My December Reads

December has been a great month for me. I've attended concerts, ballet, theater. I've thrown parties after parties for each of my family members (except Charlton), I've gone sightseeing, and present buying. But above all, I've read some good books, not as many as I would have wished, but a few nevertheless. Without delay, here is the list:

8o. Misanthrope by Moliere
I love Moliere. One day early this month, I didn't feel like reading anything I had on my stand, so I stole myself toward my treasured bookshelf, and grabbed what my eye caught. Anything out of my bookshelf would have been great, but I was pleased I had selected Moliere. I try to read a play or two of Moliere each year. Last year I read School for Wives and Tartuffe; both excellent reads and great for discussion. Moliere is immortal with his wit and philosophy. The plays are beautifully written and for most of us who can't really read well enough French to understand his satire, the translations are amazing as well. If you want to read something different from the usual books, Moliere's plays are the thing for you.

81. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
I was a bit apprehensive about another book from the South with the same theme of black and white prejudices. The prejudices and racism were real and harsh, but I have read too many books with the same theme, and I wasn't ready or even wanted to read another one. However, The Help is very refreshing and uplifting, and that did it for me. There are good, bad and in between characters, but the fact that the novel wasn't only about the racial issue, but mainly about relationships drew me into it. And that's where the beauty of the novel stands in understanding the love that comes from strong bonds regardless of the color of your skin. A good read.

82. A Christmas Carol and 83. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
I was reading A Christmas Carol to my children, and after I finished it, I wanted to read another book by Dickens, and A Tale of Two Cities caught my eye again as I looked at the Dickens' area of my bookshelf. To tell the truth, I'm not a Dickens' fan, but I have been letting Gillian read a few of his books, starting with Oliver Twist, and I wanted to read the rest before I gave them to her to read. Both of these books are great to read as a family, especially with older children. I really enjoyed A Tale of Two Cities; it seemed a bit different from the other books Dickens wrote. At least, dear Charles tries to end his novels happily, especially after he tries to describe every pain and sorrow that his characters go through.

84. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
I was absolutely drawn to this book right from the beginning. It's set in the Middle Ages in the Southern France in and around Carcassonne, and deals with the Crusade against the Christians of the Cathar Sect. I didn't know much about the Cathars and their story, so the book was absolutely intriguing to me. The plot had its usual 'Da Vinci Code' adventures and the search for some kind of Holy Grail dominated the novel. However, because the history aspect of it was new and very alluring to me, I loved reading this book, and truth be told I read its 600 pages in a day. That was the day when Jefferson asserted his mother was glued to her chair. If you love history, adventures, and descriptions of ancient southern France, this book is for you.

85. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
While attending University in Albania studying English, I had a visiting professor from the States who taught us American Literature. He was known in the whole school for his lack of giving anyone As. He had assigned us a story by Kate Chopin, and I was immediately intrigued by her writing as well as her struggle to find balance between being a woman, a mother and an individual in a society where women didn't have much of an identity as individuals. I'm not a feminist in today's society's terms, but I am someone who believes that women and men should work tirelessly to achieve their potential, whether to be the best mother or father you can be, or the best whatever you choose. Anyways, Chopin had my attention, and when time came for essays I chose her and her story, I think it was called The Storm. I got an A-, and I was the only one. I'm not boasting here; I'm just trying to show that when we apply ourselves, especially when we find something that we feel passionate about, we can overcome any obstacles and achieve our potential. What does this whole paragraph have anything to do with The Awakening? I truly enjoyed Chopin's novel, all of it, plot, characters, themes, etc, except for its solutions to the main character's struggle. I expected Chopin to have found her search for happiness in other ways than in what she wrote in her last novel. It made me sad to see that Chopin hadn't realized that true happiness comes from serving others and especially your family. She didn't reach her potential as an individual that she so much wanted to be known as. I will leave it at that. You have to read the book to know what this is all about. This is an excellent book for book club discussions.

86. Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center
After reading a bunch of serious novels, this fun novel about motherhood and its joys and hardships fit right in with my mood. It also deals with the theme of finding your own self amongst a life of motherly responsibilities. I promise I didn't pre-choose my list of reads for this month; it just came together as a month of reading about womanhood, motherhood, and strong female characters. This novel was fun and light. Sometimes, I need novels who uplift and make you smile.

87. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
Perfect ending for a month of great reading on women authors, women characters, and woman issues. I love Virginia Woolf's style and ideas, and this long essay on woman and fiction was a brilliant morsel of logic. I would recommend it to anyone, but especially to those who enjoy a philosophical conversation here and then.


I know I wasn't able to achieve my goal of 100 books a year this time, but I sure had fun reading many a books. I thought I would display the list of all of the books, and if you would like to read about any of them, just click on the label named books on the right side of the screen, and all of the posts with book discussions will come up.

1. The Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

2. Forest Born by Shannon Hale
3.Three lives by Gertrude Stein
4. The Phoenicians by Elsa Marston
5. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

6. 300 B.C by Pamela F. Service
7. 800 by Linda S George
8. 1200 by Alexandra and Pamela F. Service

9. The Epic of Gilgamesh

10. Sahara by Clive Cussler

11.The Magician's Nephew by C.S.Lewis
12. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

13. Seven Miracles that saved America by Chris Stewart and Ted Stewart

14. Wind, Sand and the Stars by Antoine de Saint Exupery
15.Around the world...in 1800 by Ruth Ashby

16. Bridget Jones -The edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

17. "A" is for Alibi by Sue Griffin

18. The Black Death by James Day
19. World Without End by Ken Follet
20. The parents we mean to be by Richard Weissbound
21. The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease.

22. The horse and his boy by C.S.Lewis
23. Prince Caspian by C.S.Lewis
24. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit
25. Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
26. Lives of the musicians by Kathleen Krull
27. Dave at night by Gail Carson Levine

28. The voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S.Lewis

29. Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
30. Katherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

31. Beloved by Toni Morrison
32. Holes by Louis Sachar
33. The Silver Chair by C.S.Lewis
34. Two-Part Invention -The story of a marriage by Madeleine L'Engle
35. Bud, not Buddy by Christoffer Paul Curtis

36. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
37. Enchantment by Orson Scott Card

38. A series of unfortunate events - Book 1 - by Lemony Snicket
39. A series of unfortunate events- The Reptile Room - Book 2 - by Lemony Snicket
40. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
41. Love Walked In by Marisa De Los Santos
42. Belong to me by Marisa De Los Santos

43. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
44. The Last Battle by C.S.Lewis
45. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

46. Medusa by Clive Cussler
47. Driven by Larry H. Miller
48. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
49. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

50. A tree grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
51. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

52. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
53. From the mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by e.l.konisburg.
54. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
55. Frindle by Andrew Clements
56. Artemis Fowl - The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer
57. The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
58. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
59. Artemis Fowl - The Eternity Code - by Eoin Colfer
60. Villette by Charlotte Bronte
61. The life of Charlotte Bronte by Elisabeth Gaskell
62. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
63. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
64. The Season - Sarah MacLean
65. Leave me alone, I'm reading by Maureen Corrigan

66. The Sunne in Splendor by Sharon Kay Penman
67. Mr. Darcy presents his Bride by Helen Halstead
68. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
69. Three cups of tea by Greg Mortenson
70. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
71. Spartan Gold by Clive Cussler
72. A virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons
73. Anne Frank by Rita Thievon Mullin

74. Cleopatra by Susan Blackaby
75. The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks
76. The Virgin's Lover by Philipa Gregory
77. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
78. The Undomesticated Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
79. Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella
80. Misanthrope by Moliere
81. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
82. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
83. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
84. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
85. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
86. Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center
87. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

Last, but not least, here is my top 10 favorite books of the last few years:

1. These is my words by Nancy Turner (2004)
2. My name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok (2005)
3. The Chosen by Chaim Potok (2005)
   
4. John Adams by David McCullough (2005)
5. Villette by Charlotte Bronte (2006)
6. Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter (2007)
   
7. Possession by A.S. Byatt (2007)
8. North and South by Elisabeth Gaskell (2008)
9. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (2009)
10. The Sunne In Splendor by Sharon Kay Penman (2010)

To end this very long post, let me share with you a quote from The Chosen, that has served as a motto for me these past years:

"Human beings don't live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So, it may be asked what value is there to a human life... I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant." (pg. 204)

Do you know of any tap dancing classes?

Last time, I mentioned that these past days every time I wake up I find my boys dressed in style with their striped pants and vest, as well as church shoes. Since we watched Holiday Inn, my boys want to dance constantly all day long. They have watched many singing and dancing movies with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire in the past, and every time they watch them, they beg me for tap dancing classes. I encourage them to dance at home. This morning, they begged me to record them doing their jig. So, here it is:



Is there any tap dancing classes for boys?

Lazy times...

I haven't written in a while not because I have been busy, but because I have felt very lazy. These past days have been the kind of days in which I haven't felt like doing anything, even though with Christmas and guests gone I needed to do laundry and clean house. So instead of being productive in housecleaning, I totally spent my time reading and enjoying my children. I love children's school break; I get to sleep in late, read and play with them, take naps, and just relax. I know recapping my past days will sound very boring, but for the sake of journal keeping here are some of the highlights of our activities:

Sunday - December 26, 2010
The Primary children sang a beautiful song about the birth of the Savior during Sacrament meeting. It was a little group of children since most of the families were our of town for Christmas. I'm always delighted to hear Gillian sing, but this time I was surprisingly impressed by Jefferson's loud singing; I have to say from all of the children up there, Jefferson's beautiful voice was heard continuously and the most. It surprised me not only that he wasn't being his usual shy, but also that he knew the song. Since I'm with them in Primary during sharing time, I notice Jefferson talking and seemingly not paying attention. But he sure knew this song; it made me think he either is smart enough to do many things at the same time, or he is really paying attention even though it doesn't seem like it. A side note here, since Jefferson is doing so well with his reading, lately he is taking delight in singing a lot of songs from the hymn book every night, and wants to read many verses of scripture, by himself. As you can imagine our evening routine is taking a bit longer than we would like it to be, but you can't say 'no' to your child when he wants to read the word of God.

During Primary, Gillian, Jefferson and James were in charge of talk, scripture, and prayer for sharing time. I was very proud of my children. They did it all on their own without any sort of help from me. I just sat with my class and listened. After James gave his prayer, Jefferson stood up, opened up his scriptures and with a loud and clear voice explained which scripture he was going to read, and then read it without any mistakes. Gillian followed with three page written talk (which she wrote all by herself) sharing a few scriptures as well. I was grateful for the church's program that helps our children get confidence and knowledge at such an early age.

In the evening, we all sat at the table and played a few rounds of the new game Gillian got from Santa, Apples to Apples Junior version. Jefferson and Gillian won the game one after another, leaving us way behind. Tonight was Sarah's and Jacob's last night with us, and the children weren't happy about them leaving. They kept giving them hugs and postponing their bed time. We were glad they came to spend Christmas with us. I think we all had a good time.

Monday - December 27, 2010
We slept very late - or better said - I slept in late, while the kids played with each other. After breakfast, we played two games of Apples to Apples, one game of Dominoes, one game of 10 days in USA, and closed our morning with one game of Qwirkle.

After lunch, the children watched Polar Express, while I sat by the fireplace and read contently.
After the movie, we read a few books, and then children played on their own, while I continued reading my book. For dinner, we ate left-overs from the Christmas meal. We read The Other Wise Man for FHE, ate Hershey's Cookies'n'Creme chocolate bars that I got for Christmas as treats, and then, after reading scriptures and singing a hymn, we all went to bed. I was very happy with the amount of stuff I had done, but a bit surprised that none of it was work. I went to bed determined to get more work done the next day.

Tuesday - December 28, 2010
The night before, I must have been half asleep when I committed myself to doing some work today. With a bit of guilt and a lot of joy, I'm here to admit that I used this day to finish my 600 page book entirely. Yes, I read to my children, and played with them for an hour or so, but while they were playing in the computer, or playing outside with rockets and bikes, I was in my chair reading my book. I didn't even take a shower till I finished the book. Call me obsessive, or even not a very good mom, but just know one day a month I deserve total relaxation, and today it was it. We had hot dogs for dinner; I steamed some carrots to make myself feel I was a good mom. I ended my day by watching two episodes of Burn Notice with my man. I went to bed determined to have more of these days in the coming year.

Wednesday - December 29, 2010
For starters, I didn't read even one page today. Jefferson's comment to me yesterday kind of stung. He said "You've been glued to this chair all day, mom." He had his interest in mind when he said it - he wanted me to play Apples to Apples with him - nevertheless, the comment made me feel a bit guilty. So, today, I took them to the library, after which we went grocery shopping. While doing laundry, I played Operation with them, and then read a couple of Magic Tree House books to them.
Later on, I had them clean and tidy up their rooms, while I cooked some yummy soup and delicious grilled sandwiches for dinner. It was funny to see my boys clean with their suits on - they had put their striped pants and vest on this morning, because they wanted to dance like Fred Astaire, after having watched James' movie he got for Christmas, Holiday Inn. When I woke up this morning and found them with their suits on and tap dancing with their church shoes, I couldn't stop laughing. It was a sight to behold. Seeing them clean up their room with the same suits on was funnier.

Elijah came home, and we ate dinner. After visiting with our Home Teachers, the children watched an episode of Star Trek, The Original Series, with their dad. I blogged.

After the kids went to bed, I had a nice evening with my husband talking and sharing our thoughts about various things. It was my favorite time of the day.

Who knows what tomorrow holds?! One thing for sure I know, someone will have to fold all that laundry I did today.

Do you feel guilty spending some time doing your own things while kids play wildly in the house? When do you find time to develop your personal interests?

My husband thinks playing board games all day is too much entertainment for the kids; I call it fun bonding. What is something that your kids do that has a good balance of fun and hard work?

Great presents, good food, and adorable children is what Christmas brought us this year!

I never thought staying inside for two days was going to be much fun. But thanks to the fact that I have awesome kids, a husband who helps, and Sarah and Jacob who entertain so well, we had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

Yesterday, while Elijah and I took a well deserved nap, Sarah, Jacob, and the children had fun reading, acting, and cooking. Sarah applied make-up on my kids and transformed them into little Christmas creatures, with Gillian being Cindy Lou Who, Jefferson transformed into an elf, and James playing Santa Clause. I'm so sad I didn't take a picture of James as Santa, but when I got around to taking pictures he was so done with Santa's beard.

After reading a few books, the children helped Sarah with Santa's cookies. Since Jefferson had promised to leave cookies and milk for Santa when he wrote Santa his letter, he was determined to make some delicious cookies. While Jacob was making a very yummy punch (with sherbet ice cream in it), the children made Peppermint Chocolate Crinkles with Sarah. After dinner, we all tried the goods, and were truly impressed, and confident that Santa would be pleased.

We then watched White Christmas, a favorite in our home. After the movie, we sang Christmas carols and read the story of Jesus' birth as found in Luke 2. The children were very excited for Christmas morning, so they went to their rooms with not much ado. Not, however, before they wrote a note to Santa and left him some cookies and milk:

We had told the children not to come downstairs till we called them. We woke up around 8:00am, called the children who were waiting patiently, woke up Charlton who was sleeping later than usual, and allowed them to dive into Santa's presents.

After examining his gifts, Jefferson went to see if Santa had eaten his cookies, and to his pleasure, he had. Santa had even left a special note for all of them.
After that, we were all ready to open the presents our family had sent us. The children were very pleased with our present to them. They played with them for the rest of the day. Gillian got a Christmas Barbie, James a rocket, and Jefferson was happy to receive a helicopter.
We had a good Christmas dinner, played a few board games, talked, watched Holiday Inn, and enjoyed each other's company. Our Christmas was beautiful and calm. I hope your Christmas was just like you liked it.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Dear family and friends,

I so enjoy decorating my house for the holidays—putting up the Christmas tree, reading Christmas books to my children, taking them to the city to see the lights, watching Christmas movies, and just sitting by the fireplace, sipping hot chocolate, and feeling the spirit of Christmas in our home.

And yet, it was a conversation that I had with my children today in the car that reminded me of the magnitude of the event that we commemorate. We were discussing the many holidays that people celebrate at this time of year, and appreciating the freedoms we have in this country to worship as we choose. And then Gillian asked a rhetorical question: “Isn’t Christmas truly the most important holiday of the year?!” The Spirit filled my heart with such joy that I exclaimed to my children “Yes, it is!” We celebrate the birth of the Son of God, the Savior of mankind. This is not only the most important holiday of the year, but of all eternity. It is only through the atonement of Jesus Christ that my family and I will be able to live with God again. This is the best Christmas gift that we could ever receive.

We’ve missed a lot of you. In January we left Virginia, our home of six years, and traveled cross-country with California as our destination. Our children were able to see many fun places for the first time, including Roswell, New Mexico, the Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas. West coast weather made it easy for us to fall in love with this state. Wonderful new friends and sights have made the transition even more comfortable.

Elijah is really enjoying his new job. He is managing a small commodities trading firm, working with one of his old mission companions. He has enjoyed taking motorcycle trips along the West Coast, surprising our children by taking them to an awesome Star Trek exhibition, planning a special visit to Hurst Castle for our anniversary, and organizing a major trip to Hawaii for the entire company and their families. We all had an unforgettable experience, and were grateful to Elijah for his meticulous planning.

I continue to stay home and take care of the family. I still hate doing laundry, and would rather do more sightseeing. There are very few places in the San Francisco Bay area that my children and I haven’t seen yet. I’ve enjoyed hosting parties, attending book club, learning new recipes at our cooking club, almost achieving my goal of reading 100 books each year, and recording our experiences in my blog. The year has gone by too fast...and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

Gillian turned eight this year, and we were pleased that she chose to get baptized. She is truly an example of righteousness, goodness, and purity; the Lord’s light shines in her countenance. This year, Gillian has enjoyed piano, reading books, writing stories, developing her own drawing style, playing soccer, and attending concerts with mom. She was mesmerized by the breathtaking beauty of the Nutcracker ballet, which we recently saw at the San Francisco Opera House.

Jefferson turned six going on sixteen...or shall we say sixty. He is brilliant in math, great in reading, innovative in science, and mature in thinking. He has already figured out when to take mom's 'threats' seriously. I have to follow through with what I say now or I’ll get in trouble. Jefferson has enjoyed swimming, drawing, and building things. Of particular note, he has spent a lot of time this year perfecting the art of making paper airplanes. He learned how to ride a motorcycle this summer, lost two teeth this fall (one on Thanksgiving day in Hawaii,) was awarded for excellence in math and reading, and beat his dad in Monopoly.

James just turned five. He celebrated his birthday by dressing up as King Arthur and inviting his friends to be the knights and princesses of the round table. It was a birthday celebration in grand scale, and he deserved it. James is thoughtful, kind, patient, loving, and a sweetheart to me. James has enjoyed learning new things and making special friends at Pre-K this year. I used to say that when he grows up, girls will fight over him. I don’t have to wait—they already do. And why not, James is so sweet and obliging to his friends that they love being with him. This fall, James taught himself how to ride his bike. Within the hour, he was riding like a pro. He has also enjoyed making puzzles with mom and playing board games with the family.

Charlton is 16 months old, has ten teeth and four molars, can speed walk, is absolutely independent in finding food for himself, loves to sing, play the flute, and conduct music. Most of all, he loves attention. He has already learned that if he gives me one of his special looks, I’ll drop everything and do whatever he wants. Charlton is an adorable baby and we all love him.

Elijah and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful children. We’ve been given much, and are truly grateful for everything. We wish you a wonderful holiday season. May the Spirit of Christmas fill your homes and warm your soul. Jesus is the Son of God, the babe in the manger, the Savior in Gethsemane, the Resurrected Lord! May these truths fill your hearts this Christmas.

Merry Christmas 2010,

Melita, Elijah, Gillian, Jefferson, James, and Charlton Garmon

More parties?!

Yesterday, Elijah asked me if it would be okay to invite his work friends for a simple brunch the next day. I was all for it. As I was preparing the food this morning, I realized that with the exception of Charlton, this month, I have thrown a party for each of my family members, starting with my Christmas/book club party, birthday party for James, Christmas party for Gillian, and Christmas party at school for Jefferson. And today, a brunch for Elijah's friends. I'm telling you I need to find a job as a party organizer!

It was meant to be a simple bacon and eggs meal, but I kept adding to it muffins, bagels with slices of onion, tomato, bacon and provolone cheese melted on it, cinnamon rolls, fruit platters, and Elijah's praline pecans. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures, but we were all so taken by the delicious food, that I didn't think of it till later when the food was all gone. We then all sang some Christmas songs, starting with Sarah and Jacob (Elijah's sister and her husband) as they beautifully sang Santa Baby. One of Elijah's friends from work is form China and we asked him to sing their national anthem, which he did. We could hear the propoganda while he sang it, even though we didn't understand the words. Gillian then sang some songs accompanied by Elijah and the boys. Charlton was taking one of his four hour naps, so we had no one to accompany us with the harmonica. It was hard to sing without him, but we somehow managed. We all had a wonderful time, and I was glad that my last party of the year was for Elijah, since I never get to do anything special for him.

Around 3:30 we left for San Francisco. Sarah's birthday was today, and Jacob was taking her out down town. As for us, I had gotten tickets for a cable car tour seeing the Christmas lights in San Francisco. The tour was okay. I was a bit disappointed that residential areas, especially the very wealthy ones, had very few Christmas trees on display. We enjoyed visiting Fairmont Hotel, Union Square (did you know that Macy's store in Union Square occupies one whole block with six stories high and all of that just filled with items only for women?) Fisherman's Wharf, Haight Street shops, Chinatown, and many more. My camera isn't that good at night, but here are some of the pictures I took on this tour:


After we all got back, we celebrated Sarah's birthday by eating ice-cream cake, and giving her birthday presents. She had a golden birthday today, since she turned 23 on the 23rd of December. Happy Birthday, Sarah! We all love you.

The Joy this Season brings

I write a lot about the great adventures we have as a family, and this season we've truly enjoyed many fun outings. However, today I would like to share the little random things that make our every day life so happy and fun. We are a Christmasy family; we love Christmas and everything that it brings, decorations, good food, yummy sweets, beautiful carols, time with friends and family, Santa lists, and a lot of love and kindness. Here are some of the things that brought us joy this past week as we anticipate the special day of Christmas.

The joy of eating anything we want

The joy of growing up and reaching for anything we want

The joy of singing carols, especially when accompanied by a harmonica player

The joy of playing quietly inside on a rainy day

The Joy of READING by the fire

The Joy of having educated kids, and hearing them discuss the similarities between their hard work and child labor during Charles Dickens' time, with James demanding pay, and Gillian arguing her rights. Thank Goodness, Jefferson was just happy to get his energy out by washing walls.

The Joy of giving and receiving

The Joy of hearing from friends and family

The Joy of SHORT hair
The Joy of having a beautiful Christmas tree
The Joy of having friends with great Christmas hobbies

The Joy of waiting on line for almost two hours just so Jefferson could tell Santa his list

The Joy of finally meeting Santa (Charlton had no love for Santa, therefore he is not in the picture)

I love the Christmas season. I enjoy working, singing, reading, cooking, serving, giving, sightseeing, concert attending, and just spreading my love to all I cherish. Although I do all of these things throughout the year, or at least try, the Christmas spirit adds a special magic to our life, and we become a bit more patient and kinder to our fellow men. I hope you are all having a great Christmas season!