Christmas

It sure didn't feel much like Christmas outside (78 degrees!) but it felt like it in our hearts.  Larry and I exchanged our gifts yesterday and had Santa for Tabbie Hoffman and Banjo this morning before we went and had Christmas with my family in Oglethorpe.  Lots of love and laughter and babies and presents.  Oh my goodness, the presents!  

This is what Santa brought our boys.  Banjo got a Dremel nail trimmer and Tabbie got a feeding maze toy.  They each got a toy (Tabbie's is a catnip-filled banana!) and treats and new vanilla-flavored toothpaste in their stockings.  And Larry loved his Notre Dame plush blanket and lounge pants that Santa brought him!

Larry got me the Farm Vet Barbie set (with the itty bitty chicken squeeeee!), a rare 1960 promotional Golden Grapes Pyrex chip and dip set, a vintage Petunia Pig drinking glass, a new cereal bowl, some Optical Illusion cards and a sweet, sweet coffee mug that he wrote on with permanent marker.  He wrote, "When I was young and dreamed of love, I saw a shadow of you.  When I grew up and experienced love, I realized the shadow was you."  Yep, he's a keeper!  He also got me a Pyrex Old Orchard casserole dish (with the lid!), a pair of Pikachu bedroom slippers, a Pokemon Monopoly game, a selfie stick, a beautiful Christmas bracelet and I know I'm forgetting something...anyway, I racked up!  I got a new FryDaddy from Mama and Daddy (along with a cute top, socks and my old stocking slap FULL of stuff) and a gorgeous tapestry from Ami and Brian that I think I'm going to use as a tablecloth.  I also got some soft slippers, a new coffee mug and some bath stuff.


 
Santa came to see our backyard birds, too.  They got a bird seed bell that I smeared peanut butter on and hung from our magnolia tree on Christmas Eve.

We went to Christmas Eve service at Southside Baptist yesterday afternoon (and even though it was 70 degrees when we got out, it was snowing in the lobby!  They had a snow machine going and it was so fun!) and then we went to see the new animated musical, Sing, and we enjoyed it so much.  Such a cute story and some really amazing talent.  We loved it!

Another Christmas has come and gone.  It's always so sad to me to see it go.  After weeks (months!) of planning and shopping and picking up this and that for this person and that person and then it's all over in a flash.  A big, wonderful, chaotic, wrapping paper flying, flash.

And we'll do it all again next year. 

The Christmas Music Box

Last Friday, after my Christmas breakfast at Cracker Barrel with some coworkers, I took off to Macon to an estate sale that we had heard about.  It was at the home of a 99-year-old lady who just recently passed away.  I picked up a few things, a vintage Santa face plate and some Santa taper candles.  I got a music box there, too, for $5.  It was broken, had an angel and musical instruments missing and something was missing from the center (I wasn't sure what) but it still played.  It played "Silver Bells" so beautifully that I got it, regardless of its condition.  

I got out to my car and looked it up, trying to find out something about it, how old it was, where it came from, that kind of thing.

I found one, in perfect condition on eBay, so I got it, too.  It arrived today!  Now I'm able to see what it looks like and that, in the center, is a Christmas tree that was missing from the first one.

It's so pretty!  And plays so sweetly.

 It's my favorite thing so far this Christmas. 

It's the middle of December...

 ...already!  Eeeeeeek!

We've been busy around here!  We started the month off with another little heart scare with Larry.  We spent three days going back and forth to the VA hospital in Dublin, where they ran tests and we saw doctors and then he spent 24 hours in a Holter monitor for a suspected blockage in his carotid artery.  He's been lightheaded a lot lately and they told us it's actually atrial fibrillation he's suffering from and not a blockage at all.  He's had AFib all of his life but since it gets worse as you age, we're going to take some extra precautions with medication to prevent him from having a stroke or worse.  Thank you, Lord, for that blessing!

Once we got past that, we decorated the yard and put our lights up!

Oh, they turned out so pretty and it looked beautiful!! 

And then we had some much-needed heavy rain and the lights all bit the dust.  We got out there and fixed it today but we lost a strand of lights to a short. 

Banjo loves the new loveseat we got a couple of weeks ago.  I kinda love it, too.

He also loves the heart smiley emoji pillow I got for Larry's stocking...  He's so used to me bringing toys home to him and he thought that was just another one of those days.  I didn't have the heart to tell him.  Would you??

We also treated ourselves to new bedding for Christmas!  600 TC sheets and king comforter and shams.  Larry's first reaction was that it looked like a hippie threw up on it.  Perfect.  Just our style!  :D

 

I've mentioned a few times that I would love to know exactly where my family came from.  I've always been told England or Ireland but unless we actually trace our family tree back that far, we'll never know for sure.  So Larry surprised me with an early Christmas present of an Ancestry DNA test!  I was so excited!  Spitting in the vial was a little gross, though.  You have to fill the vial with spit up to the little mark on the side and then combine it with an activating solution in the cap.  Yuck.  I got through it, though, and we sent it off.  I'll be able to track the whole process online and today, they updated the status to "Arrived" so it's there!  I can't wait to find out what it says about me and my family.

I picked up these vintage Santa taper candles for my tea cart yesterday for a dollar at an estate sale in Macon.  I could not believe the condition they were in.  They are adorable!

At that same sale, I got this vintage Josef Originals Santa face plate.  It was also a dollar and is selling for $18 on eBay right now.  I actually squealed out loud when I saw it and I grabbed it up quick before anybody else saw it!

And today, Larry and I made Christmas cookies.  We made chocolate chip pecan and turtle cookies as well as sugar cookie cutouts.  We had so much fun!  And they turned out great.

We even made one for the Birthday Boy.