Something lost, something gained

This Christmas comes with a good deal of change in my life.  It's the first Christmas on my own after my divorce.  The first Christmas in 10 years that I haven't spent in Dothan with Shane's family.  The Hall family Christmas Eve Dinner is one of my favorite holiday traditions and I miss gathering with the family and the good food.  Early morning after Christmas shopping with GG has been sorely missed, it just isn't the same without her.  I miss the Christmas Eve ornament exchange and the Martha Washington's.  Mostly though, I miss being with my South Alabama family.  It really is sad that I can't physically be in two places at the same time.  I'm there in my heart though.  And I'm so blessed this year to spend Christmas with my parents and my sister and brother and their families.

I stayed with my mom and she had my bedroom all fixed up!  It's so beautiful and it smelled really good!  Mmmm...vanilla.  She and Pop and I hung out in front of the tv.  I was checking my email at one point and Mom was on her laptop and Pop was playing a game on the desktop.  I looked up and thought how incredibly connected we all are to our computers!  Mom made cracker candy  which is a chocolate and brown sugar confection spread onto a layer of saltines, cooled and broken like peanut brittle.  It tastes  a lot like a Heath bar.  She also made one of my favorite treats - apple slices.  I was surprised to learn that there aren't actually any apples in this treat.  I could have sworn there were, but maybe I was just deluding myself into thinking that they have SOME nutritional value!  In any case, there was a lot of really good food!

My sister hosted Christmas Dinner at her house.  She's an excellent cook and I really enjoyed myself.  I think "Christmas Full" is almost as uncomfortable as "Thanksgiving Full".  It was fun to be there when the kids opened their presents.  They each got some really neat things, but I think the hit of day was Guitar Hero.  There were many challenges and quite a lot of shouting.  In fact, this may have been the loudest an livilest Christmas in a long time!  My sister and niece and I even made some time to scrapbook Christmas night.  Jenn made me jealous with her new toy...she got the Cricut Expression.  She did some great pages too!

This morning we got out of bed at 5:45 a.m. to hit the after Christmas sales.  I actually went to a mall.  Nikki spent some of her Christmas cash at Aeropostale and Hollister.  Ugh, Hollister...do you know that you can smell that place from a 100 yards away!?!  I made the requiste trip to Kohl's and got a great new sweater among other things. And then we all had lunch at Salsa's.  Geez, I'm really all about the food!

This afternoon David took  Jenn, Justin and I over to Craighead Forest Park to make some pictures for a gift for our Mom.  He takes great pictures and the present for Mom turned out beautifully!  And, he was even nice enough to give them to me on a CD so I can scrap them!  And of course, share them with all of you!

Tomorrow I'll be Bammy Bound once again!  Hope you all had a very merry Christmas!   I miss and love you all and I'll see you soon!

       

O Christmas Tree!

I love Christmas trees and ornaments!  Every year I carefully unwrap each ornament and it's like getting a bunch of presents!  Somehow during the course of the year I forget how pretty they are.  Some I forget I even have, which is great because then I'm just as excited as the day I originally got them!  Each one has its own special story.  Some are silly, some handmade, some so beautiful I could cry, some given to me by friends and all are cherished.  I've been collecting them all my life - no, really I have...with the help of Mama LeAnn.  LeAnn is a dear friend of my grandmother and aunt.  They all worked together in Illinois.  She began giving me a dated Hallmark ornament every year in 1975 (that's the year I was born in case you didn't realize how old I am) and when we moved to Alabama they kept coming.  She sent a box every year and I was always excited to open it.  Aside from the ornaments you never knew what cool stuff would be inside.  Mamaw would wait for me to come home from school so that I could open it even though it was addressed to all of us.  Sometimes she would label the ornament boxes with mine and my sister's names and sometimes we got to work it out ourselves.  She sent us an ornament every year up through High School.  Which means my last one came Christmas of  1993.  I've put them on the tree every year that I've had a tree and some of them have gotten broken over time.  Each time one broke I cried, but I don't see the point in having them if they always stay in a box.  So they are hanging on my tree right now. 

Here are some of my favorites:

                     

In addition to the old favorites, there are always a few new additions to the tree.  This year there have been quite a few.  I somehow talked my friend B into starting an ornament collection and of course almost everytime she found one she liked, I had to have it too!  Not surprising really, great minds as they say!  I counted the new ornaments and was shocked to discover that I have TWELVE!  That's okay right?  I mean there are twelve days of Christmas.  Also, Shane and I split up our collection this year.  And as much as I love a Charlie Brown tree, I wanted my tree to be full and happy this year.  Plus, it's not like I bought them all, some were given to me.  See how I justified getting so many new ornaments?  They each have their own story and special place in my heart.  Each year when I unwrap them, I'll remember the day and place and moment that made them special.  I'll smile wistfully and hang them gingerly on my tree.

I couldn't pick a favorite, so here's a random sample of the new arrivals:

    

Rhonda-Rachel or Rachel-Rhonda

Does it really matter which one of us is which? When it comes down to it, we're just Martha's girls. She raised us both, we both have "R" names and we're both freakin' adorable. Yeah, yeah Auntie I know, you're "Oh Soooo Pretty!" Plus, you know, she'll be 81 in January, so who can blame her if she gets us confused from time to time? Well, okay, so it's all the time - but like I said, does it really matter? The funniest part is that she doesn't just call me Rhonda and her Rachel. No, she always catches herself AFTER she calls me Rhonda and then corrects it by saying Rachel. The correction comes fast enough that I've started to think of myself as Rhonda-Rachel and my Aunt as Rachel-Rhonda! And well I am Southern, so I think it's fine if I have a double name...heck, it might even be required!

Actually, I think there might be an advantage or two here. If I did something wrong Mamaw, would you blame Aunt Rhonda?

Holiday Greetings!

Don't you just love getting cards at the holidays?! Me too! I look forward to walking across the plaza to the post office at Ferguson to check my little box. Imagine my excitement this week when I pulled out the first holiday greetings of the season! I could hardly wait to get back to my desk so I could open them! On the walk back I kept thinking I've got mail! Holiday mail! Back at my desk I carefully opened the envelopes and pulled out the most beautiful cards! Inside were greeting of love and happy wishes for holiday fun. I put them on display at my desk for everyone to see as they stopped by. Several people picked them up and commented on how cute they are. I wanted to share them with you too! So here they are.

This first one was sent to me by my talented and very fun friend Katy. So beautiful. I love the pink, green and blue color combination. The card has several layers and it's on acrylic, which she stamped with white ink! I love the punched corners and the velvet ribbon too! This is a fab card Katy, though I couldn't help but notice that there's no stickles on it....hmmm, did the Grinch steal your collection? Maybe I can get him to give it to me!

My friend Shira made this card. Cards are kinda her thing! It's on acrylic too! Wow, I have all these ambitious friends! Acrylic intimidates me, but Shira's great at it! Check out the really cool felt snowflake! She used a giant scallop punch for the inside of the card and even included a picture of herself and the fam in front of her awesome MINI. Try not to be too jealous, you have to join a cult - I mean club if you buy one! Ha! Just kidding!



See, holiday greetings really do brighten days! So keep them coming! Mine are going out tomorrow!

Feelin' Jolly!

Suddenly today I feel like Christmas is coming!  I’m definitely in the spirit this lovely Friday morning (TGIF!)  I’m positive I know why I feel so jolly.  Holiday activities! On Tuesday night I went with Iras to Dickens Downtown on Main Street in Northport.  It was so beautiful.  There were luminaries everywhere and all the shops were decorated festively.  There was a snow machine and all the little ones were playing in the soap snow (not so good to catch on your tongue though)  There was a pottery demo and now we both want to take a class…like I don’t already have enough crafting outlets, but eh, what’s one more?  I’ll post some pictures later…they’re the last ones from my camera because I dropped it on the pavement and busted it.  Bummer, because we all know it’s always attached to me.  Kind of blows my Project 365 too.  Oh well, I’ll start over on New Year’s…I’m sure I’ll have a new camera by then – right Santa?  I’ve been so good this year that I’m sure I’m on the top of his list.  Well, maybe second after Eartha Kitt.

Also on the Christmas activity list, I’m headed back to Cartersville this weekend!  B, A, and I are going down to Pine Mountain on Saturday to see Fantasy in Lights at Callaway Gardens!  I CAN’T WAIT!  It’s so fun there and I’m really excited about seeing all the trees and ornaments in the Christmas Village.  http://www.callawaygardens.com/  (Warning – don’t click this link unless you’re okay with feeling slightly jealous!)  Aside from the Christmas extravaganza, my favorite thing at Callaway is the Muscadine preserves.  They sell them at the Country Store and I’m getting some!  Yummy!

Last night on my to do list was to make a Christmas playlist to listen to this weekend.  I love Christmas music of all kinds and I guess I like some of the traditional favorites but I would have to say my playlist is sort of all over the place.  I get a new album every year.  Last year it was Barenaked for the Holidays by BNL .  This year I’ve achieved a whole new level of silly.  I got, are you ready?  The Muppets-A Green and Red Christmas.  Not really that surprising I know, but this album has me cracking up!  I was at my computer working on my playlist and laughing my ass off when I looked down and realized it was almost 12:30 in the morning!  So funny!  Miss Piggy singing Santa Baby!  And then, oh my goodness, Pepe singing Merry Christmas Baby!  In case you don’t know, Pepe is the King Prawn – just be sure not to call him a shrimp.  It makes him really mad!

So everybody get in the Christmas Spirit!  Right now!  I don’t want you to spoil my ridiculous amount of enthusiasm!