Merry Christmas!

I was enjoying the peace and quiet of Christmas Eve, reading a book and listening to the Yule Log on t.v., when I heard a little sneeze. Being the night owl that I am, 1 in the morning isn't a big stretch for me. But I didn't know how Erich would feel about opening presents from Santa that early--especially when he preached the next morning, so I put Ella back to bed.

Ella doesn't quite have the this whole Santa concept down. When I told her we should go downstairs to see what he brought her, she got excited--but not about presents. We got to the bottom of the stairs and she wanted to get her shoes on. Ella thought we were going to go and visit Santa.

Opening presents this year was amusing and so much more fun than the last two years. We...oops...Santa, brought Ella a few things, the first being an artist's desk with paper, markers, paint, glitter etc. She immediately sat down to draw. After a few moments had past we told her to open the other presents Santa had brought to which she responded, "in a second ok?" So we waited 'a second' and than asked her again if she wanted to open presents... her response? "In a bit." Never in my life have I heard of parents having to beg there children to rip open the presents Santa brought. There is a first time for everything.

The look on Ella's face was priceless whenever she opened a gift. Her mouth would form the perfect "O" and her big blue eyes would open wide. She would say, "Oh wow!" or "Oh my goodness!"

Now she is telling me that it's time to get dressed, which normally would be, well, normal. But today she is going to wear the very same dress I wore on Christmas Day 30 years ago. I can't wait to take the pictures!

Christmas Past

It's Christmas Eve day and I am thinking about what my family will be doing tonight...it makes me think of Christmas's past and all of the wonderful memories we made. One particular memory stands out.

Every Christmas Eve my siblings and I participated in a children's service at our church. There were always two, and my parents would always go to the first one. We could not wait until our dad picked us up from the last service, because we just knew he had a surprise for us.

We would jump into the car and ask, "So were we good this year, did you see Santa on your way here?" Somehow, when my dad was on his way to pick us up from church, he would be stopped by Santa, who would tell my dad in his jolly old way, "Steve, your kids have been particularly good this year, so I wanted you to give them an extra surprise." What a treat it was to be given chocolate donuts by Santa!

I have such clear memories of being bundled up in the back seat of the car looking up into the night sky, hoping for a glimpse of Santa and his reindeer. Of course my dad would encourage that by saying, "Look! There he is...see over there!" It was probably a cluster of stars or our vivid imaginations, but there were times when I thought I actually saw him.

This tradition never got old or any less magical as the years went on, even after the truth about Santa was known. It was even more fun to 'be in on it' as my younger brothers grew to look forward to dad's "visit" with Santa.

A First Time for Everything

I never thought I would blog. What is blogging anyway? Who came up with that rediculous word? It doesn't really matter, because he/she is probably making lots of money because of it. I guess I decided to blog because I love to write and for some reason, sitting down with pen and paper intimidates me, so I thought this might be a good place to start.

It's COLD outside right now...all I want to do is drink coffee and watch Christmas Movies....funnily enough, I've been trying to get through the Lord of the Rings Trilogy...you may be wondering how those movies would fit into the Christmas theme...well, first of all, the setting of the movies is dark, cold, and snowy....so it gives me that cozy up on the couch feeling. Secondly, it is safe to say that my entire family are movie fanatics, and everytime we get together we watch some cult classic...Goonies...Willow...A Christmas Story...maybe even Lord of the Rings. Since I won't be seeing them this Christmas Season, in some way, it makes me feel closer to them. I know at some point, they will be watching movies too.