Would Someone Remind Me Again How This Is Done!

It's been so long since I wrote anything, I doubt I will be able to summarize what has been going on without writing a long blog. But I will try to be brief.

Christmas came quickly for me this year. It seems like the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas was only about 2 weeks. Is it me or are days and weeks shorter than they used to be?

I think that given everything that had to be done (gifts, work, life) I pulled everything together pretty well this year. Of course, having a female in my life again really made everything a whole lot easier. Gifts were wrapped a little more neatly. Gifts were actually bought previous to the final shopping day of the season. I was still stressed but that might just have been the sound of my credit card cooling off.

Amanda and Luke were on the receiving end of a literal "ton of gifts." We had the chance to go to Candy Cane Lane in West Frankfort and I got to have one of those moments when you are glad you have kids. At the end of the 20 minute drive through the mega-light display, Santa and Mickey Mouse wished us well. When they both approached our car, Luke's eyes lit up and his mouth curled into a smile as he slowly realized they were coming to him. High Fives later, he was very happy and telling us that he had just seen Santa and Mickey.

I was so glad to have a fun and entertaining Christmas day. I really enjoyed it and for once in a long time had the chance to just take in all the kids enjoyment.

I had one funny item that I have to pass along. The kids, Christy, and I went to Lowe's to get our Christmas tree. After about 5 minutes of looking we found a beautiful tree and had them cut it, wrap it, and place it on top of my SUV. Christy and I put the kids inside the vehicle while the much under-paid Lowe's "associate" put the tree on the roof and tied it down. When I finally got into the truck, Luke started saying, "get the tree off the truck" and "I don't want the tree up there." I teased him by opening the sun roof on the way home to "check" to make sure it was still there. Of course, that led Luke to start over about his displeasure of the tree's location. He also didn't really like the tree in the house later that night, but eventually got over his aversion to the tree inside our house.

(I have already bought a pre-lit, fake tree for next year! I hope Luke approves!)