Christmas part 1

We'll start with Christmas. I worked until about 4 or so Christmas Eve. That wasn't the plan, but it is amazing how many husbands put off shopping for their beloveds till then! At 3 p.m., when I had intended on closing I had a guy rush in and buy a 215 dollar purse for his wife! That's cutting it close on the big gift! I can understand coming in for a few stocking stuffers or a bar of soap to beef up the pile, but a $215 gift at the last minute??? Thom was there with the kids when the guy came in and had to clamp his hand over Jedd's mouth and physically remove him to the back room because when I told the man his total Jedd started in awe, "How much did she say that was?!"

The candlelight service at church that evening was lovely and tear-moving. Then home to finish wrapping and stuffing stockings. Emma and Jedd had theirs hung by the chimney with care. Annie couldn't find hers so had a pillowcase hanging off a chair arm. But with care.

Our tradition in the morning is to come down and light a fire and make coffee. We light some candles and the kids can come down around 7. Somehow Jedd messed up the setting of his alarm clock and at 6 a.m. music started screaming loud enough that it brought to mind the army's trick of blasting the enemy out of their holes with mega-speakers blowing hard rock at them. Thom and I were up. Somehow the kids went back to sleep. (in fact I don't think Emma budged)

7 a.m. they all giggled their way down, and lumped onto the sofa. I handed round stockings and they dug in. This was an Edmunds Scientific year so they were filled with hand boilers and exploding rocks and electicity globes. Good fun for all. Per tradition in the Huntington family, after stockings Thom read the Christmas Story from a padded book I bought when the twins were toddlers. The one year I couldn't locate the book it was a great disappointment. It's funny how much small things mean to kids. We still read the story from a bible, but it wasn't the same.

What a lovely day. Thom's dad and sister came over and the Howard family and the Ballengers joined us as well. I love a full house on a holiday. Food every where. Kids jumping on the trampoline. Oh... yeah, we surprised the kids with one of those. And I can attest to the fact that 17 years old is not to old for jumping! I can also say 46 year olds can jump but not as gracefully.

Happy New Year!

We're home from Vermont. No exclamation point. I'm glad to see Annie and Thom, who stayed behind, but I miss the 3 feet of snow and the mother's cozy house and the sister and brother and aunt and uncle and nieces and nephew. Isn't it curious, as I look back on that sentence, that I put snow before family? That deserves an exclamation!
I haven't opened the store since Christmas Eve. I have no intention of opening today. I do think I'll go in and start red-lining for a huge sale starting next Tuesday.
There are lots of vermont photos to upload and stories to tell. But I'll save them for Monday. I just wanted to check in today. There's a tree to be undressed and tossed. SO MUCH LAUNDRY to be washed, dried and put away. Cupboards are bare and need to be restocked. I'm home. Much as I love Vermont, I know I will settle into my routine happily once I'm settled.
Happy New Year!

Blog Vacation

As much as it pains me, and it really does, I'm taking a short break from my blog world. I have come to realize that I am addicted to my laptop once on it. I need to concentrate on home right now to keep the Holiday stresses at bay by getting my housework/family chores done. I am the great procrastinator, and happily shove everything to a later day without pause.
There are now curtains to be hung in Jedd's room, bookshelves to be filled in the stairway and a dog who desires to be walked daily. I have put these things off with glee to be popping from blog to blog. But I'll be back in the new year. I love checking in on all of you and seeing what's new in your lives. Don't forget me okay? It's simply two short weeks:)!
So... Merry Christmas All!......may Jesus fill your heart this season....

Winterthur anyone?

Good Day!
Well, it's going to be in the 60's today...60's! What a silly weather for December. I'm going to throw open the shop door and glory in it. Annie's working today for Anne, so Jedd is coming to work with me. It'll be hard to live up to the day his sister gave him yesterday, schooling on the shed roof with hot cocoa, but I think I'm going to come up with chores so he can earn Christmas cash.
Tomorrow is my day off and I plan on keeping Emma home from school and having a play day with the kids. Gift shopping, movie, lunch out. You get the idea. I thought about a field trip to Baltimore or Washington, but I don't want to deal with the crowds... I thought about taking them to Winterthur, but I don't know how enjoyable that would be for any of us with Jedd along. He is all boy and hates things like that. Gardens and pretty houses? No, not so much.
If you've any day trip ideas, please send them along...What do you think? Should I force the boy to Winterthur? Does anyone else want to join us in that trip if we do it?

Burnt Fingers and Aching Backs or The Joys of Christmas Preparations

I have spent the last half hour wrapping gifts. It must be done craftily (by that I mean sneakily,not martha stewart style) obviously, with an 11 year old bursting with curiosity lurking in the corners. He is the most unusual kid in that he will sleep like a teenager...till 10 if I let him go. When I was his age I was up early looking for peep frogs outdoors or whatever. So, this is my time to wrap. I bring it all down to the kitchen table and spread out, after Emma leaves for school and before the other two awake.
I was at a get-together last night for the women merchants of downtown Cambridge and the hostess was surprised when I told her I used to have it all wrapped by Thanksgiving night. There were a few years there when the kids were little when Thom and Damien would take the kids to the movies on Thanksgiving night and I would stay home and wrap to my heart's content and my back's despair. My hostess said she always waited till Christmas Eve to wrap all the gifts and decorate the tree. HUH! Talk about putting some pressure on one's self! I would be the ghastliest human on earth that night if I did that!
Right now I think the pressure is too great on Jedd as it is. He's wondering where the gifts are hidden this year. I did change the location. How does he know? Has he been peeking when Emma is at school and Thom, Annie and I are all at work? There aren't many times he's totally alone, but there are enough to cause great temptation at this time of year!:)
Tonight I need to bake 13 dozen cookies for a cookie exchange tomorrow night. I always enjoy it while I'm there, but I'm always dreading it this night before. If anyone has a really easy recipe to roll out 100 balls per tray and bake for three minutes or less, I'll pay big bucks if you'll share it by 5 p.m. tonight!
Dear Father in Heaven, please give me wisdom and guidance throughout this day and an extra measure of calm about this baking business tonight I plead....

Seventeen!!!!

The twins have turned seventeen! Seventeen! Normally I'd go into their birth story here, but they've asked me not to this year. I think they're tired of it. I tell it several times a year:)

December 7th. What a lovely event to redeem the date for those who love us( think grandparents), and were part of the Greatest Generation and heretofore would think of Pearl Harbor.

They can never decide what to do on their day, jointly. This year options were tossed around. Finally, the other day I said,'Stop! We're doing pizza and cupcakes here, invite friends."

It was amazing. They stopped and invited friends. It was as if the decision was too large for them to make and they wanted it taken out of their hands. I had fully expected resistance and instead I got what I took as relief. It was very nice, indeed! (that word is there as an inside joke for Kate Howard:) )

Here are some shots from charades:

And the cupcake queen delivers the goods...... Linnea was thought of here and greatly missed, with her wonderful cupcake wedding cake.....

There were so many memories of past birthday parties with all these girls present. We've missed a few years of parties due to swim team...but some of these Salisbury girls have been to birthday parties here since they were tiny....I love watching these girls grow up and become such interesting people in their own right....not just so and so's daughter. Do you all know what I mean?

Thanks to all of them for coming and making MY daughters' birthday so lovely.... Big hugs to all of them and all of you...

A Happy Heart

I left with a light heart to go off to work yesterday, because of the prospect of snow.
A customer was standing by the windows and said to the others in the store, "You know they call me weather woman because of my accuracy...it's going to start snowing in the next few minutes." We all kind of said, "that would be nice"..."hope so"....etc. But I'd heard just a few minutes before it would be later in the afternoon before the snow fell...
About 5 minutes later it was coming down like mad!!! Oh happiness in the store with a bunch of grown women jumping and screeching like children.
The three customers were infused with Christmas spirit and their spending expanded! Happy shopkeeper!
...and then holiday happiness continued throughout the day. It just never stopped. At 10 p.m. Jedd and I were walking the dog in amazement as the snow still fell. We went down by the boats and across the park and delighted in it all. Every once in a while a giant snowball smashed my back and a happy boy snorted with glee...The dog was bouncing through it all, licking it , oblivious to the snowballs smashing into his back.
The return trip home was frigid, walking into the wind, but an 11 year old was willing to walk snuggled under his mom's arm for warmth. Joy!
Right now I am sitting in front of my fireplace with a dog at my feet. Some kids are sleeping, one is awake. I have a giant cup of coffee at my fingertips...
Thank you! Thank you, Father, for the happiness in my heart. Please help me to appreciate these moments in the coming weeks. Please help me to not get caught up in the stress of Christmas and miss the joy of your son's birth....

a december haiku

Where does the snow fall?
blanketing over the earth
why here, is it rain?

power-less

It was an interesting day yesterday. It started with one of my customers coming in at 10:30 and spending a nice fat sum, and mentioning that she was out shopping because her power was out. It had gone out around 10. After a while she moves on with her day and I move on with mine.

At 4 p.m. Emma calls the shop to see if I have power there. The house has lost it. I said yes and didn't think much more about it. The kids said they were fine.

At 5 I locked the shop door, and started clearing the register when some ladies knocked on the door and asked to come in. They looked around and left after 10 minutes or so. I re-locked the door and the phone rang. Another customer from thewestern shore wanting 7 pair of pajamas sent out. That took a while to sort through. At about 10 of 6 I finally got out the back door. As I turned the corner to my street I was surprised to see that although every other street had power, ours was still out.

It was very dark.

I went in the front door and Jedd was sitting in candle light with another cache of coins that he'd unearthed set before him and Adventures in Odyssey playing on an old fashioned battery powered tape player.

The boy was beaming with joy! He loves it when the lights go out. Emma was in a bit of despair. She had a rough draft of a descriptive essay due online early the next morning. Obviously there was no way to work on the computer.

I was hungry as a bear (and grumpy), and asked them to get in the car...we were going out to dinner. Emma was faster than a speeding bullet, Jedd was moaning "please...don't make us go out to where there's power! It might be back on when we get home and we'll have missed the time without it!" Two very different children's views. (Annie was on a mission to get toe shoes with chalice, on the western shore.)

As I was herding the boy out the door, Thom pulled up. We gently shoved him in the car and set off.

Jedd's happiness when we arrived back home lit up the house. The power was still out. We built a fire in the living room and put on the gas fire in teh kitchen and put candles and lanterns all around. I admit it is lovely, but I miss coffee at the snap of my fingers and t.v. as background noise. I miss liight strong enough to read by and my laptop...

At around 7:10 the power "popped" back on.

At around 7:30 the phone rang. It was the Howards asking if we had power. Theirs had been out since just before ours came on. We asked them to come over and it turned into an improptu party. It was so much fun!:)

It all goes back to the post 2 previous. We're all so busy we don't have time to just hang out with friends in the middle of the week. God arranged it, and I enjoyed it IMMENSELY! Thanks Howards, for sharing your time with us:)

Now here are some shots from the store. Especially for Marianna.....

Wish you could come hang out with me here Marianna:)....... have a great day everyone who has stopped by!

Christmas Cash

Whenever Thom and I are at a checkout line in a store we have two very different methods of paying for things. He just hands over bills and pockets the change. I often finger through the coin compartment of my wallet and hand over, say, $18.47 in exact change or find the change amount so that the cashier gives me back bills in change.

Each and every night Thom dumps his change out of his pockets and starts fresh ; changeless each morning...

For the past two days Jedd has been rolling Thom's change for him. He has been a kid on a mission. When he ran out of the first round of wrappers we did a special run to the bank for more. But they were the old fashioned flat ones, and he couldn't get them to fold at the end. He was used to the type you buy at Walmart with pre-rolled edges; so Thom picked him up after work, took him to buy more specialty ones (at which time Jedd also finagled him into extras like Captain Crunch and other kid Walmart necessities) and the rolling continued into the night.

When all was said and done, the boy ended up with over $300.00! I think I'm changing my ways at the check out lane from now on...that's some nice Christmas cash!