Last Minute.....

I'm not sure why I'm so last minute with everything, but it's just a fact of life.

I love celebrating the birth of Christ and all the excitement around surrounding him as He, the Savior of the World, God in human flesh, lay in a manger while angels were about announcing Him.   My prayer at Christmas this year is that all who hear of Him would come to know and worship Him.

This Christmas I'll have all my grandchildren at home!  Our newest grandson's stocking is now on the mantel and when the two coming from California get here, there will be ten hanging!  

I bought three new stocking hangers so I could hang them all!  I've moved them around this year to have the grandchildren's stockings use the gift holders.  They are such precious gifts!  

We have had many blessings this Christmas season.  One, which I'd like to tell you about is a neighbor coming to our rescue.  We have a pool in our backyard and a high privacy fence.  With all the oak leaves falling, our skimmer basket gets full quickly and I need to empty it several times a day.  Need to, not necessarily do.  I did, however, empty it the other day in between lots of errands.  That night, after I had my pajamas on and we were just laying in bed talking to one of our sons, the doorbell rang.  We all looked at each other wondering who would be at the door at such a late hour.  Finally I went tentatively to the door and cracked it open.  A man was standing there in the freezing cold with a hat and jacket on and at that time of night looked sort of ominous.  I said can I help you?  And by the way, wasn't that arrogant assuming that HE needed MY help???

He answered....I'm your neighbor, J.G.  I live behind you and I was outside and heard your pool making a really bad gurgling sound.  I immediately changed my whole demeanor and thanked him profusely as I was closing the door and hurrying out to check the problem.  The ONE time I cleaned the skimmer that day, the door had gotten stuck closed and the pool was sucking air (not sure that is the right way to say that....too technical for me).....my husband fixed it right away and I suddenly said our neighbor was kind enough to come out in the freezing cold to help us and we didn't even introduce ourselves!  I do plan to correct that by taking him a little treat.  They haven't lived there very long and I'm sure the reception from the neighbor in the pajamas gave him a warm, neighborly feeling!  

It's fun to drive through the neighborhood and see all the decorated houses.  Our's is a bit boring.  One of our neighbors has this Santa and Mrs. Clause in their yard.  The sunlight apparently washed Santa out!

I thought they were really cute!  The lady who lives here once asked me if I was a dog trainer as I was pulling my barking dogs down the street.  She had a wild little maltese.  I just said,  Mam, if I was a dog trainer, I sure wouldn't hire me!  I have the wildest dogs in the neighborhood.

And a sweet Christmas story.   The retirement center my mother lives in has a Christmas dinner each year and each resident can invite two people.  My husband and I went and had the pleasure of sitting with mama's best friend and her son and daughter in law.  Mama and her friend are both named Margaret and Margaret is so sweet to come read to our mama at night.  Mama's arms are so bad that she can't hold a book and turn the pages, but she's always loved to read.  We are thankful for our other Margaret!

Our other Margaret with her son and DIL.

Our Margaret with me and Russell.

A nice lunch with great company!

You may not hear from me much while the grands are here!