zany,
yes,I seem to be on a chocolate kick. I've even bought and traded for a lot of chocolate hued flowers for this coming year.
The presents turned out nicely. I put some of the smaller ones in brown luchbags,folded down the tops,punched holes in the top and treaded gold and brown curling ribbon thur the holes and tied them into bows.
Christmas Cafe 2009
What a neat idea for the gift wrapping, please let us see one! I'll bet that looks rich.
still have some xmas shopping to do so gifts look a little sparse
That is soo cute! The brown bags are a really nice touch, simple and elegant.
easier for the younger kids to open too
Oh they look lucious red! Great idea and great outcome.
cheap too
you talking about me again???
if the shoe fits*G*
I did these little stockings filled with candies last year for guests and family to take. Have some left so I think I'll do them again.
bigred, are you going to do the stockings from brown paper also?
no,I have some left over from last year as seen in picture but I have done a cowboy themed tree making ornaments out of painted brown kraft paper...yellow stars,boots and cowhide chaps if I remember correctly....red bandans,small black cowboy hats and the smallest bales of hay Hobby Lobby had...heavy jute string for garland and stryofoam balls wrapped in ripped strips of "western" looking fabrics. One tree I failed,for some reason,to take a picture of and I just gave the paper ornaments to a friend.I think I still have the book that has the patterns in it somewhere.
bacon?
no, ees ham tree
HUM-tree....ees a HUM tree!
Hey Evil Inn keepeeer? Eees dar no roooom at da Bahhumbug Chaaack fer mee?
Heeyaaaaaw!
Looks like you two have been decorating everythang in site! Now you look splendid in that beard BB LOL!
Thanks! Been growing it for a month now!! Someone said my hair was on Viagra!
Well like I was telling the Grinch there, not so sure we got room here at the inn for that kind. I will have to ask the manger and see. Im just a dumb clerk here!
Ooooooh Manager...
and btw.. cleanup on Isle 13! Someone messed a diaper.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1055336/
Yes, you can bring the baby in. Its always nice to see a little lamb like you this time of year. Babys first Christmas is always so exciting!
*burp* *pfft* *toot*
Ummm, aww thats ok lil one.. one of my elves will have to get me a towel. Ho HOE Whooooah!
Awww come on now, no whining, its Christmas and you gotta tel me what you want!
Awww dang it, thar goes that blinking flashy thing again....
Whaaaaaah!
Tis the month of December
and throughout the land
folks strive to remember
warm beaches and sand
as they scurry and rush
to big boxes and malls
where tinny speakers
are blasting "Deck The Halls"
Children have taken
their time to share
their mile long wish lists
written down with much care.
Mom will be a failure and
Daddy a louse
If every item listed
fails to show up at their house.
The pressure is building
to get everything done,
so we don't disappoint
our daughter or son.
So what if your broke
and lost your employment'
you must go into hock
for your children's enjoyment.
OR you could decide to ignore
the whole spend, spend, buy,
avoid all the stores and
let the kids whine and cry.
Spend Christmas eve
and Christmas day
sorting the mountains of toys
they own and no longer play
then drive to a shelter and give them away!
Sleep late on Christmas morn,
Get up and your Sunday best adorn,
Pull out an old board game for
The whole family to play
And celebrate Christ’s birth
EVERY DAY!
Zany 2009
I like that last part!! The reason for the season! Beautiful poem thar Zany! God bless you and everyone! So nexxt kid up on this Santas lap...
And thanky evil inn keeper for the towel.
A poem to live by Zany, you sure have a way with words.
WE have lived by that for the past 12 + years. No gift exchange at our home, no gifts for the kids anymore and none for ourselves and none for each other. Just some simple decorations, a small gift giving to Aby, Eva and Colton (grandbabies) at the Thanksgiving holiday and come Sunday 12/20 we will be headed to fun in the sun.
We stopped the gifting at Christmas many years ago, just got way out of hand the the kids have enough to exchange with their own families now and their childen. There is nothing that Steve and I need other than each other and the only way we could get the kids to stop buying for us was to agree to stop buying for them so we did! The holiday is so much more enjoyable w/o all of the hustle and bustle and worrying about what to get for who and wrapping and all of that mularky!
Sure makes a much happier holiday for us and no shopping involved!
Candee, that is exactly what we have been doing! It was a little disconcerting the first year to see no mountains of wrapped presents but the stress levels dropped drastically and now we actually enjoy the holiday more than ever. Our only "gift" is a love offering to our favorite charity.
The rest of the season is spent sharing our favorite holiday movies and reading the original Christmas story from the family Bible on Christmas eve.
My neighbor asked if we were finished with our shopping yet and looked at me like I was scrooge when I tried to explain how we celebrate ;~) But when it is all over, I guarantee that we will have had a holiday worth remembering.
Zany, Haighr, we spend it very similiar. Our greatest gift to each other the love we have for each other. We go to midnite service for Christmas eve at our place of worship. It is a candle lite vigil and so nice to spend with loved ones there and to celebrate the true meaning of the season. When we come home we venture out to the stable and enjoy the cold nite air. This year too, I am trying very hard to put a special donation into our charity.
I have put up our small tree. It has been a 20+ year tradition. I have a larger tree that will stay in the closet this year. All I want for Christmas and daily is the spirit of Joy and the Saviour to fill every house and heart we know. The rest will take care of itself as the Almighty sees fit.
While we have no little tiny children to do the real Santa thing at our house, I still think the Santa tradition is VERRY COOL! So pardon me while I don my hoary cyber face! Ho ho ho! And A Blessed and Merry Christmas to all and small!
Now, boyz and goyles... tell Santa what you need, what your doing or hoping for for Christmas. If you dont share, the elves and I cannot get the messages out to the angels to help you!
Well, my Furry faced Santa friend...I'd like a big bag of carmel corn with peanuts please ;~) And Peace on Earth, and good health for all.
When the grandkids were small,I'd give them 10 presents each.....one fairly big present then the rest would be just small stuff...mostly crafts stuff because I believe children should use their hands and minds instead of sitting stupified in front of tv or computer(that's my job..*G*). Then as they got older I went down to four each....now I every year I give them ornaments so when they get older and move out on their own,they have stuff for their first tree and the ornaments will always remind them of their Mimi....and I give each a box or package of their favorite candies. The older ones were asking about ornaments at Thanksgiving.
Great idea on the ornaments red, that is something they can cherish for years to come.
I can just imagine you out in the stable after service on Christmas eve, what a calming way to end the evening.
As for Steve and I - well Christmas eve is our anniversary. We will be swimming with the dolphins using wet suits and those motorized water things that help propel you in the water and then we will take a little boogie board ride while two dolphins propel us by our feet!
On Christmas day we will be on a nice quiet coastal cruise along the coast of Freeport in the Bahamas.
I think that sounds like a significant lack of stress!
Well so long as the dolphins don't get the best of us lol!
I need to add that we are leaving on Sunday 20th. so if you want to get any more decorations up in here we need to get a move on if you want me to hang anything else! I'll try to bring in a big tray of goodies before we leave and perhaps you all can finish the tree?
Peanuts popcorn, get yer peanuts and popcorn !!
Oh man, swimming with the dolphs! Can I come...I w iwll be a good lil elfe and hid in yer luggage so they dont catch me at the airpport! Man the north pole has been hard on my arthuritis and that would be awwwwesome! Happy anniversary too! Now how many years again? Oh thats right, not long enough. We wish you many more!
Ho ho ho!
No hiding in luggage at the airport needed, we are going to make a 1+ hr. drive to Baltimore and get on the ship down there! You can just hide between the 2 of us and they will never notice! lol, only way we know how many years is to ask one of the kids as they seem to keep much better track than us! We just know we want many more and have no complaints about the ones behind us!
Well this is one Santa that is very glad to hear about a working marriage! Happy couples, happy familieas thats whats called being RICH. We always tell anyone that asks us " its not been long
enough" Saves the embarassment of counting!
Ok, heres a lil fishy fer Flipper. Ho ho ho! If there are two things this Santa dont like is one animals that aint treated right and kids that are not fed. And that goes to those adults out there too. We are working on that so ya'll dont starve. So I am commissioning all the Elves to go door to door and bring in at least one can good from the families that are able and get them to their local charity pantry. If you can do more.. have at it.. My elves have strong backs! The pantries are in weak supply. Nuthing worse than paying Elvis to twiddle his thumb! He knows what its like in the Ghetto. Sing it honey!!
Now on Dasher and Dancer! And heck if I know all that rot and all those names anymore, Im a couple hundred years
(Well, even Santa lies about the age, but hes timeless!)
.....old yano and you kids need to remind me! Ho ho ho....Donner and Fritzen...Rake, shovel, wheelbarrow its off to the garden it goes! Hoe hoe hoe! I want ta see a clean shelter. And a proper compost pile. NOW GIT DANG IT! Dont be irritating old Rudlofs and my proboskissys with all that smell. Ya'll know how to take care of that.. but I gotta git after ya cuz I know yer lazy. Giiiit!
Er I will get Grannies whip after ya. Yahno I had to revive that old girl after the last accident the odor ya'll caused when she well, yano got runned over by
that Prancer and Cocoa the elf ran out of control and hit Grampa with the John Deere. Now go be off.
This message was edited Dec 14, 2009 9:54 AM
I think that it is wonderful to read about how others celebrate the holidays and the unique family traditions.
If you ask my kids (who are all grown up now) to tell about their most cherished Christmas they all tell the same story. They were 6, 8 and 9 at the time and we were so broke it was scary. I broke out the strings of lights and hung them on a potted ficas and the kids and I cut out over a thousand paper snowflakes from white paper and strung them on the tree and ceiling and in the windows. Their gifts were all the same. Each recieved a ream of blank paper, a box of colored markers, a box of crayons and a box of colored pencils.
After they opened them on Christmas morning I asked them to create a book by telling a story and making pictures to illustrate it. They worked on their books for several days, each one keeping it a secret as to what their book was about.
When they were finished they shared their books with the family on New Years Eve. They all had told the same story about the first Christmas and had drawn pictures of shepherds and wise men and angels, stables and mangers and Mary and Joseph. The youngest, showed the babe laying in a Manager's lap...He had drawn a picture of a short, red haired woman holding the baby...that looked like a caricature of the woman who was the manager of our apartment building. When he was telling his version of the story he stopped and asked..."How old is that Manager lady anyway? "
Swimming with the Dolphins! Now that sounds like a really fun thing!
When Bob and I are asked how long we have been married (33 years) we usually answer..."not nearly long enough"
Hio ho ho! Tis contageious the spirit is I tell ya!! NOT LONG ENOUGH!!! HO HO HO!
Great story about the best Christmas Zany. I am impressed, at least you know the # of years.
When we got married I wrote a poem to Steve and put it in a frame and it hangs in the hallway upstairs, but I never have my glasses on when I go up there and the print is small, should have thought it through when I first wrote it and made it in big FONT lol, - at any rate I believe the date is on it, but may not be so if really hard pressed I could go find out, but it doesn't really matter how many as you are all keenly aware -
"IT's not the quantity - it's the Quality"! and it appears we are all abundant in Both!
Well, said! "IT's not the quantity - it's the Quality"! How true it is!!!
Blossom, as the years are flying by faster and faster as I age...no season is long enough anymore....but that also means that the next years holiday will be here faster too.
Like a roll of toidy paper.. the librarys are gettig older and some are closing.
Well gang, I want to raise a glass of cocoa here to toast those who have gone before us. Their memorys are precious, let us not forget them in our prayers nor forget those that are sick, tired and hungry and in far away places wanting to come home. Some face danger for freedom, some are lonely and depressed. Some just dont know what heck the Spirit is. And lets toast and pray also for ourselves. Caint hurt yano! And have faith the Almighty will do the rest.
Ring a ling, ring a ling..
um hello...Yes, this is Santas hot line. No, I have not seen her yet. Its babys first Christmas, well, tell Yardqueen we hope she can make it. We are having a jolly good time heyar at the Humbug Cafe! Oh and yes, I got that tire for 2few. Im just having techincal difficulties on how to arrange with her to pick one up.. Perhaps she can call the local farmer and he can get with her on that!
Whoooah ho ho! Mare-y Christmas!! That will be two bales of straw for you my equine friend! And here, a carrot in your stocking!
Ok, now... are all the stalls cleaned? The pets stockings hung?Cuz I know a gramma is just itchen to use this..... She knows better than I do on whose been naughty or nice and tidy and neat.....and she knows how to use it!
Clink, What a great toast!
I raise a glass to that BB well said!
Now what are you hankering to do with that thare thigamagig? Looks like a cookie cutter on a stick or is it one of them fancy pancake shape makers that I could use over the firepit at the cabin????
Or does it have some to do with the "swine flew" lol!
looks like a carpet whacker
yup, its for those naughty lil goyles and boys that are getting called on the carpet, so you better watch out, you better not pout, grannie clause aint coming today!
WHo put somethin in my coco?
Pigs TAILS huh? LOL!
peetooey! HO HO HO! Yer all just lovin funnin with Sanity dontcha!
Well, will auld aquiantances not be forgot...... whose that coming at the door?