3 Weeks Until Christmas

Confession time: Christmas is my absolute, unequivocally, most favorite time of year. I start the Christmas Carols on Thanksgiving day and don’t stop until well into January. I decorate the day after Thanksgiving and love creating new themes each year for the house. My station is tuned to 94.1, which in Tulsa is “all Christmas-all the time”.

And one of my favorite things to do this time of year is to create a bizarre Christmas photo with my best friend and husband.

Here are a few from Christmas past:

2007.
Ah, yes. The ’80’s were a good decade. The hair, the high waisted swimsuits, the neon colors, the immovable cobra hair. Could it get any better than that?

2005.
Our house blew up. Seriously. Why not wish our friends and family Merry Christmas with a picture of total devastation?

2008.
Bananas in hammocks. ‘Nuff said.

If your appetite is now whetted and you aren’t satisfied with just three lovely Christmas Card pictures-don’t worry. There’s more where this came from. Including litter boxes, cats, missionaries, glamour shots and more.

We’ve been doing this since our first year of marriage in 2001 and we just finished this year’s beauty. I wish I could share 2012’s masterpiece with you now, but I must wait until all recipients on my long list have received their cards first.

Let’s just say, it’s pretty awesome.

The Case of the Missing Half Banana

This past week, I flew off to St. Louis to visit my parents and Grandmother. I left behind a sad Biceps and two kittens, but that’s another story for another day.

My parents moved in with my widowed 94 year old Grandmother years ago, allowing our visits to encompass a multi-generational fun fest.

She is quite the character-often praying for the squirrels “swollen bellies” and asking God to provide enough food for them. Little does she know, my dad scares the squirrels off the bird feeder with his BB gun-“motivating them to go into another yard”.

It’s quite the sitcom around that house.

Grandma is notorious for rising in the middle of the night and having a little snack. But she often won’t admit to it, or conveniently forgets she’s done so, when the next morning Mom tests her sugar levels and they are too high or too low.

I woke up one morning to Grandma and Mom already bustling around the kitchen and to this question posed by my Grandmother, “Did you eat half a banana last night?”.

Of course my answer was “No”. I like green bananas-not the bananas Grandma keeps that are on the verge of meltdown.

“Well, someone did,” Grandma responded. I looked at Mom who rolled her eyes.

So, I posed the question back to Grandma. “Did you eat half a banana, Grandma?”.

“No, or at least I don’t think I did,” she said and dug into her watered down cereal.

Hm….

“Well, if I didn’t and mom didn’t and dad didn’t…,” I said, pausing for her to come to her own conclusion.

“It must have been the cat!,” she said, victoriously. And took a bite from her toast, confident she had solved the case.