Oh, the holidays!

The holidays rolled through here like a giant snowball headed off a mountainside. It takes a minute to get the big boy started but once it gets going, then gains momentum, no one can get out of it's way. And it's always this time of year that I start thinking about how next year "It's all going to be different." Next year, I will have everything become a magical, winter wonderland. I will have my upstairs transformed into Christmas world with decorated trees in every corner. I will have a return of my weird, homemade Santa dummy who stands behind the door to scare the bejebus out of people entering Christmas world not expecting to have Santa get the jump on them. And speaking of tricks. I do believe we need more Christmas pranks. I'm going to work on that too. And then I want to extend a light show out into the Fuzzy Border area of our farm so that we can all go walking in a winter wonderland. And my family is getting a handmade gift! And I want to start working more toward world peace. How's that for a big dream?  I love Christmas and that is a big statement for me as I use to hate it. Can you believe that I actually hated Christmas? Why...you may ask yourself.. why would anyone hate Christmas? Well I think that attitude has it's root in my teen years when my mother gave me a Monopoly game. I knew it was all over when I tore into that package and came up with a board game. My mother could create Christmas magic like nobody's business and she gave me Monopoly and the magic was dead to me. And when I got a house and family of my own, I tried but feel that I miserably failed my children in the magic department. My grandmother Stevens started in September getting her Christmas program organized. And Mom would shop for gifts and put them in lay away and be ready to wow us all on Christmas morning and all I did was worry about spending too much money.  How dumb is that? I could have been pranking and making homemade crafts with those kids and now they are grown. Two years ago, I made a weird santa with a milk jug, a cut out magazine face and Goodwill red clothes...a cheap thrill Santa. And when the kids came around the door and saw him looking over their shoulder....Christmas mayhem! Ok, as long as there is life there is hope so a plan is now being hatched. Christmas 2010 is going to rock their world. Hide and watch!