Almost done....

Well, i'm almost done with Christmas decorating...or I should say, my deco-elves are...lol. I have a total of 10 trees up, with 1 more to go! I've gotten about half of my shopping done though...ugh. I don't know what to get the kids this year. Last year, we told them from here on out it was gonna be about the grandkids...that they have had their "big years"...but I don't know if I can do it...we've had treasure hunts, guessing games, some big surprises, (think Corvette) and a lot of shocked looks when they realized what we were gonna do for them... and all that was fun..so I dont know if I can just say..."here is your gift"..I know, I know, it's not about the gifts...but isn't it fun to give em? The kids worry themselves to death over what to get me and Tony, but they don't realize...(one day they will)...that just having them here, around the table, and later the Christmas tree, is something that all their money couldn't buy. Time spent with us, is something that one day will be priceless to them... laughing, eating, opening the gifts with Pappy playing Santa....Slick worrying that one of the kids are gonna sneeze or cough, which will immediately send him checking them out..their temp, how many times did they cough in the last 15 min...etc...lol But i'm not kidding. He's paranoid. I think sometimes he forgets that i've raised, (by the help of the Lord)..two kids of my own and they had temps, and coughed and sneezed...but I understand to some degree his issue...2 of the kids have Asthma...and if one gets a cold it has to make its rounds through the whole gang..
I bought Tonys gift the other day..I'm all done with his...and, hee hee...he knows i'm done with his, and he has no idea what to do for me and i'm just playing it cool...I don't even think he's asked me what I want...I didn't ask him. I got him what I wanted him to have, and i'm not gonna mention it here cause I don't know that he don't read this...or that Slick wouldn't think he needed to be informed of what his gift is..like he did several years ago...yeah, ole Slick was taking care of good ole Dad..back when money was a lot tighter, me and the kids would go in together to get Tony his gift, and Tony would go in with them to get mine...well, we bought Tony a leaf blower...sounded good to me and the girls..we had a yard full of trees and it would make his job easier..well, good son Slick couldn't stand it..he thought it was a bad idea and he felt sorry for Tony and didn't want him to be disappointed when he opened it up....so he decides to tell Tony ahead of time to give him a chance to wrap his mind around the fact that he was gonna get a leaf blower...HA HA...so Slick tells him...and Tonys like "A leaf blower???"...yeah Dad..but, come Christmas morning, Tony opens his present and plays the part...lol..Slick confessed to his crime later...we laugh about it now..but we wanted to wring his neck. It's not the first time Tony was enlightened to his gift thanks to his one and only son Slick...
This particular year, I was so excited about Tony's gift! He had wanted an aquarium for years, but I never could get one for him. But this year...YES! I was able to get it...oh it was a nice one too..I'm not quite sure of the exact details, I think I block it out cause I wanted to strangle my son and I temporarily lost my senses.. ha ha, but I think it went something like this...(on our way to church) "Hey Dad, I know what you're getting for Christmas...it's an...." and Tony IMMEDIATELY knew..."An aquarium!!" Tony yells excitedly... He could tell by the look on my face that he had guessed right, and Slick...oh I wanted to murdle-ize that boy...I started crying, and was still crying when I got to church...I was SO disappointed..Christmas was over for me...of course Slick felt bad, his Dad's Christmas was spoiled, his mother was sitting on the front bench at church trying not to cry..what a sight.....but we laugh about it now...it's one of my favorite Christmas stories..actually I could have started a series, I guess....I could have called them " How the Slick Spoiled Christmas" Season 1 "The Leaf Blower" and Season 2 "The Aquarium". lololol.....awww, the memories..

Oh the weather outside is frightful..

Ok, so it isn't time to "Let it snow", but Christmas is definately in the air at my house! I have 10 trees up and 1 more to go..They are all decorated but 2, and no, I didn't do them myself. I have very talented friends who turn into elves that come to my house and decorate when Tony isn't around..lol. He can't stand all the mess and dissarray that goes along with the decorating, but he sure loves the holiday celebrations we have when it's all done..It helps them with Christmas spending money, and it lets me keep enjoying all the decorating that i've always loved to do but not able to so much anymore. Of course since they've started doing all the work, I don't get tired and keep adding more and more! At some point, the garage will no longer hold all the tubs that I store the deco's in..so I gotta stop...NOT..ha ha We love Christmas around here that's for sure. Slick, Crystal and the kids came to see us tonight, and Crimsyn was loving all the trees and by the time they left, he was covered in glitter..ha ha..I think they all were probably.
I'm very excited for Thanksgiving too. This year we're taking all the kids and grandkids to Gaylord Opryland Hotel for Thanksgiving. We have a lot of fun things planned to do there. Going to see the Rockettes, ICE, have a character breakfast with Shrek and the Madagascar gang. Some sort of treasure hunt and dinner at a great restuarant. Not your traditional Thanksgiving gathering, but we love going on family trips and I kept getting emails from Gaylord about their upcoming packages and the kids were all for it, so hey, why not? We will be celebrating Thanksgiving with our extended family Sunday, so we'll still have our turkey.
On the flipside of things...I had surgery this past Sunday. We were supposed to go to Disney with Janice, Duane, Stanley and Carol Sanders. Had this trip planned for at least 6 mo. Tony was leaving, with Stanley and Carol following him, on Friday afternoon. Me, Janice and Duane were flying down on Sat. Well, on Wed morning I woke up feeling fine. But within an hour I started hurting in my stomach..not too bad at first, but as the day wore on, the pain became more severe. By late that afternoon it was almost unbearable. I had them meet at the church to pray and I got relief, came home and slept all night.I had a regular dr appt the next day for routine bloodwork results and they came back that my liver enzymes were extremely elevated. I explained what had happened the day before and she said if that happens again, go straight to the ER. But the rest of the day Thurs I felt fine, til around 4pm. The pain got worse this time. Tony was delivering metal, he was over an hour away, so I had Slick take me to the ER. I was in agonizing pain I tell you..never hurt that bad that I can remember..long story short, I wound up having gb surgery on Sun morning. I hate that we had to cancel our trip, but would have hated for this to have happened while we were on it and be down there and not able to get home..the Lord sees about us when we don't even know we need seeing to..He's a wonderful God. Ever since the surgery, when i've prayed, i've not been able to ask the Lord for one thing. All I can feel right in saying is "Thank you Lord". I've thanked Him for seeing to me, helping me thru the surgery, allowing them to find out what was wrong, cause at one point they thought it might be something else...I've just prayed from a thankful heart. I still have one more hurdle to get over. During the surgery he found a spot on my liver. He biopsied it. They really don't think it's anything, but i'll know next Tues..i'd appreciate it if you could think of me during your prayers...
Our trip is rescheduled for Feb..during Valentine's week. Stanley and Carol will be celebrating their 36th anniversary on Valentines Day. They went to Disney on their honeymoon, so I think it's cool that they'll be back again to celebrate an anniversary...I guess as long as we can stay healthly, our next trip will be to Hawaii with Donna and Chad in Jan...we'll see!