Jane, I was at the fair the past week so fell behind here. Alot going on in my world lately. So much to take care of and right now I'm just tired. This energizer bunny's batteries are ready for a Charge!LOL We talked to some of our friends at the fair and they have never been to Las Vegas. So the four of us are planning a trip to Vegas next spring. We haven't been on a trip together for 9 years and we decided it's time! My DF's haven't been feeling well so I've been helping them clean and paint. However, she just brought 5 qts of fresh canned tomatoes and fresh peaches to me today at the office. She uses tomato juice to add to the tomatoes instead of water and they are sooo good! They also did a phone run to our other office for me which saved me an hour of running. They are just the sweetest people and I love them so much. Tell DD I love her jeep and I bet she looks good in it! They had the new Jeeps set up across from us at the fair. I didn't look close cuz I was lucky and found another set of new chrome wheels and tires to fit my escalade a few weeks ago at a ys. The guy bought them two months prior and then decided to marry a gal with 5 kids. He thought the money would be put to good use so decided to sell them for $500. Dishes are calling so best get to it. So glad to have you back posting!!! Punk

Cynic great post! Especially the part about the set up photos with the silly backdrops or props. (I feel the same way about baby pics BTW). Give me people who look like themselves any day. I don't send Christmas cards any longer so we only get a few. The photo cards are printed on such cheap stock that they tear while being removed from the envelope. I do save and enjoy the nice old fashioned cards I get. The rest hit the shredder. Worst Xmas card award goes to a relative of DH. He prints out a mass sermon. Just like those long winded mass Xmas letters that some people send out only it's s a sermon. At the end there is a line or 2 about what he is doing and how the sermon he wrote applies to him. LOL If he were a man of the cloth I "might" understand but basically he's what I would call a fanatic. If I want to hear a sermon I'll go to church thank you. We LOL, shake our heads and SHRED!

Yuletide Eureka What my son wanted most for Christmas that year was a pool table. They were not inexpensive, but we reasoned that a pool table would be a good incentive for a fourteen-year old to have his friends come in, and keep him at home. How do you hide a pool table until Christmas? Many of our friends had used our attic to stash their gifts until Old Santa could make his rounds, but nobody could handle a pool table for us. The store would not deliver on Christmas eve so we had to agree to have the table brought to our house a few days before Christmas. It was put into a room in the basement that was unheated and never used in the winter. A day or two before Christmas I heard someone open the door leading down to the basement. I looked to see my son starting down the steps. Surely he must be going to get something from the garage, but I went to the door to listen. If I told him not to go into the back room, it would be a giveaway, so I crossed my fingers and waited. I heard his footsteps go down the hall. He was not going to the garage, probably just out the back door. But no, I heard a door open, and then a very quiet voice say "oops!" His "oops" reminded me of my own little "oops" many years ago. I was probably about eight at the time. Being the youngest in the family, my sisters and brothers did what they could to keep me in the camp with believers. I never had this explained to me, but that Christmas eve, I heard a voice coming down the chimney, telling me I better go to bed, or Santa Claus wouldn't come. My sisters who were in the room at the time told me it must have been Santa Claus or one of his elves. I had never heard of anyone who had heard Santa Clause's voice coming down from the chimney, but I was afraid to take a chance. On my way to bed, and just as my son did many years later, I opened the door to a room I should not have. There on the bed lay many things. One thing I could not miss...black, shiny and obviously my size. The patent leather shoes I wanted so badly and had asked Santa Claus for. What did this mean? I hadn't gone to bed yet; Santa could not have come. And if he had, he would have put everything under the tree, and besides, they weren't even wrapped up. I stared at the bed like it was Santa's sleigh. I stepped back, closed the door, and crossed that invisible barrier, and I knew.

All of them warm my heart and call for tissues. Judi, I’ve always loved the Kisses commercial. I ring bells and absolutely empathize with the last kiss! We just finished with several holiday concerts and yes, Whew!