Illinoismom

I have never had a problem with any of my dogs or cats bothering my trees or anything else weird I know, My kids have been really good about not touching my things. We had one accident once and that was when my oldest was showing her brother one of my snow globes and it slipped and broke. Needless to say she never touched anything again, Ive always put things low that don't break when they were really little and the novelty wore off. They are use to it, It takes me about 2.5-3 weeks to put it all up inside and 2 days to take it down. I wont let them help me, I am afraid that they will not be as careful with my things. I just hope that one out of the 4 has my passion for Christmas and decorating. Sad note my fiber optic Angel died this morning and there is no reviving her so now I have a tree with no topper.

I have some DVD to get that have not come out yet, And waiting till Pay day to pick my hubby up some stuff, ) slippers pj bottoms and stuff like that, I need a few stocking stuffers for the older ones

I like them all, If I had to pick it would be hard

Finally the tree has been put up, I want to say I had so much fun building this site that I may added Christmas morning pictures. This has been fun

I can relate I bought a wooden really cute arch there 2 years ago, Had it up a day and it broke into three pieces, My husband tried to fix it and after Christmas it went in the trash. Wasted 40.00 bucks on that. Ive never bought Christmas stuff there again

can not wait to see pictures

I must be odd, I truely love my Inlaws, and at times we could not have made it with out them, They are great people opiniated and all, I was truely upset when my Father in law decided to travel from Nov through April and take my Motherinlaw away through most of the Holiday's but hey thats what they worked all their life for and my Fatherinlaw doesnt believe in Holiday's feels its a waste of money but I can deal with that. Now several years ago I tried to have my husband make amends with his father ( Not my Fatherinlaw) thats who my Husband considers dad) When we had our first child I sent pictures because I felt he had a right to know he was a grandfather. Well his new wife and I did this for several years, Then I told her we were moveing up here and he called my husband and that was strange this is a man my husband had not seen since he was 9 we met them in a resturant ( once) he told me husband he wanted to make amends and be part of the family and get to know him and his grandkids, Well it never happened, another empty promise as my husband called it. Several years ago he had a heart attack, and my husband was summoned to the hospital as he is his only son, he has step children but my husband was his only flesh, I stayed in the background and let my husband weed through his feeling, Sad thing was there was none their laid a man he didnt know. ( he was in a Coma so he was unaware) But my husband made peace with himself that day and never looked back. When his Father died we went to the funerual but I am not sure why, Other then my husband could have closure. If I had known more then I did I would have left that sleeping dog lie, They told my husband, His fathers wife and step kids that there were things that his father had wanted him to have and to this day we have never seen them. I do have to admit my husband tried to mend that bridge but it had been broken too long

Pasta is good for feeding a large family Here is a good websire for feeding a large group of people http://www.angelfire.com/bc/incredible/Servesfiftyindex.html http://www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_4/tklcc.html These may help you alot

No I wouldnt, See if it was me I would bake them cookies and bring them each a tin of cookies,

Okay you want my advice, I have a SIL just like that, Who by the way has decided I canceled Christmas because my MIL and FIL went to Texas. Which I would never do as they are not the reason we do Christmas Eve. Since they only called you Yesterday I would tell them point blank we would love to come but it's so late in the game that no one told us about any gift exchange, I have already gotten for the nieces and Nephews and spent my budget, If we must gift exchange if thats what you really want to do, We will have to decline the 50.00 per person as we really do not need anything. And prefer you take what you would have spent on us and use it for something you all need.

I beleive she doesn't celebrate it, her father in law does, as he is not Jewish, In the Jewish tradition if the marriage is of mixed faith, they follow the Mother, In this case Pam is Jewish.

Calamari we all love this including the lil one, Oysters, clams, and one year I made a 7 fish lasagna, Yuppers even down to the anchovies

We do the Italian tradition Christmas eve, which is no meat, Since all my husbands family is not coming, Inlaws are traveling and see the west, and my SIL assumed because they were not coming that I cancelled Christmas, Yeah okay me cancel Christmas, so since it will be just the 6 of us and my neighbor and her kids, I may do something a little bet different with more seafood and less pasta but I havent thought that far

Okay I made my list, If I can get the scanner to work I will post recipes, 1. Chocolate Reindeer 2. Egg nog cut outs,3. Christmas Candy cookies, 4. Cinnamon suger cookies, 5. Peppermint cookies, 6. cherry snowball 7. mini chip snowball 8. milk chocolate florentine, 9 pumpkin spice iced cookies, 10. chocolate chip peanutbutter bars,11 Chocolate mint pinwheels, 12 colorful cookie buttons, 13 applesauce raisin chews, 14 honey chocolate chippers, 15 black and white hearts 16 chocolate cherry cookies, 17 pumpkin white chocolate drops 18 chocolate chip macroons, 19 chocolate cheeseckae bites 20 kiddy pop ornaments 21 philadelphia snowman 22 oatmeal toffee cookie 23 double peanut butter cookies 24 reeses chewy chocolate 25 holiday min kisses treasure cookies, 26 mexican wedding cakes, 27 cream cheese sugar cookies, 28 chocolate pixes, 29 reg sugar cookie cutouts, 30 spitz cookies Now mind you I bake and give gifts to the corporate office of the company I work for, the Police department, the school bus drivers, the teachers and the dance teachers, and the children in her troupe at the dance school.

I will sit down tonight and go through all the cookies books I have about 20 of them and I will post the ones I use every year and the new one I will be making this year.

We have a magic key so Santa can not be locked out, Ive done all this, My dad who lives in Florida, has been used many times as the voice of Santa, My kids do not get to talk or see him often so that works great. One of the ladies I work with who is in Indiana has her elderly residents write Santa letters every year and my 10 year old is waiting her letter from her elf Cookie. Now when my 7 year old would not potty train at 3 I had enough, He told me all the things he wanted for Christmas and they were some neat big boy toys, Well I told him I was calling Santa and if he wouldnt use the potty and wanted to be a baby then I would instruct Santa that he only needed baby toys, I made that phone call and spoke with Santa then he spoke with Santa and with in 3 days I no longer had a 3 year old in diapers. When we went to the mall to see Santa's helper he couldnt wait to tell him he was a big boy now. As far as presents when I used to put all the boxes under the tree wrapped my kids wanted to know how come Santa and I have the same paper. I said Oh didnt you know he sent his elves in early on Christmas Eve to pick up the wrapped boxes then Santa would use his magic to fill them, This saved time on Santa having to wrap.

Between the outside and the inside it takes up half my attic, My husband swears it doubles every year

I've added more, I need to fix some photo's and still not done in the living room, I swear I need a new hobby, looking at all those photo's I have way to much stuff

Those are wonderful looking, you have some talent there, wish I could say that

I feel your pain, My son last year wouldnt listen about putting it away, and some how in his bad luck he stepped on it, I didnt feel too bad as I bought that one second hand, Well Santa Suprised him with a new one last Christmas and I can tell you he is very very careful for a 7 year old with that one,

There was a pretty dress in red at Walmart that I was thing of getting mine for her program

we make sugar cookies, Oatmeal, Eggnog Cream cheese, Toffee, Heath, Choc. Chip. Peanutbutter, white cookie, Finger prints, cookies with herasey kisses on them,. Heck I make so many I forget, Spritz cookies

Always believe in MIRACLES!! Three years ago, a little boy and his grandmother came to see Santa at Mayfair Mall in Wisconsin. The child climbed up on his lap, holding a picture of a little girl. "Who is this?" asked Santa, smiling. "Your friend? Your sister?" "Yes, Santa," he replied. "My sister, Sarah, who is very sick," he said sadly. Santa glanced over at the grandmother who was waiting nearby, and saw her dabbing her eyes with a tissue. "She wanted to come with me to see you, oh, so very much, Santa!" the child exclaimed. "She misses you," he added softly. Santa tried to be cheerful and encouraged a smile to the boy's face, asking him what he wanted Santa to bring him for Christmas. When they finished their visit, the Grandmother came over to help the child off his lap, and started to say something to Santa, but halted. "What is it?" Santa asked warmly. "Well, I know it's really too much to ask you, Santa, but .." the old woman began, shooing her grandson over to one of Santa's elves to collect the little gift which Santa gave all his young visitors. "The girl in the photograph... my granddaughter well, you see ... she has leukemia and isn't expected to make it even through the holidays," she said through tear-filled eyes. "Is there any way, Santa . any possible way that you could come see Sarah? That's all she's asked for, for Christmas, is to see Santa." Santa blinked and swallowed hard and told the woman to leave information with his elves as to where Sarah was, and he would see what he could do. Santa thought of little else the rest of that afternoon. He knew what he had to do. "What if it were MY child lying in that hospital bed, dying," he thought with a sinking heart, "this is the least I can do." When Santa finished visiting with all the boys and girls that evening, he retrieved from his helper the name of the hospital where Sarah was staying. He asked the assistant location manager how to get to Children's Hospital. "Why?" Rick asked, with a puzzled look on his face. Santa relayed to him the conversation with Sarah's grandmother earlier that day. "C'mon.... I'll take you there," Rick said softly. Rick drove them to the hospital and came inside with Santa. They found out which room Sarah was in. A pale Rick said he would wait out in the hall. Santa quietly peeked into the room through the half-closed door and saw little Sarah on the bed. The room was full of what appeared to be her family; there was the Grandmother and the girl's brother he had met earlier that day. A woman whom he guessed was Sarah's mother stood by the bed, gently pushing Sarah's thin hair off her forehead. And another woman who he discovered later was Sarah's aunt, sat in a chair near the bed with weary, sad look on her face. They were talking quietly, and Santa could sense the warmth and closeness of the family, and their love and concern for Sarah. Taking a deep breath, and forcing a smile on his face, Santa entered the room, bellowing a hearty, "Ho, ho, ho!" "Santa!" shrieked little Sarah weakly, as she tried to escape her bed to run to him, IVtubes in tact. Santa rushed to her side and gave her a warm hug. A child the tender age of his own son -- 9 years old - - gazed up at him with wonder and excitement. Her skin was pale and her short tresses bore telltale bald patches from the effects of chemotherapy. But all he saw when he looked at her was a pair of huge, blue eyes. His heart melted, and he had to force himself to choke back tears. Though his eyes were riveted upon Sarah's face, he could hear the gasps and quiet sobbing of the women in the room. As he and Sarah began talking, the family crept quietly to the bedside one by one, squeezing Santa's shoulder or his hand gratefully, whispering "thank you" as they gazed sincerely at him with shining eyes. Santa and Sarah talked and talked, and she told him excitedly all the toys she wanted for Christmas, assuring him she'd been a very good girl that year. As their time together dwindled, Santa felt led in his spirit to pray for Sarah, and asked for permission from the girl's mother. She nodded in agreement and the entire family circled around Sarah's bed, holding hands. Santa looked intensely at Sarah and asked her if she believed in angels. "Oh, yes, Santa... I do!" she exclaimed. "Well, I'm going to ask that angels watch over you, "he said. Laying one hand on the child's head, Santa closed his eyes and prayed. He asked that God touch little Sarah, and heal her body from this disease. He asked that angels minister to her, watch and keep her. And when he finished praying, still with eyes closed, he started singing softly, "Silent Night, Holy Night.... all is calm, all is bright." The family joined in, still holding hands, smiling at Sarah, and crying tears of hope, tears of joy for this moment, as Sarah beamed at them all. When the song ended, Santa sat on the side of the bed again and held Sarah's frail, small hands in his own. "Now, Sarah, "he said authoritatively, "you have a job to do, and that is to concentrate on getting well. I want you to have fun playing with your friends this summer, and I expect to see you at my house at Mayfair Mall this time next year!" He knew it was risky proclaiming that, to this little girl who had terminal cancer, but he "had" to. He had to give her the greatest gift he could -- not dolls or games or toys -- but the gift of HOPE. "Yes, Santa! "Sarah exclaimed, her eyes bright. He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead and left the room. Out in the hall, the minute Santa's eyes met Rick's, a look passed between them and they wept unashamed. Sarah's mother and grandmother slipped out of the room quicklyand rushed to Santa's side to thank him. "My only child is the same age as Sarah," he explained quietly. "This is the least I could do." They nodded with understanding and hugged him. One year later, Santa Mark was again back on the set in Milwaukee for his six-week, seasonal job which he so loves to do. Several weeks went by and then one day a child came up to sit on his lap. "Hi, Santa! Remember me?!" "Of course, I do," Santa proclaimed (as he always does), smiling down at her. After all, the secret to being a "good" Santa is to always make each child feel as if they are the "only" child in the world at that moment. "You came to see me in the hospital last year!" Santa's jaw dropped. Tears immediately sprang in his eyes, and he grabbed this little miracle and held her to his chest. "Sarah!" he exclaimed. He scarcely recognized her,for her hair was long and silky and her cheeks were rosy -- much different from the little girl he had visited just a year before. He looked over and saw Sarah's mother and grandmother in the sidelines smiling and waving and wiping their eyes. That was the best Christmas ever for Santa Claus. He had witnessed --and been blessed to be instrumental in bringing about -- this miracle of hope. This precious little child was healed. Cancer-free. Alive and well. He silently looked up to Heaven and humbly whispered, "Thank you, Father. 'Tis a very, Merry Christmas!

Go to work, then taxi children places, wrestling starts today for the 7 year old. I need to bake, just can not seem to get the mind set to do it, But promised my daughter at pudue cookies for finals. Need to finish cleaning the living room and finish decorating that room, so that all that needs to be done is the tree, And then we need to go get that. Get Layaways out of Walmart. Nothing to bad just not enough time in the day for me

My two cats do not seem to mind, they have no problems leaving things alone