Have a Very Merry Christmas!!

"From Home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another. The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other." ~Emily Matthews

"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time." ~Laura Ingalls Wilder

"I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."
~Charles Dickens

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I love the many different Santa's.. there is a Santa for everyone..

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Winter Wonderland


Frosty feet
stomp around
wool scarfed
snowman.

Hot chocolate sippers
hibernate;
soaking fireplace warmth.

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
11-11-2008

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Thanks for stopping by my blog today.. I have rushed and hurried all day long getting ready for tomorrow.. I welcome both comments and followers... Have a wonderful day and a very Merry Christmas..

Patsy

Merry Christmas!

"Christmas Eve I saw a stable, low and very bare, A little child in a manger. The oxen knew Him, had Him in their care, To men He was a stranger, The safety of the world was lying there, And the world's danger. " ~Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

"Christmas in Bethlehem. The ancient dream: a cold, clear night made brilliant by a glorious star, the smell of incense, shepherds and wise men falling to their knees in adoration of the sweet baby, the incarnation of perfect love. " ~Lucinda Franks

"Christmas is a holiday that persecutes the lonely, the frayed, and the rejected. "
~ Jimmy Cannon

"Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart." ~ Washington Irving


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I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas....

I used to love the holidays and from Thanksgiving till Christmas Eve I was busy buying little things and wrapping gifts for everyone.. I took the kids shopping so that each of them could buy gifts for their other family..allowing them to choose something for their real parent and for their step parent and any children or Grandparents that might also be a part of their other family... after that I had to take them to buy each other gifts... as well as gifts for Dave.. he would wait till the very last possible minute and have the children to show me things so that they could try and figure out what to buy me.. I never considered myself hard to buy for.. a notebook or a pen.. a book or even a book marker.. a live plant or a package of seeds.. and of course there was always the doll or tea set....

The last few years I simply haven't had the same Christmas spirit.. I wonder if it's because I am older or if it's because all the kids are grown? Honestly I don't know... Dave and I have discussed and re-discussed what we want to cook.. he said Turkey and I said ham.. I have one of each defrosting in the bottom of the fridge... I told Mama tonight maybe I should cook and slice both and put them on the table with all the fixings for sandwiches... make it easy on Dave and on me... some paper plates and a cooler of ice for the soft drinks and we can lay around and watch TV and wait to see who shows up... Let each one open their gifts as they come and have a snack with us.. before they have to move on to the next house... easy on the kids too since they won't have to try and eat a half dozen meals while traveling about..

The simple truth is that we don't know who will be here and at what time.. now that all the kids are grown and gone it is just as hard as it always was for us to plan anything.. we always hated the fact that as soon as they opened gifts here.. all of the children had to be carted off to the other parent's house for the rest of the day.. then at night they would come home to us tired and cranky and pouting because they had to leave something at the other parents' house... Christmas hasn't changed for Dave and I... we still feel as if we have to take whatever time is left when the other family is through... Christmas has been hard for us for a long time... Dave said he thought that when the kids grew up it would be easier... I knew it wouldn't.. though my own family was always together .. I learned from Gaylon's family what it was like to have two sets of family... and as hard as it is for us as adults... I know it is so much harder for the children..

I have all my gifts bought and wrapped.. I have mailed a small gift to both of the grown sons who live on the other side of the world.. the gift pile is slimmer this year.. the economy decided that for us as well as for almost all families I know.. Dave said that he had racked his brain trying to think what to buy... he said with no kids to take shopping he was having a hard time deciding what I might like.. it was as if he needed a kid to take along to help him pick out something.. plus he knows that I like anything at all the kids buy.... He did great with my computer... he managed to buy it and get it in the house without me seeing it and most likely could have left it sitting where he had it and I wouldn't have even noticed it but he couldn't wait... I have been enjoying it for a whole week now.. he never looks under the tree.. he has a few things under there.. Dave loves anything at all that someone gives him.. but he says he would rather have nothing and have all the kids to sit down for a meal together just once on Christmas day.... without having to hurry to get to another place... I am satisfied that that will never happen but I do agree that it's a very wonderful wish!

Dave and I will spend our Christmas day like we have so many before.. we will cook together and wait for which ever children come.. we will worry about those who live far away and we will worry about those who might be traveling not so far to see us.. we will enjoy the limited time with our kids and wish then well as they move on to spend the rest of the day with their other families..

I hope that each and every one of my readers has a wonderful Merry Christmas!!
Patsy

It's Friday Night? Where has This Week Gone?

"Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday." ~Author Unknown

“There will be a rain dance Friday night, weather permitting”~ George Carlin

"And if you ask again whether there is any justice in the world, you'll have to be satisfied with the reply: Not for the time being; at any rate, not up to this Friday." ~ Alfred Doblin

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Fri Nov 20, 2009

This week's challenge:
'Vehicle'.

I just loved this truck we saw recently at a car show.. If I could have any vehicle I wanted.. this truck would surely be one I would consider owning.. I have heard that they won't run very fast but that would be ok with me.. In case you were wondering.. that note on the door says.. Look but don't you dare touch!

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1. We need _a million dollars and then I'll be set to go shopping for the holidays!

2. I saw and old friend today_ and it made me smile.

3. If you want _to be a whiner go ahead.. just be warned.. I like whiners about as much as I like smart asses__.

4. ___Why? _ because _I said so.. that's why.. Why? gets you up there with those folks listed in number 3__.

5. Massachusetts has a proposed 5% sales tax on elective cosmetic surgery; I think _they should charge more than that.. people quit changing yourself around so much.. a new nose will NOT make you happy_.

6. _Love and family_ makes for a happy holiday. Unless of course you have a million dollars.. then you can rent both of those..

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _being ill and cranky_, tomorrow my plans include _nothing yet.. I'm ill and cranky.. I can't plan .._ and Sunday, I want to _make some pictures .. play the sims.. write some poems... who knows.. Y'all know I can't plan while I'm ill and cranky_!

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Yes it is Friday.. It seems like this year has flown by.. It is almost time again for the Holidays.. I looked around in the store yesterday and prices on everything were high.. The plastic faced Santa was smiling and dancing over the imported ornaments that are most likely made from lead and priced like gold... I didn't buy any new ornaments for my old tree.. I will be making my own if I get new ones this year... I walked down the toy aisle.. A pair of pants for a barbie costs almost as much as a pair for the little girl that plays with her would..and Barbie no longer holds the most space on the doll aisle.. I was flabbergasted that they have so many more expensive fashion dolls now.. from Hannah Montana to the new teenage vampires.. Barbie is getting crowded out by movie and television show dolls.. and all the baby dolls do something.. poop or spell or play eye spy..I wonder where they hid the big.. soft and cuddly. do nothing.. use you imagination to play with me.. baby dolls? Boy toys were no better.. when did water guns start costing twenty five dollars??.. and Model cars at least fifteen.. lego's cost a fortune.. Even a cheap coloring book was nearly five dollars..and most of them more than that... And why can't you buy just a plain old coloring book with pictures of dogs and cats and children and normal everyday stuff??.. Every single coloring book they had was associated with a television show or a kids movie.. I wanted to color a simple picture.. not cars from the movie with the same name nor transformers.. I didn't want to color animals from the ice age nor a walking talking sponge.. I just wanted to color a little girl or boy or a horse.. something simple and normal.. or I can't imagine how I ever survived the holidays when my kids were small.. or how they did.. I wonder if they felt deprived when they opened little trucks and cars or warm and fuzzy bears?.. I am almost ashamed that Em's Barbies had to wear dresses and tiny sweaters that I crocheted for them instead of the expensive ones that her Friends dressed their dolls in.. I am glad that my children survived their life of deprivation with me.. I would never spend eighteen dollars for a dolls outfit nor sixty five dollars for a robot dog that dances to the I-pod music that can be played through him.. I guess that I am a scrooge.. I haven't bought any Christmas presents yet this year.. I know I have to make a start somewhere.. I did buy a box of envelopes and a package of card stock.. I have spent most of today thinking that maybe this year I'll just make some cute and funny cards with my computer and stuff those along with a few dollars into those brand new plain white envelopes.. I won't need a list.. I won't have to worry about rather things fit or rather the color is right.. I won't have to try and remember who likes chocolate and who likes life savers.. and if I hang the envelopes on the old tree till I get ready to mail them I won't even need any new ornaments.. a big package of candy canes and a book of stamps to mail the envelopes to the children who live far away and I will be all set.. The more I think about it the more I like it.. I am feeling better about the holidays already.. I have my video's almost ready to burn for my siblings and I have only to print some goofy folding papers to hide a piece of money in for the kids.. Wow I guess I have all of my holiday shopping done.. I won't have to go to the mall.. I hate the mall and was dreading that shopping trip.. Maybe I'll stop being Ill and cranky by tomorrow... do you think??? No... Probably not!.. I guess I can't just stop being me.... :~} ! Have a wonderful night!
Patsy