Day after Christmas Reflection, 2008

This is nice, having the day after Christmas off and no where to be until about noon. I plan on having lunch with Bill & getting the oil changed in my car. And that is it!! No shopping and taking advantage of Black Friday II. I paid cash for every single gift and grocery item for Christmas and don't intend to break that record today. Plus there is absolutely nothing to be added to the gifts I received this year.

You may know we celebrated Christmas twice this year. Once the first weekend of December when the Florida kids were up and then again yesterday with just the locals. And one day was just as special as the other, just different.

Some of the highlights from yesterday:

Our oldest granddaughter, Ashley (FL) sent a package to NJ with gifts purchased with her very own money. Her economics class at school (3rd grade) held a Holiday Bazaar stocked with merchandise made by the students. Each student was to earn "investment capital" at home, purchase supplies, consider man hours etc to determine the retail price of the item. Whew! What are they teaching kids these days? To become productive, contributing citizens or what? We received a decoupage patriotic plate - perfect for the mantle in our Patriotic Christmas Tree room! We also had a great phone conversation earlier in the day with both Ashley & Emily. Always a neat tradition.

And then, our local kids arrived and we had an early dinner. I missed the 3pm sit down time by four minutes!!! And all the food was hot and no burned rolls!! Amazing.

We gathered around the kitchen table, all 11 of us. Oops 10, Brayden (6 mos) took a nap during most of the meal - good boy!

We served sparkling cider in wine glasses, including a shorter glass for Mackenzie (3 yrs). She looked so cute picking it up by the stem and taking sips. And picking it up again and again. Monica (mom) had to move it from her reach and work out a deal. Bite of food, sip of juice. It was really cute. Sorry no camera at the table, darn!

The first gift Brayden opened - with big sister's help - had a clear front on the package. Brayden was sitting on his mommy's lap at the time and when he saw the package he leaned forward and put his face right to the plastic mouth wide open. Inside was a set of teething keys we are sure he wanted to get to, right away. It was cute. Oh by the way, he got "two front teeth" for Christmas and he knows how to use them. Ouch!

Sometime later, after dessert, Pop Pop and Mackenzie retired to the library to do puzzles. Brian (Kelly's boyfriend & police officer) slept through dessert. He worked the night shift Christmas Eve and had to go back to work at midnight. Mom just needed her chair and ottoman, and I think she dove right into her new set of crossword puzzle books (gift from Kelly & Brian).

The rest of us started a game of Scattagories with Teams.
Team One: Kelly & Sara
Team Two: Andrew & Kevin
Team Three: Monica & me

Team One just about walked away with the win! Team Two came in second with some really weird answers. And poor Team Three. Me, 57 year old grandmother and Monica, exhausted young mother with infant in arms while we played. What were we thinking?

But it's funny to see the personalities through the responses to the different catagories. A dice is tossed indicating the letter to be used for the beginning letter of all answers in the round of 11 or 12 topics. My favorite: Companies using the letter G.
Team Three (mommy & grandmom)? Grayco (baby furniture & equipment).
Team Two(boys)? Goodyear (car tires).
Team One(girls, ie shoppers)? Gucci! DUH!!! I think they made a date to go shopping this weekend with thier winnings!

I chuckle even now.

Too soon, for me, the evening came to an end. I had a bit of closure loading the new dishwasher and visiting with Mom and Bill before we retired to our separate living quarters. And then to bed - at 9:30!

It was a good day! A really really good day.

Thanks Jesus for giving us a reason to gather and to give and to enjoy.

Visit Boomtown!

My third book for review for Thomas Nelson Publishers was a juvenile piece of fiction called Boomtown: Chang's Famous Fireworks Factory. Author Nowen N. Particualr has done a bang-up job of drawing a smile to the reader's face telling tales of the citizens of Boomtown, Washington, USA. The folks of Boomtown include everything from fireworks to Hen-Grenades and Rocket Reindeer at every event and celebration. You never know what will blast the town into a new day.

I did find the sub-plot, a mystery, is a bit vague during most of the story. Also, one character's participation in the mysterious events could have been developed a bit more, maybe to let the reader in on a bit of the secret.

I appreciate the author using a vocabulary above children level. Always appreciate the opportunity to expand kids' vocabs. Examples? Hortaculture, canopy, stoic, plundering marauders. See what I mean?

I can just see Adam Chandler as the pastor who is, I suppose, the main character of the story. I think it would make a good comedy. A Laurel and Hardy kind of film for the new millenium.

Size of snow storm? Irrelevant!

Our Florida grandchildren brought their parents to NJ for an early Christmas this year. Before arriving the girls, Ashley and Emily, had asked for and hoped for snow. They think once it's cold in NJ, snow is a given.

We had a lovely day with food, all our kids & grands and presents. What did we do for entertainment before children? They certainly kept us smiling. They are better than any game (video or otherwise), sports event or movie on TV. We just love them and their antics.

About the time we were done with the usual holiday activities, Bill took a look outside to discover it was snowing. Well, to be honest it was really just dusting or flurrying. Certainly not what we North-Easterns would call a snow storm. But to our girls, including Mackenzie from Philly, it was a bonafide, get-bundled-up, hurry-before-it-stops event. And that's just what they did. Their dad, Jeff, even changed out of his shorts into jeans to join them. Me? Oh I stayed inside with the camera, thank you very much.

Oh the joy! They ran, they gathered, they stuck out their tongues for a sampling. And then they did what a NJ kid might not think possible. They built a snowman. Uh, a snow mini-guy? We really don't know what to call it. They used our snowman kit, complete with wooden carrot-shaped nose and black pipe. Even a big red heart.

The inscription on the box that holds the snow man pieces says: "To build a snowman with somone you love, will surely warm your heart."

It sure warmed ours to see the girls enjoying themselves so much. Maybe the best Christmas present we gave this year. Thanks Accu-Weather for the surprise and God for the supply.

We are looking forward to Christmas 2008 II on Dec 25th with just our local kids. I'll have to get my boots ready and fill in for Ashley & Emily and give Mackenzie a hand should snow fall again.

Uh, maybe we'll do play-doh snowmen. They're always fun, right? Oh I am getting sooooo old.