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

 I love the musical "Scrooge" with Albert Finney in the lead role, based on Charles Dickens's, A Christmas Carol.  Stories told with music and lyrics can bring to mind many lines that I most likely would otherwise forget.  After an especially long night, with visits from his old partner Marley and Christmases Past, Present and Future, Scrooge awakes to find himself alive and with a new outlook on life -"I've got a chance to change and I will not be the man I was!"  Nothing helps repentance like a near death experience!  Faced with a wasted life and a future of endless COLD and misery, Scrooge does not accept his doom, but rather takes this second chance to make the changes in his life that will bring him to a much more pleasant existence.  A little excerpt from the visit by Jacob Marley: "Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed,” cried the phantom, “not to know, that ages of incessant labour by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!” “But you were

 I was talking to my girls a few days ago and every yummy idea I was coming up with involved one common ingredient…Peppermint!  Did I have any in the house?  Nope!  So this morning I stopped at the grocery store during EMS (Early Morning Seminary) and bought 3 big boxes of peppermint candy canes.  I didn't even mind when I started taking the wrappers off and found that most of them were broken…this time I wasn't even slightly disappointed because the next thing I did was to put them into a heavy freezer Ziploc and smash them into tiny pieces…not a total winning method as the canes are a little sharp and poke holes into the ziploc. But it did the job.  A couple of days ago I posted the Double Chocolate Cocoa Cones…here's an idea I adapted by putting the crushed peppermint on top of the marshmallows, and deleting the chocolate chips from the mix.  They are so pretty!  However, I have a big DISCLAIMER:  As I was handling the cute little packages this morning, I noticed that the crushed peppermint was pretty hard and seemed to have melded together.  I am going to go down right now to boil some water and make sure it will make a good cup of Peppermint Cocoa…otherwise, I just made a whole bunch of pretty for nothing!  My day ended on a better note.  My assignment (for myself) was

It is cold, no freezing outside!  When you live in San Diego, that's a true sign that winter is here.  By mid-day, it will be delightfully warm outside in the sunshine, but in my house, it definitely feels like winter.  That…and the fact that it's DECEMBER 1st and I haven't started decorating for Christmas yet can cause a good deal of panic at my house!  When I presented the idea of getting down the Christmas boxes from the attic shelf in the garage last night, my dear husband suggested that getting the laundry done first might be wise – I don't know…maybe because he needs to put the ladder somewhere!  So this morning, laundry is going full blast, next comes the dusting and cleaning, so that when he gets home this afternoon, there will be no excuses!  It is so much work to set it up that we like to have it around for at least the whole month of December, and frequently keep it around until the first full week of January is over. Along with the cold weather and decorating, the Christmas season brings lots of handmade crafts, goodies and gifts.  I am attempting to actually handcraft a pile of gifts  this year and there are always things that get in the way.  But if I do one or two things a day, I can accumulate quite a stash.  Here are a couple of cards

Here's a little poem I just whipped up for you while waiting to go turn my turkey…it's been thawing since last Saturday!  I really thought I'd be good by now! ‘Twas the day of Thanksgiving, when all through the house Just the parents were stirring…well, maybe the mouse. The turkey was thawing in the sink with great care In hopes it’d be ready before guests would be there. The children had crashed and not just in their beds, While visions of Medieval Times danced in their heads; And Mom in her sweatshirt and Dad in ball cap Had gotten up early…there was no time to nap! When soon on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the kitchen to see what was the matter. Away to the front door I flew like a flash – The Dad was outside vacuuming up the car’s trash. The sun rising up and sleepy neighbor’s too ‘Cause Daddy was bored…he had nothing to do! When what to my wondering eye should appear But a Black Friday newspaper full of ads, my dear. With a proud little father, so bundled and quick, I knew right away that there must be a trick. More rapid than rattlers the ads, how they flew! And the rustling of papers woke the entire crew. First Walmart and Target and Kohl’s, then Best Buy Next Michaels, then

What a fun "almost" week I had visiting family and friends in Utah!  I love Utah, but this particular few days reminded me why I don't live there anymore…it is cold, no…FREEZING there!  Snow, ice, sluggish car…these things reminded me of why I love to visit there, but live in San Diego…at least for now!  I say this as I shiver in my office, all bundled up with wooly socks on my feet and my fingers just far enough out of my sweatshirt so I am able to type!  Gas and electric are so high without running my furnace that I am afraid to touch the thermostat.  We only do it when the kids are all home for Christmas to take the chill off in the morning.  I haven't lived in Salt Lake City since I got my Expedition and I got to try out something that I never used before – my side mirror heaters…they melt the snow so I could see where I was going when I needed to back up…that was a very cool feature that is wasted in San Diego but nice to have for cold weather travel. I haven't been on my computer for days now, and I'm glad to get back.  If I had been super organized before I left, I could have had automatic posts ready to go.  But no such Boy Scout working here!  Before I left

 (Tom)and almost gone are the days of watching my not-so-little-anymore boys walk into the school in their Halloween costumes.  I have been giving a little of the ongoing saga of the creation of the Halo 3 body armor and weapons on my Facebook page.  What initially seemed like a fun little activity, something for the boys to do instead of playing the game on-line so often, turned into a full-blown, time-consuming, energy-draining, sleep-depriving, cardstock-gobbling and hand-wrecking process.  I suppose its because I never saw the original pieces that Tom and his friend Matt worked on:  how long it took, how many steps were involved and how many pieces they were actually going to be making…they just looked wonderful.  They got started on this during the summer when they were looking for something to do, but then school started, and of course most recently, the play.  I would see them cutting and taping the pieces together, but I had NO idea…NONE!  I couldn't help but get caught up in the excitement and enthusiasm for it.  (Mike)  Halloween always comes around more quickly than I anticipate and I believe it caught the boys off guard as well.  There have been days when other projects got in the way, like church responsibilities or commitments to the drama department (mostly cookies!).  Nevertheless, I am happy to report that after a very long day Thursday that, included painting