May 10, 2008 Ship of Thieves! Stealing the Magic..AGAIN!!! Panama Canal FL to CA!!! Part 9

[HollyTyler]

My sister and BIL only have a year or 2 before Lila catches on too. BIL is a firefighter so the years he is on shift for Christmas they have Christmas a day early. So Santa delivers to firefighter's houses a day early too!

See, I knew we weren't the only ones who get an earlier visit from Santa! VERY cool!

 

[HollyTyler]

That's exactly why my mom started the tradition of opening presents at midnight on Christmas eve. She wanted to sleep late on Christmas morning. That's what she always said. I'm so used to doing it at night with the tree all lit up and usually snow outside. It's going to be weird doing it during the daytime this year.

GoodNight Holly.....sweet Santa dreams!

That's actually a good idea your mom had, but knowing Tyler, he would never go back to sleep after opening presents!

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Our friends live in Montrose, on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere and they actually get a lot of snow still. (It's almost in NY) If we ever win the lottery that will be where we live - no jobs to be had in the area for us or we'd live there now.

I'm not familar with Montrose, but I know the area that you're talking about.

My IL's get all the ice now too instead of the big snows - in Milton.

I know Milton.....that's not too far from me. That's a beautiful town, very old and historic too.


My sister and BIL only have a year or 2 before Lila catches on too. BIL is a firefighter so the years he is on shift for Christmas they have Christmas a day early. So Santa delivers to firefighter's houses a day early too!

The boys didn't figure it out until they were about 7 or 8 years old. They still questioned us this year about all the things that I mentioned previously and I said yea, we did all that. They were like, darn! We got them good!

We'll be watching too.

Yeah!!!

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Very cute! But not the getting up at midnight part.

The kids go to sleep....the adults stay up! Remember I'm a night owl!


But I do plan on jingling the bells we were given on our Polar Express train ride on my way to bed, just to see if he hears it and mentions it in the morning. Especially since the reason he woke up so early this morning is because he heard our windchimes outside and thought it was Santa's sleighbells!

HE HE HE SOOOOOO cute!!!

 

[EllaEnchanted]

That's actually a good idea your mom had, but knowing Tyler, he would never go back to sleep after opening presents!

When we were little we would open everything, take the pics, then be so tired that we went back to sleep.....only to wake up early and play with everything while mom slept late. She had a method to her madness and it worked for her.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Redskins 32 Vikings 14....with only 5 minutes left to play in the fourth quarter. GO SKINS! Lisa is so happy right now.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

I have to pack an overnight bag for the hotel tomorrow. And I have to bring a bathing suit, but I'm not in FL and it's cold here. It's hard to even think about a bathing suit in this weather.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Game Over....Skins Win 32-21!!! Lisa is doing the happy dance!

 

[HollyTyler]

So I'm still awake. Everything's ready for morning....just waiting for little hands to rip off wrapping paper. Picture turned out funny because I forgot I had the flash forced off, but it's actually better like that because with the flash on, the colors of the lights don't show up. So I'll stick with my yellow-ish pic!

 

[HollyTyler]

Had to delete this picture because you could see Tyler's messy bookshelf! LOL!

 

[HollyTyler]

Finally starting to get sleepy. Have to go charge up the video camera and find new batteries for my camera, then I'll jingle the bells and jump into bed. LOL! Goodnight all!

 

[waltsgirl]

BIL is a firefighter so the years he is on shift for Christmas they have Christmas a day early. So Santa delivers to firefighter's houses a day early too!


My dad was a firefighter also so we also had Christmas a day early.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

So I'm still awake. Everything's ready for morning....just waiting for little hands to rip off wrapping paper. Picture turned out funny because I forgot I had the flash forced off, but it's actually better like that because with the flash on, the colors of the lights don't show up. So I'll stick with my yellow-ish pic!

WOW Holly....it looks absolutely georgous....just like a christmas card. I like the effect of the yellow light because it gives it a candle like glow. Very nice. You did a great job!

 

[LisaG520]

See, I knew we weren't the only ones who get an earlier visit from Santa! VERY cool!

And Lila is pretty close to Tyler in age (turned 6 end of Sept.) so they'll probably have the same issue when you do.

I forgot one thing about our Christmas growing up. When we were little Santa brought and set-up the tree after we went to bed Christmas Eve. I'm pretty sure my parents never made it to bed some years! Luckily we've never been morning people and mom & dad would wake us up some years.

 

[LisaG520]

oops - site so slow - ended up with a duplicate post

 

[been2marceline]

Holly,

This was so funny! Is it Mother Goose and Grimm by Mike Peters?

I haven't had a chance to tell everyone that we met him on our November cruise! He and his truly lovely wife were in the suite next to ours! We met them after the Couples Spa and invited them for the wine party we had. WE didn't know who they were, just that they were lovely people! We had a couple more parties with them and enjoyed them tremendously!

Karen

 

[granmaz]

Loved the snow piccies Deb. We never get that much snow now either these days.

My dog is acting like a cukoo maniac right now. John is wrapping the presents in the kitchen at the table under the light. While he's moving the boxes and the paper all around it's creating shadows that are moving on the floor......the dog is chasing the shadows on the floor.....she's going nuts after them.....what a cukoo maniac she is.

Silly dog!!

I don't need a house full of kids, I have a house full of pets. I have one dog, one cat and six turtles.

Who else has pets? What are they and how many do you have?

Sounds like turtles are more interesting than they sound.

I am exhausted. Everything over the last 3 weeks has caught up with me. We had Christimas today with Don's brother and family and I cooked the Stanidng Rib Roast. It was very yummy.....thank you Lisa very much.

I feel like I have been kicked in the head, I am so tired. I want to try and watch the whole football game.

Oh Lisa, hope you feel better and can cope with Christmas.

So I'm still awake. Everything's ready for morning....just waiting for little hands to rip off wrapping paper. Picture turned out funny because I forgot I had the flash forced off, but it's actually better like that because with the flash on, the colors of the lights don't show up. So I'll stick with my yellow-ish pic!

Looks wonderful Holly.

 

[been2marceline]

Karen, that means your birthday must be today
Hope you are having a wonderful day!
Kathe

Thank you Kathe! It was a lovely Birthday!

Karen

 

[been2marceline]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAREN.....HOPE IT'S A WONDERFUL AND MAGICAL DAY....take some time off and pamper yourself a bit!!!

Lots of hugs and love coming your way!!!

Thanks Deb!

I tried to catch up with my DIS reading last night, but fell asleep a bit early!

I had a mani and pedi yesterday, then worked on our home computer for a bit, then wrapped a couple of presents, then went to a holiday party at our friends house a couple of doors down. All of our friends were there and my DSIS and everyone there sang Happy Birthday and I opened presents and we had a cake!

Believe me, this doesn't usually happen on my Birthday! It's such a hectic time of year that I usually see friends after Christmas and get my Christmas/Birthday present at that time!

Anyoo... it was a great birthday!

Karen

 

[been2marceline]

John is wrapping my presents, the kid already wrapped Ray's. The tree looks so much better with presents under it.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Bethlehem hotel and we'll watch movies and swim and do hot tub. It's a great little get away locally. We'll eat out and drive by main street Bethlehem, Christmas City as they call it around here. It's old and historic and beautifully decorated with lights. I love it there, especially at this time of year.

We'll come home about 11am on Christmas morning and the kid will go pick up Ray around 11am then we'll all meet at my house and open presents. I'll make some calls to Ray's brother and sister and daughter and if any of them are available to talk to him, it will make his day. They all have his phone number at Mrs. Bush's (personal home care), but none of them ever call him. They never called him when he was at home with mom either. I can't accept how they can just abandon him, especially now. If it wasn't for mom's family, he wouldn't have any.

We have dinner reservations for 3pm on Christmas day.....so we'll go out to eat and then drop Ray back off at Mrs. Bush's. He loves having his own room now, without having a roommate to deal with. He's very happy. My disposable income just went down because Ray can only afford a shared room. I will be picking up the difference for the private room.....and it ain't cheep!!

What's everyone else doing for Christmas eve and day? When do you open presents? This is the first time in my life that I will open presents on Christmas day. I like doing it on Christmas eve and think that I will go back to doing it that way again next year.

Deb,

We always open presents with my sister on Christmas Eve. It was always a tradition with our parents and I still love sharing it with our immediate family. On Christmas Day we get together with my cousins, I have two girl cousins that live close by and their mom, my aunt. We used to have their dad, our other aunt and uncle, and my folks as well; but we have lost them all in the last few years.

We usually have Thanksgiving at our house, Christmas at my cousins and Easter at my sisters. BUT... since we were in WDW for Thanksgiving, we are helping my sister with Christmas at her house this year as my cousing held Thanksgiving in our place.

Enjoy your new and old traditions. I know how hard it is to celebrate the holidays with the fresh loss of your mom, but she would want you to continue with traditions and with the enjoyment of the holidays.

When my mom passed away, my sweet 4 1/2 year old, Alex, said "Oohma and Papa are still with us, they are Angels on our shoulders."

Your mom (and Johns and Venetia's and all of those dear to us who have passed) are still with us... Angels on our shoulders...watching over us...enjoying our continuing their traditions...

Merry Christmas... Seasons Greetings to everyone!!​

Karen