We Had A Very Merry Christmas!

Well, the cyclone of Christmas hit and we are still trying to climb back up through the rubble! All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas...Santa was very generous this year and we all got lots of what we like, collect, and didn't need but wanted anyway, ha ha!

We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with my aunt and uncle coming down at 3:30 and staying well into the evening hours. We opened packages with them and then tore into our stockings and a few gifts once it was just Tim, Mom and I!

We spent Christmas Day opening packages, eating cookies, listening to Christmas music, hauling out tons of boxes and trash and attempting to start getting it all under control well into the evening hours!

Tim did his usual awesome husband job of picking out just the right "vintage toys" for his wife, as did my mom! The biggest surprise of all was the Nestle Cookie playset that had literally just been under our friend Jon's tree the week before...he was awesome to offer it up for sale at the midnight hour after I all but stole it from his house anyway and mom and Tim managed to sneak it out of his house with me hovering around...usually the most observant person that nothing gets past!

Other favorites included lots of vintage Mr. Potato Head and friends playsets, a mint in box child's tin teaset from the 40s, a very PINK Zen (thanks Dad!), a Remco Firebird 99 sports car dashboard I'd had on my want list forever!, a Coca Cola cardboard display with Santa and a rocket ship and a beautiful tin fold up Corner Grocers set!

Mom got the world's best mother-in-law award when Tim opened up his Marx Ft. Apache playset she gave him! Some of his other favorites were, of course, the multiple boxes of Archway sugar cookies he'd all but begged for, the Kodak Super 8 Movie Film display box, ,the old Rt. 66 game, a set of Marx Revolutionary War Warriors of the World and the Tom Corbett Space Rocket Ship his wonderful wife got him!

Santa scored with some more celluloids for mom's ever growing collection and she loved them all! She teared up when she opened the little accordian album I made for her with some of my baby pictures and she also loved her cookbooks, vintage wedding cake toppers and scrapbook supplies!

So, after all the present opening began the clean up! Boxes had to be broken down or thrown away, tissue paper and bubble wrap put up, Christmas dishes stored away till next year, and then the daunting task of trying to figure out where in the heck to put our newest acquisitions! Slowly but surely, the house is getting put back together and I'm working my magic and finding new homes for our toys!

As Christmas Is Upon Us....A Few Pictures Around Our House

It's hard to believe that tomorrow night is Christmas Eve and then it's Christmas! It seems like here at our house with the preparations beginning in late September, it makes the anticipation and wait even longer! So, all that we have prepared for, decorated for, shopped for and wrapped for is here and we are READY, READY, READY!

Unfortunately, Tim spent most of the entire weekend holed up in his editing room working on our Christmas newsletter so we can maybe get our Christmas cards out, if not before Christmas, still within the same week!

For some reason, I decided to torture myself with 3 trips to two different malls on the worst weekend of the year! Starting with a quickie trip to Greentree Mall Thursday night after work to scope out the Hallmark store, check their hours for the day after Christmas, use my $7 rewards coupon, use my free $10 coupon at JC Penneys and buy a new pair of sunglasses (do you know just how hard they are to find in December?), I found myself then dashing over to Mall St. Matthew's in Louisville Friday morning to hunt for more cute Christmas sweaters at the JC Penneys there and get my wedding rings inspected at the jewelry store (always a June and December errand!). Decided to pick up some last minute presents for Tim which then resulted in another trip back to Greentree Saturday with mom to return those that were the wrong size! (He's gotten really good about being able to try things on for me with his eyes closed!) Oh well, it's kinda fun to be amongst the last minute shoppers....and with 60 degree weather, it made the traffic and register lines tolerable.

Friday afternoon, Mom and I visited Dottie at her adorable house in Clarksville and as a bonus got to ooh and aah at her neighbor Anna's house too! How fun!

A quick run to Wal Mart and Meijer for some last minute groceries today, vacuuming and baking chocolate chip cookies tonight and I am almost ready for our Christmas Eve celebration. Mom's bringing a ham to bake and she's worked hard all day making lots of side dishes which I picked up on my way back from Wal Mart. A little cooking to do still in the morning and my aunt and uncle we arrive around 4pm for our family Christmas together.

Our house looks like Christmas exploded somewhere along the way and I always dread the mess and aftermath but trying to still stay jolly and thankful for all the blessings we have and that Tim and I will be celebrating our EIGHTH Christmas together! With Mom retired this year, she's also been able to enjoy the season more and we've had fun baking and shopping together!

So, Merry Christmas to you and yours from my little corner in Smirleyworld!