Merry Christmas!

We have a white Christmas here today!  There's not much snow, but enough to add to the Christmas feel.  We celebrated most of our holiday a few days ago when everyone's schedule allowed us to get together.  So today the two of us will have a quiet day to relax.  There were several "firsts" this Christmas.  When we look back to this holiday memories will include:

...the chance to get everyone together.  Work schedules and other family commitments makes this harder as the years go on.  Son #3 and girlfriend spent about a week here giving me the opportunity to have another female in residence!  That was very special.  We also got to spend some extended time with son #1 and girlfriend and get to know her better.

.....the first appearance of Santa Pig.  I've mentioned before that my husband has a linking for pigs.  It's become a bit of a family joke with pigs making appearances in unusual places.  So, how could we pass up this when it became available at the start of the season?

Santa Pig replaced our tradition of Christmas stockings.  The stockings became more difficult to fill as the boys got older and the family expanded.  This year each person got a special present from Santa Pig.  Most of them came from the "As Seen on TV" store and, though useful in some way were a bit of a joke present.  For instance, the husband got a nightlight of the leg lamp from A Christmas Story, his favorite seasonal movie of all time.  Son #3 got soap on a rope due to his recent disbelief that such a thing ever really existed.

....two special presents from my dear husband.  I now have a Baby Lock Elegante 3 sewing machine.  So far all I've done with it is sew straight, but it holds the promise of hours of sewing and embroidery fun in the years ahead.  I would tell you more about what it does, but I haven't figured it all out yet.  It made some great Easy Street blocks, though.

And, secondly, he played to my love of The Wizard of Oz with a beautiful red sparkly illustrated book of the original story:

and a pair of ruby slippers to hang on the tree:

Merry Christmas to all!