Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer?

December 19/12.

Coming up for a very strange and (sometimes) sad Christmas I think.

The first one without Auntie Ray, (who passed away July 16th, 2012),

the third without Uncle Ev, (December 14th, 2010),

and also third without Mum, (October 19th, 2010).

Luckily, Carrie and I still have each other to lean on as we sing, "Have yourself a merry little Christmas....until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow," (as Judy Garland performed in the emotional original lyrics, before someone changed them to the crappy - "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.")
Gag me.

And we have our cute kidz, Kate, Lee and Max, (who will hopefully perform some Christmas music for us)!

Carrie has significantly-significant other Paul Nodwell,

and I have "Mr. Responsible," - Sam!

and of course, we have our beloved cousin Kev - (and his shy family who prefer to stay out of pics as much as possible). But "Mr. Rough Trade" has never turned me down when it comes to "posing." Love you Kevio!

So all in all, hopefully, we're bound to have a truly Merry Little Christmas, HOWEVER it plays out!

My son, Max, helped me decorate on Sunday the 16th - (getting down to the wire!) Though we're not all that religious, we always unwrap the creche,

the three wise men, the shepherds, the animals, Mary and Joseph, and our own private little game is, whomever unwraps the baby Jesus, is the winner. (That tradition was started by our Mum when Carrie and I were kids - we would race like crazy to find that little baby)!

This year, it was Max who located him wrapped in tissue paper, in his tiny manger.

Took hours to get the 20 boxes of decorations up from the basement, unpacked, empty cartons returned to closets,

and all the little Santa's sleigh trinkets carefully placed on display.

Other special sparkly ornaments fill the dining room,

or are placed on table tops,

around the house. I know where each and every one of these decorations came from, who gave them to us and the meaning behind them.

Won't bore you with the details, but I adore them all!

Meanwhile, (before I got the decorations up), my daughter Kate had a special holiday potluck dinner party with a group of great friends. She and her boyfriend, Damian, (with her in the funny face t-shirt at the end of the table), cooked up a storm. Everyone else brought a dish to share and a great time was had by all! It's a pleasure to have these kids around!

I went shopping for MORE traditional items. We ALWAYS got red Delicious apples in our Christmas stockings from Santa, so of course, I had to have a few of those,

as well as plenty of mixed nuts to suit the nutty fam,

plus honey tangerines, (also always in our stockings),

and some Clementines from Spain at $3.99 per box!

Then another trip back to the Eaton Centre,

where I checked out the changing colours of the LED tree,

took an auto-cam pic with it, and

then went shopping for family prezzies, hoping I didn't buy all the wrong things and sizes!
Still more to come, and yes, be afraid, be very afraid!

What's left to do? Cooking! (not exactly my specialty...duh).