Happy Christmas!

Okay, everyone is out of school now. Des just came home with tons of gifts from school, including monkey sox and kitty slippers. The college kid is home and visiting with his best buddy. I get to go out to Lola tonight with my mom and siblings, a great and special break! Tomorrow I still have to shop for Gene Sr. and Jr., and had better get a Clarisse for Destiny or I will be in trouble.
The big news in my book is that our daughter and her husband (both in the Air Force) are expecting!
Best wishes to all. We've had a blessed year.

Random random random random insanity

Ack. My beagle is acking. He was sleeping a minute ago. He is 10 and he is happiness, just as Charles Schultz said. I think that is because beagles are so simple and loving.
He had to go out. The wind is so strong, it slammed the door. The wind chill is making the 24 degrees feel like 10. The sky is a deep navy gray, and the shocking white clouds before them are moving fast. The moon is hanging sideways in its last quarter and looks so strange and bright. Now the little guy is asleep on my bed.
I just talked to a couple I met on the radio a few years back, Fred and Jill. They are so fun and kind and loving, and they play good music. I miss people like that in my life -- I used to have lots of them. Anyhow, I just won a certificate to a restaurant, here at 11:30 pm. It was great talking to them. I feel like it is so rare to be in touch with people like that. Now Gene and I will have another place for a date night, if we can ever find a babysitter. Twenty more minutes and I wake him up to sit shotgun in the plow truck. They are playing the Traveling Willburys, one of my favorite groups ever.
The dishes will wait until tomorrow. I made a crummy dinner tonight and don't want to be around the dishes. A couple people liked it.
My studio waits.
The house looks nice inside, to me, at least, except for my room and the basement.
I started writing out Christmas cards today. We actually have new friends (or acquaintances) now since the kids came around, so I had a few more than usual.
We have an interim pastor, and I like him and his wife.
I am in choir.
Still no regular exercise. Still hate myself every morning around 4 am when my back hurts from all the extra weight and lack of exercise.
The kids went wacky tonight when they were running the Corvette into things (and each other) in the living room. Lots of screams. I stayed out of the way while I cooked my crummy dinner.
This week is doctor week. Tuesday is the plastic surgeon for Dakota, and I will cancel the Wednesday asthma test for now. Thursday they all go to counseling. Friday Kota gets rechecked for his skin issues. I am tired already.
Our college student has to go to jury duty all week. Tomorrow he has to get downtown by 7:50. Wear a hat!
I want to rip the wallpaper down in this room. I hate it.
Tomorrow I make a roast.

Christmas Month

The kids got gifts on the first of October. We were going to wait until Christmas, but decided to open them the day after Thanksgiving. Destiny got a Barbie tea set, Dustin got Brown's stickers, banner, etc. and Dakota got this awesome red truck that came with bling. It was funny. That weekend made us decide we would stretch out the season and not make everything about Christmas morning gifts. Last weekend we went to an event for families who are "kinship" families. It was put on by the county and was very well organized. Just walking in they got Shrek puzzles, scribblers and candy. The tables were all named after some Christmas thing, like Donner, Blizten, Frosty, etc. Around the outside of the huge room we were in were stations for face painting, beading, golf, beanbag toss and coloring. The "parents" sat on the inside and munched on snacks and met others while the DJ led people in line dancing, kareoke and Christmas trivia games. Santa was at the top of the steps and we got free photos, very nice ones, too. After our free lunch, as many kids as possible posed for a group photo to be sent to Jerry Springer, as he donated a great deal to the party. They held a thank you banner that everyone signed. After awhile, gifts were given out. Dustin got a huge yellow remote control Corvette, McDonald money, a basketball, 5 Hot Wheels, and tons of candy. Destiny got a Hello Kitty sticker/stamp book. Dakota got Spiderman dune buggy, Spiderman/Black Venom walkie-talkies, a Lego set and tons of candy. Destiny did not fall apart for getting less than her brothers! They enjoyed these things all week, too. Today, we went to another kinship event, and the set up was similar, with the kids on the outside making things and the adults sitting down. This one was a potluck. A woman from the Cleveland Public Library spoke and she was a great speaker! She was a preacher for the system, I swear. Very entertaining. Then we had a workshop on capturing your memories of your family and past, as well as looking at your family tree. I loved hearing these elderly Black women's stories. One woman and her sister were raised with two white sisters in New Orleans, and she shared how they were raised to be orderly and obedient. She ended up going to school to be an educator, and was happy to get out of the way when she met up with the attitudes of children today.
We also sang some songs, the kids saw Santa and got a free book of their choice. They handed us a bag of gifts when we walked out to the lobby. The gifts were unbelievable! Dustin got a tank, army men, a nighttime spy cam, a camera, a Marines cap & fatigues. Dakota got two more Spiderman figures. Destiny got what she was hoping for, Littlest Pet Shop pets! LOTS of them. She could not be happier.
By this time, it was getting snowy. We went to yet another party, and this one was Scottish. My mom managed to save us a table. The Heather Belles danced, as well as the Jenny May Dancers. We had plenty to eat and Santa was led in and out by the bagpipes. Dustin got a Quizzer, Dakota got a Magnadoodle and Destiny got beading. We were all so tired and went home and played. Actually, I went to bed for a nap. It was GREAT.
So, we are loaded with gifts for the kids. This includes the slippers I bought them all with the Target gift card someone gave us annonymously and the dinosaurs their mom bought them yesterday at the mall.
We are so blown away with everyone's generosity. BLOWN AWAY! God is comforting us so much by how others are reaching out to make sure the kids are taken care of. We look forward to a lifetime of paying it forward...