Scattered Thoughts . . .

Just before bedtime last night, I was looking at Kenzie's dollhouse townhouse... at first, the new window box on one of the third floor windows had my attention and I was thinking, "That looks really nice... it will look really nice when I get the remaining four window boxes mounted after Christmas." Then my attention moved downward to the first floor and patio french doors I fixed yesterday (Kenzie broke off part of the mullion grill on Christmas morning last year and I just got around to fixing it yesterday along with a few other parts that broke over the past year). I was thinking that the repair wasn't even noticeable. That was looking nice too! Then I noticed the empty patio right outside those french doors and was thinking, "I really need to do something about some furniture or something for that patio"... "Hey wait... didn't I order a tree to put on that patio?" Yes, I already ordered a tree and had hidden it in a different place t

Kenzie's big townhouse dollhouse was perched on our living room coffee table last night so she jumped right into playing with her dollhouse family. It is always fun watching her expressions as she plays... especially through a dollhouse window... Gee played with Kenzie and her dollhouse too!  Interesting place to move the little girl's bedroom... I'm thinking Kenzie wants a room with a view! As Kenzie and Gee played with the dollhouse, Lukey took everyone's order for dinner and then made our pizza's as requested! Kenzie was cleaning floors in her dollhouse in preparation of the Christmas holiday fast approaching... And the gifts spread out under and around the tree seem to continue to grow a little bit each day... Christmas is getting close!

It is getting more and more crowded under our tree with each passing day!  We actually finished our Christmas shopping a looonnnnngggg time ago (at least a month ago) but we seem to be collecting more and more presents each day.   Our Christmas Spirit is growing with each present that is added under the tree and we're all looking forward to Christmas morning with anticipation and excitement. I know Lukey and Kenzie will have a magical Christmas... and there are a few nice gifts under the tree for Sheila as well! You see those 3d glasses on the stack of presents to the left?  That is a stack of presents wrapped in 3d "Frozen" wrapping paper...  "Elsa, Anna and Olaf" are jumping off the gifts!

The beauty of getting almost all of our Christmas chores out of the way early (by Thanksgiving weekend) means we have far more time to enjoy the Christmas season. And, we are definitely  enjoying a prolonged Christmas! Gifts, one by one, little by little, appear under the tree each day... most of these gifts are for Christmas morning but some of them are to be unwrapped in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas morning... 

Our original plan for Christmas was what we do every year... we invite all of Sheila's immediate family including her parents to the house on Christmas morning for presents and a big breakfast. Then, we entertain friends later in the day and into Christmas night. This is something we have been doing since before the grandchildren were born but it has become more of a family tradition since their birth. Now Sheila has her own family of three generations so we tend to do the "family celebrating" here, at our home, for her family... which is pretty typical for most families. A few days ago, an opportunity arose for us to head significantly south to much warmer climates (yes, although hard to believe, much warmer than our wet, balmy temperatures in the 50s) to celebrate Christmas with our Air Force family... I came up with a plan before I even mentioned this opportunity to Sheila... then presented it to Sheila as a surprise... and she enthusiastically jumped on it immedi