Comment

Comment by Anna on December 8, 2009 at 2:17pm

oooooo sounds so good Blondie!!!

Message coming!!!

Comment by Anna on December 8, 2009 at 12:58pm

Lisa,
Yes, it is always good to "hear" from you. I loved your story!! I continue to pray for you and your daughter that your relationship continues to grow and improve!! I hope you do get to see her over the holidays. Do stay in touch with us!!

Jane,
Boy do I understand the financial teaching we still have to give to our almost adult children. You are so right - our job never ends. But I am so happy with that!!!!

NavyMom,
Love the picture - is that your house? I do miss having a fireplace - I love to sit out and watch the snow with a crackling fire in the fireplace. Jenn's apartment doesn't have a real fireplace, but I can cozy up to the heater and watch the snow!!! Luckily she doesn't get as much in Akron as they do further north!!!

Blondie,
Want to get together for lunch or a afterwork coffee and desert?? I'd love to meet you in person while I'm there in OH!!

Comment by JM-ISmomx2 on December 8, 2009 at 12:02am

I was the youngest of 7 girls with 2 younger brothers.
Navy thing for my son, still not sure, we just have paperwork and a speeding ticket to take care of. If it happens in the next 2 weeks, he will got to BC within 3 -8 months from now. Looking at another IS, go figure.

Comment by DC - G'mother of My Fav Sailor on December 7, 2009 at 11:16pm

Have faith, Joanne. The present will arrive!

JM, I thought your daughter was coming home. I take it the trip to the recruiter did not discourage your son. Also you beat me with 8 brothers and sisters. I only had four. I can imagine it was hectic.

Our stockings were always opened in the middle of my parents' bed. Dad would bring them up and Mom would bring hot chocolate and freshly made cinnamon rolls. I wonder how she did that?!? It was always such a special time. We did that as long as I was home.

Comment by JM-ISmomx2 on December 7, 2009 at 11:08pm

Favorite memory - Growing up with 8 brothers and sisters made for very hetic Christmas mornings. We were not allowed out of our rooms until 8am, so in order to keep us occupied our parents would place our stockings at the end of our beds. There were many times we would wake in the middle of the night, open our things then go back to sleep. That and we only got sugar cereal on Christmas morning so that made it special too.
My favorite grown - up memory was finding my now 22 year old sailor curled up by the Christmas tree in the morning because she snuck out to see Santa.

Favorite movie - Bells of Saint Mary with Bing Crosby

And I won't have my girl home for Christmas this year, but she has asked that we still hang her Christmas ornaments.

Just as a last note - it looks like by this time next year, I will have 2 children in the US Navy.

Comment by DC - G'mother of My Fav Sailor on December 7, 2009 at 11:02pm

What do you mean, Joanne? I believe in Santa. I would be disappointed if he didn't fill my stocking. Oh that reminds me one year he didn't! Our oldest son was at vet school and we all gathered in Columbus to celebrate it with him. He lived at the vet school that year to save money and he had to work over the holidays. I had presents for all the other stockings and assumed Santa would take care of me. Well I guess everyone else assumed Santa would take care of me because when stockings were passed out, mine was the only empty one. You should have seen the shocked look on my husband's face! He had bought me a lovely amethyst ring I wanted and had he thought about it, it would have easily fit in my stocking. He didn't so we took a picture of everyone holding up stuffed stockings and me holding up my quite empty one.

Over the years I have cross stitched stockings for the family. I have a few yet to complete but I did not make one for me. Somehow that seemed wrong. I continued to use the very sad, very worn one from our first Christmas. For the past couple years, my husband has commented that when we hang stockings all he others are pretty and then there is my worn out one. Last year when I came out, the stocking I had hung before going to bed was gone and in its place was a new cross stitched one with my name on it ... and it was stuffed, too. He had had his sister make one for me. I recognized the pattern that she had shown me during the summer under the guise that she was thinking about making it for herself. So you see he really is thoughtful!

Comment by DC - G'mother of My Fav Sailor on December 7, 2009 at 10:25pm

P'nut, I had not heard about the radiation either. I will keep you in my prayers. I am glad that it will be delayed until after the holidays.

Someone mentioned a generator. We have one and are so glad that we have it. We probably lose power at least once a month, sometimes for several hours. Given that we are on well water and need heat, it makes life much pleasanter. We could do without it but I'm glad we don't have to. When power goes out, we just wait about a minute and it kicks in.

Today we went to this pottery place that sells pottery from a number of Maine potters. I was so pleased because we were able to find gifts for many of the people for whom I get presents. Now to get them packed and sent off! Dear Husband was supposed to bring the packing peanuts down from the barn but after two trips he still forgot!

Comment by Anna on December 7, 2009 at 5:26pm

Hello everyone!! Loved reading through all the comments made today. Sharing Christmas memories is such a great idea!!
My favorite Christmas was in 1990 just after the twins were born. Unfortunately, my husband was laid off when the babies were 4 months old. So even tho' it was stressful we were managing to keep the bills paid. Several friends came forward to help out which made us realize just how special many of our friends were. Our family used to go away for Thanksgiving and then have the big turkey dinner for Christmas - which meant I spent Christmas day doing lots of cooking. Since we couldn't go away that Thanksgiving some friends donated a turkey and we were able to have a nice dinner. Our pediatrician got us 6 cases of baby formula for free so the girls were well taken care of - they were going through a case of formula a week!!! So we decided Christmas dinner would be something radically different - homemade pizzas. The boys (6 and 11 that year) got to decided what they wanted, and Steve and I made our own custom pizza. Dinner was cooked in just over an hour - including letting the dough rise and I didn't have to spend all day cooking. Even buying Christmas gifts that year just brought me so much closer to my faith. It seemed whenever I thought of what I wanted to get for the boys I was able to find it and at a really good price. We didn't have much but everything we had that year was just so much more special. A friend even loaned me a video camera and we took "home movies" that year which I still enjoy watching these days. Everything about that season was such so much more meaningful and special to all of us and the tradition of homemade pizzas continues 19 years later!!!! Even the boys have continued the pizza tradition with their wives!!!!

Comment by DC - G'mother of My Fav Sailor on December 7, 2009 at 4:11pm

Blondie, your nativities are perfect! The top one looks about like the one we got in Scotland and the bottom one like the Italian one I have had ever since we got married.

A few years I bought a manger for the Italian one and had put it in the window. None of the figures were out yet. I came by and there curled up inside the manger was our little cat, sound asleep.

Blondie, I put a bunch of my Christmas memories on Molly's site. The group adopted this month is unit of Seebees in Afghanistan. Their chaplain wanted for them to get stockings and to sit around a campfire eating s'mores and re-telling Christmas memories. I jokingly said we should put our Christmas memories in the cards we sent. Then I gave an example. Molly started a discussion where we all put some Christmas memories. I didn't put this one but I did put others. There are some other good ones there. I think I will download mine to give to my sons.

I have thought about starting a notebook for each. I'll call it "A Season for Everything" and there will be a divider for Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. When I think about it, I will add childhood memories to Spring. Summer will be the time of when our sons were young, Fall will be years working after the boys were grown and Winter will be retirement years. I once read that we should all write our memoirs ... they don't have to be much, just a memory. They don't have to have a purpose.

For example, when I was a pre-schooler, we lived in a wonderful old stone/wood house in Ivyland, PA. There were no children with whom I could play so I had to amuse myself. I did sometimes think life was a bit unfair since my brother and sister were "born big" and I was "born little." They were over seven/eight years older than I and could go out on their own. I did develop a very vivid imagination and one of my favorite past times was to tell myself stories. (Alas, this is a habit I have never stopped and I would fall into during boring faculty meetings. Nothing like being in a far off exotic place and realize something important had been said at the meeting ... couldn't ask about it for fear of revealing I had not paid attention.) Anyway, my parents gave me a horse swing and hung it on the back porch. The porch had a walkout basement below it so it was sort of on the second floor, although one could walk down a couple steps on either end of the porch to get to the ground and down a hill and around a stone wall to go into the basement. The house overlooked a field and a pond. I would swing on this horse, tell my self an adventure and travel to wonderful places. These stories would take on lives of their own and once I started, I never knew how they would end. Sometimes, I would all of a sudden come back to reality, realizing that I had long since stopped swinging.

Now that memory certainly has no purpose at all but does explain where I "go" when I space out.

Comment by DC - G'mother of My Fav Sailor on December 7, 2009 at 3:04pm

Many years ago I made my parents one of those ceramic Christmas trees. I think if I were going away for the holidays, I would just put that up and forget about the rest. There are some things I really don't want to give up.

Many years ago I was on sabbatical in Ireland. As I was packing, I thought about my nativity and actually considered taking it. Good sense took over and I didn't. Well, it was good sense until Christmas started approaching. Then I found that I missed it dreadfully. Also, we had decided to forego a Christmas tree because they were incredibly expensive and lights were out of sight ... about $18 dollars for a string of 40 of those mini lights you pay $1.99 for a 100 at Walmart.

We were able to go to Scotland for about a week just before Christmas and while out walking on Sunday we found a cute, inexpensive nativity but alas the store was closed. The rest of the week we could not find the shop. The last day there we went down to a pub for lunch and it began to snow. When we came out, it was like being in a Dickens snow-globe with midevil buildings and snow swirling about. My husband suggested looking down this one alley before we headed out to the airport. Voila, we found the nativity. I saw a bunch of spruce boughs in front of a florist and happened to comment to my husband that with some of those I could fashion a tree.

The next day, back in Cork, we were running about, picking up meat ordered and other last minute goodies. We had gone separate ways and when I came home, there was a pile of spruce boughs that my husband had picked up along the street in the market. He was awaiting his "tree." I got some florist foam and built a "tree" that was about 18 inches tall and 2 feet wide. We splurged on the string of lights, dug out the ornaments we had bought to take home for another year, put up the nativity on the mantle and Christmas was there.

We have such fond memories of that Christmas. We had to send presents very early so the last minutes were calm and peaceful. We talked to everyone Stateside and totally enjoyed our peace and quiet.

When we moved to Florida I had a terrible time with Christmas. Somehow 85 degree weather was not conducive to the Christmas spirit. It was compounded by the fact that our youngest was in the military and off. Eventually I got over it. Turned on the AC so I could light a fire and pretend it was snowy outside.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 1754
• 1755
• 1756
• 1757
• 1758
• …
• 1812
• Next ›
• Page