Christmas comes...and Christmas goes...

...and I have spent part of the morning packing decorations away till next year. Little by little every day, everything gets put away, and the magic elves aren’t helping. Actually, the elves are still on the little ladder near the big tree, making believe they are hanging ornaments. They won’t have such cute smiles on their faces when I put them back into the box.

The weather has turned cold, raw, windy, cloudy...  very un-Texas-ish. We need some sun here, and the weather gods had better be on their best behavior in early February when Barry Manilow comes to the Houston area for a concert. Be still my Manilow-loving heart.

We had a nice Christmas... lunch with friends, then an afternoon visit from other friends, then a quiet Christmas dinner at night. I called some of my aunts and cousins, eMailed other cousins, and still waiting to hear back from others.... cousins all over the country. Amazing that we all lived on Long Island so many years ago, and now we are scattered all over the place. From NY to AZ, from FL to TX to IL... holidays at the kid’s table in grandma’s house is a distant memory. But we talk about all of that every year at Christmas-time as if it had happened just yesterday.

As I type, Savannah is stretched out on the sofa in the TV room... she is covered up with a blanket, and loving every doggie minute of such pampering. We discovered she likes a blanket on cold days, and she will do her best to stay tucked-in until she positively has to get up. No, this dog is not spoiled.

Speaking of spoiled, Sweet Pea is sleeping in his cat-bed which is right next to the heater. And there he will stay until he gets hungry enough to pop out of his warm comfort zone for a can of Fancy Feast.  One of our friends told us the other day that if she gets to come back to earth for a second life, she would like to be one of my pets, be it cat or dog.

...and the children were nestled all snug in their beds, with visions of Manilow singing in their heads.... (is it February yet?!)

Manilow is coming to town....

...and he’s checking his list to see who’s been naughty and who’s been nice.... and who gets seats closest to the stage....

A Christmas miracle.... after announcing a couple of years ago that he would be retiring from concert tours, Barry Manilow will be in concert in Sugar Land, Texas, this coming February.  What a great way to start the New Year!  My husband has already bought our tickets and I am counting the days till February.

We had gone to see Manilow in Houston two years ago, for what we thought was his last concert in our city... it was a wonderful but bittersweet night, listening to Barry and thinking I wouldn’t be seeing him on stage again. I have lost count of how many times we have gone to his shows... mostly front-row seats... in New York City, on Long Island, at the Hilton in Las Vegas, and so many venues all over the Houston area, and we once missed him by a day in London.

And now Manilow will come back to Texas... yes, Virginia, there is a Santa.

Until then... I sit here with a very bad cold.... I got sick the day after our Christmas party and the coughing and sneezing and what-have-you has been relentless. I hate being sick... such a waste of time... and I am a bad patient because I refuse to give in and it’s hard to just sit still and be sick.

I have been reading Christmas books, one after the other... thinking of Christmases gone by... if you think too much, it gets you sad. So just keep reading.

Think of something else.... such as what to wear for the Manilow concert.....

Jingle Bells...

It has been a busy week, and as I type, it is four o’clock in the morning and I have the washer going. Somehow, the washing machine sounds louder than it does at four o’clock in the afternoon. I was asleep a little while ago, but Savannah barked because she heard the latest stray cat out on the porch. Maybe she thought it was Santa.  One short trip out to the grass with Savannah has gotten me wide awake.

We had our Christmas party last night.... instead of a Crazy Christmas Sweater theme, we did Crazy Christmas Socks. Among others, we had red and white striped elf socks, penguin socks and Santa socks, silver snowflake tights, white socks filled with coal, and reindeer socks that were attached to a Rudolph “onesie” complete with tail and a red nose. I shall not reveal the wearer of that hilarious outfit, just in case she wants to remain anonymous.

To add to the Christmas spirit of the party, we had snow the other day. More than an inch but less than two... great big pretty flakes that stuck to the grass and bushes and closed the schools till noon that day. The property looked beautiful, but I do miss the 80-degree temperatures of last week. Having a white Christmas in Texas is not what I am dreaming of, with apologies to Bing Crosby. Hopefully, this cold weather will pass and go back up north where it belongs.

Last Thursday was the final Book Club afternoon for my 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. They have exams this coming week, and then the school closes for the winter break. We will resume Book Club Thursdays in mid-January.  The students weren’t happy about missing a few book club days, but we had a little Christmas party this past Thursday.  Their book selections were all Christmas stories, and they had a good time picking out their favorite old ones and discovering new ones. More than once, I heard a fifth-grader say “I love this book... I read it when I was a kid!”   I had candy canes and snacks for them as well as Christmas grab-bag gifts, and the students who did not yet receive their magic wands got to pick theirs last Thursday.

The kids are just so enthusiastic about the book club, and the ones who have decided to keep their books are happy to be starting their own little library. I have stressed the importance of keeping their books in good condition so they will have them for years. When I told the students that I have books that I read in the fourth and fifth grades, they looked at me as if the books had to be falling apart from such a long life. One little boy told me that I must be as old as 25, so that made up for the ‘ancient’ age-appraisals of the other kids.

The Magic Wand Book Club has been going now since the term began this Fall.... it seems like such a long time already that these kids have been in my life. It was all I could do not to ask all the kids what they wanted for Christmas and then go out and shop till I dropped so their wishes would come true on Christmas morning.  These kids have so little, and the grab-bag gifts and books and wands that they get from me are received with such joy.  One of the boys last week asked me if he could pick out a girl’s gift for his grandmother instead of picking a boy’s gift for himself.  I quietly told him to pick one from each pile. These kids... how could you not love them?

Yesterday up on Long Island, the daughter of one of my cousins got married. We didn’t go up for the wedding... my husband is in the midst of giving final exams at the university and traveling at this time of the year is iffy because of the weather up north. They did have snow for that wedding up on Long Island, so I can't wait to hear from my cousin tomorrow if her daughter-the-bride was happy with the snow or not.  My cousin's daughter was here to visit us last May, and I sent her home with pearl and diamond earrings to wear on her wedding day.  I can't wait to see the pictures of the wedding, and she will also send me a video of the church ceremony and reception.  C had her wish... a winter wedding.... but her mother wasn't too thrilled about the snow.