Four Christmases!!!!

After having Christmas at Bill's dad's house, Nanny's house, our house and Ma Ma's house--I came through the door tonight and almost screamed! I thought our house had been ransacked! Then I realized what I was seeing was the result of all those Christmases--gifts galore; wadded up paper and cut ribbons; empty battery packages; cardboard boxes; and the makings of a great start-up toy store! Whew!

The Activity Scene

We took the kids to a live nativity scene the other night. A congregation near us has a display in the front yard of their building. William thought it was the neatest thing--because of the live animals. So, every night since then he has asked if the people were out there again...at the 'activity' scene. I thought that was really cute. He keeps getting the story of baby Jesus and baby Moses confused, though. He wondered if this was the same baby in the basket in the river. Innocence is so refreshing.

Less of me

I have known for some time that I needed to do something about my weight. I joined Weight Watchers on November 12. Since then, I have lost 16 pounds! Yay! Bill and I are going together to the meetings and weighing in every Saturday morning. He has been going since February. And he has lost 40 pounds! Woohoo! We are tracking our food and watching portion size. The neat thing is that we can eat whatever we want to eat---as long as we track it and count it. That makes me feel good because the minute I tell myself I cannot have something to eat...I want it. Also, this program is realistic to me. I am learning about food and what it "costs". Sometimes I decide that I don't want to eat something because it isn't worth the points. This is something that I can incorporate into my life. I don't have to do something drastic for a few weeks--experience dramatic weight loss--and then, once I go off of it--gain it all back plus more. We are both walking just about every day. It is encouraging. I am already noticing a change in the way my clothes fit. Plus, even though I am still what you would call "a big girl", I feel better about myself.

I wanted to go ahead and share because it helps me be accountable. Thanks to all my friends and family that are cheering me on in this endeavor. When we leave our meetings, the leader always says, "Never give up! Never surrender! I'll see less of you next week! You can do it!" I like that!

Red and White Striped Candy Fun!

William says "candy cans" for candy canes. I absolutely love it. Because he also, with his accent, makes it have about 10 syllables! So cute!

Just call me Betty!

Christmas time is here! Today, mom and I decided to have a baking day. We have been wanting to get together and do this but have been busy with other things. So today we were little Betty Crockers!! We made: 88 oatmeal cookies, 113 Rolo pretzel pecans, 56 kiss cookies, 42 coconut macaroons, 80 pieces of peanut butter fudge, 24 Frosty the snowman cookies, 24 Christmas tree cookies, 13 peanut butter sandwich cookies and 6 mini loaves of pumpkin bread. Doesn't that sound yummy? There is no telling how much stuff William ate. He just kept running into the kitchen saying, "I'm still hungry!" Then he'd grab something and run off. I tried 1 coconut macaroon and 1 kiss cookie.

That is when I decided I had better get some gum and start to chewin'!

The Ho Ho Box

My mom has a Santa Claus figurine that has 24 little boxes built into it. She calls it "The Ho Ho Box". She decided a couple of years ago that she would like to use it as an advent calendar-of sorts-to count down the days until Christmas. She puts two little slips of paper in each box; one with an "S" and one with a "W" and the gift they are to receive. Then, she buys gifties for the kids and gives them one each day.

That's how it was supposed to work. She was going to buy inexpensive little trinkety items and candy. But, she has gone CRAZY with it! She need not buy them any Christmas presents because they are spoiled beyond rotten every day before Christmas!

The thing that makes it so neat, though, is not only the look on their faces as they open the boxes each day. It's the look on hers....