Merry, Merry Christmas!

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas;
Star and angels gave the sign.
~Christina Rossetti

What was I looking for?

I've spent much of the last three days cleaning the Ponderosa!  I've been a crazed woman cleaning windows, floors, the fridge, even washing some of the curtains.  I was feeling pretty good about this with the Ponderosa looking all shiny and smelling all clean, even bragging just a little at supper about how good it felt and looked.  I did this cleaning knowing full well that a bunch of people were going to be here tomorrow, some of them little and prone to making messes.  I also scrubbed the kitchen floor knowing full well that my husband would track something across it despite the rugs inside and outside the back door!  What I didn't know is that I would be the first to make a big mess!  My Aunt Sybil says, "there's nothing better than a good mess to clean up." Well, she should have been here tonight.  Here's what happened:
We are a little cramped for storage here on the Ponderosa. We need to declutter but even that might not solve our lack of storage space, therefore we are forced to use our back hallway for storing some essential items.  Here it is. . .

Here we have our drinks and a can to recycle cans, and as you can see the dog food.  The shelf on the right side of the wall holds various things that we hate to throw away but don't really have space to keep.  Don't judge you all have a place just like it!  It was to the shelf that I went to look for something.  I don't even remember now what it was.  The shelf is one of those places you seldom go, so I forget what is there and I got distracted by going through some box finding things I forgot about.
I must have turned or knocked against the shelf or maybe it was just unbalanced, but when I heard the noise I just ducked and covered my head with my arm. 
See that orange tub on the top shelf?  Inside that tub is a basket that was the container for a Christmas present from some of our friends.  It is left from last year.  Inside that basket is 84 million pieces of little red shredded paper that have been there since last Christmas. 
Remember that noise.  It was that tub falling. 

Now most of that 84 million pieces of shedded paper fell everywhere.  I walked away and went into the kitchen and another room to get my camera and a broom when I realized I was leaving a trail of paper behind me.  It had stuck to my hair and the back of my shirt and I tracked it all over the house!

So it wasn't small people or even the husband who made a mess on the clean Ponderosa, it was me! Just remember that pride goeth before a FALL and if someone gives you a Christmas present with 84 million pieces of shredded paper there is no need to save it, take it straight to the trash.

Now why was I looking on that shelf in the first place?

Our Tree

  We put out Christmas tree up today.  It made me remember a post I made on a school blog a few year ago.  The tree is in a different spot, but the story is the same!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

The Tree is Up!

For those of you who doubted--here it is. The tree is up. Some of my friends think I am a little scroogy about putting up the Christmas tree, and that I wait too long to get it in place. I think I even heard a discussion about someone coming to check and see if it was up and there were threats of a tree intervention, but today December 20th, it is ready. Now before some of you look at this picture and say, "Did they let the two year old do that?" Let me explain, we know that Martha Stewart would not approve of this tree, nothing matches and some might say it has crossed the line into tacky, but the tree tells a story, its full of things from the past. Things little girls once crafted and placed on the tree with pride. The little girls are grown and they have trees of their own but pieces of their childhood will always decorate mine. So let me give you the tour:

The Tree

In case you could not tell, this is baby Jesus made by a three year old at Sunday School. He has had a special place on our tree every year since!

This bear says DAD--he is a little roughed up, but don't he look just like Peanut?

Who doesn't have a glitter covered pine cone to adorn their tree. It must have super glue holding the glitter because it has lasted for a long time.

No tree would be complete without a star on the top, this one may be made from cardboard, but isn't it absolutely gorgeous?

We have some pictures from Christmas Past

And this lovely plastic ornament is all that is left from a tree 34 Christmases ago when a young couple could only afford a cedar tree they cut from the woods and some red glass balls and plastic ornaments from Big K.(Those of you old enough to remember this was the store that came to Cookeville and eventually became Walmart.)

Now What's On Your Tree?

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

These three are absolutely and for sure on the NICE List!

Let the Christmas Festivities Begin!

Yesterday we all got dressed up and headed out for some Christmas fun.

It was a great day with unusually warm weather for the Mount Juliet Christmas parade.

We found a good spot along the parade route and got busy waiting.

While we waited we had hot chocolate  provided to the crowds by several churches and my friend Kenzie got this great hat from one of the enterprising street vendors who had all sorts of things on their rolling carts.

She did not get to wear the hat very long because Brynn really liked the strings and ask to borrow it!  So, being the great older cousin that she is, Kenzie let Brynn wear the hat during the parade which caused many of the people in the parade to yell, "Look at that baby with the hat.  We thought she was a stuffed animal."
The Grand Marshall was country music star, Grethen Wilson.

"Hi, Grethen Wilson, we'll all here for the party!"

Many of the parade entries were throwing candy and Parker was ready to collect it.  (As a side note, my mom once got hit in the eye by candy being thrown in the Byrdstown Christmas Parade.  The mayor hit her, so we all know it can be dangerous when candy is flying around in a parade!)

Jay and Brooks helped out with the gathering when it required going very far into the street.
Brooks really liked the fire trucks old and new--the louder the better.  He starts jumping up and down and his arms and legs start flying when he sees them.

Every child along the parade route got a stuffed animal from one of the churches.

There were dogs in festive outfits.

There were snow fairies sprinkling snow and floats making a snow storm.

There were cute little gingerbread kids. (I hope that coffee doesn't keep them up.)

There were crazy girl scouts.  (Look at their sign.)

Brynn had all she could stand!

The Christian Bikers group roared by. (Please ignore the construction in the background of my photos.  It's hard to find a spot on Mt. Juliet Road that is not under construction in some way.  That building is going to be Parker's doctor's new office.)

The Chick-fil-a Cow had his own car.

Our old friend Snowbird was there.  We love snowbird!

Santa arrived in a wagon being pulled by a John Deere Tractor. Notice his relatives are traveling with him.  See that baby in a stroller, I wonder if that is Santa's great, great, great grand child!

"Wake up Brynn, Santa is here.  I think this might be important.  I'm staying up the whole time.  I don't want to miss anything in this parade!"

The horses are always at the end of the parade and these horses all had on cute Christmas socks.

Perfect weather for a great parade!  What fun we had, but now its time to go decorate the tree!