Christmas Season

Hello, it's been a wonderful holiday season, I just finished delivering to my friend Esmer some pumpkin bread and banana bread with the Christmas cards I made for the homeless veterans shelter she works at...I hope they enjoy them....this is my first year to do this and it has been one of my favorite things to do this season.  My tree is up, we bought it the day after Thanksgiving and it has hardly lost any needles, most of my presents are wrapped...except all the ones on the table still in bags...well, I will get to them eventually...Gary took us to see Imagine Christmas in Galveston it was amazing...basically it's a live theatre performance of the birth of Christ from the angels perspective...lots of singing, live music, and aerial acrobatics...you are seated at candle lit tables, which are decked out in all the holiday styles complete with linen napkins, the dinner is a buffet and starts about an hour and a half before the show starts....salads, sides, vegetables, meats, breads, and desserts, basically, the food was perfect... after dinner the show starts as you are finishing up dessert...they have the scriptures on the large screens projected for all to see as the story unfolds....the room it is performed in is some sort of ball room, carpet is plush...beautiful chandelier type lights are over your head, I think its something used like for a very fancy wedding reception...very grand in appearance...it is one of my most treasured holiday memories...then we strolled thru the Festival of Lights at Moody Gardens...they have the area that you stroll thru completely covered in lights and displays...I think its about a mile or so that you stroll along the path, right next to the water in Galveston...as you approach the lights they have audio sound effects to go along with the lights....as we were entering Bethlehem the audio starts talking about Joseph and Mary having to go to Bethlehem to pay their taxes...as you pass the animals they start making all kinds of noises it feels like the jungle...as you pass the train the conductors voice from Polar Express starts asking for your tickets...etc...etc...it was a perfect holiday night with the family.  We did the Christmas train at Victory Camp in Alvin and ate at Big Als Pizza before the train ride....it was fun visiting with family and friends...we got there at 6:30pm and stayed till they shut the place down after 10:00 pm...We went to the League City Christmas parade and then went to the Holiday in the Park Festival following the parade and ate some great BBQ and looked at the booths...I had a really cool cupcake there too, I just can't remember the kind, but it was good...it's been raining thru out the night at my house and everything looks very soggy outside...it just makes being inside at home so warm and cozy...and relaxed...I tried to find my great niece a special present...the crayon color maker that they have been advertising, it's very cool, you take your old broken crayons and melt them down into new tie died looking crayons...but in the sixth store Rebecca and I still couldn't find one, Rebecca kept muttering behind me down each aisle "God forbid we should find one"....and as we were going into the seventh store to look for this "special present"...she informed me... not asked me... INFORMED me "You are going to pick something else, aren't you"...."Yes" I assured her we were....needless to say we picked something else...Rebecca found something else and said "This is awesome, she will love this, tell her I wanted one and she will love it..." now seriously, I can't tell if Rebecca who is 13yr., really thinks Madeline who is 8yr. will really love it, or if Rebecca had completely lost her Christmas shopping MOJO and would have been fine with giving the child a Christmas handshake at this point in our shopping day...so we had to make the purchase...and then refuel...I had a large icy cold diet Coke and an equally large monster cookie, Rebecca opted for the personal pan cheese pizza and a bottle of water....as we were headed to the car to "regroup" Rebecca said with a mouth full of cheese pizza "the only good thing about this shopping day has been seeing Mrs. Valdez, and she looked great"...basically we turned a corner in Toys R Us and literally almost bumped into her....I shook my head up and down and stuffed some more of the monster cookie in my mouth and then sucked deeply from my diet Coke straw...."are you OK mom, don't get stressed"...I heard Rebecca say...I came back to myself and  told her I would be fine, I just needed to get out of this high traffic BayBrook Mall Area...Rebecca informed me that she
hates shopping....and I agree....I have to be in the mood for it myself...did I tell you I had to return a shirt because I bought two of the exact same kind at JC Penny...well, we took the shirt in and got in yet another line, as we were shuffling in the line I was rummaging for my receipt so I would be ready for my turn....my other daughter called and as I was talking to her, I must have sounded weird because she said "are you OK", I said "no, I'm not" and handed the phone to Rebecca and said you talk to her...then realizing I did not have my receipt...I had to get out of the line and leave and now I have to go back again later....we went to Bed Bath and  Beyond to use my coupons on my purchases from the other day, they are great about letting you do that, anyway I saved another $48 dollars just by taking my receipt back with the rest of my coupons....I found a gift card holder tin that was red and says Happy Holidays in gold and it has an audio button that plays the Bing Crosby version of Happy Holidays...it made me feel better...I kept pushing the button...Rebecca kept telling me "please stop playing that... do not push the button again"..."No" I replied "I will not stop, it makes me feel better"... and I pushed the button again...as we drove out of the parking lot of yet another store...Merry Christmas to all of ya'll....