And so I'm offering this simple phrase....

 for kids from 1 to 92...

Although it's been said...many times, many ways....

MERRY CHRISTMAS to YOU!

Happy Birthday to me...

A couple of days ago, I went and bought a small fake tree. Yes.  I just did it.  It was cheap, and I couldn't stand the thought of not having any tree at all.  So up went our little table top tree...with a special something underneath.  You see, at thanksgiving I grabbed a couple of boxes out of the storage unit that I thought were fabric, but were totally something else.  It was some sewing supplies other "stuff" and at the bottom was my teddy bear.  Tears kinda came up as I looked at my rag-0-muffin bear that has been through thick and thin with me, and then stuffed carelessly into the bottom of a box as if it were part of the packing material instead of something worth keeping.

just like this one...only green

 I started thinking about my toys.  Everyone always asks me if I hate having a birthday so close to Christmas...the answer?  not really.  If my birthday is on a Saturday, then Christmas and New years are all on Saturday.  That means 3 weeks of total fun.  On the other hand, my mom was usually a little overwhelmed by the whole thing by the time my birthday rolled into town. So a lot of times it would be, "for your birthday, you can open one of your Christmas presents early"....Great, thanks.  But really, it didn't matter that much.  Christmas is a pretty magical time, and to be linked at all with it, as a kid, was good.  I do have one memory, really very few stand out, but one does.  It was one of those years of opening a present early...it was a Barbie doll case.  It was bright green and round, and it had that wonderful smell.  Anyone who has had Barbie dolls or new plastic toys knows that smell I'm talking about. It is such a good, I don't know...plastic smell!  I can't describe it.  It's like new car smell for kids!  I was over the moon about my empty Barbie doll case.  I crawled under the Christmas tree with my case...and opened the zipper and breathed in the beautiful new plastic smell.  Then I looked up into the middle of the tree.

The colored lights spoke to me...I squinted my eyes so that all the colors melted together and glowed. I laid there for a couple of hours dreaming and squinting at the lights.   That's it.  The whole memory.  Me under the tree squinting and smelling my plastic.






We did have a Barbie...honestly I don't know if it came before or after the case...it was awesome either way.  She had big blue eyeshadow and I'm pretty sure was just like this one:

non-bendable...totally cool.

 Later we added a "Midge" doll and lots of other Barbies that were the new and improved bendable leg ones.  Then came the "Little Kiddles" Now there was some serious fun.  I collected tons of them and even threw in a martian thingy-doll just to spice the collection up.  (Years later, when I was leaving home, I packed the whole Kit and Kaboodle up and gave it all to my nieces to continue on with.

So this week I have been staring up into my small little table top tree, squinting my eyes.  Apologizing to my teddy bear for throwing him unceremoniously into a box of stuff....and dreaming of new toys.
Oh...and by the way...Christmas and New Years are on Saturday this year....I know that just because.

Old Dog....new Trick

picture day 1970....not a good hair day.

Let's be clear.  I have pretty much had long hair my whole life...I mean my whole life. OK except that one time that I got it cut in the sixth grade, (ya...I wasn't happy about it either)




 But, I learn from my mistakes and never went down that road again.  I have cut it a few times throughout the years, but always kept it at least to my shoulders.  I must admit that my problem has always been how to "do my hair....you know like in a "do".  I have problem hair.  It waves in all the wrong places...it waves more underneath than on top, and more at the roots, then goes straight at the ends.  I mean what's a girl to do?  And there is just no "letting it go"  I mean if I let it go then I start to look like...

Like I said....there is no "letting it go".  the end.

So recently, I went home for a quick fix at Kindle's Salon.  (isn't it ironic that Kindle is my daughter?  I know, right!?)  She makes sure I have a great cut and color and generally uses smoke and mirrors and lots of wax to make sure that the "Dude looks like a lady"...if you know what I mean.  

Side note-

Getting eyebrows, mustache,(or Mrs.stache...) and nose hair waxed is just the worst pain ever...but, and it's a big BUT...it makes you feel like you've had a face lift.  FOR REAL!  One of our favorite family activities is WAX all around for everyone!  (except the boys always cry...you know who you are...)

So this last visit to the salon, I told Kindle how frustrating it is after she makes my hair look so good, that within 24 hours I look like 1980 all over again.  I can never make it do the same thing she makes it do.  She has shown me a hundred times how to blow it dry, always with her doing it and explaining how to do it.  This time I suggested that I do it and she could move my hands to make it right... This is how it went:

Me-  "Kindle, I can't do this... "

Kindle- "Mom, I've shown you a thousand times..."

Me- "I know, but I can't hold the blow dryer over my head that long...."

Kindle- " It doesn't take as long as holding the curling iron (which incidentally makes you look like 1980...)"

Me-  "But I can't keep the wet hair separate from the dry hair...."

Kindle- "Mom!  They are all going to the same place!  All the hair is going to DRY LAND!  just quit worrying about it!....No, no, no, the brush in your right hand the blow dryer in your left..."

well before you know it.... voila!  My life has been transformed! 

Now just look at me go...

 It only took me 50 years to finally figure it out....

I know what you're thinking....

But it's the little successes in life that keep me going...you know?

What Shall We Give?

What shall we give to the babe in the manger? What shall we offer the child in the stall? Incense and spices and gold we've aplenty. Are these the gifts for the king of us all? What shall we give to the boy in the temple? What shall we offer the man by the sea? Palms at his feet and hosannas uprising, Are these for him who will carry the tree? What shall we give to the man who was offered, Rising the third day and shedding his love? Tears for his mercy we'll weep at the manger, Bathing the infant come down from above.

LET THE FUN BEGIN!

 DECEMBER IS HERE!

OH-OH-OH HOW I LOVE ALL MY SWEETS!