I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas

This Christmas was a busy one with lots of visitors and lots of presents, two things that I don’t mind. On December 22, 2010 my maternal grandma and papa flew from South Dakota to get a taste of the East Coast. We headed down to see my cousins Ellen and Owen for Christmas Eve dinner and church. Afterwards, we came back and exchanged gifts. As it was pretty late when we got home I didn’t get to set the carrots and celery out for Santa’s reindeer or the cookies and milk for Santa, but I made sure to hang the key by the door before we left. When I woke up on Christmas morning, Santa and his reindeer had left me a note thanking me for the goodies. I thought it was a pretty good trade as he left me lots of goodies under the tree! My paternal grandma and papa showed up in mid-afternoon with my great grandmother and I still wasn’t done opening gifts. Plus they just added to my pile. It was a pajama day to say the least. Then Kim, Don and Tal showed up to have their first ever Christmas dinner. Tal and I exchanged gifts and he played with all my new toys. Speaking of new toys, I completely made out with a castle, farm, doctor’s kit, puzzles, guitar, saxophone, Candy Land, books, clothes and many other goodies!

And of course I just ate and ate, none of the good stuff and all of the bad stuff! This brings up my passion for nuts…this must have come from my father or my maternal grandfather. Regardless who gave me this gene, I love PEANUTS, and almonds, and pretty much any type of nut you give me. This all started with Grandpa Kappenman and his obsession for nuts. He started cracking them and I was right at his side. I couldn’t get enough of the nuts and seek them out.

The day after Christmas brought a massive snow storm to the East Coast. It snowed all day and all night, finally easing up on the 27th but leaving 27” of snow to clear. Of course this meant we had to go sledding and we did. My Papa Kappenman also built me a toy box to hold all my new toys. By the time we could get out of the house on the 28th, this left one day with my Grandma and Papa Kappenman before they took off for D.C. and my Grandma and Papa Basner came to stay as mommy and daddy headed to New Orleans for their annual trip with Jessilyn and Nolan. We spent that last day eating lunch and playing at Chuck E. Cheese which is always a great time. The following days we spent hanging out with Grandma and Papa Basner ringing in the new year.

Happy New Year!

Star Light, Star Bright

Once again, I’m the star of the show. Okay I might be fibbing as I have extreme stage fright. Not sure what to expect, my mother sat in the second to front row this year. Last year she choose to stand/sit in the back and I ended up sitting on some unknown woman’s lap. She was already with her fancy camera to take marvelous footage of me to show daddy but there is no evidence to show daddy. I took three steps into the room and completely forgot my lines. In fact, I had no intention of standing at the front of the class and letting all those beady eyes stare at me. I would rather join the crowd and laugh at them, okay well I was crying the whole time. But there was no way my momma was going to let me miss out on stage fright. No, she insisted that she join the show. In one fell swoop she picked me up and joined in singing. Boy what a pair we made, me crying and her singing and bouncing me. At least she caught a few pictures of my class in action for the memories.