December Fun

This month has been a very busy. Chris had to work the earlier part of the month a lot. He was gone the first two Saturdays so I decided to do everything Christmas that could do with the boys in Santa Cruz County. We had a blast! The boys and I kicked off first week at the Santa Cruz Wharf for a free Christmas Party. We drank hot chocolate and ate yummy brownies from Marini's candy shop. We decorated cookies & Christmas ornaments & sang Christmas Carols & took pictures with Santa. We were able to access the organizations site so that we could print out our photos with Santa for free! Of course it is the worst Santa photos but hey every family has to have that one bad Santa photo, right? It was really fun & it was free! Then we drove all around the county looking at Christmas lights we even went to Candy Cane Lane in Pacific Grove. We pretty much did this every night of the week until Christmas. There was Snow on the mall in Santa Cruz, Christmas Pageants, Caroling in Capitola, Christmas Tree Lighting in Capitola, two knitting Christmas Parties & the annual Holiday Light Train at the Boardwalk! We had our second annual cookie decorating party on December 23. Then on Christmas Eve we passed out all of our goodies to our neighbors. Then we went to MoMo & Abada's house for our traditional Christmas eve dinner and gift exchange. Christmas Day we spent at home and my cousin Kim and her son Steven came to spend Christmas night and the weekend with us. We had a wonderful ham dinner with all the trimmings, watched movies, took bike rides, went shopping & just hung out.

I then proceeded to kill myself and throw a Holiday Dessert Party on December 28th. I pretty much bought every last string of lights at Beverly Fabrics & happily added them to all my other lights. My house looked like a Las Vegas Casino! It was fun & lots of work at the same time. I am not sure I will do that again next year.

I pretty much got Christmas out of my system, until next year. Now all I want to do it clean up the huge mess I made with all my preparations for all the festivities. My husband thinks I am nuts but my boys have loved every minute of all the fun. That is all that really matters to me. I want my boys to remember this time of year with loving, warm memories.

It's now December 31, 2008 the last day of the year. The boys and I are under the weather and feeling a little drained. It was all worth it. As I write, I am reflecting on 2008. The year started out as any other year, however, the latter six months of the year were difficult. I am sure everyone has a story about how hard the last six month of 2008 were. I am hopeful about 2009. We have a new President to inaugurate & a failing economy to stoke. I can only hope at this time in our history. I thank God that I still have hope to count on. I have much to be grateful for. We still have a home, my husband still has a job, there is still food on the table, money in the bank our family and friends are healthy. Yes, there is still hope.