The Night Before Christmas

It's the night before Christmas, and all through the house

All creatures are stirring, but thank goodness no mouse

The stockings are laying on the mantel with care

The tree is all lit with a beautiful glare

The Toddler is bathed and put into his bed

While visions of sugar cookies dance in his head

His Mommy in her PJs and Daddy in his cap

Are recovering from football and an afternoon nap

When out in the yard there arouse such a clatter

We jumped from our seats to see what was the matter

Away to the door we flew like a plane

Stepping on a race car and a little toy train

The moon in the sky was giving a glow

Highlighting the men in the yard far below

When what to my wondering eyes should appear

But Papa and his sons each holding a beer

All ready to assemble the large present tonight

For the Toddler, from Santa, it must look just right

More rapid than eagles his instructions he yelled

And the boys all pitched in, but their beers they still held

Screwdrivers are needed, both Phillips and flat

A hammer, some pliers, and no more than that

Tab A in Slot B it is all coming together

Someone get out your iPad and check on the weather

As dry leaves that before wild Texas storms fly

The weather is holding, not a cloud in the sky

So back to their work in the glow of the moon

An evening that feels like Indiana in June

And then in a twinkling I heard in the yard

The reading of instruction from one little card

The boys were all working to finish in time

Building a fun play yard for baby to climb

The shape like a school bus with a slide in the back

Wheels that can be turned all in yellow and black

The horn gives a beep and the engine a roar

He can pull out the stop sign or open the door

They spoke not a word but went straight to their work 

Screwed in the last screw and then turned with a jerk

Then laying the hammer beside of the hose

They finished the present and to their feet they all rose

They came in the house and the team wet their whistle

Then cleaned up their mess with the handy new Bissell

But I heard them exclaim as they turned out the lights

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Holiday Traditions

Every family has their Holiday traditions and just because we are in an apartment this Christmas I am determined to keep the few traditions I can this year.

The tradition of the kids waiting at the top of the stairs on Christmas morning is long past. Although it was a tradition passed down from my childhood I am not sure that it will make  it to the next generation. After all it does require stairs and a two story home, of which my children have none.

We started a new tradition two years ago where we do a gift exchange with our immediate family. This gift exchange has a theme each year. The first year the theme was "As Seen on TV" so we had to buy our person a gift that was labeled "As seen on TV". That year was great for my husband and I because we actually had an "As seen on TV" store in the shopping mall in Virginia. The second year was a funny T-shirt gift, and this year is fun slippers. I cannot wait to see how creative everyone is this year.

Another tradition we have is the making of sugar cutout cookies. I make the cookies, and the whole family ices and decorates them. We have been decorating cookies at Christmas for almost 30 years. It is one of my favorite traditions because, as with any tradition, I get to spend time with everyone. I look forward to sharing this tradition with my Grandchildren.

The next tradition I do for me. I have watched the movie "Scrooge" on Christmas Eve and "It's A Wonderful Life" on Christmas Day for as long as I can remember. I know it has to have been at least 30 years, because we use to have an old VHS tape of "Scrooge" and it was recorded in California. We lived in California in the early 80's. It is fun for me to watch the movies with my grown kids, because they know all the words and songs, and they make me laugh when they recite all the familiar phrases with their own accent and spin.

I am sure there will be a time when my kids will tire (some may have already) of making cookies and watching these old movies, but I hope that as they get older and start their own traditions they realize how important these silly little traditions are to me. They are a reminder of  Christmases past. A time when they were little and loved to ice snowman cookies purple by mixing all the colors of icing together. They would make blue Christmas trees and dump a handful of sprinkles on it making it by far the ugliest and most delicious Christmas tree cookie ever, lol. These cookies were never shared outside the family, but were eaten by their creators and makers of memories.

After all isn't that what traditions are all about, the process of making family memories?

 I wish you all Happy Holidays and in the words of Tiny Tim, "God Bless us Everyone"!

Pokey Donkey

I hate auto correct! I just got a new iPhone and after a few weeks I could not take it any longer, so I had to turn off auto correct.

It is one thing for your phone to not recognize a word, and make suggestions of words you may want to use instead, but auto correct changes it for you. So, I was texting and typed in lol and my Droid decided I meant AOL, so it just changed it. Maybe it didn't think the text I received was funny enough for me to laugh out loud. I am very careful about reading my text before sending them, and when I would put the lol at the end of the text it would change after I pushed send.

Using my new iPhone,  I was sending a text to my husband. I typed "No problem love ya", and auto correct changed it to "No problem love us". I do" love us", but that was not what I wanted to say. So, each time auto correct changes my ending I have to send a second text correcting auto correct. Am I the only one that sees how crazy and time consuming this is?

I cannot tell you how many times I had to correct auto correct. Bikes! Oops, Yikes!

You really have to be careful to look texts over when you have auto correct, before you hit send. My son has had the name Veronica changed to Erotica. Imagine how that text may have been received. My family always sends their corrected text with the words "stupid auto correct". It is a good thing we have unlimited texts, because auto correct is making us double our efforts.

My favorite auto correct is the one from my son that changed okey dokey to pokey donkey. So,  we will use pokey donkey instead of okey dokey from now on, AOL.

Love us!