Hark How the Bells...

Hark how the bells... Sweet silver bells... All seem to say... Throw cares away...

Christmas is here... Bringing good cheer... to young and old... meek and the bold...

On how they pound... raising the sound.... from everywhere... filling the air...

How much do I LOVE that song?!?!?!  How much do I love Christmas?!?!?!  Like LOVE!!!  What about you?  Why do you love Christmas?  I totally enjoy hearing people's Christmas tales... It's kind of like people watching in the mall... only better!  (Oh, come on now!  You know you people watch too!) Hehe...


I'm thinking of past Christmases and how the magic was born in my heart... Christmases, when we cut down our Christmas tree out in the woods next to our church and I was half way freaking out the whole time, because earlier in the year I had seen a Mama bear and her two cubs emerge from those same woods into the parking lot of our church and I just KNEW they were watching us steal their Christmas tree, and plotting their unsuspected revenge!

 Christmas 2008 at my Grandma's house, where so many memories have been made!

Christmases spent staying up in the wee hours of the night with my Grandmother as she taught me about life and about being a lady (though, I'm a far cry from the soft spoken, gentile one she imagined... hehe), and how to make amazing treats for everyone to enjoy.  We made gingerbread men, fudge, thumb cookies which we stuffed with homemade jellies and lemon curd, chocolate chip cookies (of course), and many, many other things to make the day special.  I will never forget the array of cakes and cookies and casseroles and breads and such we would prepare for that day!  My Grandma is 90 this year and we all take turns now doing what she used to do nearly single-handedly for decades!  And though our traditions have changed... the magic has not.

This was an especially magical year... It was the year we found out we were having Asher!  Don't you just love Daddy's reaction to the news??? Me too...

I remember one Christmas, I was living in a town house in Newport News, VA and our neighborhood was having a contest on the best Christmas decorations... I think the Grand Prize was $400. off of rent.  Now, I am not one to try to skimp out on decorations as is, however... I have never in my life gone to such extents to make sure my house emitted Yuletide cheer!!!  I distinctly remember walking and driving around every bend of our complex and evaluating the tackiness vs elegance and then going back to my house and adding things all the way up to the day of the judging... I had lights on the bushes, window boxes on my patio, garland making a lattice pattern going down the shudders than framed my front door and windows... I think I had about a million red bows strategically positioned for maximum effect without crossing that ever looming edge that would put me in the same category with Eddie in those Chevy Chase movies...  Oh, how I wish I could find a picture of that house!!!  And it was all worth it in the end, because guess who won the $400.00??? Well, I'll tell you right now it wasn't Eddie!

And this Christmas launched with no fewer shenanigans... This is the first Christmas in my VERY OWN HOUSE!!!  Yes, the one with my name attached to the deed... Ahhhhhhhhhh...  And it's utterly perfect in every way!  And one of the most wonderful things is I can begin to gather a real collection of trimmings that will just make it purdier and purdier as the years pass... (If you need a definition for the word "purdier" - we've got bigger fish to fry!) Now... back to those shenanigans... You see, when Chris and I got married, we had a guest bedroom and a guest bed... but, somewhere in the mix, we had a baby and the guest bed (which in fairness wasn't a spring chicken anymore) got tossed over the balcony (literally) and promptly deposited in the dumpster in order to make room for the crib!  Since then we've had an air mattress, which has effectively been pulverized by our kitties and now we have this big 'ol farm house and a guest room and guests coming and NO place for them to sleep... Hmmm, this is sounding more Christmas like as I tell it... hehe! Well... let's just say November was less than sleepy for any of us and people were coming, ready or not!  Now, I've had a few "Clampett" moments in my life, to say the least and this was no exception!  With time running low and schedules not accommodating... I decided to drive the 10 miles to the other side of the mountain to my aunt's house and borrow her extra queen bed... Well, imagine with me a 3 year old Asher running around with 2 excessively hyper little Jack Russel terriers while his Mother and Aunt (who is an actor and was in full costume, preparing to leave and play her role in the musical Mame - Glitter, beads and all!) trying with all their might to hoist this large, heavy queen sized mattress to the roof of our 2004 Ford Escape... Well, miraculously, we managed to get it on the roof and then began the arduous task of securing it with random ratchet straps, which I could not for the life of me figure out how to ratchet properly, so I was tying them in knots from one end to the next and then attaching bungee cords together that had long ago lost their "bungee!"  We're talking, I basically wrapped the car in weathered rubber bands... The test was getting it up the hill in the back yard!  If I could do that, I thought I could get it back around the mountain to my house... It passed the test and I began the journey home... I laughed as I puttered that long and windy road home riddled with near misses by over sized trucks barreling down the opposite direction, multiple precarious pull overs as the dozens of disgruntled followers I had amassed gratefully whizzed past my teetering package... and we (Asher and I) sang and laughed the entire way home as I silently thanked God for the angels that were no doubt working overtime keeping that thing on the roof and holding the rubber bands together just long enough to get us safely home... Hehe... Now... getting it back... well, that's another story, for another time!

All that doesn't even include our second annual adventure digging out our Christmas tree... Yep, we dig it out, plant it in a pot in the living room and then put it in the ground to enjoy for years to come... This years was so big we could barley keep the roots contained on the roof and we had to cut off part of the top, just to get it in the house...   The pic on the right shows what it looks like now.  I wanted you to see the tub we planted it in, so I removed the skirt!  I like that it's a cool tree - gangsta lean and all! ;) (Please forgive my pooey phone pics... I'll do better.)

A few more of our shenanigans this year.

What about you?  What are your memorable Christmas moments???  I'd love to hear your stories... I heard one a few years back about a friends first REAL Christmas tree... all was bliss until Christmas dinner when it sounded like someone started popping popcorn in the living room and upon exploration of the strange phenomenon they were greeted by thousands of tiny spiders who apparently had been incubated into and early arrival by the delightful warmth of their Christmas fire!!!  WHAT?!?!?! Why do I think they decided on going OUT for dessert? Go ahead... I know you've got some stories... Let's hear them!