Christmas Stocking

This almost 40-year-old stocking has never been hung at my house before. It's always had a comfortable home next to my brother and sister's stockings at our family house growing up, then at dad's house and finally at mom's house. Now that both my parents are gone, the stockings moved with my sister to her new house, initially. But last night, she handed them out to us and we took them home. I don't know why, but I am completely torn up about this. I know my parents are gone. I know this is the first Christmas without mom and our fourth without dad...and I know we're going to miss them. We miss them everyday and holidays are always hard. But I also know that we already have lots of fun family gatherings planned and that they would be so happy that we are so close. So why is that tears trickled down my face as I took this stocking and hung it in my own home?

My brother's family

I recently took some photos of my brother's family for their holiday cards. Thought I'd share my favorite one with you -- I just love the face my nephew is making while they kiss and the way the sun is backlighting them. Tee hee...

Best Christmas Present Ever

This year there was a series of TV commercials (for a car, I think) showing grown ups reminiscing about their favorite Christmas present ever. They got me to thinking about what mine would be, but I’ve had a hard time narrowing the choices down! We may not have had much money, but my parents always made Christmas HUGE for us kids. I’m sure they went WAY beyond their means, but it was important to them for Christmas to be special. I look at my 14 year old nephew, who this Christmas alone, received an iPod Touch, a mini Dell laptop and Britney Spears concert tickets, never mind all the small stuff! I think, “Wow, he’s SPOILED.”

But the fact is, I was spoiled too! I’m still spoiled! I had not one, not two, but THREE family Christmas celebrations this year and then left on a week long trip to San Francisco the day after Christmas. Spoiled, no bones about it. Never mind that I really shouldn’t have spent the money on the trip. I went with my baby sister, who I also went to New York City with two years ago. We may not always be able to travel together and we’re very lucky we can stand to be around each other 24/7 for a week. (Minus a few small disagreements that passed very quickly and the time she mistook my arm for a pillow.)

But more importantly – and forgive me if I sound cliché here – I’m also spoiled because my family is so close. (Cue Anne Murray singing, “Even though we ain’t got money…” here.) We truly are lucky to have each other, even if we don’t always realize it. So one of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to appreciate the people in my life more – as much as we appreciated “Tigger” that year at Christmas! We didn’t care that he wasn’t the real Tigger from Winnie the Pooh – in our minds, he was real. We jumped on and played with that giant stuffed “Tigger” until all his stuffing came out. I think I was in high school when mom was finally able to sneak what was left of him out of the house for good. I can still feel the tough stuffing of his insides and smell the slightly musty, smoky fur…

Shoplifting Christmas Dog

This is greatness!

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

The joys of Christmas

Christmas in my family has changed so much in the last few years. After my parents got divorced years ago, we always spent Christmas Eve night at my grandparents’ house, Christmas morning/lunch with mom and then Christmas night at my dad’s house. It was exhausting, but we were lucky to have so many Christmases to enjoy.

Last Christmas was a blur – dad passed away in April last year, so nothing was the same. I don’t even really remember what we did, except that we all exchanged stockings at the grave. Stockings were dad’s favorite part of Christmas and even though we’re all adults now, we’ve continued the tradition.

This year, we did things a little differently, but it’s been lovely and I feel so blessed to have my family. We started off with Christmas #1 at my step mom’s house last Sunday – she out did herself and made brisket, ham, mashed potatoes, pea salad, and what seemed like millions of other yummy foods! We stuffed ourselves and exchanged gifts with her, it was really nice.

Christmas #2 was yesterday with the extended family, including some cousins, aunt and uncle, grandparents, etc. We again stuffed ourselves with traditional foods and watched my uncle eat just about all of grandma’s fruit salad “in the yellow bowl.” We played a Christmas Trivia game and won prizes (thanks, Aunt Becky) and then played a gift exchange game where we passed gifts around according to what our answers were to a list of questions. It was fun and we learned some things about each other. I ended up with a $20 gift card to China Wall…woo hoo! Then we went to church and ate dinner at Kerbey Lane. Somewhere in there I managed to finish wrapping all my presents.

This morning, I slept in and woke up alone…and it was awesome! Some might think that’s odd, but I have been so busy lately that this was the greatest Christmas gift of all, time to myself! If I had time to think about it, I might be sad, but how can I be? We still have Christmas #3 at mom’s house this afternoon. Plus, my sister and I leave for a week in San Francisco tomorrow! Have I packed? Nope. But who cares? It’s Christmas, I slept late, and now I’m drinking coffee and listening to Christmas music. It’s awesome.

My mom and sister let their doggies, Cali and Hero, open their stockings this morning and I thought these pics say it all. Even dogs can show the joy of Christmas!

That's my baby

So every year I get the cutest Holiday photo cards from my friends with kids. I truly believe that aside from my own nephew, my friends have the most adorable kiddos in the world. I thoroughly enjoy getting the cards, but every year I get a little jealous because I don't have little ones to show off. Well today, my 14 year old cat named Bridget reminded me that she truly is my baby. As independent as she is, there are times when she still needs my help. A few minutes ago, she somehow managed to get her head stuck in the handle of a plastic bag, so she ran into the room where I was, dragging the bag along with her. She looked up at me with her big, beautiful blue eyes and meowed the most pitiful cry. So what do I, the loving mother, do? I laugh and immediately pick up the camera! Poor baby. But don't worry, I quickly removed the bag from around her neck and gave her lots of loving. Poor baby. :)

Oh Christmas Tree!

Finally! My tree is up! I desperately need a tree skirt that matches my totally cute black, silver & pink theme, but this'll work for now. Took some creative pics while moving the camera...just thought they looked cool. Maybe it's because I need sleep. :)

Fa la la la

Fa la la la, my butt. I love Christmas, but I really, really hate decorating the tree. Seriously, what is so great about Christmas trees anyway? First, you have to drag everything out of the storage closet/attic, then you spend what seems like hours of unpacking all the limbs, fluffing them and trying to decipher what color their ends are painted. Inevitably, I get a couple wrong and end up with a really short limb on the same row as longer limbs. Ugh. Let's not even talk about the lights, ok? I got my tree up last weekend, but put off decorating until tonight. I couldn't even finish. HALF of a strand of lights went out AFTER I got them all up, so I had to replace them with a new strand I bought on sale last year. Let me just say whoever the yahoo was who decided to put mini white lights on white cords instead of green cords is an idiot. Scratch that - I'm the idiot for being too cheap to just donate the old tree and get a pre-lit one! ARGH! I may just scrap the tree altogether! Lights are up, but they're coming back down once I get enough energy. The white cords show up too much, especially when the lights on the bottom have green cords. If this tree ever gets done, it will be a Christmas miracle.