What Christmas means to me....

First of all, I would like to apologize to my 3 faithful readers for going so long between postings. I was hoping that when I started this blog that I would be able to come up with something to write about at least once a week. Well, with 4 kids and a husband there is usually some funny story floating around but to be honest with you it is TIME that has been my downfall lately! With Christmas coming the day after Thanksgiving this year I have been on the go constantly! So with all of the political crap that goes with the "Holiday" season, I would like to take this time to tell you what Christmas means to me!
If I were to give a child's account of Christmas using my adult mind it would be something like this...Christmas is like have S_X for the first time with a new boyfriend/girlfriend....(not that I would know now, I have been HAPPILY married for the last 10 years.....maybe the rules have changed!) You wait...anticipate...wonder...by the time the actual time for "opening presents" is upon you, you can hardly stand it! Then you rip and tear your way to the peak of your excitement and then amongst the rabble you wonder to yourself, "That's it? That's all I get?" It doesn't really matter because 10 minutes later you forget the whole thing anyways!
Now that I am an adult Christmas means something different to me. I love the lights and the music and the food and the family gatherings, but I could care less for presents. When I was a kid there were 5 kids and not a lot of money. We had a beautiful tree and plenty to eat every year. Our gifts were usually a hat and pair of mittens or a cool pair of jeans with our initials sewn on the pockets in our favorite color....MADE BY OUR MOM!! We usually didn't get store bought gifts unless we spent Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa. There are 2 Christmases that always come to mind....One was when I was 5 or so we spent Christmas at my grandparents house. I got a baby doll (which I played with until everything fell off) and I remember sitting outside trying to see Santa's sleigh and trying EXTREMELY hard to stay up and catch a glimpse of the big guy himself! I still swear to this day that I saw him in their hallway!!!! My other favorite one was when I got an awesome pair of pajamas from a family friend for tutoring her son and I got a barbie doll in a yellow dress from Santa. That same Christmas my sister got a "Pretty in Pink" barbie doll from Santa and I am pretty sure that we played with them until their arms and legs fell off!
I sometimes wish that Christmas was more simple like in the "olden days". You put up lights, have dinner with family and friends, you have a great time at the yearly Christmas program (Santa always came and gave away candy when I went to country school), you have a blast playing in the snow during Christmas Vacation, you bake or make gifts from the heart, and you are TRULY THANKFUL for everything that receive!!!!
I want to take this time to wish you and yours a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! May God bless you and I hope all of your dreams come true in 2009!!!!

Christmas already??

You may have noticed the new background...(yes I know it is Christmas-y) but it could have been worse. I could have chosen the one with Santa Claus on it (which was pretty cute) or the reindeer but I chose to go conservative and picked the wreaths because I figured that if you REALLY stretched your imagination that maybe, just maybe, Thanksgiving could fall under this page too! (Isn't a wreath good for any occasion??)

I am a girl that loves the holidays...Christmas and Halloween being the top 2. I wasn't on the ball to put up a Halloween page and there is just no time to do a Thanksgiving one. As for Christmas, that holiday seems to be getting longer and longer every year! I am pretty sure that I saw a few Christmas displays in July!!!! If only I was one of those super organized people that can shop for gifts a whole year in advance....imagine the money I could save and the lack of stress. I am sure if I did that I would end up like Clark Griswold....always hiding the gifts and then finding gifts from previous years! I could just start stocking up a vast array of gifts when everything goes for 99% off the day after Christmas, wrap them and then just pull out a gift when needed. That way it will truly be a surprise for all! Although, Grandma might not enjoy getting the size 6 boys underwear and I doubt Grandpa would enjoy a pair of toddler snow boots. Maybe I will just start giving away beautifully wrapped empty cardboard boxes. Haven't you ever heard people say, "Little kids end up liking the boxes better than the toys that come in them anyways!" Imagine all of the $$ of I could have saved if I had thought of this sooner! It could also be a great character builder....teach your children early that they don't always get what they want and how to make lemonade out of lemons! LOL!!!! Or I could just give a one year memberships to the Jelly of The Month Club....that is the gift that keeps on giving the whole year!

I am the 4th of 5 kids. As I was growing up (back in the stone age) I don't remember there being ad after ad after ad for all of the crap that they are trying to sell these days. I also don't remember watching that much T.V. when I was a kid. As a mother I have learned how to listen politely and smile while they ramble on about the bajillion things that they want for Christmas and try to filter out the one or two things that they ask about all year. So far their lists are short but I am sure that once the T.V. ads hit full stride I will have to put on my game smile (and ears) and get ready for battle.

Don't even get me started on the decorating. I used to live in a fairly good sized house with ample wall space for my MANY (did I mention many?) decorations. Now I live in a slightly smaller house (more like cracker box--but we love it) and have tried, for the past 2 years, to fit said decorations (or as my husband calls it....crap) into it! Ask him sometime how much he LOVES to put up the outside lights!!! I am sure that he could just gush about it for hours! I know that he can't wait to do it again this year because he has already mentioned it for the past 3 weekends..... or it could just be that he would rather hang them with a slight breeze blowing (yes 70 MPH is considered slight around here) instead of in a blizzard with gale force winds! Either way he knows that I will make him do it so he might as well make it easy on himself! It could be worse....we could still live in the other house -- here is a picture of it so you understand what I mean! (now imagine what the inside looked like :-) Until next time....