Childhood Wishes...

When I was a kid there was nothing much more exciting or magical than getting the Sears Christmas Wish Book in the mail.  I would spend hours and hours poring through those catalog pages, dreaming and folding and circling and hoping and wishing and deciding which items I realistically thought I could get Santa to bring me each year...

And while Santa was always good to me and never left me empty-handed or in a state of disappointment, there were a few things I asked for or sometimes only secretly wished for (because I knew hell would have to freeze over first) that I never did get...


My own place.  And by my own place, I mean my very own playhouse in the backyard.  A place I could play with my dolls, read my books, listen to my records, play board games and just hang with my bff.  You know? A little pink house...

A genie bottle/magical powers/magic wand! Maybe I watched too many old episodes of I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched but I had all sorts of plans for the day Santa finally delivered this one.  I was going to rule the world.  Or at least just marry Shaun Cassidy.

Miniature horse.  I'm pretty sure this was one of those wishlist items I placed in the when hell freezes over category and never actually asked for but oh, how I wanted one! And I've never completely gotten over this one... The cuteness overwhelms me!

My own phone/private line in my room. Because what the heck was a cell phone or even a cordless phone? If you wanted phone privacy, you pulled that curly cord as far as you could, sneaked around the corner, and closed that door shut tight on that sucker.  And if someone else was talking on the phone and there was something you just had to talk to your bestie about right that minute?  You were just S.O.L!  

Pink carpet.  I had daydreams about pink carpet...

Persian or Siamese cat. While I've always been an animal of all kinds lover, when I was a kid I was obsessed with cats and while we did have a few when I was very young, once they were gone we never got another one.  But I always wanted me a big ol' fluffy Persian or an exotic Siamese of my very own.  I wonder what the Darling wieners would think of that? Hmm...

  
  

















Swatch watch. I can't really say why it is I didn't get one of these because they were all the rage for a time in the 80s and I remember wanting one or two or three (to stack on my arm) pretty bad at one point.  Maybe I had asked for a lot of other stuff from Santa that year or maybe I didn't realize I wanted it until after Christmas... Who knows?  But I never had one...

A pool. Georgia summers were hot and running through the sprinklers just didn't satisfy our urge to get wet.  And I'm sure this wasn't something I ever thought to ask Santa for in the month of December but it definitely stands out in my mind as something I always longed for.  My best friend and I once had the genius idea to build one ourselves by stacking bricks along the edges of the patio.  I don't think you have to ask how that turned out...

  
A puppy in my stocking. Some things never change!

Snow on Christmas Day. Living my entire life in the south, I never did get that one. Until last year... Last year, at the age of 39, that wish was finally delivered and I don't think it could have been any more magical had it happened thirty years earlier...

   
And to me, that is a perfect example of how the best, most cherished gifts of all are always those that no amount of money could ever buy...  


Though I would jump for joy and shout with glee if I woke up Christmas morning to find one of those itty bitty horses in my backyard or another li'l wiener dog in my stocking... 


I'm just sayin'.   


*This post is part of Writer's Workshop at Mama's Losin' It.

Family Christmas Past

Through the Years...

Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given–when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes.~ Joan Winmill Brown

What is Christmas?  It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.  It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.  ~Agnes M. Pahro

When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness.  ~Bob Hope

Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance - each beautiful, unique and too soon gone.  ~Deborah Whipp

Christmas – that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance – a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved. ~ Augusta E. Rundel

Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most. ~ Ruth Carter Stapleton

Probably the reason we all go so haywire at Christmas time with the endless unrestrained and often silly buying of gifts is that we don’t quite know how to put our love into words. ~ Harlan Miller

Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts. ~ Janice Maeditere

Christmas is the day that holds all time together.  ~Alexander Smith

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day.  Don't clean it up too quickly.  ~Andy Rooney

At Christmas, all roads lead home.  ~Marjorie Holmes

*Linking to Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday's Letter F!

Got Elf?

 I've been collecting ornaments for years.  It is one of the few things in life I have managed to be diligent about and have been for the past seventeen years now.  Every year I get my little Hallmark critter with the year (though the series is currently in the snowman decade) and my Hallmark bird of the year...

Then of course there's the Danbury Mint bird I've gotten every year since 2004...

  
And this year when I went into Hallmark, I noticed they had started a new series of whimsical little birds so the crazy bird lady in me  had to start that one too. (Clearly, I have a problem!)...

A few years back I started trying to get an ornament at every new place I visited.  I really wish I had thought of this idea sooner.  I bought a few of those at the places we visited this year.  This one is from Maine....It's the little restaurant on the water in downtown Camden that we ate lunch at one day...

But none of them can put a smile on my face like my happy little smiling elves.  


I.love.me.some.elves!  


My mother-in-law, Pat (Darin's mom), has a collection of these little guys that she's had for forever and ever amen and once Darin moved out on his own, he would go over for a visit when the elves were out at Christmastime and kidnap them when she wasn't looking.  


I still have two of those old vintage guys, one of whom appears to be  staying together by the support of a single forty plus year old thread. He's got an unfortunate case of the old elf wobbles. And the other one is not in much better shape himself.  Bless their little hearts!


Yes, Pat knows I still have them.  She allows them to live here. She even bought me a new one several years back. And last year?  I scored me some brand spankin' new pointy shoe wearin' dudes to keep them all company and scattered them out around the house... 


And two more again this year... 


I am on an elf roll!


But this year I put them all together, way up high atop the entertainment center so they can keep watch over the boys and the wiener dogs and tell me all about every teeny, tiny, sneaky little thing they do or trick they try to play.


Muahaha! 

I think Mr. Jolly Green Leprechaun on the left there looks like he's throwing back an invisible mug o' ale!

The following two are the newbies I scored at Michael's this year.  I really wanted to take every single one of them home but I do have a little 'elf-control.  It was hard though, y'all!  Oh, so hard!  

There's one of the ancient wobbly heads there with the green and white stockings and Pinocchio nose.  I just love that little old elf man!

This one's just flat out showing off.

Hope y'all enjoyed my little elves as much as I do... 


And if anybody knows of any who are looking for a good home,  please send them my way!  ;)  


**This post inspired by Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday's Letter E and Mama Kat's writing prompt, 1.) Have you decorated your Christmas tree? Share a favorite Christmas ornament.

Sick day

It's been weeks since I participated in Post-it note Tuesday with That One Mom so I thought I'd join back in today...