BURRRRRRRRRR! It's 18 degrees and I'm freezing my booty off! We slept with a lotta covers on the bed last night...the sheet, the comforter, 2 quilts, a fleece blanket, and an afghan. Michael had to go into work...he gets off around 1-ish I think, so he had to get out of bed and get out in this stuff. The roads are slicker today than they were yesterday. Am I in Mississippi, and in December?

The kids are watching all the little Christmas shows on Nick, Jr., and eating popcorn. Yes, popcorn. We were plum out of Poptarts, and thankfully Michael's Dad brought us a galon of milk when he picked up Michael for work. Travis begged and begged for popcorn, so ONLY because it's Christmas, I made a big bowl of popcorn, and both boys are munching away on it in front of the TV, lol. I told him "Don't get used to eating popcorn for breakfast." I can tell Travis is getting excited about Santa Claus coming! He keeps asking me "It's Christmas Eve?" except he pronounces Christmas more like "Chriss-isss", which is totally cute!!

EVERYTHING is wrapped, minus my Dad's gift card, and everything is put together, praise God. I had to ask my Dad to come over Tuesday afternoon to help me assemble Travis' "big" present. It took 2 and a half hours, even with my Dad's super handy skill and talent. He's such a perfectionist, I swear. Like, he would get parts put together, and then look over it and say "I'm not happy with that...I need to tighten this again," or "I think it would be better if we switched these two parts." I don't know what I'd do without him sometimes. I promise you there is NOTHING he can't fix or build. There's NO WAY I could've put it together by myself. The thing is HUGE!!! I acquired some of his perfectionism (is that a word?), I just don't have the "man strength" to go along with it, or the power tools he has, lol. Of course, last night I did assemble Jacob's "big" present all by myself, and I was quite proud :-) I have my very own tool box, believe it or not. Michael will tell you any day that it's mine, and even Travis knows "That's Mama's tools."

I enjoyed that time with my Dad, though, and it brought back a lot of memories of when I was a little girl. I can't help but wonder if he was thinking the same thing at the same time I was thinking it. I would always "help" him in his shop. He would give me little nuts and bolts to sort out or he would tell me the names of different tools and teach me what they were for. I think I could have learned a lot more from my Dad, probably could have learned how to fix cars, maybe even build stuff, but I never took the time to. I just always assumed all men knew how to do everything, because my Dad did, and that all Dads were that way, so I didn't think I'd need to know how to fix anything. After I grew up and hit the real world, I learned quickly that not all men are even remotely as good at fixing or building as my Dad. Actually, I learned there's no one out there much like my Dad in A LOT of ways.

I could probably write a book about my Dad and what a wonderful person he is. Yes, he has his quirks, too, like, he's very disorganized, he can't spell very well, he has poor hand writing, he can't type, he can have a temper at times, and he's bossy and demanding sometimes, but he has so many great qualities that it's so easy to overlook the flaws.

He always took such good care of us, we never went without anything we needed, and he would work even harder to give us something we wanted. My Dad was gone a lot working, and I honestly can't remember a time where he ever sat down and played with me and my sister when we were little, but even still I have so many wonderful memories of him and I was always so proud of him, and still am. When it came to Christmas, my Dad always had such a child-like heart, and he still does. He's always been full of Christmas surprises, whether it be pulling a trick on someone, or buying something extra special and thoughtful. My Mom always made Christmas special with her lovely decorating and yummy baking, but my Dad kept the Christmas spirit alive just by the way he would get into it. He's the type person that doesn't care if he gets anything for Christmas or not, he just loves to see the happiness in everyone else. You can shop and decorate and bake and wrap presents all day long, but if you don't have that kind of Christmas Spirit, all of that work and effort is in vain.

I know this was long...much longer than I intended it to be....but if you have a warm Christmas memory, I'd love it if you'd click the comment link below and tell about it. Let that be your Christmas present to me :-)

Merry Christmas to all!