Bucket Listing!

 Every Christmas, my mom and my aunts would spend a day or two making perogies.  Tons and tons of them...Every surface in the kitchen was covered with either roasting pans (remember the blue/black ones with speckles?) full of perogies or perogies in process.

We were not allowed to eat them until Christmas eve!

Do you know how difficult it was to be an 8 year old carbohydrate addict knowing there were hundreds of perogies lurking somewhere in the house and/or garage?

I think I was more excited about the perogies than I was about the impending arrival of Santa!

Finally my mom and aunts would bring out the perogies and melted butter with onions, diced so tiny, floating in it.

We ate...and ate...and ate...I remember the butter dripping off the fork and onto the table.

I think I remember my eyes rolling back in my head in pure bliss.

Too soon, the table would be cleared so we could sing and dance...

And before we knew it, it was time to go home so Santa could come to bring gifts!

And then it was Christmas morning!

 "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" 

The gifts...yeah, they were cool...now on with breakfast!

Yes, Christmas morning breakfast was leftover perogies with that magical butter...

What memories.  No wonder I was a fat kid!

Why am I talking about this today?

Because I was blog surfing, following links when I came upon this...

The world's largest perogy in Glendon, Alberta Canada

 (population 493 give or take)!

Every year they have a perogy festival that doubles the population of the town for a day...

It's on my bucket list!

Short and Sweet!

I can't believe that Christmas is almost here.

I've been busy, had to take mom to the oncologist

(where Teagan and Locklan entertained everyone in the waiting room).

Mom had been complaining about feeling drained and fuzzy headed.

She chalked it up to being 88.

Her doctor sent her to the hospital for a blood transfusion!

They gave her 2 units of blood and she says she feel like a new, 88 year old, woman!

I still can't get around very well, but it's so much better than if was 4 or 5 months ago.

I downsized my decorating...

Went from 5 trees to two, one inside, one outside...

The inside tree has been decorated, undecorated and redecorated several times...

I let the kids do it!

A couple of years ago, I bought a Tree Dazzler after Christmas for $5

and promptly forgot about it.

I found it this week and got it out for the kids...

They decided it was more fun to decorate themselves...

Kids!

We took the kids to the mall, just to walk by Santa.  

Locklan actually talked to him, from a distance.

Teagan just screamed!

I had some shopping to do, but to leave the mall, we had to walk past Santa.

He saw us and waved and said bye bye.

Teagan waved and said bye to him.

The next day, she pointed to a picture of Santa and said Santa!

I asked her what Santa said.

Her answer:  Bye bye!

I'm done shopping but have not begun to wrap...

I had one snafu...

I bought a gift for Ashley from Amazon...

I checked online and it said it had been delivered to my mailbox!

I sent Mr. K out to retrieve it.

It was not there!

Amazon's web site said to give it 48 hours...

I did, still no gift.

I called Amazon, talked to a robot who authorized a refund on my credit card.

I reordered it.

It came in two days

The original came two days after that, 

The envelope had been torn open, wrapped in packing tape

and held together with a rubber band!

Someone opened it (hopefully by mistake)

and decided I deserved it.

I think I have as many returns as I do gifts!

Tonight we're going to a party at Mark's nephew's house.

I feel so blessed that the family still includes me.

Now I have to find an ugly Christmas sweater!

Wow, guess this isn't all that short.

Hope it was sweet!

Thinking Back

I think it's a well known fact, 

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

I love thinking about Christmas...

Thinking about Christmas...

Planning for Christmas...

And I love looking at pictures of my family at Christmas...

So bear with me while I share a few of my favorites...

Weren't Michael and Vicky cute?

No date on this, I'm thinking about 1973

Hard to believe, Christmas 1988.

I set this up and took the photo while Mark was at work.

Hard to believe, we survived!

Same year, Tony was a little uninspired...

The year Michael got JR a coon skin cap!

I'm sure I have more...

~sigh~

I love Christmas!

I'll Buy My Own

Came across this on Facebook...

I don't know if I ever shared it or not, but I insisted my boys 

let me pretend that they weren't pretending to believe in Santa until they were...

Probably in junior high!

Seriously!

Well maybe not junior high...

But a long time!

We had a  Christmas Eve routine, Mark would read them a Christmas Story and then

as soon as I heard them all snoring, I would go back downstairs and do my 

Santa Magic.

Santa, the elves and occasionally the reindeer would get into mischief

of some kind, write a letter to the kids and drop off presents.

One year Santa snuck into the bedrooms and sprinkled sleepy dust on everyone.

Mark had a tough time forgiving me for the glitter that lingered for months!

One year the boys took so long to fall asleep that the reindeer got into a food fight on the front porch...

Yes, I threw grated carrots all over the front porch...

I still wonder what the passing car driver thought as I put on Mark's size 13 boots and made footprints in the new snow on the porch roof!

The letters were always the last thing I did (at 3AM) before heading to bed...

Just a recap of the year...a reminder to keep their rooms tidy...

Now there are grand kids.  

I can sleep on Christmas Eve,

and let my kids work Santa Magic...

I got off easy, now there is Elf on the Shelf...

I only had to do one night...

As far as believing...

Even though I know that Jesus is the reason for the season...

I'll still buy my own underwear

More Christmas?

Because I want to share this with you,

 and because I never want to forget how much I loved this Christmas...

Here are a few more photos of nothing at all...

 

Even though I swore that ten was enough,

I wanted to share my one of my favorite Christmas projects with special people...

 

 

So I made two more table runners, one for Noelle,

one for her mother and grandmother.

 

 

When I bought these dumb lights last summer, I had no clue what to do with them...

 

Laser lights!  What fun!

 

 

 

I'm going to miss this guy peeking in the French doors from the back patio.

 I might try to persuade Ron to leave him up all year...

 

 

 

And last for today, this guy driving around out town with a fully decorated

 Christmas tree in the bed of his pick up truck!

 

 

Winnie (Tony's basset hound) came to spend Christmas with us.

Linda was soooo excited!

 

 

But first, Winnie had to get pretty...

doesn't she look happy?

 

 

Christmas morning, I looked out my window to see Vicky and Jamie arriving in their pick up with a very strange contraption sticking out of the back...

 

Jamie and Andy went to the back yard and began digging a hole to plant it...

 

 

Nope, not a clothes line pole, but a very sophisticated hanger for my bird feeders!

 

 

If you look carefully, you can see that there are four arms extending from the top.

This thing is so cool, I will have to brave the cold and get better photos.

 

There are cables and pulleys to lower them to fill them! 

 

 

Jamie does bang-up work.  This thing is a work of art!

 

(I'll have to tell you later about the bird feeder fiasco...

I think the squirrels are going to stage a revolt!)

 

I'm not going to list gifts, just the highlights...

 

Andy and Ashley came with a new bird feeder and books...

 

Ron came through with bird books...

 

 

 

Tony and Noelle gave me a candle with a ring inside.  You are supposed to burn the candle and expose the ring...NOT dig in the soft wax with a sea food fork...Tony!
 

 

After riding my bike in Pittsburgh with Andy and Tony, I said what I really wanted was a really cool vintage bike. 

 

Andy brought me the start of my dream bike...

 

Ashley and Andy gave Tony the ugliest uncle t-shirt ever!

 

 

 

Andy Tony and Noelle want to go to Florida, so they got sunglasses!!!

 

 

After a (much needed) nap, we went to visit Ron's youngest son and his family...

 

 

Where I got to visit my BFF, Nancy...

 

 

 

We played games and laughed until my I couldn't catch my breath...

 

 

~sigh~

 

Did I ever tell you how much I love Christmas???

 

I'm sure there is more...and when I think of it (even if it is in March), I'll share!

Love,

Jan

 

I Took a Break

I was busily at work in my sewing room when  I had the urge to stretch my legs a bit...

 

I went downstairs, singing Christmas carols when I realized Mr. K was on a conference call in his office

(and he didn't close the door). 

 I headed for the kitchen, my head spinning with all the things I NEED to do,

all the other things I WOULD LIKE to do..

 

Next thing I knew, I was cleaning the garage...go figure!

 

While my body was busy, my mind wandered...

 

I love Christmas!  I have such wonderful memories...

 

So I came upstairs to find Christmas pictures.

 

Not a bunch, but the few I had on my desk top...

 

Want to see?

 

 

 

 

 

There are tons more...

 

I'll dig them up one of these days...

 

Now, smile at me and tell me to get back to work!