EILEEN'S CHRISTMAS
Good Morning
It is a quiet morning around here today with a touch of loneliness but on the other hand I feel so blessed. What a treasure it was to have my Sandy happy and home. Having my kids all together means more to me than words could begin to express. If ever there was the true holiday spirit it was in my house. Financially we are all having trouble and it was agreed upon that we would concentrate on the children so that took a lot of the pressure of "gift buying" off but the gifts we gave one another were priceless.
To start the season out right I called my father who hasn't spoken to me is a couple years and right away he was offering his hand of love and we quickly were exchanging forgiveness.
We kept traditions of years gone by and started new ones. I showed Taylor how to made the paper chains for the Christmas count down. Each of us get a stocking full of goodies so Guy and I enjoyed the stocking filling and the kids enjoyed digging through them to see what they would find; homemade beef jerky, lottery tickets, backscratchers, sewing kits, warm socks, candy and stuff...
The kids always play games for days with lots of bonding and fun time. We got both
Grandkids so spent our first Christmas (Christmas eve day) with our Granddaughter. The kids and I made the little handprints in plaster-of-paris for the parent's gifts from them. I don't think that will be a tradition because they didn't like it and freaked, causing me to have to grab their hand and literally slam it into the mess and did we ever have it EVERYWHERE.
Guy and I smoked a ham on the pit for about 30 hours and all the kids enjoy that and also deep-fried a turkey, which is fun, especially for Taylor because he always wants to help his Grandpa shoot it with the shot thingy.
Sandy brought the little ones a 2 1/2 foot Christmas tree of their own, so they enjoyed decorating it and moving all their presents under it! I dug into things I have saved and found the little wooden ornaments that were on Guy and my first Christmas tree together and gave them to Taylor.
Then we strung popcorn to put on it and fought to keep everyone from eating it! I have a feeling it will be the first tree to go up every year.
I was given a snowman clock that plays a different Christmas tune every hour. Whenever it starts playing, Taylor makes EVERYONE be quiet and listen no matter what they are doing! That boy is his Grandma made over!!
When everyone was busy Saturday night I got Taylor in the kitchen and helped him make a little gingerbread house and he had a blast. He said "Grandma, we are the best Christmas when we are together aren't we!" That was great to see him so proud.
Sandy had to leave about 5:00 am on Christmas morning and that always leaves me on a sad note so Guy and I got in the car and drove to Linda's. When she answered the door she was so excited she hugged and hugged on me, and smiles were everywhere. That was a priceless treasure if I've ever had one... Linda loaded me down with goodies to and her double-decker fudge in awesome! I am wishing I had some of that Gorilla bread right now!!
Then I answered the phone last night and it was good ole Joe (Ragman) and his sweetie, joyful Aunt Betty and Linda and we laughed and laughed and had the most wonderful Christmas together on the phone. It was great! Thanks Sis and Joe and Aunt Betty for calling!! I sure hope we can make it to the reunion cause I want to hug you Texas style, up close and personal!!
I need to get busy. I am going to take the real tree down. We took the kids to cut and put up the artificial Charlie Brown tree that Sandy gave me for my fish/frog/Santa ornaments and decorate it to leave up to enjoy for a couple months. The tree is about 5 feet tall, but only about a foot wide. Sandy brought me a new ornament to add to the collection. It is a frog wearing a Santa hat and he has a fishing pole in his hand riding on a fish!
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I hope you all found blessings of love this holiday season
Love to you all