• Holly Jolly New Traditions

    Life is different this Christmas. Henry and I decided it would be fun to start some holly jolly new traditions for the two of us as far as decorating for Christmas goes. It’s always been a big evening for us as a family and we want to keep it as an important part of our year, but do things in a new way! I mean, change is fun, huh? After school on Friday, we headed to the Walmart in Dunwoody to take part in Clark’s Christmas Kids. If you’re not familiar, every Christmas, Clark Howard and News/Talk WSB join with the Georgia Department of Family and Children’s Services to provide…

  • Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015

    Oh, 2014. You’ve been good and you’ve been bad. As far as I’m concerned, you can go ahead and get on out of here… Last year, I chose Intuition to be my word of the year. I’ve worked very hard to trust my intuition this year. It isn’t always easy, and sometimes it’s downright impossible, but when I’ve listened? It’s never led me astray. +++++++++++++++++++++ 2014 was a busy year, and unfortunately I didn’t share a lot of what we did in posts. But here are some of my favorite moments from the year. January: I cut off all my hair and the entire metro Atlanta area shut down from #snOMG14.…

  • {Part 2}: The Door To Christmas: Story of The Christmas Room

    For Part 1 of The Christmas Room story, start here. ******************************* Once everything was checked out, we were given the thumbs-up to go into The Christmas Room. In spite of being in that room year in and out, the magic of the room made your brain feel all oogly woogly and for a moment you couldn’t remember where you were supposed to go or sit or what you were supposed to say and YAY IT’S CHRISTMAS WE’RE FINALLY IN! If you’ve ever been lucky enough to go into The Christmas Room, you know that whether it’s April or July or the day after Christmas, you will long for wrapped gifts and…

  • {Part 1} The Door To Christmas: The Story of The Christmas Room

    The door to the jewelry store was locked as soon as the clock struck closing time on Christmas Eve. Jewelry was put away, money was counted, the employees milled around to wait for their gifts that were always handed out after closing. My sister and I were twitchy to get out of there so Christmas could start. Christmas Eve was always spent at Grannie’s. It was tradition. It was how Christmas started. After we got home from the store, my parents seemed to mill around for hours. My grandparents and Aunt and Uncle knew to wait for us, that we would be there as soon as we could. It seemed…

  • The Christmas Horse

    Once upon a time, in like 1978, there was a little girl we’ll call Lana (rhymes with Jana, only different). Lana got dressed up one day in her pretty little red dress with her precious white tights that seemed to stay bunched up around her knees and ankles. She was only 3. Lana’s mother and her mother’s best friend were off to do some shopping before Christmas. Lana was the only child between the two families and therefore was very rotten. Secretly, to this day, she’s still the favorite of the children between the two families! They headed off to Macon to a little gift store called Forrester’s. They probably…

  • Roses In December

    I was reminded this morning of one of my favorite quotes. God gives us memories so that we might have roses in December. ~ James Barrie ~ After Charlie died, my dear friend from college, Laura sent me a book that helped her through the loss of her first son in 1999. Laura’s story is a beautiful one that include love, loss, survival, perseverance and selflessness. The book is Roses in December by Marilyn Willett Heavilin. I wasn’t too sure about the book when I first started reading it. Marilyn had lost three sons. Her first son died at 7 weeks old. Her second son died two years later from…