Carrie...  I definitely tried calling you... there was no answer and no voice mail option.  I know (I THINK) I have the right number?  I may have dialed the wrong phone number???  I WANTED TO TALK TO YOU LAST NIGHT! 

 

I'll immediately send the number I (think) I called to your email... please confirm and let me know if its wrong.

i went to taco bell...

then went to bed.

lol Wallie, you crack me up.  I love your responses... 

 

 

Taco Bell is open on Christmas?  Nothin' is opened here :(

 

And Jess, can you believe you're excited over a new vacuum?  Lol--I remember buying one a couple years ago, and I swear I vacuumed everything.  Then the newness wore off, and my dust bunnies moved back in.

 

Today, I "un"decorated.  Our house is small, and after a while, even the prettiest

decorations become clutter.  I love right after everything's down and put away, and I've vacuumed and dusted.  It looks so clean and spacious.  That lasts for a day or so until Leo and the dog have had their way with the house again.   But for now, I can enjoy it.  I did leave my snowmen up though, and probably will for a few more weeks. 

 

Only 363 more days until Christmas!

i have never concidered cristmas day as cristmas --

we allways had our fun on cristmas eve-and just slept in on the cristmas day

so--yeah taco bell was open(actully it was taco johns,but thier all the same)

And Jess, can you believe you're excited over a new vacuum? 

 

 

 

Wallie,

I LOVE Potato Ole's  We always get a 6-pack and a pound. 

 

And at Christmas time they always have Nachos Navidad, though I just can't eat

red & green chips.  I know they taste the same, but it's just too gross.

 

We have Taco John's here too. 

 

Btw, I was through your city on my way to and back from Colorado a couple weeks ago!  I have to say, after all the trips I made to Oklahoma City this year, and having to drive through that &*#$$*(  Kansas City metro area, I loved driving through both

the CB/Omaha area and Lincoln.  It was a nice drive :)

We had our Christmas with my dad's side of the family last Saturday at my sister's house.  It was great.  We all brought finger foods and stuffed ourselves with that instead of having to cook an entire meal.  Bill and I finally cooked the Virginia Ham I bought and made biscuits to bring.  Afterwards we stopped by to see my grandpa at the nursing home and then drove home.  I worked on Monday and Tuesday and planned to bake cookies all day on Christmas Eve and spend that time with my kids and Bill but after getting a call from my sister letting me know that my grandpa was in the hospital for pneumonia, I dropped everything and went to see him.  I made the cookie dough before I left and let Bill do the baking.  I'm so happy that I got to see my grandpa!  I told him that I loved him and then had to drive back home because Santa Claus was stuffed in the trunk of my car.  We had a nice Christmas morning together.  Bill, Holly, Taylor and I got up, opened presents and had a nice breakfast.  Around 2pm, I had to leave for work.  I usually work on Christmas Day from 3-11 because Holly and Taylor are busy with Christmas gifts, etc and that gives me a chance to see my work family.  It was really cool this year because I worked at Howell's and got to give some gifts to some of the kids who don't have family members who visit them.  It was awesome to see "my three boys" grinning at the stuffed animal pillows I had draped over the siderails of thier beds!!!  That night, I got a call from my sister saying that my grandpa had been moved to Pitt County Memorial Hospital (a larger hospital that could better monitor his cardiac issues).  The next day, we left for Ohio because we haven't seen our girls (Bill's kids) in a year and a half because of his deployments and we wanted to spend some Christmas time with them.  They were happy with thier Christmas gifts and we've been having fun with them.  My sister kept me updated on my grandpa's progress and said that he seemed to be doing much better and they were planning to send him back to the nursing home on Tuesday.  She saw him Friday night and said he told her "Don't tell anyone because they want me to rest but I went out and mowed two lawns earlier today!"  (He has been suffering from dementia for a while now but still remembered all of us.........bless his heart.)  He also told her "If nobody minds, I think I would like to stay right here."  My aunt saw him at the nursing home on Saturday and said he was much better.  I guess that was the last bit of "ooomph" he had because this morning around 2:30, my grandpa passed away.  I know he's happy to be with my grandma and mom again.  He's been talking to my grandma's picture since she left us in June, 2007.  I will miss him dearly but I am happy that he is at peace now.  I am still in Ohio and will be heading back home on Wednesday.  Hopefully, my aunt and uncle will plan the funeral for Thursday so I can be there.  If not, I know in my heart that I was there when my grandpa really needed me for doctors appointments, to get his blood sugar regulated or to just say something stupid and make him laugh.  He knows I loved him with all my heart.  He has been the most awesome grandpa and I will always treasure the time we had together.  He was the last of my living grandparents. Bill and I still have a few things planned for our four girls  and Bill just hasn't had enough time with his kids yet so we're going to wait until Wednesday to leave for home.  Our oldest girl has an OB appointment (she's due in February and its a girl "Molly Sue") and her dad is going to take her to the appointment in the morning and then we're going to see TSO in Cleveland. 

 

I hope everyone's Christmas was great!  Mine was and even though I've lost my grandpa, I KNOW he's happy now that he's with his "Baby Doll" and his "Suzy (my mom)" and that makes me happy, too. 

 

Love,

Becca

OOOPS. My aunt saw my grandpa at the hospital on Saturday, not the nursing home.

 

Christmas Eve me and my friends opened our presents together as otherwise we would have to wait till the 27th or 28th before we saw each other.  I got a Bear Grylls book (yeah i love him!), chocolate, books on guinea pigs, L'Occitane stuff etc. Then, I packed up all the pressies for my family and went off to my parents house. From there me and my mum went to visit her sister and her husband ( my aunt obviously!) had a few drinks (Baileys and also a vodka cocktail i made myself). A quick visit then to my cousin who lives a few doors down. Then me and my mum went for one drink in the local bar. It was relatively queit there tho not like some years where it would be packed out Xmas Eve. They hardly even had any decorations up!  Talk about recession!  Came home and watched bit of tv, then bed.

 

Xmas Day I wore one of my fave dresses (didnt bother buying any new clothes for the festive season and havent really done so for the past few years).  A purple silk dress. Me and my dad and grandad went up to visit my grandmothers grave (she died just before Xmas last year). We put flowers on her grave and said a prayer. It was very busy at the graveyard...its a tradition for everyone to visit their loved ones on Xmas Day. I told my granddad about a lovely story the taxi driver who dropped me down to my parents told me on Xmas Eve. He had lived in Scandinavia for over 14 years...partly in Denmark and partly in Sweden and Oslo, Norway. He said that when he first started living there on Xmas Eve/Day he noticed in the evening all these lights on certain hillsides etc. He asked what they were and the locals told him they are candles that have been lit for loved ones at the various graveyards around the town. I thought it was a lovely way to remember your loved ones and its more meaningful in some way than flowers etc.

 

It was a queit enough Xmas dinner...just myself and my parents and grandfather. Of course turkey and ham, roast potatoes, mash potatoes, brussel sprouts ( i like them!) carrots, gravy. Xmas pudding for dessert. Starter was smoked salmon salad with melon. My aunt and uncle called around later in the afternoon for a short while. We sat and watched movies for the rest of the evening. Singin in the Rain, Oklahoma! etc.

 

St. Stephen's Day (or Boxing Day) my parents and I went to visit my brother and his family who live just outside Dublin. Lots of presents for my niece and nephew. We had turkey and ham, roast potatoes, veg. etc. When we got home we watched Its a Wonderful Life (which I had bought for my dad for Xmas as he had NEVER seen it before!).

 

I went back to my house the following day.  It was a quiet Xmas all in all. Got some nice perfume (Stella my fave!!!), also some more chocolate, vouchers, pjs, beauty stuff, money etc.

 

Came home to find the guinea pigs had chewed throught the Xmas tree lights! Why i oughttaaa!!  (PS my friend stayed at the house all throught the Xmas so he shouldve been watching them! hehe)