The Spirit of Christmas

Here's Justin with his Louisville slugger baseball bat (given to him when he was just 2 days old by KJR). Perhaps he'll play baseball when he grows up?

The past couple of weeks have been extremely busy, it seems. I've been trying to finish up Christmas shopping - I think I'm about 75% there. A few more shopping trips and I should be done. My family goes all out for Christmas. It is still the same as it was when we were little kids, and we've never outgrown it. My husband and sister-in-law have also been taken in by our family Christmas traditions. Even though we all live in different houses now, we still get up on Christmas morning and go over to my parents house (in our pajamas) and open presents (which weren't put under the tree until before my parents go to bed on Christmas Eve), usually until mid-afternoon, with a break for breakfast or brunch. It's crazy, but we still love it. Every year my parents say that things will be different, but it never is, and they always outdo themselves. Thanks Mom & Dad for a zillion wonderful Christmases! Since Justin is still too little to understand much about Christmas, we'll probably continue with our usual Christmas day this year. I'm sure he'll be thrilled by all the wrapping paper and boxes at Maggie & Pop's house.

We've also been to 4 weddings in the past two months - Congratulations to my cousin Christine and her new hubby Tadd! We had a great time at their wedding this past Saturday night. I took pictures on the new camera I got for my birthday, but since my computer is dying and the disk drives won't open, I can't upload the software needed to actually get the pics out of the camera. I'll post some of them just as soon as we get a new computer, whenever that is. Justin spent the whole day with a babysitter - someone not related to our family - Thank you Michele, Bill, Taylor & Donny! Justin handled it great, like I said, he is very adaptable. We were invited to another wedding for this Friday night up in Albany, but we are unable to go since we are going to Florida for the weekend where I'll be attending Ali's baby shower. That's where she's from, so her mom is throwing her a shower down there while she can still fly. Justin will be spending the weekend with Maggie & Pop. So Congratulations Roy & Mahnaz, I'm sorry we won't be there to celebrate with you!

Chris decorated the outside of the house with Christmas lights yesterday, and we'll probably get our tree before we leave for FL, and then decorate it when we get home. I'm curious to see how Justin will react to the tree. My mother-in-law told me a story about my husband and the christmas tree at his first Christmas - he walked right up to it, took one of the glass ornaments off, put it in his mouth and bit it. He turned out okay, but I'd rather Justin didn't carry on with that tradition.

I'm going to try to take Justin's Christmas card picture tonight - we'll see if we can get Pudge in the picture as well. She's doing much better by the way - I got her some prescription allergy meds and some other oil-type pills and she's not eating her feet so much anymore. So that's good.

Well, that's it for today! Have a good day!