It happened quite unexpectedly this past Saturday. After many trips to our storage unit, we discover that we had left our tree back in Dallas for fear it would be to tall for our new home. Still feeling in the Christmas spirit and singing “Joy To The World” all the way out to Hobby Lobby, which is about 35 miles from our home, we walk in the door with a list of items to purchase. At this point, I am just thinking to myself, “Frosty is absolutely the best husband in the world to come with me to buy lights, ribbon, ornaments, and the real reason we had come….the tree. Let me remind you that we have a small car, which does have fold down seats which have been folded down quite a bit this year, hauling “treasures” back and forth to the house. But we round the corner and there it is….”our” tree…perfectly shaped, already lit, just the right height and…..it is on for 1/2 price, which thrills Frosty to no end. So our shopping trip is now coming to a end. Smiles on both our faces, we pay for our things and head out to the car with Box M, which is the Christmas tree. Frosty is just so proud of his purchase and we skip merrily out to the car already planning how we are going to decorate while listening to Christmas carols, drinking hot chocolate and dressed in our Christmas sweaters. We arrive at our car. Still thinking positive we load 4 to 5 bags of new Christmas treasures in the back and both of us pick up the tree box to push it in any way it will go into our little German pickup. After about 20 minutes of trying this way and that, Frosty begins to undress right there in the parking lot. His shirt flies off to expose him wearing a gray tshirt which as most of you know, Frosty’s idea of casual is penny loafers, button-downed Polo shirt and dockers with a sweater wrapped around his shoulders. So to see him strip off his shirt in public, well, this is just something that has never happened. I think the 87 degree weather has begun to melt Frosty’s attitude. He finally cuts open the tree box with our car keys and takes the tree out, which is in 3 pieces and begins to stuff it in the car. Cars have been coming and going, not daring to park in the empty spaces beside us as they could tell from the glare he gave them if they even thought about parking beside us that maybe they might just want to go look for another spot. Seeing that we have a two door car, both doors are open and people are giving us “the look” for now taking up 3 spaces. But after 30 minutes or so, we are now headed down the freeway with our new tree sticking out the sun roof. We didn’t need to buy so many ornaments as most of the needles flew off on the way home, but it is our tree and a new memory was made on Saturday afternoon, as the first new Christmas treasure I put out on Frosty’s side of the bed is a pillow that says, “Bah Humbug”…and that, my dear friends describes Frosty’s Holiday Melt-down. He hasn’t sung, Joy To The World since Saturday.

We might have overdone it just a little this year. We just returned from storage where we piled as many Christmas boxes as we possibly could in our Mercedes Pickup, knowing all the while that it would take us probably 5-6 trips to get all the “Christmas Treasures”,or as Frosty calls it,”Christmas Stuff” from the storage unit to our little Christmas Workshop. It is so easy to get in a festive mood while going through the boxes, taking each snowman cautiously out and going from room to room trying to decide the perfect place for each item. While my head is in one of the boxes, I hear a Christmas carol and think to myself, “oh it is just so great to have all 3 of my Christmas clocks here and listening to Joy to the World, I hear the message machine come on.” Oh my gosh, it was the phone ringing. I forgot that Frosty found a Christmas Carol to play whenever the phone rings. So now, while running from room to room looking under each bed or closet trying to find Christmas platters, I now have to listen carefully for the carol. OK, I think I have this down now…if I hear Winter Wonderland, it’s the home phone ringing. If I hear Frosty the Snowman, it is Randy calling me on my cell. Jingle Bells is Jodi calling on cell, We Wish You a Merry Christmas is general public calling my cell. ALL the other carols are going to be one of the 3 Christmas clocks chiming away on the hour. Oh Wait, I forgot….Just bought a Josh Groban Christmas CD to play on the kitchen CD player….Oh my goodness, I don’t think I can remember all this….maybe I should just sit down and have a cup of tea in my new Christmas Carol playing tea cup and go over this list one more time….BUT…..on the way to the couch, I just cannot resist pinching the toe of my new little snowman Frosty bought me last year. That way I can do a little dance to “Rockin Round the Christmas Tree” with each sip of tea…..Something tells me that this is going to be one of Frosty’s best Christmases…..Gotta go, am headed to load 6 Christmas CD’s in my car. Oh my gosh, I just thought about something. Surely they have horns that play Mama Got Run Over By a Reindeer for the car…wouldn’t that be a great new addition to our Christmas Treasures this year?

This is the greatest place….2 hours and you can go from crowded city to the mountains where snow awaits us. Some friends from church have invited us to their home up at Big Bear Lake, where the weather reports say that it was 19 degrees today with snow expected again over the weekend. Well, as most of you know, that is my favorite kind of weather and sends me into the kitchen faster than you can say, “which isle is the butter on?” so…have just finished making a chewy chocolate raspberry cake which I posted on the blog 2 days ago and a fresh apple cake with praline frosting is baking as we speak. Randy went last night and bought snow chains for the car and we are hoping to get snowed in for a few extra days so we can just sit and relax by the fire and munch on cakes, dips and pray for a blizzard to hit while we are up there. Next week, since we will probably be needing to thaw out, we will drive an hour south to Newport Beach and soak up rays of sunshine to remind us of the heat we left behind in Texas. Is this a great place or what? We are feeling a little guilty of all the free time we have here since no family lives here and we aren’t babysitting on Fri or Sat nights, nor are we watching grandkids play soccer on Saturday mornings at 8 a.m. WHAT AM I SAYING????? Have I gone over to the dark side already, in less than a year? Oh my, of course we DO certainly miss watching hour after hour of Sponge Bob and dining on Chick Fila on Saturday nights, chasing grandkids around the playground while we sit and finish off the chicken nuggets they never touched and reading one more “chapter” book before the little darlings will agree to turn out the lights, BUT…..I have to confess that Randy and I have really enjoyed the weekends of new adventures and new places to explore. Christmas is almost here, which will find us on the first available seats Southwest has to take us back to Sponge Bob, a naked little two year old running around because he won’t wear his training pants over 10 min, a 7 year old that chases you around with his little “precious” hamster and family that will act so glad to see us, whether they are or not. The holidays are upon us, but for this weekend, we are out for another new adventure with new friends who hopefully still be friends after spending the whole 3 day weekend with Peter and Penelope Pumpkin. Got to run and take out my apple cake. Say a prayer of thanks for the Veterans this weekend, who have given so much of their lives, time away from their families and much much more, for all of us. God bless the Vets and their families, we thank you for your sacrifice for us and for our Nation.