Christmas Eve...

[lesliepear]

It's raining.
I have a cold :(
DH and Alan are watching a Sponge Bob DVD.

Finished decorating the little "Charlie Brown" tree today. Some day, I'll get a better tree than the 6 foot 19.99 Zayre special I bought with my ex in 1988 - but it works.

Alan tossed out the reindeer food he made in school, complete with candy cane on to our melting snow. Never did that when I was a kid, I left carrots for the reindeer, even into my teens. I'll have some eggnog later though. Don't have the Xmas record we always listened to - the one song I remember was Arthur Fielder's "Sleigh Ride" with a horse whinnying in it. Despite being Jewish, we had an Xmas tree covered in tinsel in the basement on the wooden cabinet - it was on top due to our cat Frisky. In later years, we had 2 - there was one on the dinning room table with gold tinsel that my mom rescued at 1/2 price on Xmas eve from Pathmark. I had that one for a while after my mom died, but gave it away - not that you can find tinsel anymore in silver or gold :(

We always had one of these type of tree toppers on the tree - never knew what they were called. My tree has one that's lighted.

I have one wrapped extra-large bakugan (Bakugan Daka) for Alan for under the tree, although he got 2 Hanuka presents already - the Power Rangers action figure he wanted and a folding Hot Wheels Race Track (which is pretty decent for Hot Wheels Track). I wrapped a Hot Wheel car and some extra Bakugan cards for his stocking. (He doesn't really know Bakugan rules yet, nor do I, but I grabbed the cards a while back. I still have 1-2 extra bakugans hidden away for rewards. Since DH is not a stuff person, I don't go overboard - and we don't have room for more stuff anyway. Maybe in the next year or two Alan will get a true video game(Nindendo DS, Wii, Playstation or whatever's next), but for now he has the leapster and the controller game on his TV. (We aren't gamers, I'm a total spaz at most of them. I owned a Sega Genesis in the 1990's that I won in a contest. I left it with my ex as he liked the casino game - if he'd only played that more instead of the real thing).

Most of the vacation looks quiet for us. We are going to the Museum of Natural History on Saturday with friends. Monday DH has to go in to the office due to requests from his big boss. And I have to get Alan to the lab before New Years for routine blood/urine tests from his checkup. (If I do after New Years, it's on the new insurance which I don't have cards for yet.)

Happy holidays to all! I'm being paged to make a racetrack out of non racetrack stuff by Alan (I'm so the engineer....)

Comments

[bghsmith.livejournal.com]

I think those are simply called 'Tree Topper'. =)

Bakugan rules are simple. You put the cards face down, roll your Bakugan and get the card it pops open on. Each card has a list of colors and each color has a score value. (Plus or minus points.) Each Bakugan has a number on it someplace. You match the color on the card with the color of the Bakugan and add or subtract as noted. The person with the highest score wins. The Bakugan all have 3 digit values, so it may be a bit advanced.

Have you seen the big Bakugan? They are awesome and work on the same cards as the small ones. I think they are easier for the little one to roll then the small ones.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

That's the extra large Bakugan I got him for Xmas. He'll be amazed with it!

[quiltingdragon.livejournal.com]

I have tinsel on my tree. Silver. Must be a regional thing! Remind me next year and I'll mail you some. Or if I see some, I'll pick it up at the after Christmas sale.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Thanks - but with a 6 year old, I'm not sure it's a good idea. Plus I'll be vaccuuming forever :(

Did you ever post that corn muffin recipie?

[butterflymama3.livejournal.com]

I've seen that game but have no idea what it is all about. Thankfully Peter doesn't either.

So out of sheer curiousity why did you have a tree growing up?

Have fun at the museum.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I think it may have been my maternal grandfather's idea which my mom kept up. It apparently went up on Xmas eve - I think my mom and my uncle were brought up in a very assimilated family in the 1930's in NYC.

It never bothered her (I never got to ask) and didn't bother me growing up. My ex was Catholic, so it wasn't a problem when I was married to him.

Alan got bakugan as a birthday present from a friend - fortunately he isn't super into it yet - he prefers Power Rangers or Hot Wheels (Thomas hasn't been played with in a while, alas).

[butterflymama3.livejournal.com]

ah, that makes sense now.

[harinakshi.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you guys did both.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Well, sort of both - and with Alan only the last 2 years as he started to notice :) But we do tell him we're Jewish (which was a difficult thing to explain when he wanted the glow-in-the-dark cross from the vending machine that his friend had!)

[harinakshi.livejournal.com]

lol!

So it's just kind of for him so he doesn't feel left out of the christmas fun.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Pretty much for him (and my memories!)

[harinakshi.livejournal.com]

Aw, that's sweet:) With how much Christmas is shoved down kid's throats I could imagine it would suck for Jewish kids

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

It isn't easy - although there are a lot of Jewish people in the NY/NJ area, our town has very few.

[eloren.livejournal.com]

I had no idea Ryan even knew what Bakugan were...but there it was on his Christmas list. Since I don't know if he's big enough for the game itself, he got one of the big action figures. Once I understand the game, we'll see about some of the actual pieces.

[rodluvan.livejournal.com]

Now I learned a new word : tree toppers.
I did not know the name of that thing before. Interesting that you have these. Vi use to have a star in the top of the tree, but you can buy toppers too.

I was born in the Netherlands and my mother always had such a topper in the tree. This was common in Holland