Yeah for HAPPPPPPY HOLLY DAYS!!!

So for several months, I looked forward to Christmas. The kids were going to be here even if JW wasn't going to make it home for the holiday (the only silver lining on the dark cloud of the mine in Nome shutting down is he got to come home. I spent way too much money on some new decorations. Bought a new tree for the "man cave" so I could put a bigger one upstairs in the living room - one that I could put more presents under. Bought a little white flocked tree to put in the girl's bedroom. I even scooped up some frozen deer poop in a plastic bag and sprinkled in a little red glitter so we could leave it as evidence that Santa had been there. Broke down and bought Christmas dishes, silverware and napkins that I had wanted for years. Bought special Christmas mugs for the girls to drink from and some cheapy ornaments so I could put them on a tree out on the front deck.

Even Tinkerbell loved the upstairs Christmas tree and is finally getting a little used to the girls. For the first time, she did not hide in a dark hole in the basement all day while they were here.

I bought too many things for my favorite little girls - so many in fact that a few days before Christmas, I hid a couple of presents deciding to wait for Easter to give them some pink building things - similar to tinker toys. I arranged for a flight for number one child so she could spend Christmas with us for a change. I bought socks, socks and more socks since that is tradition - everyone gets socks for Christmas.

I cooked and cooked and cooked - way too many cookies and every kind I made, I had to make a few and bake them before I added nuts since youngest granddaughter is very allergic to nuts. Then I added nuts and baked more. I made caramels (with and without nuts) and some dipped in chocolate. I made fudge and spiced pecans and chocolate covered cherrys. Terrible thing is that I'm the one with the major sweet tooth - I think everyone else would have been just as happy if I had only baked a little.

We made tamales and after the girls got here, we made sugar cookies and decorated them so we could leave some for Santa. They helped mix the dough, cut the dough and then decorated. Jules had to do more than her half of the decorating, because Madison like to put lots and lots of blue sugar on her cookies - she says purple is her favorite color but I think she really prefers blue.

The girls got to spend some time sledding down the hill along the side of the house. But when they returned Christmas eve, the wind had blew all the snow away or into big drifts. So Christmas morning, they tried to sled down a big drift in the front yard. It was a short trip and Jules kept heading into the tree.

The day after Christmas, Nana and Tata hike out back to the other side of the hill to find a place for sledding. It was a little windy and awfully cold out. But, we found a perfect place and came back to get the rest of the family. We then all hiked out across the hill and spent the morning sledding down the hill. Even this old lady went down the hill twice. First time I've ever really sledded. I've secretly been wanting to go back out there and can almost guarantee that if we get another nice snow, I'm going to sneak out back and spend some time on that hill. At least back there, no one could see me.

Saturday evening, we took a lot of photos of the family. Wanted at least one decent picture (considering the subjects) of the whole group since it's been so long since we've all been together here at "my" house. We also decided that next year, we're going to go back to doing charity gifts instead of buying for the adults in the family. Even got the son to agree to that. However, the sock fairy is not happy that I've been told I cannot even buy socks and I cannot buy Happy Thanksgiving socks or Happy New Year socks.

Next year, Christmas is going to be very quiet wherever we are since we have to let the grandkids spend the holiday with their Grama Toni. But we are planning to all meet together in 2010 for another holiday (but I'm thinking less candy and cookies the next time around.

Not sure what new adventures await us this year. But whatever happens it will be okay. JW is applying for every job he thinks he would qualify for. We probably won't jump into moving somewhere until he works there a while and it looks like something that will last. The house is still up for sale and if someone snaps it up this summer, then we'll have to decide where to go. But until that day, we continue to work on the house and enjoy life here on the crick.