Christmas Time

I love the soft romance of a poorly lit room, a slow flash, and a light filled Christmas tree. It just feels warm and cozy to me. Add a puggle on a soft fleece blanket in front of a fireplace... and I'm a happy girl.

Merry Christmas, Folks!

Can you believe it? Christmas 2009, has come and gone. And we are well on our way towards the coming year! I am constantly amazed by how fast time goes, the older I get. The older my son gets, the more rapid yet. Time has flown by so quickly that my son now finds it flying by.

Christmas here was a quiet affair. Family lives a fair distance away. It can be a bit lonely at times, especially as my son is an only child. He does have a girlfriend, and she has a very social family. Which is nice for him.

Gary and I were going easy this year with each other, and he listened as well as he usually does. which means... not much at all. I got him what I always do... clothes. He owns a company and appearance means a lot. He looks so sharp in his new clothes. Dana got him clothes too, from a cool, hip *current* shop. Gary loves that shirt. It came in too small, however... cuz kids today wear their clothes a bit snugger than a 50 year old is comfortable with. (and should be comfortable with). We, as usual, went a bit bonkers on our only. We got him a Wii, a Blue Ray, a Home Theatre system for his bedroom tv/ and blue ray. We got him some clothes, some personal items, perfume (cologne), lamp, games, movies, etc. You know... what 17 year olds like. Me? I got the one thing I've wanted forever, it seems. I got a Magic Bullet. SO much fun to use. I got Season One of Star Trek - Deep Space Nine from my wonderful son (Yes, I AM a geek)... and I got flannel jammies. LOVE them! I got perfume, coffee maker, (Wanted that), and some fun scrap items (ALWAYS want them!!!)... and odds and sods, etc. We have nice Christmas traditions that we have held true year after year, no matter what. Christmas Eve means Mass, and family dinner out at our local Chinese restaurant with a huge buffet. Then we come home, open one present each... which is always PJ's... and wrap presents all night, while watching movies. (I ended up wrapping until 5am. Yes... 5:00 a.m.) Ouch. Christmas morning, we get up and open our stockings in our pj's. Then we get dressed, and head to Mass. After Mass, we come home, and I make breakfast, and we sit and give thanks together. After breakfast, we take our drinks (coffee and Orange Juice) into the living room, and begin opening our presents... one at a time. We each watch the others open our presents. We don't even begin opening our gifts until around 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. And we don't finish until lunch time). Christmas morning lasts a long time for us. We've done it this way since I was a child, and certainly for my son's entire life, and he's 17!! He loves it too. It makes things last. His friends are finished by 7:30 am, and his is a day long event. lol

Anyway... Christmas and her beautiful lights, music, meaning, and love... is once again over for another year. I trust that each of you was surrounded by love, togetherness (as much as you needed)... and good wishes. I pray that you each enjoyed the *Merry* with your Christmas.

Merry Merry Christmas!

December 23, 2009

WOW! It's Almost Here!

And I am NOT done yet. This is the least organized I've ever been in my life. With my son's advancing age... (17)... I find some things are harder to maintain too. He came to me and asked if we could have dinner on Christmas Day because his girlfriend wants him to attend a family function with her on Boxing Day. I, of course, smiled and said... no problem. I don't want the season to be stressful on him. So we work around it. She invited him for Christmas Eve too, but we have a family dinner after Mass, on Christmas Eve... so he turned that down. Yay. Our Christmas Eve has been the same way his entire life, and he enjoys those Traditions too. They are a part of who he is. Do you have Traditions? I'd love to hear them! If you have Christmas traditions, come and check out the latest challenge at Scrap Tiffany. It's all about Christmas traditions. Here is one of mine... The journaling says: On Christmas Eve, we all open one present each ~ a new pair of pj's. Then we read "Twas the Night Before Christmas." After that, Dana writes his letter to Santa, and places it on his table. Then we get our special cup and saucer and fill it with milk and cookies for Santa.

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We have several traditions, and I need to do the others. I think I'll do a mini book on it. I'll post it when I do! So come on... any traditions that you would like to share?

December 14, 2009

Ho Ho Ho

Another Christmas Thought


My son is the elected Trustee in his school. Because of that position, he does a lot of things in the community. Right now, his school has adopted 6 families in the community that can't do their own Christmas. Most of these families have teenage kids... mostly boys. With the economy as it is, they were not getting as much in, as the kids were hoping for, and my son and the rest of his senate, were getting more and more concerned. In an age that everyone is talking about kids who are not helping... kids who don't care about anyone but themselves... these kids ended up donating much of their own money. My son gave more than a hundred dollars of his own money to this cause. He was frantic that they wouldn't get things for Christmas... that they would feel forgotten and left out. These kids pushed and pushed, and ended up donating their own money, and the money that the senate made for them to do fun things (like dances, hops, etc)... just to ensure these families a good Christmas. Then they went to the malls and stores, and purchased hundreds of dollars of gifts and gift cards, and food and food cards. They are wrapping it all tomorrow, satisfied that these kids will be ok. There are a lot of great teens out there, and they need acknowledgement too. We can rest in the fact that our world is indeed coming into good, strong, loving and caring hands. The hands that we taught. The hands that we prayed for on a daily basis. The hands that we held until they grew old enough that they made us let them go. It's a good Christmas season.


New Layout
Here's a layout I did for a ScrapTiffany challenge. I loved the age of 4. It was magnificent, sweet, and perfect. I don't think there was ever a better age. That was as close to Heaven on Earth as was possible to get.

December 1st, 2009

It's Official! It's the Christmas Season!

December 1st is an awesome time. It's a time filled with colours and magic and Christianity, and love and family, and faith... and yes... I gotta say it...

Santa.

Now that my son is older (17), Christmas is different. It has to be. Gone are the days of running feet, to see what's under the tree from Santa. Excitement, and inability to sleep, and sitting on Daddy's knee the night before Christmas, to hear "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Yes, the rest of the time is the same. There is still excitement. But it's tempered by other things. It's overshadowed with age and expectations and ... dare I say it? ... cynicism. I miss the old days. I knew I would. I knew this day would come, and I tried to enjoy every last little minute of the times before this one. But still... no matter how much you enjoy... no matter how much you hold on... no matter how much you wish to keep that sense of innocence... it goes. And so it is gone. And we move on. Christmas still holds it's magic, and it's love, and it's family and faith, and it still holds Santa. Just in a different way.

So Ho Ho Ho. Christmas season is upon us . Let's enjoy!

Design Team
Here is an exciting announcement, that I am proud of! I was asked to be on a Design Team for ScrapTiffany! I'm excited and honoured, and I'm looking forward to a great deal of fun and inspiration. Please drop by and have a look! You won't be sorry. Awesome stuff! Come and check out the Scrap Tiffany Site . You won't be disappointed.

A New layout!

Here's a little layout I put together! Hope you like it. Thanks for looking!