The days before, The Day, and the Day after

It's now the day after Christmas and the best news is that I have a brand new grandson. I guess he decided it was time and we are so happy to have him here. Can't wait to see him. right now I'm preparing my lesson for tomorrow. I'm making everyone in my class some miniature cuban sandwich sliders instead of cookies. I think everyone is probably sick of cookies by now. My lesson is on love, the perfect lesson for Christmas time. Christmas day was spent at the Bonino's eating, opening presents, eating, riding the new dirt bike, eating, playing Xbox, eating, playing house, eating, playing games, and eating. It was very relaxing and yummy. We decided not to go to a movie because we had too much fun at home. It was all in all a wonderful Christmas day. Raquel and Russ got a new freezer from the Boninos and they bought themselves a new bed. Everyone felt fortunate and happy to have such a wonderful Christmas. Thank you Santa. We actually had Santa come to the Bonino's the night before Christmas to visit and to see Lucy. He was a great Santa and he took us all by surprise showing up for a visit. I took pictures with Kim's camera which I will post later. We celebrated Kim's birthday. No one understands how different it is to have your birthday around Christmas time unless you are one of those lucky souls. No matter how hard we try to make it special there is still Christmas looming all around the birthday time. Lucy was helping us cut the birthday cake which was chocolate mouse cake. I remember when we use to be able to finish off a whole birthday cake in one sitting and now there is always some left over. I can't see what is different but somehow it is. We gave Kim a pretty necklace and bracelet from Brighten. I think she liked them because she has been wearing them ever since. David made her a card on the computer. We invited Mike to come for her birthday but he had to take his daughter to Karate. He made up for it by making her a nice dinner himself. In the weeks before Christmas David and Kim and I decorated our house. We did it after work, Saturdays, and sometimes before work. That's a little different than when we use to take a whole day and get it done. But it was an ongoing project to be enjoyed by all of us whenever there was a spare minute. Once you wrap your mind around the fact that you have to embrace new traditions, you can enjoy the season in a new way. We didn't do as much baking as we have in the past. I had good intentions but what good are they. For such a long time I believed that you couldn't have Christmas without baking it, but I found out that Christmas was still Christmas even though you didn't give everyone you know homemade cookies (that I'm pretty sure ended up down the garbage disposal because you can only eat so many plates of cookies). It was fun giving Sees candy, Christmas ornaments, and something from the Gourmet Kitchen that they can use to bake their own goodies. I did make one batch of the spice sugar cookies that are my favorites and brought them to work. You do have to decorate the house for Christmas or it is not really Christmas. I do believe that. There seems to be a lot of fireplace ash decorating my decorations. It kind of looks like snow huh? Russ and Raquel brought this little Tree which we put on the table in front of the window. I kept forgetting to water it but it hasn't lost any needles yet. I've made up my mind that next year I want a tree that's bigger and that sits on the floor and not on the table. I hope I don't forget and get another small one. There is a tree out in front of my house that I would love to put lights on for Christmas. Every year I say I'm going to and every year I don't. Maybe next year. One thing I really do like are the Christmas dishes. It's so fun to eat your morning cereal out of a cereal bowl that has a christmas wreath at the bottom of it or have dinner on a plate with Santa staring up at you. For some reason I love eating my meals from these dishes and knowing that they will be there next year waiting for me. I got a big snowman platter this year that I ordered from Clouds. I love that store. You can look at their stuff on line. The store is in Fair Oaks by where Marty Close lived. She took me there once and I have loved it ever since. Just before Christmas day all their Christmas stuff goes on sale. I called them up and asked them what they had left and the nice man walked the whole store describing each Christmas item that was left so I could make a decision. Clouds throws their own procelin and they have a slew of artists that create the designs and hand paint them. I'll take a picture of my platter so you can see it, next blog.