I always forget about this until Christmas time when someone send it to me so I remember to do it for the kids!  Enjoy, and go do it for yourself and/or family! Send your own ElfYourself eCards And a ho, ho, ho!

 I've been alive for over half a century and once again, Christmas has sneaked right up on me.  You'd think that I would have figured out how to avoid this predicament.  I always try to get my act together and prepare for the season a little in advance, but it doesn't matter how well I plan.  My blog goals have slipped right by me without noticing – it's been over a week since my last post and I completely missed my Scripture Sunday, which I was determined not to do!  Not that anyone's life will be different without the cataloging and sharing of MY life, opinions or activities.  Sometimes life gets so busy in the actual living of it that recording it will have to be done by those "angels above us" that are "silent notes taking, of every action"…with the admonition of "Do what is right."  Having relationships with people, one on one, is even more important than sharing with the masses…and I say THAT totally tongue in cheek considering my huge quantity of visitors, which I appreciate nonetheless.  But I had a lot of fun last week, including a last trip to Disneyland with Meg to see the Christmas decorations before our passes were blocked out for holiday traffic.  But I would be remiss if I didn't share the creative talents of my daughter Megan, as well as acknowledging how much

In a previous post, I spoke of my son Jake and his carrying on the Naylor gingerbread house tradition.  He pointed out to me that I didn't really show his talents and he would like to be famous for good reason.  So here are some examples of his skills…prepare to be dazzled with his talent!  Disclaimer:  All gingerbread is made and baked by Jake…you can't do this with graham crackers!  These houses are major sturdy!  He sorts the M and M's into different colors from different bags.  Anyone have any Shrek bags hanging around?  They have good colors in them!  Flash!!!  Don't try this on a fresh house!  This one is 6 weeks stale…see the dumpster in the background? Here's from a different year… And still another! Isn't he incredibly creative and talented?  Gingerbread house is kind of an understatement!  Trust me, in my children's younger years we never went to this extreme!

When I was a little girl, I remember bringing the Christmas tree into the house on Christmas Eve and leaving it completely bare for Santa to decorate.  When it was time for bed, and bedtime always seemed to come extra early on this night, we would scurry around, looking for the biggest stocking we could find to leave out on the back of the couch – we didn't have a fireplace to hang it on - in hopes that we would find it filled to the brim with treats from Santa in the morning.  Not everyone remembers that there was a time that we actually used a sock from our drawer.  This was a really long time ago, before the cute homemade stockings or darling store-bought ones that we have now.  It was hard to get to sleep on Christmas Eve and I never remember dreaming about sugar plums, but they were sweet dreams nonetheless.  In the morning, as we crept down the hall to the living room, we would come upon a wonderful, magical sight…the bare tree had been transformed and was beautifully ornamented.  The colored lights were glimmering in the early morning darkness.  The experience was quite miraculous, especially since "Santa" had so many children to take care of.  I never doubted his ability to accomplish the tasks.  I was sure that every child would have an equally wonderful experience.  I don't recall exactly when the changes came, but the