Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Christmas was busy and a bit of a blur this year. I had a lot going on this year but still managed to see friends and family, while starting a new job that is 45 minutes from my house and trying to finish renovating my new house. A tradition that started about 10 years ago or maybe even longer, my dad, mom and I travel to Spartanburg on Christmas Eve to deliver presents and goodies to former neighbors and family friends. I absolutely LOVE this day (and it is a FULL day). This year we left our house at 8:30am and made our way to Union to my dad's former secretary's house, which he and my mom have become very good friends with. We exchanged gifts, chatted and then headed to Spartanburg to eat lunch at the Beacon. I was so excited to get to eat there again. It's one of the many things I miss about not living in Spartanburg anymore. Needless to say, our lunch was yummy! After leaving there, we headed to the Pittmans, Sistares, Roberts and finished at Mildred Knox's house. Even though we only see some of these people once a year, we truly realize what wonderful friends they are. It's like we see them everyday. This day is what really gets me in the Christmas spirit! After our final stop, we made the hour drive back to Anderson so that we could prepare for our 2nd Annual Santa Sighting! You see, my dad bought a Santa costume a couple of years ago and last year decided that he would be in my nephews backyard when they drove up from the Mullikin's Christmas Eve dinner. We coordinated the timing with my sister and it worked out perfectly. We dropped my dad off behind their house and mom and I parked on the side of the road and waited. We could see the headlights pull in the garage and then back out again and we could hear the bells he was ringing. Once my dad made it back to the car, my phone rang and it was my sister informing us that "Santa" had been in the back yard. Both boys ran to their rooms to get ready for bed but Mark just jumped right into bed, clothes and all. He said you had to be asleep or Santa wouldn't stop at your house. They could not get him out of bed to change his clothes. On Christmas day, Ben took Papa to show him where Santa was the night before and low and behold, what did he find? Two silver bells from the "sleigh". Both boys were really into The Polar Express, so this was very fitting. Well, that was last year. This year, "Santa" and his reindeer (aka, Molly) had their picture taken in a sleigh and we were ready and waiting for the call to tell us when to get into position. Again, it worked perfectly and the boys saw Santa in the backyard but we didn't see them run across the house looking out the window, we didn't get a phone call afterwards and the boys didn't really talk much about it the next day. Sad, I guess they are growing up! I just hope we have at least one more year of Santa!