Happy New Year

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year.





















I have my bottle of sparkling cider in the fridge!

The Story of Us

One of the great thing about ornaments is the memories they represent.

2005



















2006



















2007



















2008















2009

Christmas Vacation

Loving this song. "Mele Kalikimaka"

Mele kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas day
That's the island greeting that we send to you
From the land where palm trees sway
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun will shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say merry Christmas to you

Mele kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas day
That's the island greeting that we send to you
From the land where palm trees sway

Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun will shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say merry Christmas to you

Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun will shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say merry Christmas to you

Mele kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas day
Thats the island greeting that we send to you
From the land where palm trees sway
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun will shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say merry Christmas,
Merry merry Christmas to you, merry merry Christmas to you.

Plus it always makes me think of this scene in Christmas Vacation.

Holiday Edition

Love: Outside Christmas lights that my hubby hung up for us.
Hate: That we only have 3 candles up in the front windows even though we have 4 windows. The fourth candles light bulb burnt out and we have yet to replace it.

Love: Putting up the Christmas Tree. It is fun putting up the lights and all the ornaments.
Hate: Taking down the Christmas Tree. Why does it always seem that there are more ornaments to take down then we put up?

Love: My Santa's village. I love the little lights and the multi-layers of all the village homes.
Hate: Styrofoam. Yuck. The noise hurts my ears but my village is delicate so I need it to be in Styrofoam.

Love: Christmas songs!!!
Hate: That I miss out on all the new songs that come out between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Christmas Anti-Gifts

So we have our best Christmas gifts but what about the terrible, are you kidding me kind of gifts? We all get them and I thought it would be fun to go down that memory lane.

One of my worst gifts that still makes me laugh today was from my Grandma when I was in high school. On Christmas Day we would go to Grammy's house for dinner, family time and the gift exchange. My cousin Jennie and I are about the same age so we would always get the same gifts. This particular year Jennie got her gift first and I knew I would be getting the same. What was this wonderful gift? It was some canned goods, a jar of spaghetti sauce and a box of spaghetti. Ok, I don't want to seem bitchy here but I was still living my parents ... I was still in high school.

Jennie and I were both kinda shocked because this is something Grammy never gave us before but of course we pretended to love it. The worst part though was that Jennie's box of spaghetti was open and half used. Oye. It still makes me smile though.

How about you? Any good stories?

Countdown to Christmas

As I think about the final Christmas gifts to buy I started thinking about some of the more memorable Christmas gifts I have gotten over the years.

When I was in middle school I got a corduroy blue school varsity jacket. I had really, really wanted one and Santa brought it. I was so excited that I would wear the jacket every wear.

















It looks liked the above jacket although the arms were also blue.


How about you? What was one of the best gifts that you ever received for Christmas?