Thursday, December 24, 2009

Almost Time....

The excitement is in the air in this old house -at 7 a.m. on Christmas Eve when there is no school, Maya is up, running around, trying to snag candy canes from the Christmas tree and even playing a Christmas Carols cd to help keep her in the Christmas mode!

She survived the past two days with the box and clothes basket sitting in the dining room, tightly packed with presents with only a few reprimands. When I finished wrapping gifts early Wednesday morning as I placed the packages in these two containers, I made sure than any presents with her name on 'em were firmly placed in the very bottom of the big, long storage tote and as many packages as I could stack there were then placed on top of her gifts. This resulted in a few tears Wednesday when she saw no packages with her name on them and Mandy and I told her that must mean she's not been the good little girl she thinks she's been and apparently she's not gonna get ANYTHING for Christmas. One of my blogger and facebook friends said that was a poor way to deal with her but I had no other place to put these packages plus, we had been warning her frequently -too frequently -that her behavior better improve or else.

Yesterday -that would be Thursday, ya know -morning, I was listening to Kurtis practice his new-found skill of going up and down the stairs and at one point, thought he must be falling as there was a lot of extra clunkety-clunk-clunk sounds on the stairs. But as he came through the living room to the doorway into the dining room, I saw what had been causing that sound.

There he stood, holding this big box that says "Parking Garage" on the side and has pictures on the box of matchbox cars.

He stopped, looked up and me and pointed to the box saying, "Race cars? Race cars?"

Yes, baby , there would be race cars involved with that box and that he had managed to drag it downstairs told me that I might be well-served if I could find a race car and take off in it before his Momma got home from work.

You just know, don't you, that the appearance of this box was because he had also picked up skills his Mother had when she was but a little older than he is right now -snooping and finding stashed presents and even being brave enough to pull something out that Mandy had stashed under her bed and haul it down the steps to show good old Grammy his "find" of the day!

I finally completed the final tablecloth I've been working on for the past two weeks about 6 a.m. this morning, hence the reason I am still awake at this hour!

Here's what the center part of this tablecloth looks like.


And this picture shows what is in each of the outer corners of the tablecloth too!

Now, that tablecloth -along with a pair of fingertip towels with a floral embroidery and a pair of pillowcases too -is all packed up in a box and gift wrapped but I didn't assign a name on the tag I put on the box. Rather, for this package and the other one contained another tablecloth plus towels and pillowcases, I just wrote "Surprise" where the label says who the present goes to. Then, when we do our gift exchange later today, I'm going to hold both boxes up in front of my daughters and tell them each to choose a package and whichever tablecloth is in that box they pick, will solve my dilemma of trying to determine who gets which tablecloth! And if they want to switch items around, that's fine with me too then!

Now, since I was up all night working to complete the border on this tablecloth and have already had my little walk up the road and back with Samuel J. Muttley -about 3/4 of a mile one way which gives me roughly having walked -or almost trotted, I should say as Sammy may be a small dog, but he sure can pull a person along quite handily -about 1 1/2 miles then, round trip! At the pace he sets for me on our walks, the calories -and fat cells -should fly off me! Provided I can keep up the pace with eating salads, salads and more salads!

So, I'm gonna go lie down now and take a snooze. I have a few things partially done for our meal so I should be able get in a nice little nap before I have to dig in and cook a big meal for the whole family who will be here -or should be here -by 4 p.m. After that, Maya will be happy to have the presents given out and we'll have time to relax a tiny bit then before going to the late (or candlelight) service at 8 p.m.

So, because I don't anticipate having time to be back on here today -maybe tomorrow I'll catch up on my blog reading -I wanted to be able to say this though to each and everyone of you who reads my blog -faithfully or now and then -have a very Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years!

And now, some sleep for me so I can have a God Jul!

Peace!

11 comments:

CiCi said...

Hooray, you finished and just in time. I think it is a good idea to let the girls pick and then if they want to exchange that's okay too. That way they are happy. And they know how much work you put into them so that must make them even more a treasure. Merry Christmas to you and your family and friends!!

Sandee said...

May you and yours have a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Big hug honey. :)

Maggie May said...

Happy Christmas.
There is a lot of hype in this house too from the grandsons. The granddaughters are on flight to Japan. Will get there Christmas day evening.
Table cloth is lovely. Like your idea of surprise presents.

Hope your day goes beautifully tomorrow and everyone enjoys themselves.

Nuts in May

Marguerite said...

Wow, Jeni, the tablecloth is gorgeous! You did a great job! Hope that you have a Joyeaux Noel!

Linda Murphy said...

MERRY CHRISTMAS, JENI! Wishing you and your lovely family a happy and joyful Christmas!

Dr.John said...

Merry Christmas to you and all your family.

fermicat said...

Merry Christmas!

Jocelyn said...

Ooh, Mama's Handiwork! The best possible present!!

Those kids do keep you on your toes, eh? Let's put it this way: they're keeping you young.

(personally, mine are aging me like crazy)

Hilary said...

The table cloth is lovely and I like your way of dealing with the decision of who gets what.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, Jeni. :)

terri said...

What a beautiful table cloth! No surprise there, though. You are very talented in the embroidery department!

Sounds like a great Christmas was in the works at your house! I'm sure the kids are happy campers by now.

Elk Lighting said...

I am glad you had a good Christmas, and wish you the best in2010