All I want for Christmas....

No, but his version is the best.

my wife has 6 presents under the tree, actually some of them are "house" presents she wanted or didn't know she needed, and her stocking is full - wonder how long it will take for her to notice?

and her big present is in hiding - i actually bought two different pieces of jewerly that were within dollars of each other. went in with one and compared them with the intention to return the first one if the second one i liked better, these are competing stores - i did like the second one and was ready to return it until the ladies behind the counter liked the one i already had - what to do? - i will let the bride choose which one to keep - of couse my nightmare is she will want them both - with her b-day the end of next month she may push for it

Finished a decent amount of wrapping. All kids.

Ummmm....doesn't ABBA have a Christmas album? LOL! RUNNING!.......DUCKING! EEEP!!!!!!

Still wrapping--2 pks. out to the west coast today. Have TX & stocking stuffers to get & wrap. 2 little girls 5 & 7) are finished. they are the easiest. trouble is 7 yr old turns 8 on Jan. 2. Not very good of her, they are still so excited from Christmas. their Mom sent a picture of the gingerbread house which they decorated--a bunch of giggles.

Bill, DH did that for me one year, so I chose one and we returned the other the day after Christmas only to see a gorgeous garnet and earring set that we ended up getting too!!

Guess what my 2 year old niece wants Santa to bring her?
A candy cane. And that is what she answers everyone who asks her.
My sister found a web site where you upload a pic and write what you want from Santa then Santa opens his book and shows the pic and what you asked for Christmas and then he said for Abby: I see you are trying to be very good about going to bed on time. And since then she is going to bed very easily!

Wow - that's an easy request. Get her a six-foot one!

We save the gift wrap from the previous year and wrap (not neatly, more like wadding) all the stocking stuff, which is a huge task. Nothing expensive, just all the things needed for personal hygiene and lots of little things for the kitchen and office along with anything we see through out the year that screams 'Stockings' to us. It takes us hours to open them up, one by one. The stockings are never big enough, so we have spill over into pillow cases. Too silly. But our most favorite part of the day.

This year is totally different as we are doing Christmas in Jan when our son when he has a day off. It will be Low Key on the 25th as it will be just the two of us. And we are going to Vt to hunker down with not a party to attend or give. We are totally going to do almost nothing. We did get a tree which we will decorate by the 25th and we will feast well, just the two of us and the dogs. It will be perfect quiet week which I so need.

Wha, your wife is lucky to have someone to be so particular for her gift. Almost like choosing the right Japanese Maple for you. No doubt either is perfect.

I did send my mom a wrapped gift for each day through the 28th to open with an advent calendar that I always send her each year. This year she is staying home and not joining us. We are going to see her in mid Jan for a trip that she has planned to go to South Africa. That is her gift to us and one of my brothers who is going too. She is almost 95 and still game to take a 22 hour plane trip.
I hope I manage it as well as she will. She cried when the big box arrived in Tulsa as she thought I would not be able to do it for her this year. That made my Christmas.

Aside from a bunch of amaryllis pots that I threw in the pottery studio to give to some close pals, I am doing very little this year which is OK for one year. I will do some baking next week for a few Vt friends, if the spirit moves me.

I am in NYC helping our son move into his new apartment. Exhausting but fun to see him so excited about his apartment. I am less excited about the 5th floor walk up. Getting old. Santa would never climb those stairs, and the chimney has been closed up. I leave in the morning for Boston to pick up the rest of my fired pottery pieces and plant them up for gifts. I hope the last glazes turned out. I figure if my friends hate the pots I made, they might love the plant. Some I am planting with hippeastrum and some for my impatient friends, with blooming cyclamens. Patti

Good luck to your son, Patti! Where is the apt.?

Victor, Smack dab in the middle! Two blocks from Grand Central. His job is at 65th between Park and Madison while his apartment is on 39th between Park and Lex.. Easy to go up to work or down to where most of his pals live. Too expensive and a longer commute for him on his modest means to try to live in Soho, Village or Tribeca. It will get better. He went to work at 4:00AM today and won't be done until 10 tonight. Tis the season for lots of parties for him to cook for. He is very happy with it despite the brutal hours. I wasn't so happy to wake up at 3:15 this morning with him. Small apartment and of course I couldn't get back to sleep. I should have just gotten up and gone out. Patti

Wow - nice location! I went to HS on 44th between Lex and 3rd.

The train show is right there!

http://www.nycgo.com/?event=view.eventdetails&id=208980

here is my song list for our light show so far done... I have to admit my latest favorite album is the twisted sister christmas..

::::blush::::

(the silver bells version is Martina McBride)

victor, thanks, I just emailed this to DH so he can put it on our must go to list in Jan when we will be here for a few days. I grew up with a big set up that my dad built for my 3 brothers. Not me. He built this huge platform that could be lifted up and stored against the wall of my brothers room via a pulley system. Leave it to an engineer! It was about 18' x 8' that had two big sets of Lionel trains collected over many years, beginning in 1941. My mom still has them stored away with the boxes, but the beautiful scenes Dad did are long gone. Mom saved all the track and switches as well as the buildings, but not the trees.

I will love seeing this show. I tried to get them for my son, but even though non of my brother's kids wanted them, mom felt like they should go down through the boys. But the current bunch will just sell them when they get them. Sad. I can still hear the whistles and remember how cool it was to have the smoke coming out of the steam engine. Dad even built a formal rose garden next to a fine Victorian house in one of the villages. Thanks, really. Patti

off to check out "Twisted Sister". I may love it. Patti

the one sounds just like were not going to take it in the middle

I'd have to take Dominick off that list, song drives me batty.

Deb and Patti - thx - i'm sure she like both.

Patti i am also glad to hear you are still going to South Africa, that will be a great trip! I think you need to borrow a dslr for that!

My favorite Christmas song is Feliz Navidad. It just perks me right up. I always know it's Christmas season when I hear that for the first time.

For those of you that remember and gave me advice about my grandson Jamie, and his friend Nick and the Yugioh cards, I just wanted to tell you I took the advice and it turned out great. I met up with Nicks dad at daycare, and I told him how I loved what Jamie and Nick were doing making the Yugioh cards out of index cards, and I wondered if it would be alright if I bought some index cards and a box for Nick, while I was getting one for Jamie. Nicks dad said that would be great, and that he could pick up something to go along with what I got for the boys, and how impressed he was at their creativity. He said Nick brings him home the cards they make each day to show him. He also told me what a wonderful friend Jamie was to Nick, and that made me feel really good. Nicks dad said that they were very blessed that all the grandparents lived nearby, and that the grandmothers were doing the Christmas shopping for the two boys, and that Yugioh cards were on the agenda to get for Nick.

So Nicks worries about getting anything for Christmas, since his mother is in the hospital is not going to happen. I think from the way it sounded, Nicks maternal grandparents just moved up here after mom broke her neck , so what great help that will be.

So, it all turned out fine. I was so nervous to approach Nick's dad, afraid of insulting him, but he seems a very sweet caring man. .

You're welcome, Patti. If you can get there, the real grand-daddy of the train shows is at the NYBG.

Great to hear, Polly!!

Thanks. I was very relieved.

sorry Jen Randy and I both love Dominick!!!

So do I.

Me three.

Sent a Christmas package to my friend in Meriden, CT yesterday - Priority Mail. Checked the tracking just now and it shows it was processed in Kearny, NJ! Weird. Seems pretty inefficient to send it all the way down there, just to come back north to mid-CT.

obviously that is where the regional distribution center is.

I know - it just seems inefficient. Can't believe there is not one between NYC and Hartford.

It's the routes that are wacky--my packages go thru Hartford--straight thru to Springfield, Mass, then back dowm to me in CT. They have to travel right past me to get to me, and my P O is right off the highway. For some reason, a package I tracked today, went straight from Fla.--> Hartford to my PO--and got there more quickly than usual...at Christmas! LOL!

Btw--when the pkgs go to Ma--it adds a day to the shipping time--Springfield is 10 min. from here...

A FedEx guy just dropped a package off - in full sprint!

Did you have your catchers mitt on?

He passed it off at the door. It's freezing and he was wearing shorts.

Is he crazy???!!!!

I say he is!

Finished wrapping. Just a couple of larger ones my wife can do. I'm not good with the large packages.

I'm almost finished wrapping, too. I've got to find a box for babyalivepoopsandpeesalot, as she's got stuff sticking out all over the place.

Can't wait for the kids to open the stomp rocket. My husband Russ and daughter Michelle keep saying it better be nice out on Christmas, as they're not using it in the house. Those people are such downers.

http://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/d_l_company/ultra_stomp_rocket.cfm

I have to have my hubby take the kids out of the house for awhile so I can finish wrapping their gifts.
That stomp rocket looks neat.

Yes it does.

My favorite Christmas songs are the hymns, like The Holly & the Ivy, the Allelulia Chorus---can do that one Christmas & Easter----& In the Bleak Midwinter. Everything is finished here, pkgs have been shipped to NH, everyone else is coming here, or to son's house. Granddaughters were here today, checking everything under the tree & on the tree!

mr ups stopped by today and left a pkg that i asked my wife to get me for christmas - love it when she follows directions!