I hope you all had a joyful Christmas!

Saturday my son attended a Christmas party for the kids in our church’s Junior Choir, held at our Choir Director’s house.  She is a young woman, only around 23 or 24 but so talented, with the voice of an angel, and she is great with the kids.  They all love her.  While my son was at the party I wrapped gifts like a madwoman.  I still wasn’t finished when the party was over so I told him he was not allowed back in the bedroom til I was through.  That was several hours later. LOL!   

Then it was down to the basement to look for the little 3 ½ foot Christmas tree and stand.  Since we share storage in the basement with my brother, his girlfriend and her friend, our stuff has gotten tossed all over the place and intermingled a lot more than I would like.  I used to have my stuff really organized  and packed tightly together into one corner of the basement and now it’s thrown all over with boxes half open and other people’s stuff crushing on top of mine.  I want to scream every time I have to search for something.  Now I must have at least two dozen boxes marked “XMAS DECORATIONS”.  So I was amazed that the first box I opened contained the tree.  Yes, it was at the bottom of the box, but it was there.  And the second box had the stand, right there at the top.  What a blessing that was to find them so quickly!  I was a little worried I might not find them at all.

Now I just needed something to put the tree ON.  Not having a little table, I decided to put together a bookcase I had purchased 3 or 4 years ago that was still in its original box unassembled.  It was a nice mission style piece that I had never made a space for in my living room.  The last few days I had cleared a spot for it, now I just had to put it together.  The box said, “Easy to Assemble.”  Unfortunately, EASY did not mean QUICK.  The dumb thing took me SEVEN HOURS TO ASSEMBLE!!!   

Saturday night my mom's dear long-time friend Ginny took us to the movies to see "Charlotte's Web."  It was very sweet and we liked it, though my little one did fall asleep at the end (we saw a 7:10PM show and she hadn't napped earlier).  It was nice to get out and see a movie, I don't remember the last one I've attended.  I'm hoping to take my son and his friend to see a matinee of "Happy Feet" later this weekend if the my child support check arrives on time.

On Sunday, my son, my younger daughter and I attended church service at 10:30 AM for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, where they had the Hanging of the Greens and the confirmation class hung the Chrismons on the tree.  In our church we do not conduct Christmas Eve services until after 4 PM on December 24^th.  In the afternoon we put up our little tree and decorated it. 

Later we attended the 5PM service, which is for the Young and the Young at Heart, with special music by the Junior Choir, of which my son is now a member.  My mother and all three children came with me to this service.  It is a candlelit service and at the end we all go outside and place the baby Jesus in the manger and sing, ‘Away in a Manger.”  The Junior Choir was such a joy to hear, they were really wonderful and I was so pleased to have my son involved in something so positive.

After the service we headed over to my friend Linda’s new house for a small Christmas Eve gathering.  Some friends from church were there as well as her family and her boyfriend Jim four of his kids and his parents.  Linda and I go back about 10 years; I was her daughter Rebecca’s first Sunday School preschool teacher back then and now she is my son’s Sunday School teacher in 5^th grade.  It’s funny how things come full circle like that.  My son gives her a hard time sometimes but she doesn’t let him get away with a thing, she knows just how to handle him so he feels she is fair but fun.  My older daughter actually spent some time alone with Rebecca for a little while, which is progress for her since she very rarely socializes with anyone anymore.  We had a really nice time at the party and left around 11pm.

I had to wait until 1:30PM when I finally felt my son was OUT COLD before I could move all the gifts I had stashed in giant laundry bags in our bedroom to the living room.  My daughter waited up with me and kept me company, thank goodness.  We watched TV and talked which was kind of nice.  We CAN get along when there is no pressure and no one else around.  Once in a while anyway.  Too bad it never lasts.  There were about 8 laundry bags full of gifts and a few other odds and ends to unearth and place under our little tree.  I all barely fit but I think we did a decent job. 

Somewhere in the middle of it all though, my little girl, who had been sleeping in my older daughter’s bed, let out a strange cry after coughing for a small spell.  The next thing we knew she had vomited in the bed.  I took my little one and cleaned her up.  My older one was grossed out and whined about how she couldn’t sleep in her bed, how her linens were ruined, yadda yadda yadda.  There was not much on the bed… more like a little spitting up than anything else.  No green chunks or anything.  No projectile stuff.  And she went right back to sleep on my shoulder.  I had my daughter throw some white towels on my bed and I let her go back to sleep there, and she was fine in the morning, thank the Lord.  I wound up getting to sleep around 4:30AM. 

At 8:30AM my son was IN MY FACE with a “MERRY CHRISTMAS MOM!” wanting to open his gifts.  It’s not like I could say no to him.  So we got up and he went to town and he loved everything he got. 

I was happy since I really didn’t know what he was getting.  I didn’t buy anything and I only wrapped a small portion of the gifts he got, most of them we received already wrapped.  We were very lucky this year – FedEx employees sponsor a holiday party for my daughter’s preschool program, and they were so very generous, I could not believe the gifts they gave my kids.  We got five giant bags of presents from them, and there were some expensive things in there – my little girl got a V-Smile!  I was blown away when she opened that. 

The GAP employees also contributed some gifts through another organization where my son gets psych, academic and respite services.  They asked the kids for wish lists of 5 gifts each.  I was allowed to ask for stuff too and I received some books I’ve been wanting to read which was really nice.  Things have been tight financially, I was only able to buy a few things this year.  My older daughter got a haircut and that was it.  I didn't find anything for my son but he got so much here that I felt ok about it. I didn't buy for any adults in the family, only small things from the dollar store for the preschool teachers and Sunday School staff, and a few small gifts for close friends, nothing expensive.  I had picked up a pretty grandmother photo frame for my mom at a yard sale back in the summer and saved it for her since then. 

Thank the Lord with all this generous help I didn’t have the pressure of having to do so much and for that I was so grateful.  I knew this was going to be a tight year months ago and I had decided I would not worry about it, that I would let go and let God, and the Lord did provide as He always does.  My kids knew I was broke so they did not ask for much.  My little one had only asked for one gift from Santa – “Fairy Wishes Dora.”  Unfortunately she didn’t ask for it before I had to complete our wish lists, so I couldn’t count on the GAP to buy it for her.  I didn’t know if FedEx would get it or anyone else either.  I knew she really wanted it, but I didn’t have the money. 

Then I got a phone call from a lady named Kori at the University of Albany.  She was calling because back in November I had signed a consent to be interviewed about health services we receive for my daughter.  In exchange for the interview I would receive a $25 gift card.  Would I be interested?  Um, YEAH!!  So I did it and got a $25 Wal-Mart card, and ordered the Fairy Wishes Dora doll from their web site, JUST in the nick of time to receive it before Christmas.  I had to pay $3 for shipping but the rest was covered by the gift card.  I was so happy!  I figured I would wrap it, and hide it behind the tree.  If someone else gave her the doll I would just return that one, but if not, she would have the one present she wanted most. 

Well, she opened all her presents, except one, and we asked her if she was happy with all her presents.  She said yes.  Then we asked her if she had gotten everything she asked for, and she remembered Fairy Wishes Dora.  Then we gave her the last present.  Check out her reaction, she loved it!

Later in the day I picked up my mother and we all went to my brother Rob's for dinner.  His wife Denise cooked up a spiral ham and all the trimmings and boy was it good!  My mom never really thought Denise knew how to cook because she said they usually ate out often when she stayed with them, or that they didn't eat much at all.  But she really did a terrific job, everything was delicious from a corn souffle to a wonderful green bean dish (not the traditional Campbells one) to an awesome waldorf salad my mother raved about.  She had asked me to bring a dessert, and I had no time to bake (with all my carpentry tasks LOL) so I had picked up a cannoli cake.  I figured it would be something different.  Wrong!  Her grandmother also brought one!  LOL.  Oh well, at least hers was chocolate iced and mine was whipped cream.  Hers had chocolate shavings and mine had the traditional almonds.  She cut into hers first so I stuck with it, figuring it was silly to cut into two of the same cakes. 

Denise's mom Carol and brother Jackie were there for dinner.  They live in the apartment downstairs.  Jackie had lost about 80 lbs and looked great.  Her father Jack and grandmother Heddy were also there.  Heddy is well into her 80s but you would never know it, she looks fantastic!

Heddy, Barbara (my mom), Jack and Carol

Carol and Jackie

Heddy and Barbara

Rob with RJ and my little one

RJ playing with the XMAS choo-choo train

Rob and RJ

Denise and RJ

Amazing they are not killing each other LOL... for one moment in time at least.