A Vintage Mechanical Santa

Today I wrapped the Christmas presents for my granddaughter Tiffany and her family and took them to the post office where they will be delivered to them in California.

The Christmases Past Shutterfly album that was supposed to be a gift never happened due to a technical issue with Shutterfly, but Tiffany will get it eventually.  Instead, she and her husband got a gift card to Outback Steak House.  Evie got LEGO Gingerbread ornaments and a DVD of the The Best Christmas Pageant Ever from the 1983 TV movie.  And Juliette got her first watch - a Disney time teacher featuring Elsa from the movie Frozen.

When my daughter was recently in California for Thanksgiving, Tiffany reminisced about the vintage mechanical Santa I used to put under the Christmas tree when she and her siblings were younger.  She asked her mom if she thought I would give her the Santa.  The Santa is over 60 years old because my mom used to put him under her Christmas tree before passing him on to me. When he's wound up he rings the bell in his hand.  He's still in his original box and looks pretty good for his age.

Here's a picture of grandson, Brandon, [Tiffany's older brother] holding the Santa in 2002. All the kids loved him.

When my daughter told me about Tiffany's wish to have the Santa, I said, of course.  He's been tucked away in a tote of old ornaments and decorations and hasn't been under my Christmas tree for a few years now.  I figured it was time to pass him on to a new generation, and retrieved him from the tote in the basement and packed him in the box with their gifts today. It will be a nice surprise when she opens the postal box.

Here's to many more years of Santa ringing his bell in his new home!

Do you have vintage Christmas toys or decorations that have been in your family for many years?   My hubby gave his childhood train set to our youngest son who now displays it under his Christmas tree.

The train was a Christmas present to my hubby and his younger brother when they were kids.  They made an agreement that the first one to have a son would get the train, so my hubby got it.  We displayed it under our Christmas tree for several years and my hubby told our two boys the first one to have a son would get it.  So the train went to Jeremy and it's still in good working condition after all these years.

[Jerry and Jeremy]

Christmas Happenings

Children make Christmas special.  Yesterday was our Children's Christmas program at church which was enjoyed by all.  Granddaughter Brooke was one of the readers.

After church a group of long-time friends went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch.  My girlfriend, Lori, was the photographer so she's not in the picture.

One of the sweet ladies at the end of the table [left side], gave each of us a jar of her homemade Strawberry Jam beautifully decorated for Christmas.

When we got home, my hubby put up the Christmas tree.  It's not decorated yet, but at least it's up!

Today he and I went to The Whitney to wrap teacup favors for the December 21st Christmas Tea.   He cut the pieces of cellophane, then I wrapped the teacups with them.  We got one case done [24].  Four more cases to go!

Each guest will get a half oz. package of our signature Mistletoe Kiss black tea tucked inside their teacup favor.

A Great Movie

I had been hearing great things about the movie, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, so Wednesday afternoon [at a 3:30 showing], my hubby and I went to see it.

The 2024 family comedy is rated PG and opened in theaters on November 8th.  It's a faith-based film made from the classic children's book [of the same name] written by Barbara Robinson, published in 1972, and now enjoying a #1 rating on the New York Times Bestseller. Without giving away any spoilers I'll just say the rowdy six Herdman siblings have a reputation for being the worst kids in the world, and chaos erupts when they take over the local church Christmas pageant.

The film is 1 hour and 39 minutes long and was directed by Dallas Jenkins, director of The Chosen series.  It was made into an hour-long TV movie in 1983 and I ordered that DVD for one of my great-grandaughter's Christmas presents.

If you go watch it, take Kleenex as it will tug on your heartstrings.  It's SO good and I highly recommend it because it's a powerful reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.

If you go watch it, or if you already have, please leave a comment.

First Christmas Luncheon of 2024

This post was almost finished [with the exception of the last photo] last Tuesday night [Dec. 3rd] when my computer froze and wouldn't allow me to finish. Ug!!!  I thought my computer had died - or was in very critical condition - so I called my IT guy.  He had me take the tower to his house, and thankfully he called this afternoon saying he was able to repair it.  Somehow, the Google program became corrupted.  Go figure!  Anyway, I immediately picked up the tower, and I'm up and running again.  Here is the post, better late than never.

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I drove to the area where I grew up today to have our annual Christmas lunch with six girls that I went to high school with.  We've been doing this a long time - I have pictures going back to 2011.  Things change over the years - one of the girls moved to Florida, another passed away but we're all grateful we've maintained our friendship for over 60 years.  Three of the gals have become widowed - one as recently as this year so Christmas for her is bittersweet.

[Deidre, Linda & Birdie]

[Sandy, Charlene & Peggy]

We exchanged small gifts after we ate.

I left home with a shopping bag of gifts to exchange and returned home with a shopping bag of gifts received.

My gift to each of the girls was a tin of seven-layer bar cookies and a gift package of hand sanitizer and handcream fom Bath & Body Works.  In return I received an assortment of edible goodies, a candle, a bottle of White Barn foaming hand soap and Lavender & Vanilla body mist, but the best gift of all is their friendship.