Are we all counting down the hours?

Not so much here.  It's kind of sad.  Christmas was my favorite holiday for half my life.  It was so much fun, when my kids were young.  I got more excited than they did--I think.

I'd start in mid-November to put lights up on every bush in the front yard and climbed out the bedroom window to get up on the roof to anchor a big lighted star to the TV antennae and hang lights on the eaves of the house.  I had a garage door cover of the Nativity scene, but instead of putting it on the garage, I stapled it to a large piece of plywood and placed it in a small grove of trees we had, with a spot light on it.  We even had our home featured in the local paper one year.

The inside of the house was bejeweled too.  A real tree touched the ceiling.  Red and gold decoration and candles on every flat surface, or some years, blue and silver.  Lighted candles on timers, in all 30 windows...even the dining room chandelier was wrapped in tinsel and glass balls.  I had a long mirror that I put on top of the piano and laid clear lights along the surface, with a green garland and pieces of crystal to catch the light and sparkle.

Even when the grand babies started coming, it was exciting.  We got together on Christmas Eve with my folks and on Christmas Day, went to my in-laws for our celebration there.

Then, the divorce happened.  We still got together on Christmas Eve with my Dad, at The Farm house where my sister now lives.  Then, my Dad died, but we still got together on Christmas Eve.  Then, the grand kids grew up and it was difficult to get everyone together on Christmas Eve.

So, last year it was on the 21st and this year on the 28th.

BAH HUMBUG!!!

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I used to have a website with children's stories on it.  I had a lot of traffic on that site and it was a good place to advertise when I had one of my children's illustrated books published.  I had a teacher who e-mailed me and asked permission to print out and use some of the stories in her 1st grade classroom.

Then, over the years, it kind of died out, so I took it down.  Luckily, I had all the stories and illustrations saved in Word documents and picture files.

I decided to make a book for GGrand daughter Della for Christmas this year.  As I progressed along, editing and printing, I realized the book was going to be too big.  I had 197 pages!

I had a lot of short 2-3 pages stories and a few funny poems and then a longer story about adventures of a Scarecrow and another 3 different stories about a little girl named Emmy.  Plus, I had written 3 stories of biographical things from me growing up on a farm in the 40's and 50's.

So, I had 3 different books bound at the print shop yesterday.

I went searching on Google Images trying to find something for the Emmy book and I found a pencil drawing that looks so much like Della.  She might not notice, but I'll bet her Mom will.

I patterned the Emmy stories after my child self.  Della is a strong willed little girl, much as I was as a child.  The only difference, I got spanked when I acted that way.  LOL

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.......and the beat goes on around here.  I'm just looking forward to the new year.  Why it has any significance is beyond me.  It is just another day, but I like the way "twenty-twenty" sounds when I say it.  2019 was a bad year for me, so I guess I'm pinning my hopes on 2020.

Later....................................