It’s coming…Christmas, that is!

And I’ve already started seeing it in the stores! 

Ah, my favorite time of year.  Time to enjoy the sights, scents and sounds of the holidays…:)

Another Christmas tale

We had Christmas Part 2 yesterday at my sister-in-law’s.  Now I understand my sister-in-law is going through a lot with running her new business and getting a divorce, etc.  But I’m not sure that is excuse enough for what happened to me while at her house.

Everyone was seated at the table chowing down.  I wasn’t eating yet because I was trying to get my daughter to eat something.  I figured I would grab something later.  You have to understand that, although my daughter can feed herself, she won’t eat half the time unless someone feeds her.  So that meant she had to sit on my lap while I held her sandwich out to her so she could take little bites.  She took three bites and on the third, she spit it out in my hand.  Done.  Fine.  I put her plate in the kitchen sink and then went into the living room for a bit. 

She settled down on the couch with my husband and I figured I’d try to scrounge up some food.  The problem was, there were no plates to be had.  I began snooping around my sister-in-law’s kitchen to see if I could find one and she came out of the dining room.

“Do you have a plate?”  I asked.

She didn’t say a word to me but proceeded to rinse off a plate in the sink, rubbed the gunk off with a rag, WITHOUT using any kind of soap, mind you, wiped it off and handed it to me.  I know the plate wasn’t the one my daughter had used because her’s had a poinsettia print on it.  This one didn’t.  I would’ve been okay if it had been my daughter’ s plate, even with the spit out bit of sandwich on it.  But this wasn’t it. 

I was flabbergasted and disgusted.  I didn’t know what to do or say.  So I took the plate and put some food on it, trying not to think of all the germs that were still on that plate.  I’m still grossed out about it today and I really hope whoever ate off that plate before me didn’t have a cold!

It just makes me wonder what my sister-in-law really thinks of me…I certainly would not have done that to  her if she were having dinner at MY house!

So we survived Christmas!

And it was a blast!  For the most part anyway…

Christmas Eve was the best.  Pizza for dinner (a tradition with us), then my daughter and autistic sister each open one gift.  Once they’re off to bed, the rest of us do our Yankee swap thing and then play our version of “Let’s Make a Deal”–my husband as Monty Hall, selects a member of the audience who gets to choose one of the three paper bags he has.  One is a “zonk”–usually a ripped pair of undies–the other two are gift cards.  From there the fun REALLY begins.  With four women and one male in the “audience” we all start scrambling through our purses (and the guy through his pockets–one year he actually brought a paper bag filled with stuff!).  Monty says he’ll give one scratch ticket to the first person who can produce a piece of gum–and we start scraping through our stuff looking for a piece of gum!  It’s too funny, especially since I’m usually searching while videotaping the whole thing!   Not an easy task to do!

Christmas morning went well.  My daughter was in her glory when she saw all the gifts.  The first thing she said was “WOW!”    It’s hard to tell what her fave gift was because she’s been playing with EVERYTHING off and on for the past five days.

Christmas night it was time for my husband and I to exchange gifts.  I’ll never understand how a man who has been married to me for 12 years and has known me for 15 STILL has NO CLUE what to get me.  Over the years some of the gifts I have received from my husband include:  a box of tissues (I did have a cold at the time, but c’mon!); dish towels (how romantic!); last year I caught him with the bubble wrap he was going to give me before he was able to wrap it.  I told him to just give it to me at that moment.  There was a meaning behind it because yes, I do use bubble wrap for stuff I sell on Ebay.  However, I DON’T want to get it as a Christmas gift from my HUSBAND!  This year just about topped it.  We needed a new measuring cup.  As I commented about it he told me that “maybe Santa would bring me one”.  I was floored.  I went off on him and told him to not bother wrapping it, just give it to me.  And I also told him to PLEASE not buy me ANYTHING that I would use in the kitchen.  Towels, dishes, silverware, a blender, NOTHING FOR THE KITCHEN!  I know I upset him but hey, I was upset too.  Maybe he doesn’t mind getting duct tape every year but he’s the only one who uses the stuff!  A measuring cup in my house is used by EVERYONE ELSE, not just ME! 

So to compensate for my being ticked off at him for the cup, I told him if he REALLY wanted to buy me something for the kitchen, he could get me a new rolling pin.  I knew he already had because I just know this guy and my rolling pin had broken months before when my daughter was playing with it.  So yes, a ROLLING PIN is one of the gifts I received.  Oh, but this isn’t just ANY rolling pin.  It’s a rolling pin from TARGET with a non-stick surface (which I really actually like).  So now when I use my rolling pin, which is about ONCE a year when I make Christmas cut-out sugar cookies, I’ll think of my husband and all he goes through to please me with his “not too much thought put into it” gifts!

Some more Christmas chuckles

Christmas memories

This being the Eve of Christmas Eve, I can’t help but reflect back on some of my past Christmases.

As a child we were a rather poor family.  I know at one time Toys For Tots accepted good, quality USED toys because I was one of those kids receiving them! 

I remember one year when we lived on Main Street in a suburbian town not far from the Connecticut border.  These guys came to the door of our apartment.  My mother answered the door and then shooed us kids into the other room.  But we kept the door open a crack and could see two large boxes filled with toys.  And they weren’t new.  No new doll I’ve ever seen arrives out of the package without clothes on!

And then there were years we gave back.  My mother would gather up some of our old toys and we would drive to downtown Worcester and drop these used toys off.

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Another year when I was very young and we lived in the same apartment I can remember waking to see my mother passing by my room.  She peeked in and saw I was awake. 

“You’d better go back to sleep.  Santa’s on the roof.”

Of course I lay there listening for sleighbells the rest of the night…

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While living in the same apartment, our upstairs neighbor, Mrs. L, called us kids up to her apartment on Christmas morning to see the huge hole that Santa had made in her wall when he came into her apartment.  To this day I have no idea how that hole really got there!

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The first year my step-father experienced our huge family Christmases sticks out in my mind.  By now I was a young adult, about 21.  My siblings were much younger.  My mother had gone to Midnight Mass with the sister who is a year younger than myself.  The youngest ones were sleeping.  So it was up to me and my step-father to put the presents under the tree.

I knew all the hiding spots.  The huge walk-in bathroom closet.  The bedroom closet.  The hallway.  I had made three trips back and forth to the tree with Dad helping all the way.

“We still have the hallway closet to get to,” I announced.

“You mean there’s MORE?” he asked.  All I could do was laugh.  Welcome to the family, Dad.

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A funny story from ten years ago.  My husband and I had just moved into our house and we decided to get a real tree.

We went to our beloved Jim’s (have been going there for about 20 years now).  Picked out our tree.  And my husband tied it to the roof of his red Chevy Cavalier.  But he didn’t feel it was secure enough.  He slipped some of the rope through the passenger side window and told me to hold it.

Luckily we only lived 15 minutes away.  Still he kept stopping every five miles to make sure the tree was still on the roof!  And I very dutifully held the rope all the way home!  We still joke about that to this day.

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I cannot really recall any favorite toys.  However, as a teenager I lived for any kind of Duran Duran paraphenila I found under the tree.  One year I got a Duran Duran jacket, hat, scarf and buttons (not to mention all kinds of posters, books, etc.).

And then there was 1989.  I was 18 and had just started working at a very prestigious company.  My mother convinced me to apply for my first Sears card (my very first credit card of ANY kind!).  I applied and got it.  No sooner did I get it I spotted a very cool, state -of-the-art keyboard at Sears.  It cost $200.00.  My mother convinced me to buy it for myself for Christmas.  She even made me wrap it up and put it under my bed! Haha! 

Would you believe I still have that keyboard today and now my daughter plays with it every now and then?  Not a damn thing wrong with it, almost 20 years later!

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This one is my favorite…

Every Black Friday my mother and I would go Christmas shopping.  It was a tradition.  I was older by now, again probably around 21 or 22. 

We were in a Hallmark store and I saw the cutest little Christmas pin.  It was a Santa on a snowball.  The Santa had one googly eye and there was a little pull string with a candy cane attached to it.  When you pulled the string Santa would go around and around on the snowball.  My mother caught me playing with it and bought it without me knowing.  Then she handed it to me in the car.  I still have it this day and pin it every year to my coat.  And Santa still goes around and around on that snowball!

Ah, happy memories…that’s what’s Christmas is all about.

Christmas sights…

from Jim's Christmas trees

 

Tweety and Sylvester

 

Merry Christmas from my house to yours!

Lovin’ all the snow!

Since Friday my area has received at least a whopping foot of snow!  I’m lovin’ it!  It really makes it feel like Christmas is here!

I love Christmas music but…

there is one little song out there that I just cannot bring myself to listen to.  No, it’s not “Dominic The Donkey” (although that one does leave me with a headache).  It’s the song “The Christmas Shoes”. 

As soon as that piano starts up, I turn the volume down or turn the channel.  No offense to the group New Song or the tune itself.  The song is beautiful, well written and the meaning behind it is timeless and one we should all heed.  However, as someone who lost their mother to cancer ten years ago, I cannot bear to listen to a song that features a little boy pleading for a pair of shoes for his mother as her last Christmas gift. 

I’ve tried to listen to the song.  And I have heard it in full.  Until I decided I just couldn’t hear it any longer.  I even saw the movie.  I watched it while working out on the treadmill.  Do you know how hard it is to jog at 4.0 with tears streaming down your face?

This is Christmas.  I want to be happy.  I don’t want to be crying a river as I’m speeding down the highway (which happened the first time I heard this song).  Just writing this is bringing tears to my eyes.

No offense to anyone who likes the song.  I like it too.  I just can’t bear to listen to it.

So when Christmas is over and all the Christmas songs have stopped being played on the radio, “Christmas Shoes” is not one that I will miss hearing.

MORE CHRISTMAS CHEER!

IF YOU SEE A

FAT MAN…

 

 

Who’s jolly and

cute,

 

 

Wearing a beard

and a red flannel

suit,

and if he is

chuckling and

laughing away,

while flying around

in a miniature

sleigh,

with eight tiny

reindeer to pull

him along,

Then let’s face

it…

your eggnog is too

strong!

MERRY

CHRISTMAS!

 

A little Christmas cheer!

this just PROVES some people have WAY too much time on their hands!

YUM!