Friday, December 21, 2007

Christmas, Snow and All That's Holly Jolly

This may be my last blog- at least until after Christmas. We've got a very busy weekend coming up, as I'm sure everyone else has.

Tonight we've got grocery shopping and tomorrow we've got a get together with my husband's mom's side of the family for lunch. I was contemplating waiting until Sunday to make peanut butter fudge, but I might do that this afternoon and fix up a small tin to give my stepson's mom when she comes to get him this evening.

Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday we plan to just sit back and relax and enjoy it before the big festivities start. Christmas Eve morning will be spent with my husband's father's bunch...breakfast and presents. We'll probably run by his grandmother's to visit for a few minutes and give her her present and then come home because we've got to be here when stepson's mom calls to say when he can be picked up that evening.

So after we get back home I'll be fixing
homemade apple pie-per the request of my sister
turtle pumpkin pie- an egg less pumpkin pie my husband thought he might be able to eat
pineapple surprise dessert- my original dessert plan for Christmas

Depending on the time, my husband's dad and his wife may come over to see my stepson open his presents from them since he won't be with us that morning at their house. Not sure yet on that. Stepson needs to write a letter from him and our daughter to Santa to leave out with the cookies(which reminds me that's another baking thing I need to do that night! LOL) and "strawberry" milk. Santa likes strawberry milk at our house...it gives him a change from plain ol' milk...hahahaha!

Once they go to bed, hubby has to go pick up something from his mom's that was too big to hide here for stepson and so while he's gone doing that, I'll be getting the rest of the presents wrapped and under the tree...most especially my "secret" Santa one. It needs to be hidden up under the tree so my hubby doesn't see it. LOL It's from Santa to us as an entire family.

While I'm doing the wrapping, I'll be watching my all time favorite- White Christmas and sipping eggnog and eating cookies. Then I'll need to write a small note back to the kids from Santa, like I did last year, to be left with the empty cookie plate and drained glass of milk.

Christmas morning we'll be up early- I'm sure- as soon as the kids get up and realize Santa came and then they'll open their presents from him then and we'll open anything else, etc. I'll have to get the house straightened up and start the macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes and corn while we wait for my mom and dad, sister, grandma and hubby's mom and her husband to get here. My mom's bringing ham, rolls, and baked beans. We'll eat and then watch the kids open their presents from all the grandparents and nibble on sweet treats and so forth.

I'll probably have Christmas music going on the stereo in the kitchen while I cook. My Christmas comedy cassette has finally bit the dust...I've had it for about 20 years. I've got all sorts of country Christmas, one that's a Thomas Kinkade set, Toby Keith's first one, Garth Brooks, George Strait. I've got Ally McBeal's Christmas one. The "Now! That's What I Call Christmas!" Vol. 1. The Carpenters' Christmas. One I made years ago with a variety of songs, when I celebrated my very first Christmas in my first apartment. Jewel's Christmas. My favorites though- 98ยบ This Christmas, NSYNC's Home for Christmas, and Elvis' Christmas. (I even have a guilty pleasure one- New Kids On The Block...LOL)

I'll wish it was snowing...we have a very slim chance of rain with a little snow mixed in, but nothing like the snows I've seen on Christmas Days past. Gosh, I miss years like that.

It seems we have so little snow in this area. Where I'm from up in North Central Kentucky, we used to have some of the best snows on Christmas Day...At least it sure seems that way to my old foggy recollection. Down here it seems to stay warmer, so there's less chance of a real accumulation. So I suppose you could say I AM dreaming of a White Christmas, though I know how slim the chances are. It wouldn't have to be much...just enough on the ground to KNOW it had snowed...it wouldn't have to cover the road- no...I wouldn't want that...it would mean my family wouldn't come down and I wouldn't dare want that. It just wouldn't be the same.

I think one of my favorite things is looking at my tree. It's filled with red bows and gold garland, but it's also filled with cherished ornaments. Mine and hubby's first Christmas ornament as well as the ones we've gotten over the past few years to add to each year that we've been together. This will be our 6th Christmas spent together.

There's also all the kids' special "annual" ornaments. Stepson has a BUNCH of Spidermans, Spongebob, Scooby Doo. This year it was a Transformers one.

My daughter's first Christmas one- Baby Tweety and Baby Bugs Bunny. A ballerina kitty, Dora, a Carebear. This year it was a My Little Pony.

The past two years, mine and hubby's have been the kind with the LED lights that you plug into your light set and they change colors. There's my hubby's Oakland Raiders ones and the homemade plastic canvas mailboxes with holly on it that I made the year my daughter was born. One for each of us with the holly on one side and our first and last initials on the other.

My favorites though....the ones my stepson has made at school and deemed worthy of having here on our tree.

Best of all are the ones I made a couple of years ago- Snowman handprint ones. I bought new purple and blue balls(any color works, but the darker ones the better) and then painted the kids hands with white paint and pressed their handprints onto them- each fingerprint painted to look like 5 little snowmen with the kids names and the year on it and a little written note that hangs from the hook that says-

"These aren't just 5 snowmen
As anyone can see
I made them with my hand
Which are a part of me
Now each year when you trim the tree
You'll look back and recall
Christmas of 2004
When my hand was just this small."

I made a set of each for all the grandparents that year...and of course, if you want to do it every year, you just change the year on it. I know my MIL mentioned she'd like to have another set now that the kids are older, but it was such a mess to make the first time! LOL I imagine my supplies are shot anyway and I'd need new balls to make them now.

May your Christmas be filled with as much love and happiness as I'm sure mine will be. Hope you have fun and enjoy great food in good company. Be careful if traveling and have a blessed holiday!

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