Our Christmas

Was a pretty good one. Samantha and I celebrated Christmas Eve at my sisters house with her & my mom and of course Skeezix, the dog. A good time was had by all! We got spoiled again as usual. I got a gift card to Jo-Anns which I'm sure will be spent on scrapping goodies. And some cash which will more than likely go towards Samantha's room. My sister even gave my mom & I lottery tickets...which I haven't even checked yet to see if I'm a millionaire! LMAO...yeah right!!! My sister always comes up with some unique gifts. Like she gave Samantha some money but instead of just giving her the money, she folded it into these little origami and put it in a mini Chinese take out box. It was sooo cute! I gave them slippers & gift cards with Samantha's pic on them. Didn't even realize Wal-Mart does that now until I went to get my Christmas cards printed...So had to try it & it turned out really cool. Samantha's gift of the nite was her Puppy Surprise that Uncle Trevor sent her. She named the Mommy *Glitzy* and the pupppies, *Blitzy*, *Winter*, *Mimi* & *Maria* Of course, it is my job to remember the names and which puppy is which, not hers! She also got a money tree from Grandma and when she unwrapped it, she said "oh, money grows on trees! riiight!" and gave a Beevis laugh. Gotta love that Kid!


Christmas morning Samantha got up about 9 and came in excited to open her Santa gift. She was genuinely surprised when I told her she could open it. Like I was going to make her wait or something...such a silly :)
But I forgot to fill the stockings so that was kinda hard to explain & really disappointing but I think she bought that Santa must have just forgot. I told her he's pretty busy trying to make it to all the houses. Then we wonder why kids have a hard time buying into it?!?!? lol...yeah!
I even forgot to buy stuff until Christmas Eve day but by then I had her with me at Target and as I was trying to hide the stuff I picked up but she saw it, well then I had to put it back because I couldn't very well put in her stocking after she saw it. So I just figured that's ok, I'm sure I have candy & little things at home I can put in there....then totally spaced it! UGH! Ok, now how terrible of a mother am I???? I am, I know it.


Christmas Day we spent at my Aunt Maureens. She hosts the big get-together every year for my moms side of the family. My mom has 9 siblings so with spouses and kids and grandkids there can get to be quite a "sha-bang" but not everybody can make it all the time either. This year there were only 17 of us. Plus she takes care of elderly folks in her home. She has a pretty good sized house wich accomodates us all pretty well. But man can that lady cook and along with her daughter Nicole, they just go ALL OUT! Cooking and baking and getting everything ready. I just don't know how they do it because I know I couldn't. The amount of dedication and planning is just unbelievable. Of course I ate too much but it wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't. My favorite stuff is the home made carmel corn that Nic makes...oh, I ate soooo much of that stuff, then there's chex mix, the home made buns and the cold taco salad. And Maureen makes the only stuffing that I actually "like" Normally I'm not a fan & some is ok but this stuff (which is my Grampy's recipe) with her gravy, I like. Yes, I put gravy on my stuffing! Nicole also makes a pretty mean sugar cookie! Whaaaat? a home baked good that I like?!?!?!? yup, sure do :)
We even took a family photo this year which I don't think we've ever done. Not to my knowledge anyway. As a hostess gift, I brought Maureen the Barrington serving spoon from Princess House. I also learned that my Aunt Lynn likes to scrapbook and she brought her scrapbook from her trip to England. It was a nice day.



Monday was a day of relaxing at home. Ron did have an appointment to get his colesterol checked & that came out all fine. Last nite I really hammered down on my Christmas cards & got most of it done. Remember how I said I wasn't doing a Christmas letter this year??? uhhhhh, yeah I lied! lol! The hard part was the hour and a half I spent looking for the pack of paper I bought to print it on, opened & then misplaced :-D
Had to go out to get more stamps today but had stuff to do out anyway & had lunch with my cousin Tracey. Anyway, I mailed some while I was out & just have a few left to finish getting ready. By golly, they will go out tomorrow. And the new year is getting close. I thought about seeing if a few people want to come over Friday nite for some Dominoes but we shall see how much I get done around here this week. Probably will be a very quiet New Year around here also, that's ok...I'm getting too old for all the hub-bub!