Another busy holiday season survived!!

"Over the hills and through the woods to grandmother's house we go...."

It seemed like a simple thing when I read about this in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books like Little House in the Big Woods" or "Little House on the Praire". The family all loaded up in the wagon, with a quilt that Ma had made, maybe a ham and a jar of jelly or two - but no real big plan - other than getting there without being scalped or eaten by the occasional bear.

This year Dawn, Greg and kiddies came early, (Dec 14th) and we planned an early Christmas in TN. The only drawback was to actually be READY by Dec 14th!

While others were gently planning future holiday events - I was breaking into a dead sweat about OMG (!) I am totally out of time to clean, bake, shop, wrap (the worse of these is WRAP! I hate to wrap and would totally go with gift bags 100% - BUT my family is a family of peepers and nothing would be a surprise at Christmas with bags!)

I did manage to get most of my "to do" list accomplished and I do not think anyone missed the forgotten items!

The tree

was assembled the Friday after Thanksgiving! Scott was thrilled! Never before had he won the battle of getting the tree up so early! he thought things were really going his way...little did he know!

We had a busy week of preparing for our faux Christmas! More shopping - more cooking -which meant more eating! We made our must-do visit to Raffertys and as usual the kids were thrilled with the potato soup! (Me too!!)

We decided to make Fri Dec 17th our early Christmas so that the kids could enjoy playing with their gifts! Playing with the toys I have here probably was boring and it was much too cold to go outside to play! Gwen's major project was to undecorate grammy's tree!

and I have to say...she did a bang up job of it! The only casualty was "Lucy's" head off one of my Peanuts ornaments - but a little glue fixed that!

We actually had to break down the gift opening in a couple different sessions as it was a little over-whelming. Everytime there was more than 2 people in the living room - Scott ran in and sat down - just in case presents were to be forthcoming!

This was truly a "Toy Story" holiday as the main players were "Buzz", "Woody" and "Jessie". (Characters in the Toy Story movies for those who do not have children under 10). Sawyer preferred that Woody not wear a hat (his preference as well for himself) - but Gwen demanded that Jessie have hers on at all times!

Scott did get his alloted share of the goodies as well - but it was hard to make him understand that this was not the "real" Christmas - and we would do this all again on December 25th ...GOOD GRIEF! WHAT WERE WE THINKING??!! WE COULD HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH ONE CELEBRATION - HE REALLY WOULD NOT HAVE KNOWN THE DIFFERENCE!

But we didn't- so he actually got a few things held back and just had to make do with the dozen or so DVDs he received on Christmas #1.

Some of the fun events we did get to do together though was to visit Chucky Cheese.. merciful heavens - did I actually say that? I used "fun" and "Chucky Cheese" in the same sentence? Another brain cell just died.

Anyway.. we did go and it was fun. Little ones make it fun! Gwen and Sawyer got to ride the mechanical horse

which I am sure was probably pretty lame to Sawyer who takes hippo-therapy and rides the real horses at home.

Gwen's big thing was putting the coin in the games (any game will do but she preferred ski-ball) and then ripping off the tickets! She had acquired a fistfull of tickets before we realized she had also been taking the tickets of other game players - who were too kind to chase the little pint size kleptomaniac and recover their game tickets! Dawn wandered down the row of game players handing out tickets and saying "I am so sorry"!

Sawyer found Grampy to be a willing "horsey" at home and loved to get him down on the ground for a friendly romp!

We went down to the river to see the light display and although it was bitter cold, it was fun to see the pretty lights and watch Gwen and Sawyer react to the other people and DOGS that walked by. As we often wonder how much Sawyer is actually understanding about what we say, it was interesting that at one point Ed asked me what our plan was and how far were we going to walk. I casually responded that when we got tired we would be done. I did not think about Sawyer actually listening as we walked along but he threw his hands up in the air and as he turned around he said "I'm tired and I'm done!" I giggled as I walked back to the car as our very astute little grandson -once again - has proven to me that we cannot underestimate what is going on in his smart little mind!

Probably one of the best parts of the holidays was being able to come together as a family in Elkton with Ed's family. Dawn had made her Aunt Lucille a 50th anniversary quilt - which was a great surprise for Lucille. Even better was watching the next generation of cousins meeting and playing together.

Yes, our holidays were a little different - and yet the basics were the same- love of family -joy in the love of children. For what better time to wrap yourself in the joy of a child than at Christmas - a celebration of the Christ child.

May 2011 be a blessed year for all - hopefully a year that mends old wounds, heals broken hearts and brings happiness to those who ache. God Bless