Well I'm sitting here thinking about all the work involved with getting all the Christmas decorations out and up. My 15 year old daughter is sitting here telling me to hurry up and get started so she can go out with her friends. I would much rather go shopping than put the decorations up. Of course you need money to do that, Ha ha. Of course when the tree is all up and the ornaments are all on and the rest of the decorations are up, our house is so pretty. We all love the Christmas spirit we feel this time of year. All the kids in our family and extended family are teenagers or above so the shopping this year will basically be gift cards for everyone, since they all seem to love that gift the the most. Kind of takes the fun out of shopping, and wrapping. We have a tradition in our family with Christmas ornaments. We all go to Grandma's house and each family has a child pick a ornament from grandmas tree and we get to keep it, the only requirement is we have to write their name and the year somewhere on the ornament. Grandma has all the coolest ornaments, like something you'd see in a big department store on display on her tree. In my family the girls take turns every year on who picks the ornament. The parents are not allowed to tell them which ones to pick. This has been a tradition that my mom started 30 years ago. Grandma has just informed all the families that this year she is not putting any Christmas tree or any decorations up due to her son ( my brother) dying in July. I know my daughters are already saddened by that, I suppose the other familes are too. My brother was 51 years old when he died of a heat stroke in July of this year. I suppose I can understand where my mom is coming from and all, however I wish there was something I could do to help her feel better. My older sister has already said they'll skip going to moms house this year, which I think is awful. My dead brothers family is also skipping the event this year, so who knows what it will be like for the rest of us, however I know no matter what-
 we will make the best of it and be as happy as we can that we still have my parents here with us to celebrate another Christmas! Merry Chrisrtmas to Everyone and a Happy New Year too~!
Doreen