Mr. Sidney, in the kitchen, with bottle parts...and other Christmas happenings

Sometimes Sidney is just so helpful that we search high and low for things only to discover it was right in front of our nose the whole time. Take for instance yesterday...we've been having extremely cold snowy days and with the wind it puts it below zero sometimes. We're all cozy in our place, busy decorating for Christmas, making goodies, watching TV on the internet and listening to Christmas music. Sid is helpful and does the dishes and neither one of us thinks much of where all the bottle parts are other than drying in the dish rack. A few hours later, I go to make a bottle for Sophia and there are quite a few nips and rings missing from the drawer...Sid, have you seen them? Did you see Sidney with them? OH NO!!! He probably threw them in the trash and Sid took that out a while ago!! So, brave Daddy bundled up, went out and rooted through the garbage bin, looking for the missing pieces. Mind you, this was after we checked the 'usual' hidey spots...nope, not in the cupboard we let him play in...not in Sophia's bassinet...not in the toy basket...not in the stove drawer either...wasn't in the trash either. Oh well, guess we should watch him more closely...HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! Only after Sidney has gone to bed do I discover a ring in the bread pans (I was making banana bread) and Sid found the rest in one of the kitchen drawers. What makes it cute is that we always put the nips and rings in another drawer and he was helping by imitating! Our little man is growing so quickly...

On another note, I've been rather down about htis holiday season...Christmas is my ultimate favorite time of year and it just wasn't feeling quite right. Yeah, we're broke but presents are easy to make and we know others are in the same boat and so we've all kind of let it be known to not expect extravagance. I've been hanging lights, garland and setting out my collection of nutcrackers but something was really bothering me...we didn't have a tree and no hope of cutting one ourselves (anybody wanna trim the tumbleweed??) and they want too much for one at a lot. But today on my way from the Ephrata senior center thrift shop (WAY cool by the way- full of cheap junk and LOTS of baby/kids clothes!) to Walmart to get Sophia her own stocking I whizzed pass the tree lot acoss from Sears on Basin street. I've been watching the prices of their trees going down since about Friday. $40, $35, $30 and earlier today when we went to Sid & Julies, it was down to $20. I wondered if it would get really cheap on Christmas Eve and maybe we could scrounge up enough to get a REAL tree. This evening around 4:30 the bright flashing sign said FREE and lo and behold, the trees really were free! I froze my hands to the bone and used bungee cords to strap on a beautiful pine tree about 6 feet tall and not too bushy to the Tahoe. I cried (and am doing it AGAIN as I type!!! Blasted postpartum hormones....) and thanked the good Lord for giving me a Christmas tree. I know it is just a tree and started shedding needles as soon as I looked at it, but I have so many good memories of hunting for the perfect tree...winters at Buckhorn with Gramma and Granpa, Rachel and I forging our way into Wenatchee forest in my Honda Accord and forgetting the rope to find our tree and returning to the same spot every year with our growing families. I love the lights on, music playing, dark and snowy out, unwrapping each ornament and knowing the story behind it. I love watching Sidney point and exclaim over each new treasure and listening to Sid try to hang stuff with Sidney under foot...literally. Sophia is in her chair cooing or sleeping, depending on when she had a bottle and I look at my little family and hope I can make their Christmas memories as good as mine are.
So in the spirit of the Christmas season (which I get to drag out until mid-January!!), I hope you and your family are together, warm and safe, making precious memories out of fleeting days. I hope that whether you have a tree or not, it doesn't matter as long as you have your loved ones close. It is great fun to have all the trimmings of Christmas...food, music, lights, bows, food, goodies, snow, sparkly ornaments, did I say food?...but it is more fun to remember why we have Christmas. The miraculous birth of a small child so long ago is why we can enter Heaven and be with our loved ones forever. I recently wondered out loud to Sid if he thought baby Jesus spit up all over Joseph and Mary and made nasty stuff out of perfectly good food and got into everything and rearranged stuff in Mary's kitchen. After he quit laughing and shaking his head at me, he said "probably!"
From our pine-smelling house to yours, have a truly Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!