Humorous observations...

Christmas dinner and gfts with my stepmom went wonderful. My stepmom is the best cook in the whole world and also one of the sweetest people I know. I hate to admit it, but I feel more of a loss over my stepmom and Dad divorcing than I do my mom and dad divorcing. I am sure age is a big factor. I never really knew my dad very well until he settled down and married my stepmom. Then he became much more dad-like. He was a turd when married to my mom and also the years after. We were such an obligation to him and it showed. When he met Barbara though, it was different. We enjoyed visiting him. We spent a lot of time with them and really enjoyed it. They married when I was about 13 or 14 I think and stayed married for at least 15 years or so. Those were definitely my formitive years and Barbara was always very good to me. She also forced my Dad to step up and do things like pay for graduation stuff, help with things and made him finance getting me a beautiful graduation dress that help me snag many a job after I graduated. It was the perfect blend of pretty and professional. It also looked really nice on me. I wish I could find another one just like it! I have tons of good memories like that with her. She is a very special lady and I am thankful she can still be my stepmom even though she is no longer married to my dad. My mom hates this and it is a constant source of hurt to even mention my stepmom. So I don't. I love my mom more than anything and never wish to hurt her. It is wrong though for her to assume I could walk away from someone who was so good to me for so long. Thankfully, although my dad doesn't like it one bit-we have discussed it and he understands. Probably because he feels the same way about Barbara's son Josh. Divorce is so ugly. I digress-big time there!! Anyway, it was a fun night and a good way to kick off Christmas. I hope the rest of the get-togethers are as loving.

Why do cats think Christmas trees are their big giant toy? Gray Gray is having a big time playing with ours. New ornaments are on the floor every morning. Between the cat and Lilly, we have had ornaments swapped around so much, it is like a new tree every day. Lilly pulls off the Christie Yamaguchi ornament and the "I Love Jeannie" ornament and they each take turns teaching the other one their "skills". Lilly really loves Christmas, the tree and all the presents. It reminds me that my sister Linda used to sing into the Christmas light cord. (I do not remeber this at all-but it is an often shared family story) Apparently one Christmas, things went all wrong and the tree came tumbling down. I hope between the cat and Lilly we don't face that. Jan 6th is a long time off. I'm not sure it'll make it.

That reminds me, Advent has not gone well for us this year. Our weekends have been action packed and I have not lit the candles one time. We have been doing our calendars though. And we found an awesome advent candle centerpiece at the goodwill in Evansville. It was $1. God smiled on me that day because we had been in a store earlier where I had hoped and wished I could buy a $35 one. It was made to center around a white pillar candle, so that would have been an additional candle purchase any way. I walked away with a twinge of regret. The one we found was perfect and had a spot for an elevated white taper. Exactly what I wanted. Tapers are what we already had. And did I mention, only $1. So next year, we are all set to do Advent up right. I am going to store all of the Advent stuff somewhere special where I can get to it Dec 1, not when we get the tree stuff down.

Last fun story. On the way home, we passed a bar Erik sometimes plays drums at. Lilly just absolutely fantasizes about what it is like to go in there. (I fear this response a whole lot!!) She asks Erik and I very often, "How old do I have to be to go to a bar?". We answer 21 and then she just looks at it longingly. Tonight, Erika was the one she asked.

"21, but I don't know why you want to go in there, all they do is drink beer and I bet they even cuss." Thoughtful pause.

Then Erika asks, "Mom did they cuss in there the night you and dad went to dinner there?".

"I don't know honey. I was sitting in a booth having dinner and talking with your dad not listening to anyone else.", I answered.

"That was a really good plan, Mom.", said Erika.