouncing off the walls, literally bouncing up and down on the living room couch..I'm in the process of telling him to go to bed or Santa would not come tonight, and we hear bells on the front porch! Santa comes waltzing through the front door, Kennys mouth hit the floor and he got this sheepish look on his face..like uh oh, I'm busted! When Santa asked "are you being a good boy for Mommy?"...Kenny honestly answered "uh nooooo, but I will be now!" And he was, he settled right down, colored in Christmas coloring books with his sister until I said okay, time for bed! and he marched his little behind down the hallway...


MAN. If I had known it was THAT easy to keep the child in line, Santa could have moved in with us!

Christmas Memories...

Okay, so what is YOUR favorite Christmas memory? It could be a recent happening, or from way back when!

I have several...so I'll use this week to tell you all about them!

My first happy excited memory...I can't even remember how old I was, maybe one of my brothers remembers... Santa brought me a makeup vanity. I was soooooo impressed, and totally convinced I was now a big girl. I had it up against the living room wall just a combing my hair, applying fake makeup, my older brothers were playing with whatever boys toys Santa brought... and Daddy tells me to go downstairs to get bags for the torn up wrapping paper. Okay, just a second Daddy! Then Mom tells ME to go downstairs to get bags for the torn up wrapping paper... oh okay... sheesh.... so I tramp and stomp my way to the downstairs, and WHOA! Dooooooonnnnnnie! Jeeeeefffffffffy!! Oh my! Oh My! OH MY! Cooooommmmme Loooooookkkk!!
BIKES! THREE BIKES! WE GOT BIKES! OH MY!!! BIIIIIIIIKKKKKKEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!
I was so excited, all I remember doing is bouncing up and down. Donnie and Jeffy almost barrelled me over getting to their new gold with banana seat bikes, mine was royal blue! I love royal blue, and Santa knew that of course. Those bikes were so cool, we were the coolest kids in the neighborhood. Well maybe not, but to us we were! And Santa even brought a little red ride on fire engine for our baby brother that year. Talk about Christmas magic....

Later in life I found out how the folks afforded those three bikes for us kids, and I tell ya, I learned from my mother what gift giving is all about. She told me the looks on our faces was worth whatever sacrifice she and dad had to make to get them for us. That's how I measure Christmas gift giving. If I could make my kids squeal in delight and feel how I did that Christmas morning, then Santa did her job.

I raised her right..Right?

Oh lordy.

Raggedy Ann gone Goth!

She's been Goth witches, Goth girl,

Goth Princess, but a Goth doll was

was what she was this past Halloween!

Couldn't get her guy to be Andy though,

he just wouldn't do it.

Pffffft. He's still trying to get back

on my good side! ;-)

He's just so cute...

Liam on Thanksgiving.

Sigh.

He does a heart good! :-)

Presents....

On the wonderful side of gift giving and receiving, a thoughtful person that I work with made me cry today, she came to work bearing a gift for Liam, AND one for me too! I was very pleasantly surprised- and the gift is the Willow Tree statue of a new Grandmother with her grandbaby. I cried buckets in the basement at work. Not only is it the perfect gift for me, it was so unexpected it caught me off guard. I love love love it!

And THAT is what gift giving is all about.