Oh how I wish I'd done this all these years! It would be wonderful to read about past Christmas' times, especially now all my kids are grown with their own children! The only thing I've done the last few years is keep a list of gifts given to family and friends, as my memory stinks and I don't want to repeat gifts. As of last year, I also am keeping a list of where I've stored stuff. With things scattered around closets in the house, bins under my bed, bins in garage and storage shed, I now want to know exactly WHAT is WHERE. This year I am going to list and photograph my Christmas decorations as I unpack stuff, and am getting pictures of new purchases of course. As you know I take pictures of my house decorated, but I'd rather have better organized photos of collections and ornaments. (Maybe if I look at my photos this time NEXT year, I'll do less impulsive buying. I love Christmas things too much, LOL. Hard to resist.) I am going to suggest to my grown kids to think about starting journals while they still have young ones! hugs, Karen

SPAM

Tom, I have used that tool while gardening. It does make it more enjoyable. The problem is my garden ends up looking very disorganized with crooked rows and such.

Yes normally we would do the hour drive to the closest B&N big town and do some Christmas shopping but just weren't up for it this year. But want to support brick and mortar bookstores so shopped the same store online. Really trying to avoid Amazon . . . I did the "make your own comic" book last year, my grands love activity books but that's what hubs got them. As for kid's books, I bought my 10 yr. old female gd this book: "Vampire Island" by Adele Griffin. It is apparently part of a series. We'll see if she likes it. I got her a repro necklace which was apparently featured in "The Vampire Dairies" (I was just looking for a cool locket necklace). So that got me thinking along the vampire lines as gd likes goth a bit, just like her mom. But I didn't want to rush a ten year old into the "boyfriend girlfriend" vampire genre, she's only in 5th grade, so I picked "Vampire Island" because it is about a whole family of vampires. No reviews yet as to whether she is going to like it. One of the books that didn't come that hubs got for her is "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill, which is a Newbery Award winner. That sounds great too. For 8 yr. old female gd I got the dvd of Disney's "Thomasina the Cat" which was a favorite of mine at her age. I got the dvd quite a while ago, as the idea came to me early on in the Christmas shopping season. I kind of regret that I didn't get her the book, because it is just about at her reading level, she's advanced, and it got stellar reviews, all his books really. The author is Paul Gallico, and the original source book is "Thomasina the Cat Who Thought She Was a God." He also wrote several other children's books such as "The Snow Goose" which I remember also liking as a kid, a little older. I think I may get same gd some of his other works later . . .