I spent the morning making cookies for Cash and for my daughter, Kendal's little dog, Kingston. All made from people grade ingredients. I taste test them myself, before putting them in the dehydrator to dry out. Probably not as sweet as people cookies, but pleasant tasting anyway. Once dried, they keep a long time. Well, as long as they need to.

Christmas was great! The grandsons came over for a while. Jon, the oldest, drove them. They are all three growing up, way too fast. Soon they will have out grown Mema and Pepa. I hate that. We'll still be cool to Kinsley, for a few more years anyway. She loved her bouncy house. She kept telling Sonny and me, "This sooo fun!" then, "I so excited to see Crimas." We got tired just watching her play. I didn't ask Kendal, but I bet she had no problems putting that child to bed that night. She had to be exhausted. As the afternoon grew longer, she finally asked Kendal if they could go home. She said, "I miss my other toys."

She had requested a trinoserous for Christmas, but didn't get one. I don't think she even thought about it. Next year, she will begin to learn what Christmas is all about. My New Years Resolution is to start taking her to Church with me.

I'm enjoying the Cricut that Sonny got me for Christmas. I got it back in November and just couldn't wait until Christmas to use it. My cards will look so much nicer now.

Another year has gone by and I still haven't been up to Darien to see Maxine's headstone. It's just so hard to even think about going up there knowing she won't be there. Most of the time, I can avoid thinking about her being gone. I still miss her so much. Deleting her phone number from my phone was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It's been over two years now. I hope I can start smiling when I think about her, soon. One thing about it, I know she is home with the Lord.

sandiec34-justthinking

I'm new at this, so keep that in mind, if you read this. Tuesday, December 23. My sister's birthday. Coming as close to Christmas as it did, Betty didn't usually get much attention for her birthday and as she grew older, she didn't mind that much. I used to tease her about her birthday, a lot. That said, this was still her favorite time of the year. She loved Christmas!! Once her favorite places had their Christmas lights up, it was absolutely necessary for us to go look at the lights at least one evening. Maybe one of us would bring along a grandchild, maybe not, but WE went! I miss her often, but more at Christmas then any other time.



When my youngest was nine, I knew she'd already figured out the Santa Clause thing, so I just dropped all efforts of pretense about him. Betty was so upset with me. I just thought it more important that my daughter understand the real meaning of Christmas.



I remember going to church as a child and seeing Santa there handing out presents, then when I got older, I found out that Santa was not real, even though I'd seen him at church. It made it hard for me to accept that Jesus was real. After all, even going to church every Sunday, I never saw a physical Jesus there. I was pretty much an adult before I finally learned that my doubts had to be replaced with faith, and it was then that Jesus finally became real in my heart.



Now, I'm seeing Christmas through the sparkling, brown eyes of my 3 year old granddaughter, Kinsley. She told me just last week that she was sooo excited about Christmas, and she is. I wish Betty could be here to enjoy Kinsley's excitement. They would be perfectly matched.