Merriest Christmas part two

Just part of the loot!

No matter how we say we're going to have a simple Christmas,

we never do. I'm just as guilty as the rest, though!

I mainly posted this picture because I wanted

to show off the gorgeous paper roses that Ami made for my gifts!!

Me with my gifts from Larry

These were two of them! A Cuisinart popcorn maker and a Breville stainless steel tea kettle! My baby knows what to get me. I don't like jewelry unless it's his old dog tag or my wedding rings and he knows better than to try to buy me clothes. Ha! I love stuff for my kitchen and gadgets!

And here's my gadget! A Snowbot. Cutest little thing!! You plug him into a USB port on your computer and his eyes light up (blue or red) and he makes a scary robot sound. I love him!! I think he'll hang out on the coffee table all year.

My mama made this beautiful arrangement of Christmas ornaments

to hang from the ceiling fan in their dining room.

It was the centerpiece for our Christmas. We all loved it.

Ami and me with one of our gifts from each other.

This picture of Ami with her sock monkey is soooooo sweet.
I'm so glad she liked it!!

Our beautiful Jessica and handsome Christopher.
They grew up much, much too fast!!!! :(

My brother, Ricky, my sister, Ami and me.

Chris, Jessi and me decorating Christmas cookies!

Here are two I made and it was Ami's idea to stand the reindeer up!

I think it turned out really cute!!

Some other things I got were a wonderfully warm gray fleece zip-up, cozy pink and white polka dot slippers and an opera wallet from Ami and Brian, a gray Old Navy hoodie and long-sleeved slinky t-shirt, Joshilyn Jackson's book Backseat Saints that I've been dying to read since the summer, a cute cloth makeup bag in a blue hippie paisley print, silver hoop earrings, the coolest spiced pears candle in an old-fashioned enamel jar that I just LOVE, marshmallow socks and makeup from Mama and Daddy, a beautiful ornament and yummy peppermint candle from Ricky and his family, a beautiful nativity ornament from my cousin, Sarah and a Target gift card from my sweet neighbor, David. I'm saving it for when I'm broke! Ha! I know I'm forgetting something (sorry, y'all!!) but I racked up!!

We just had the best day! Now it's time to pack everything away and get ready to begin a brand new year filled with promise and opportunity. I can't wait to see what 2011 brings us!!

Happy birthday to you...

Baby Jesus, happy birthday to you!

Merriest Christmas!

I've had the most wonderful Christmas with my family today, pretty much just hanging out together and eating nonstop. Everybody was there, we had presents galore and love even more! It was a great, great day.

One more Christmas together, one more Christmas with all of us healthy and happy, one more Christmas filled with laughter and good food, one more Christmas with our Maw, one more Christmas. Seems the older I get, the more sentimental I am on Christmas night, when I'm back in my quiet, cozy little house and have time to reflect on the day. I'm always a little sad when it's over. All the planning and shopping and wrapping and secrets. Poof! Just like that. Gone for another year.

I'm so thankful for my wonderful, loving family. For Mama and Daddy, for Ami and Brian, for Ricky, Audra, Jessica and Christopher, for Maw. They all together and individually bring so much happiness, stability and joy to my life.

I'll post pictures later (Ami and Brian only took over 600 today and last night!) and I'll talk about and show all the cool and lovely gifts I received but I just wanted to post something ON Christmas, while it was still Christmas. It'll be gone for good in a couple of hours. I hope everybody reading this spent the day lovin' on somebody who loved on you right back.

Busy busy busy

Mama just sent me this cute picture!

How sweet is that??

I got off work today at noon and I have been nonstop ever since! I went and got the oil changed in my car, went by Walgreens to get a few last minute things and came home and started cooking. I made a pot of wassail, a loaf of sausage cheese bread, a small loaf of mozzerella bread and I got my corn casserole ready to go in the oven tomorrow. I made white chocolate chip cookies and saltine cracker toffee last night while I enjoyed my Christmas must-watch, The Waltons Homecoming. I just love that movie. If only our lives and time were slow like that...sigh. Maybe one day.

And to quote a phrase from that sweet movie, one that my daddy says to this day, I've had a Christmas traveler at my house. While I was watching the movie last night, I started hearing scratching and clawing in the wall behind the television! I knew that was a critter come a'calling, just in time for Christmas! I played with him for a little while, tapping on the wall and telling him to GET OUT and things of that nature (some nice, some not so nice) and he finally stopped. I called a local pest control company and the guy came out this morning and got up in the attic and poked around a little bit and found one dead rat up there 'bout the size of a kitten. Said he'd been there since the summer, probably. Now that is nasty. I never smelled or heard a thing. Anyway, he took care of it and put out some traps and will be back in a week to check them. So far today and tonight, I haven't heard a peep.

And that's the kind of Christmas traveler I like. Come sit a spell, scratch a little bit and then leave before your welcome's worn out!

Christmas Cards!

Every year, Larry makes and collects 25 Christmas cards for me and mails them so that I'll get one every day in December, right up until Christmas. His homemade cards mean so much to me. I love his Santas, snowmen and depictions of me and us. He writes me a letter inside or he'll write something sweet and romantic.


In this world of electronic communication, email and Facebook, it's wonderful to still open up my mailbox and see colorful envelopes in there from my love.

Presents!

Here's my cookbook, marshmallow socks

and President Obama Chia Pet that my

Secret Santa at work, Lisa S, gave me!!

Pretty black and purple top and opera wallet that my

Monday through Thursday work buddy and friend,

Lisa P (we have two Lisas!), gave me!

Lisa P also gave me this peace ring. I LOVE it!!

I totally rock it, don't I?? :)

My Christmas cactus today!

These are the most blooms I've ever gotten!!

It's so beautiful I just had to show it again. :)

Walkin' Through Bethlehem

Today after work, Lisa and I went to church for an early Walk Through Bethlehem run. They started the tours at 4:00, we got off work at 5:00 and by the time we got there, a crowd was already forming. It will be that way the entire weekend. But if there's a crowd, there's always live entertainment going on in the sanctuary and your wait goes by fast! Shirley Hills Baptist Church offers this gift totally FREE to our community every December and if you've never seen it, you owe it to yourself and your family to GO!! You will leave there a different person, I promise.

This is what the church's web site says about it:

Walk Through Bethlehem
December 17 - 19
4:00 PM to 10:00 PM

This is an interactive drama where our guests become part of the Christmas story. While, the original story in the Bible, in the first two chapters of the books of Matthew and Luke, we try to re-create what Bethlehem might have been like the night Jesus was born. If you'll listen closely, you'll hear the dialogue between our tour hosts and the residents of Bethlehem that tell the story. In the meantime, you'll have to pay a tax (we'll give you the coin), and you'll be immersed in the sights, sounds, smells, and even the tastes of an ancient city. Eventually, you'll make the same discovery the shepherds of Bethlehem made, as they ran to find the place where Jesus had been laid in a manger.

Lisa and I went and had the best time!! Here are a few pics she took of me!

The gorgeous church Christmas tree!

In front of the gate going into the city

Cheesin' (not freezin'!) with some grapes

Gettin' in trouble with some Roman guards :)

And somehow I ended up at Target...

While I was looking at Christmas lights tonight, something from Target called my name. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the yummy coconut body scrub I got or the smelly-good organic shea butter soap that has frankincense and myrrh in it (but how cool is that to find nine days before Christmas??? That's what the Wise Men brought Baby Jesus! I squeeeeeeed out loud in the store.).

But that's not what called me. What called me was this MERRY CHRISTMAS sign!!!

They FINALLY got it, y'all. They finally got it. We're not having a birthday party for Jesus complete with presents and sugar cookies and not invite Him to it.

Not anymore.

Christmas in the 'hood

I went riding around tonight looking at Christmas lights. These are a few houses in my neighborhood.

Here's my little display!

Lighted garland on the fence and my old trusty Santa on the porch!

These folks here lose their minds every Christmas.

They're about a mile down Houston Lake. I had to show their lights!

They do this for every holiday. Last month there were turkeys out there!

My favorite Christmas movies

I just realized tonight that I have not seen one Christmas movie yet! I have got to fix that this weekend!! Since I'm through with school until January 11th, I should have more time for ME. Yay!! I'm looking forward to some long hot baths, steaming cups of hot chocolate and nights spent by the fire watching Christmas movies. Here are three that are an absolute must. They are my very favorites!

Favorite part: Ralphie FINALLY gettin' to talk to Santa and then not being able to remember what he wants!!

The Waltons will always have a special place in my heart. They were such a HUGE part of my childhood!! Favorite part: John Boy and Hawthorne are at the Baldwin house and they are just a'singing and then all of a sudden, Hawthorne goes, "Miss Emily, Miss Mamie, we got to have some gas." I crack UP every dang time. Also LOVE LOVE LOVE Mary Ellen putting that bird's nest in the tree.

Favorite part: ANY scene Cousin Eddie is in. What a nut!! I also love Clark's flipout at the end about his Christmas bonus and when he's done, he goes, "Hallelujah holy sh!t where's the Tylenol?"

I don't really consider Frosty, Rudolph and Charlie Brown Christmas movies. They're more like Christmas specials. The three of them, along with Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (who can get through that one with dry eyes?? Not me!!) and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town are all waiting patiently in my DVR. I'll get to ya, I'll get to ya!! Gah!! :)

I'm giving honorable mentions to A Christmas Carol (the George C. Scott version), Home Alone, The Holiday, Jack Frost, Elf and one that you wouldn't think would be a Christmas movie but Larry and I both like it, Reindeer Games. And while It's A Wonderful Life and Miracle On 34th Street are great Christmas movies and I love them both, I'm taking a break from them this year. It feels like I JUST saw them.

What are your favorite Christmas movies and have you gotten to watch them yet??

Merry Christmas, #265!

Tonight before class, my friend Caitlin and I were walking around inside the school and we came up on the Christmas for Kids toy box up front. Around the sides of the box were little cards with a number, whether the number was a girl or a boy, their age and what they wanted for Christmas. I saw this card for a little girl, 10 years old and what she wanted was an Easy Bake Oven. She was #265. I told Caitlin that I remembered how excited and happy I was when I got my Easy Bake Oven and that I was going to get this little girl one and bring it back and put it in that box! After class, that's what I did. I went to Target, got it and drove back out to the college and left it in the Christmas for Kids box.

This is what mine looked like, some 35 years ago. I remember how excited I was and how I just LOVED it! My brother, Ricky, and I baked Jesus a birthday cake that Christmas morning! Those flat little chocolate pancakes were the yummiest cake I ever had. This is what they look like today! Like a microwave!! They still bake by the heat of a light bulb, though. That is so cool.

So, Merry Christmas, #265! I hope you love your Easy Bake Oven as much as I loved mine.

Secret Santa strikes again!

Today at work, my Secret Santa gave me a cute cozy little Christmas throw blanket and I already have visions of sugar plums and naps in my head! It looks great draped over my sofa. I love it!!! She also gave me a box of grape and strawberry Laffy Taffy and a pack of mulling spices for cider. She did good!!! The Laffy Taffy is really an inside joke at the office. See, I ate so much Laffy Taffy one day that I had an "issue" and ever since, it's been a joke. Ha ha. :) I do love some Laffy Taffy!!!

The ugly cacti-ling

Eleven months out of the year, my Christmas cactus is the plainest, homeliest little thing you ever saw. Pitiful.

But just before Christmas, she looks like this and she makes me so happy!! I just had to show her off. If you're looking for a plant to keep you company that's easy to take care of (I mean, seriously, I do NOTHING for this plant but water it every month or so), you should get a Christmas cactus. They are dirt cheap right now! And you will be so happy next December!! This one was a gift from my mama. She just clipped me some off hers, potted it and handed it to me three years ago.

She's a sad little mess most of the year.

She's a beautiful swan now!

My first Christmas present!

We're doing Secret Santa at work again this year and today was our first gift! This is what I got!! Some yummy gingerbread pancake and muffin mix, gingerbread cookie mix, a gingerbread spoon rest (you see a pattern here?? :) ) and a cute snowman glass and bowl. I love them all!! I didn't even have a Christmas-themed spoon rest and it goes perfectly with my gingerbread house tea pot and mugs on the stove!! My Secret Santa knows me pretty well, huh? We'll do this next Tuesday, too, and then we'll have the big reveal on the 21st.

A few of my favorite Christmas things

It is so great to pull down all those boxes and see old friends again, ain't it? Here are a few of my favorite things, old and new, for this Christmas.

I'm amazed every year when this animated Santa comes on. He's at least 15 years old! He moves his head and his arms up and down and his candle lights up.

Another friend who's at least 15 years old. Pooh takin' names for Santa!

Sweet little Santa box I got last year with yummy soap in it!

My collection of Santas on the mantel

Adorable chenille finger puppets that I got at Pier 1 a few years ago

Nesting Santas I've had for years and years

Don't you just want to hug this gingerbread man??
I got him at Michael's last year.

Cute Christmas scene hanging on the bathroom door. I got this 20 years ago from ABC Distributing!

Sweet Santa smiley sittin' atop the hippie van cookie jar

Gingerbread tea pot and mugs on the stove

I got these over 10 years ago from a Christmas Around The World party that I hosted