The kids are already asking for special gifts for Christmas. Kendyll is at that age where she notices every toy advertised on TV and proclaims, “I want that” every 30 seconds. Steven is happy to play with any toy that he finds lying around and can entertain himself quietly forever. Boomer and Maggie are more selective but their gifts are much more expensive, too. Levi never knows exactly what he wants. He’ll mention one or two things but it’s like he’s not even sure.

I have a few ideas for Kendyll and Steven but I’m stumped for the other kids this year. Money is a bit tighter than years past. I can remember when each kid got a new bike, new remote control helicopters, cars or trucks, 3 or 4 video games each and more Legos than any ten kids could use in a lifetime. And Maggie always ended up with a half dozen dolls or so. My how times have changed around here!

The thing is, though, that the kids are fine with fewer gifts. Its the grown ups who expect to see more. When I’m trying to make the Christmas money stretch this year, I’m going to have to remember that.

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I can’t seem to figure out why numbers that end with zero are more significant than numbers that end in, say, 4 or 7 or 9. Why is 30 more significant than 29?

As I sit here staring at the half century mark I can’t help wonder what the big deal is. I’m the same this moment as I was an hour ago, before those numbers clicked up one more. I’m almost certain I have no more wrinkles than I did two days ago, no extra gray hair. My weight is holding steady at “Oh, NO!” and the same bones that creaked last week are creaking again today. In other words, nothing has really changed.

And yet here I sit, contemplating this age. I wonder and I fret. I know I’ll get past this and head on to the next Zero-ending milestone but for now, I’m just not sure how I’m supposed to be feeling. Maybe I thought that something magical and fantastic would happen as midnight rolled around. Maybe it will happen at 6am, the hour I was born.

Or maybe not.

My husband says, every single year, “It’s just another day. One day older than yesterday, that’s all.” And he’s right. I’m not a year older than yesterday, I’m a day older. Every day, I wake up one day older than the day before. This is no different really. I’ve just been doing it for 50 years and if I have my way, I’ll be doing it every day for another 50 years. Or so.

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Sometime after my parents moved to from downtown to their own home, our extended family began to celebrate Christmas at our house. It was always so exciting, with my mom and dad both cooking and cleaning and getting ready for the family. One moment, the house would be all decorated and shiny with unbelievable aromas coming from the kitchen and almost instantly, the house would fill up with people and laughter.

At some point in the night, my mom would take my sister and me to our bedrooms and tuck us in. We’d listen to the sky, straining to hear the sleigh bells over the voices downstairs and eventually we’d wake up to our mother’s voice telling us that Santa had just left.

We’d open our packages as all the relatives looked on. There were always baby dolls and as soon as she could, Aunt Jenny would scoop up the dolls to play with. I think she enjoyed them more than we did.

One Christmas, though, was different. Mom came upstairs to wake us and whispered that if we were very quiet we could sneak downstairs and get a glimpse of Santa. I don’t think I ever woke up so fast! SANTA! I was going to see him in my own living room! It was just too wonderful to imagine!

We crept down the stairs and there he was! He was huge — all dressed in his red suit with a fluffy white beard. And there was Aunt Jenny, tugging at his suit, touching the furry white trim. Monette and I giggled then hoped he hadn’t heard us. We watched him walk out the front door, never questioning why he didn’t swoop up the chimney like he was supposed to do.

Of course, we went to school after Christmas vacation and assured all of our cynical friends that, indeed, Santa was real. We had see him ourselves, right in our own house, on Christmas Eve.

It was years later that my mom explained to us how Santa came to be there that year. Our cousin, Butch, had been drafted; He would be going to Viet Nam. He wanted to do something special for Christmas, maybe so that we’d remember him if the worst happened. I do remember when Butch was overseas; we’d send “care packages,” as my mom called them, every few weeks. We’d load them up with trinkets and snacks. I really didn’t understand where Butch was or what the war was all about. I just knew that he missed all of us and we wanted him to come home safely. He did come home but we lost Butch in 2004 to cancer.

Sometimes my childhood seems like a different lifetime. Memories become hazy or distorted. My memory of that one Christmas — when I got to see Santa in our home — is as vivid today as it was then. That memory will live forever. Thanks, Butch. You’ll always be our hero.

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Well, I’ve changed my mind. I had every intention of waiting until the first of the year to begin my weight loss plan. I had such great success quitting smoking as a New Year’s resolution 3 years ago that I figured it would work as well for losing this weight that I put on when I quit smoking. But I changed my mind.

After the weekend, I’m beginning my weight loss plan. I thought about starting on Thursday but I wanted to celebrate my birthday with Kendyll this weekend so Monday looks better. I’ll begin with a fast/cleanse. I have a couple of herbal teas, one a blend and the other dandelion, that I’ve used before. Hopefully, one day of herbal tea will jump start my metabolism and send my weight loss in the right direction. After that, I’ll do my modified low-carb plan. In fact, I’m going to begin working on that plan now so it will be ready by Monday.

I have a closet full of clothes that don’t fit right now so being able to wear them again will be quite a treat. Heck, it may be like getting all new clothes! Once I’m at a more comfortable weight, I’m going to up my exercise from a couple times each month to 3-4 times each week. I may look over my life insurance plan and get a few lower insurance quotes, too. Being healthy and fit will have all kinds of benefits.

Most of all, I just want to look and feel better. I want the aching to go away. I want my clothes to fit right. I want to feel good about me. And that won’t wait till the first of the year.

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Hard to believe that we’re just weeks away from Thanksgiving, Black Friday and the shopping days till Christmas countdown. With the economy in such a mess, spending wisely on the right gifts is even more important than usual. I know we have only so much money to go around this year. Considering how our family is growing with grandchildren, that’s making it even more difficult to find just the right gifts for each child.

My goal this year is to get each of my grandchildren two or three toys that are so awesome that they won’t notice that there isn’t a room full of toys like the last two years. One of the best resources I’ve found is the Best Toys Guide, providing reviews of the top toys 2008 has to offer.

Before I take anyone’s word for anything, I like to do my own independent research. Since Kendyll and Steven are getting past the toddler stage, I decided to take a look at the recommendations for toddler toys to see if they match with my own opinions. We’ve got almost two dozen of the top toys here and the kids just love them. That’s a very good sign.

At ages 2 and 2 1/2, Kendyll and Steven are ready for preschool toys so I checked out some of the reviews. I shouldn’t have kept reading, though, because now I’ve got a Christmas list that’s two pages long!

I hadn’t even thought about getting Kendyll a doll house until I read the great review about the one from Fisher-Price. I’d totally forgotten how much I loved my own doll house. Oh, and until I read the article on the Rose Art Easel, I hadn’t thought about my chalk board in my mom’s basement for years. We spend hours writing on it and I’ll bet Kendyll and Steven would love this updated version.

The Best Toys Guide is just about the best toy review blog I’ve found. The toys that are chosen for review are some that I’ve wondered about, like the Crayola Glow Station and the LeapFrog Leapster 2. Rather than make a mistake with a toy that is too advanced for the kids or just plain boring, it’s good to get an honest opinion about the toys we’ve been considering for the kids. The toys being reviewed are some of the newest out there. What a great resource!

My kids already know that we’re trying to be more frugal this Christmas. With resources like the Best Toys Guide, we’re going to be able to stay within our budget without the kids even realizing that we did. We’ll invest in the best toys recommended here rather than throwing good money away on toys that are forgotten by the time the New Year rolls in. If you’re looking to make smart buys this year, you don’t want to miss the reviews at Best Toys Guide!

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Maybe it’s because I’ve raised so many boys. Or maybe it’s because I just love kids. Whatever, I’m always happiest when my house is full of children of all ages laughing, yelling, jumping and playing.

As long as no one is fighting or crying, the sounds of children are the happiest sounds around. I know, some people call those sounds “noise” but I don’t. Noise is a jackhammer. Noise is the garbage truck on Friday morning. The sounds of children are not noise.

Then there’s the linear motion: Up and down, up and down, as if their feet have springs in the bottoms or sailing across the floor on a rug, down the steps in laundry baskets, and yes, even through the air occasionally. And let’s not forget the circular motion – spinning spinning spinning around until the dizziness drops them to the ground.

Did I mention that I love when the kids are all playing like that? Did I mention that the kids in question range from 2 to 20? This went on for over 15 minutes. It was a wonderful 15 minutes!

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We built our home 15 years ago. Every year we come up with a list of things we’d like to change. One thing that my husband always wants to change but I won’t even consider is the jacuzzi. It’s huge – 5×7 – and has its own room. I use to enjoy it at least once a week but the cost of water and electricity (and propane to heat the water) is so high that I feel guilty using it. And really, I don’t think I enjoy it nearly as much as I did when we got it. So I’m considering letting my husband get rid of it.

He’s talked about putting a laundry room there but I don’t like the idea of the family having to go through my bedroom and bathroom to get to the laundry room. However, my office is right next to the jacuzzi room and accessible from the hallway. I think we could turn my office into a laundry room and turn the jacuzzi room into an office. And maybe even add an outside door and deck onto the office. Wouldn’t that be nice?

If we move the laundry room then it would need to have nicer fixtures than it has now. I’d want a front loading washer, for one thing. I also want a utility sink with a cabinet and maybe some attractive bar faucets instead of the plain utility ones my husband put in my current laundry room in the basement.

Of course, back in the real world we first have to replace the side porch that we removed when we installed our concrete sidewalks last year. I just have a feeling that now that I’ve agreed to eliminate the jacuzzi the husband may be more eager to do some remodeling. We’ll see.

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GRMBLE GRUMBLE GRUMBLE

A long time ago, when Nick was about 6 years old, he made a mess of my kitchen bar stools with a pen knife. He was poking holes in a plastic lid so his pet toad could get air. He cut that lid straight through to the seats on my stools.

Last year I replaced those seats, keeping the metal bases. The new seats weren’t as comfortable as the old ones but they were close enough. I hoped they’d last another dozen years. Uh, yeah, right.

Already, one of the bar stools is out of commission. Two of the four screws that hold the seat onto the base have fallen out and are now lost. I’m sure one of my boys can fix it but I’m just not very happy that the screws fell out in the first place. I have to face the fact that I’ll probably need all new stools in another year or so.

At this rate, I’ll never be able to save enough for my Botox, Restylane, Liposuction, or whatever else is on that ever growing list of ways to slice myself to perfection.

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I’ve been having trouble relaxing at night. It seems I’m staying awake later and later. When I do lay down in bed, I just stare into the darkness. I can’t seem to get tired. I was thinking about that the other night and realized the last time I slept really good was at my mom’s house this summer. I was in my old bedroom trying to sleep when it began to rain outside. I could hear the rain beating down on the roof and the sound of the water was so comforting that I drifted off quickly.

I don’t know what it is about rain and the sound of water in general that calms me. My husband is the same way, in fact. The sound of rain always makes him tired. Near the ocean or around any moving water, my soul is at peace. If only I could bring that feeling into my bedroom every night….

You might not believe this but I actually found a way to bring the soothing sound of water into my bedroom. I’ve looked at Water Fountains for in front of my house, mostly because my son Nick has always had his heart set on one, but I didn’t realize there were Indoor Water Fountains as well. Considering my husband is in construction and has built some pretty lavish homes, you’d think I would have run into one of these before.

While the floor models are very pretty and would look great in one particular corner of my bedroom, I worry about the kids or the dog (or the kids AND the dog together) getting a little boisterous and knocking it over. Yes, it can happen in my bedroom, too. Trust me, it’s the reason one of my closet door mirrors is cracked. But I digress.

What really caught my eye were the beautiful Wall Fountains. Yes, you read that right. These fountains mount on the wall which is why the site is called Soothing Walls. There are so many different styles, some taller, others wide. I’ve never seen anything like this before.

Interestingly, in 16 years I have not hung one single picture on my bedroom walls. I’ve got all my other walls decorated nicely but not the bedroom. My husband asked me to please leave those walls bare because that’s how he likes them, so I did. That means that I have A LOT of wall space in my bedroom to put a wall fountain. Since my husband loves the sound of water when he’s sleeping, I just know that he’d be fine with hanging one of these on our bedroom wall.

Can you imagine how wonderful it will be to lulled to sleep by the sound of a gentle waterfall? Seriously, I think I’m getting tired just thinking about it. And you know with my birthday coming up very soon, this is going right at the top of my list. My husband has been bugging me about getting rid of our jacuzzi and I think I might just agree to that if he’s willing to surprise me with one of these indoor water fountains. After all, a girl only turns 50 once, right?

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Have you ever found some item from the past and had a flood of memories from it? That happened to me the other day and I’m still thinking about it.

I was trying to decide which of my purses to use and when I opened one of my Coach bags I found the paperwork for the travel insurance we had when we traveled to Hawaii with my granddaughter, Kendyll. That was just in 2007 but still, what a blast from the past!

Of course, I immediately pulled up the pictures from that trip and marveled at how much Kendyll has grown. She was just a chubby little thing then and now she’s so much taller and even putting words together in sentences. I watched the video of Kendyll playing on the beach and running toward the water. Naturally, that made me cry. How I wish I had those moments back!

Silly as it may seem, I put that paperwork into a different purse, figuring that I may find it again in a few months or so. Then I can relive those fun times again. And again. And Again.

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