The Story of My Life

We spent a few days in my home town. The kids wanted to spend every night with their favorite Aunt GL. And MY favorite aunt cooked dumplings and homemade puddings. I hung out with Em a few days and we ignored all the kids, played on the computer, and ate chocolate. We had a great time at my brother's house on Christmas Eve Day. Played games, ate and enjoyed each other's company....and of course, opened gifts. We all just hung out the entire day together and then we returned to our house for a visit from Santa. The children were so blessed with many wonderful gifts- but the best part of Christmas is sharing the true meaning with those you love.

I love the Christmas season. Here is a quick recap of ours....And is was Wonderful. We began with the fudge-making and Gran Spending the night . We participated in AND LOST the Helena Christmas gnome hunt ...but had fun doing it. That's all that matters, right. RIGHT??? Congratulations Bama Belle !!! We then went to PawPaw's farm for an evening with the family at his and Nanny's place. Her tree is always picture perfect and my Dad, thank goodness, had gall bladder surgery and was medicated during the 2 days it took her to get the beads measured to the exact inch and straight. Just kidding, of course, but it is beautiful and my Dad does indeed make fun of her usually. My sister bought my brother's son a drum set. Pretty funny.... only because it was not my child's to take home. We began our Chanukah celebrations on Sunday the 21st. My Yankee Boy's father's family was Jewish and he grew up in Hebrew school until they kicked him out. We have lots of hi

I have many wonderful tales of our Christmas gathering and fun! Here are just a couple of snapshots for today. I will share more stories, pictures and family fun later! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will have a Very Happy New Year!

Fantasy Fudge We made this every Christmas growing up and it is my favorite Christmas food. My Mom visited and we created the magic for my kids! Um, you think this is a sweet enough recipe???? Wait. A Recipe????? On MY BLOG??????? Hershey's Kisses Fantasy Fudge Combine : 5 cups sugar, 2 sticks of butter 1 large can of PET milk. (Try not to add sugar to a candle in the process. ) Boil and stir like crazy for 5 minutes. Reduce heat. Stir in 1 large jar of marshmallow creme . (Stir. Stir. Stir. Watch your heat or you will end up with chocolate bubble gum. Trust me on that one.) Stir in 1 and 1/2 lbs, YES POUNDS of Hershey's kisses . Stir Oh yes, it takes awhile to unwrap all of them. Stir and stir and stir some more. That is why it is a family recipe. You all have to stir. Add 1 tsp. of vanilla at the end and stir just a little more. Pour in a buttered 9X13 pyrex pan and refrigerate for several hours. OMG!!!!The creamiest, richest fudge you have EVER eaten. No calories,

Christmas....a mix of the old and the new!! All special to me. A sign given to me by my best friend gives you blessings as we welcome you. Santa Welcomes you in his sleigh! My great uncle sent this reindeer sleigh to us this year as a gift and little girl added the stuffed Santa all on her own to decorate the entrance. So come on in!!! Over the kitchen sink, I have a Christmas picture collage board with all the family pics we made at the beach and cards from other "family" members as well. In the dining room is my Mom's old nativity scene. It is as old as me.....and the only fight I ever won with my sister got me this addition to my Christmas collection. And at the bottom of the steps, to add more nostalgia..... there is a collection of little glass bears that were my Mom's favorites through the years. When she and my Dad divorced, when I was already grown....she divided lots of her Christmas decorations and keep sakes between the children for us to have. And t

Check out the new blog about the Helena gnome hunt! Hewy, premiere Helena blogger, is once again up to his fun. Be sure to tune in..... WAIT. DON'T! I don't think it will be any fun ..... Just kidding. Come on out and play with us. We can handle the competition. My family and I are gonna, hopefully, add another notch to our gnome belt. Or garden. Here is my newest addition- I got him today from a new real life friend. I got the honor of meeting....the GNOME MASTER himself!!! Quite an honor. Thank you, my new friend. I shall name him Blogger, for the person who got me hooked on Helena blogging and shares my love for gnome hunts as well. I hope the Christmas gnome will be joining him this weekend.

I love this time of year! I have been trying to teach my children Christmas carols and remind them the reason for the season- Jesus' birth. I am trying to teach them about giving and not just wanting and getting. We attended a Christmas play at CCB church this weekend. Any child who wanted to participate had a time to arrive for a fitting for a chosen costume and participate. Kinda an impromptu Christmas play! A few older kids had the parts that told the story from the animals' point of view and the other kids were ALL the animals. Baby girl was all about it. Little man, not so much. He dressed in his stylin' new clothes and said he would "look" at the costumes to see the choices but would rather just watch his sister. I said that was fine and just wanted us to all go as a family to celebrate Christmas together, secretly wanting my little man to still be my baby boy and be in the play. We arrived and Baby girl chose a cute little bunny costume with ears and t

My Mom's yard over Thanksgiving was so wonderful. We had fresh lemons, satsumas, grapefruit, oranges. They even have a blueberry patch! Ah, coastal living. One of the many perks: Fresh fruit year round. The children loved picking fruit right off the tree and eating it. We had to monitor them because picking was so much fun that they may have raided the crops if we had not!

I know, Christmas is not about stuff. There is a reason for the season and we tend to forget and leave the CHRIST out too often. But we all remember our favorite Christmas gifts from growing up... the excitement of that cherished treasure under the tree on Christmas morning. My mother always set out our gifts in a neat arrangements by child so we could behold them in all their wonder all at once!! She gave us so many wonderful Christmas memories and I need to call her up and thank her now that I know what effort it took. My children already love to look at old Christmas morning pictures and say, "AWWW MOM, I remember that. I loved it!!! Do we still have it???" HERE ARE a few of mine favorite gifts from Santa through the years. The Magic Hat Magic Kit- A real hat with lots of tricks, a wand, a secret compartment....My sis and I both got one and we did shows and had a blast with it. Barbie Townhouse with pull string elevator- I LOVED this thing. I had a huge Barbie suitcase