My friend Micah was in town from California to see family, and Gary and I got to see him today for lunch!  I love when we get to see him, even if it is once a year 🙂  Hopefully we’ll make it out to California for a vacation and get to see him and see him perform.  Check out his website if you are in CA, hes a great magician and has private lessons.  He also acts and does some theater work.  Also, if you know someone who is a member, go check out the Magic Castle where he performs occasionally.  It’s an exclusive, private club, black tie, and has amazing magicians from all around the world.

Where did the week go? wow!  The weekend went by quickly also, but in 3 days we will be toasting in the new year!

We had brunch at my parent’s this morning where I made apple cinnamon pancakes and scrambled eggs and cheese . . . and they were yummy!

Mid-afternoon, we headed to Atlantic beach to see Gary’s parents for Christmas.  After arriving, we visited for a bit and then opened presents before dinner.  Right now we’re all sitting on couches with our laptops and watching tv together after a unique experience at the only local open restaurant . . .

The weather is pleasant in the 60’s?  And we plan on relaxing for the rest of the week! . . . Christmas ’08’ has been so nice and we love spending time with our families 😀

One of our favourite things to do at Christmas (or Christmas Eve) . . . stay up late and play with the new toys or packages we just opened that day.  Gary is playing with one of his Christmas gifts from my parents this very minute . . . one of the games he got for the PS3, and I had fun unpacking all of the new things we opened and put them away.  I took a few snapshots of some of the things we got.  Yummy home made goodies, spicy and hot nummies for Gary, a few candy or decorative bowls and boxes, etc.

These are just a few of the things! 😀

I heard about this from someone I know . . . how does Santa really know who is naughty and who is nice?  An elf tells Santa, and the elf leaves little things or signs that the children can see that the elf is real.  So you have to be good All year round.

It’s evidently a big craze with the younger children started by a mom with her children.  I actually remember the style of elf that used to be on my parents and my grandparent’s tree when I was younger, and I remembered it not being my favourite ornament.  Partially because they never sat easily -haha

So if you don’t know about it, here is the website:  http://www.elfontheshelf.com/

I meant to blog this earlier, but this website is neat.  Santa is in the US, so all children should be in bed by now 🙂
Click on the photo below to see where Santa is now!

Christmas means a lot of things to a lot of people.  Even people that do not celebrate Christmas for the birth of Christ can partake of the festivies of the month.

So I would like to ask everyone that reads this post to post a comment on what you think of or what Christmas means to you.  The pros and the cons.  I know a lot of people read my blog but don’t comment, but I LOVE comments and I will comment back if I can.

So here are some things that make me think of Christmas and December!

• getting together with friends
• sending out end of the year updates and cards!
• spending time with our families
• fresh baked cookies
• my birthday in December!
• (a new tradition) going to the beach to celebrate with Gary’s parents
• parties!
• seeing friends in church choirs
• driving around seeing all the lights and decorations
• shopping
• and last minute shopping
• those funny cartoons about Christmas time that are in e-mails fwd: fwd: fwd:
• breaking out the winter sweaters
• freezing my fingers off because I don’t really like wearing gloves
• hot looking boots!
• fuzzy slippers
• the thick warm blanket on the bed (which will in turn not make me want to get up in the mornings into the frigid cold)
• scraping the car windows in the morning
• candy canes
• gingerbread men or houses (which we have yet to make)
• the heater in the car taking a while to work mostly on those very cold days and 2 seconds is too long!
• hot cocoa with marshmallows
• gary’s familys tradition of shrimp at christmas
• decorating s few trees with lights and ornaments
• making snowflakes out of tissue paper or plain white paper
• donating food to a food bank
• watching Christmas movies (my faves, the grinch cartoon version, and a white christmas)
• seeing all the real poinsettias and hoping we don’t get one
• cold toilet seats and not wanting to shower (but I do anyway and then don’t want to get out again)  😛
• thinking of all the places we want to go next year

Ok, so there is the start of my list . . . feel free to share what Christmas or December means to you in a comment to this post

For some of us, it will be back in the 70’s again and some of you, it will still be snowing, so let the memories last while they can 😀

am SO excited about 2009!  I have met so many wonderful people this year, made so many new friends.  I have been inspired by people and places, and my brain has so many lovely thoughts of the possibilities of a new year.

It is so amazing how we grow and learn.  We don’t know what we will do, who we will be, what we will accomplish, or how our lives may touch or change those around us.

To be inspired, to be creative, to help one another.

I don’t want to get too philisophical, and while we can’t have amazing, happy days all the time, when we do, isn’t it amazing how you feel?  You feel like you can acomplish anything, and can help change the world!

That is how I feel this very moment.

Gary and I love having a Christmas Tree . . . I grew up with fake, he grew up with real.  Our first Christmas together, we got a real one for his apartment.  The first year in our house we got a real one.  The past two years, we haven’t done either, partially because of the way our furniture is arranged with the “over-sized for our house/livingroom” couch and also because we spend time with Gary’s parents at the beach for a few days.  Oh, and we have cats, and we’re not sure how they’ll take the tree (“ooh, something even HIGHER to climb on!”  or “eh, I see those when I look out the window, what’s the big deal?“).  So we need to be home to monitor a “test” tree.

So anyway, we enjoy the decorations around us, and when we decorate, we will be able to have a real, and a fake tree, plus all the trimmings 🙂

While I was at the Triangle Town Center Mall last night for the Barnes and Noble, they were just lighting the large tree for the night.  I took this with my point and shoot, the tree is much taller than I could show (no wide angle feature), but . . . so lovely!