Christmas 2011

Christmas is over for this year.  While many parents return to work, more and more parents are making arrangements to stay home for an extra day or two.  My grandchildren were fortunate enough to have a wonderful Christmas and they are with their parents today.  With my oldest son working on Christmas morning, his children went to him and after opening gifts spent several hours swimming at the hotel pool.  Not a typical Christmas, although they will remember this as one of the best ever!  The toys my grandchildren enjoyed the most, were the ones which included a parent.....a race track that needed to be set up, dolls to make, books that could be purchased with a parent's help and then read right away...baking, finger knitting, and the ever popular Lego's.  I was given the gift of another granddaughter this year, ready-made at age 8.  My grandson would have preferred a brother, but since he is the same age as his new sister, they still can play together sometimes.

I just sat at my youngest son's home watching, smiling, and taking pictures for two days.  The whole family were together Christmas eve and that memory is my favorite Christmas gift. Growing up my parents always gave my sister and I at least one gift we could use or play with.  Don and I did the same with our sons and grandchildren.  All my grandchildren (with the exception of my 8-year-old granddaughter who already owned one) were given cameras.  My 11-year-old granddaughter was busy taking pictures and my 8-year-old grandson was taking movies while the rest of the presents were opened.  They will have hours of fun and I'm hoping this is the start of a new hobby for all of them. More of their photography fun to follow.

I received two gifts to play with, a sewing kit and a mixer with baking pans and oodles of cookie cutters for every holiday.  I was pretty excited about both, so spent the rest of the time looking through my daughter-in-law's cookbooks, now that I have a mixer that works.  I will finally get that mending done I've been trying to complete for months.  I received other gifts that were just as wonderful and I loved each and every gift.

Have you been thinking about your New Years Resolutions?  I don't wait for January 1, I begin on December 26.  So far, at least for one day I've been right on track.  Enjoy the rest of 2011.  2012 is just around the corner and I expect it will be a year filled with many of God's blessings for each one of you.