It's Christmas Eve and what a great day we've had!
When Luke arrived this afternoon, he got the turkey rubbed down and ready for frying and then we gathered up the bags of toys to take to the local battered women's shelter. Due to confidentiality, Luke, Ryan, and I were unable to actually see the children and their mom's, but we could hear them playing in another room. We had carefully chosen gently used toys to give and ended up with quite a few for the children who ranged in ages from newborn to 13 years. I also sent a dozen oyster shell Santa's that I had made for the mom's. Ryan seemed happy and pleased that these toys would be for children that might not get a visit from Santa this year. It was a wonderful experience, not only for Ryan, but for us as well. Luke decided to make this shelter his number one charity.
We arrived home again and after the turkey was all marinated up and fried to a golden brown, we all gathered around the table and ate turkey sandwiches, chips, and pickles. Warm turkey sandwiches are awesome for a Christmas Eve supper. Once again, Luke did a SUPER job on the turkey! Yumm! We even listened to a little Christmas music while we ate, which made it even more enjoyable (to me, anyway).
After supper we muted the TV and sat in the living room together to open a few gifts. Ryan gave Mr. Luke a flatulence noise maker. OMG. I have had to listen to a continual stream of farting since the gift was opened. Mr. Luke said it was probably the best Christmas present he had ever received.
Ryan settled down and wrote his letter to Santa to leave on the hearth with cookies and milk.
Before going to bed, he wanted to show Mr. Luke the magic bell that Santa left for him a couple of years ago.
"You can only hear the bell ring, if you BELIEVE.", Ryan told him. Mr. Luke could not hear the bell. Ryan tried everything he could think of to help Mr. Luke hear the bell, but no use. He rang it louder and louder and over and over again.
"But Mr. Luke, all you have to do is say you BELIEVE and don't cross any of your body parts.", he said. No matter what he did, Mr. Luke still could not hear the bell and so Ryan decided to change his letter to Santa by asking Santa to come to our house tomorrow so Mr. Luke could BELIEVE.
Luke said, "Ryan, what I want for my Christmas wish is not to be chubby and no back hair."
"Mr. Luke, Santa Claus doesn't do those kinda wishes. You're gonna have to give him something he can work with.", Ryan informed him.
So the cookies and milk were set out and the letter was written. Ryan was finally ready for visions of sugar plums.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
I love the Christmas season with all the lights and decorations. I love reading the story of Jesus' birth and attending a Candlelight Communion Service. I especially love spending time with family and friends and watching the excitement in the eyes of the children.
Ryan has been extremely excited this year with the anticipation of Christmas and Santa Claus visiting on Christmas Eve. I felt that he might be missing the true meaning of Christmas, so I asked him about going through his toys to see if there were any toys that he no longer enjoyed playing with, that he could give to children that didn't have any toys or didn't have any parents. He promptly answered me with "No, I don't have any toys I want to give away."
Surely he does not understand, since he obviously has way too many toys and doesn't even play with most of them. So I said, "What about this Batman figure? You never play with him and you don't even like him."
"No, Nanny. I don't want to give him away.", he said, emphatically.
"But Ryan, it's for children that are orphans and they won't get anything for Christmas because they don't have anybody to look after them.", exaggerating my point.
"No.", he repeated. "I said I don't want to give any of my toys away! They probably would just tear them up anyway."
I did finally locate a jigsaw puzzle that he agreed to give up. I hate to mention that this particular jigsaw puzzle has already been re-gifted at least twice.
* * *
So a little later, I asked Ryan, "Do you know who's birthday is on Christmas?"
"Santa Claus!", he exclaimed.
"No, Ryan. It's not Santa Claus' birthday . . . Santa Claus is just a spirit.", I said.
"No he's not! He lives at the North Pole with his elves and his reindeer!", standing his ground and thinking that his Nanny has lost her mind.
"Ryan, Christmas is Jesus' birthday.", I said. "Jesus was born on Christmas Day and the three wise men brought him gifts. That's why we celebrate Christmas by giving gifts just like the wise men did for Jesus."
* * *
I thought Ryan knew all the answers to my questions and I'm truly embarrassed that he answered the way he did. I think his answers were a lot like many other children his age and he forgot the true meaning of Christmas because he was so wrapped up in what he would be receiving from Santa.
In light of this conversation with Ryan, I felt it was past time that he understood the true meaning of Christmas. We are taking gifts to the local battered women's shelter on Christmas Eve. I want him to experience what it's like to give to those less fortunate. He has also been missing way too many Sunday's in Sunday School. That is changing.
We had our biggest Arts and Crafts Festival of the year here on St. Simons Island this past weekend and it was FABULOUS! The economy is in a down swing, but we were surely not seeing it at the Santa table. It was absolutely wonderful to see each Santa go to a new home or to a new friend or family. I felt like I had put a little tiny piece of St. Simons Island in each and every bag.
We set up the booth on Friday afternoon and evening for us to open at 10 AM on Saturday. Afterwards, Luke cooked us all a big pot of Jambalaya for supper while we discussed the schedule for the next day and tried to relax a little.
We had a 'pregnant belly' shoot at 8:30 AM scheduled for Saturday morning with the Mom and Dad to be. It went great and I even got a sneak peek at the photos afterwards! The finished photos are going to be beautiful. Check out our website soon at http://www.lonepine-photography.com/ for new pictures.
After the photo shoot, Luke and I headed over to the Festival to finish setting up the booth for opening at 10 AM. The weather was chilly but not too terribly cold, so I wore my Christmas sweater and enjoyed wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. Although the plan was for Minor to bag the Santa's and count the number sold while Luke and I did all the selling, it never quite worked out that way. We had so much fun selling and bagging, we all just did whatever came next. Luke and I enjoy the selling, so Minor didn't mind at all making coffee and food pickups throughout the day.
One of the other vendors that we have met through these Festivals is a lady that we know as Miss Millie. Miss Millie makes jewelry and travels here from Florida each time St. Simons holds an event such as this. She travels to other Festivals as well, but she makes it a point to be here. We have grown to love her and watch out for her when she is in town. Meeting people from all over everywhere is always exciting and this weekend was no different. We met people from Australia and others from Canada, as well as other states.
Luke had to leave early on Saturday to get ready for a Christmas Party on Saturday night. No problem, since Minor was there to help take up the slack. I turned the tables on Luke on Sunday, when I had to leave early to sing in The Messiah at 4 PM.
The Festival ended at 5 PM as did the performance of The Messiah, so the three of us met back at the house and decided to celebrate our FANTASTIC weekend by eating a big juicy steak at Outback. And of course, I couldn't leave out the fact that it was happy hour! I LOVE Outback!
We all worked sooooo hard to make this weekend a success and it truly was. Even if we never sold a thing, it was so much fun, we would do it again in a heartbeat!
The Arts and Crafts Festival here on St. Simons Island was this past weekend and having a vendor booth was a new experience for us. I was a bit apprehensive going into the weekend, but Luke kept cracking the whip on me and pushing for more, more, more! I finished 25 dozen Santas (with the help of Kate) and Luke actually painted the first coat of paint on at least 1 of those dozen.
So I felt comfortable with my inventory and we had high hopes for good weather, lots of buyers, meeting lots of people, and more fun than you can imagine. We were NOT disappointed!
We only had 1 1/2 weeks to prepare for this festival, and were not as prepared as we would have preferred to be, although we sold a lot and made some good money at it. It was a wonderful experience for our 1st time in though, and we came away with lots of knowledge to take home with us for future festivals.
Luke's photography ( www.lonepine-photography.com) will add a much needed boost going forward and we'll have time to get those prints ordered and prepared to sell for next month. Our personalities, as well as our artistry, complement each other and that is a VERY good thing for our partnership when it comes to selling.
On 1 occasion when an interested buyer walked into our booth, she was eying the freshly painted Santas, and pondering over the selections.
Luke said, "Those are oyster shells that Miss Carla found here on St. Simons Island. I found 2 or 3 of them though, but my name's not Carla."
I said, "Yes, he found at least 2 or 3 of them by kicking the shell with his toe in the sand and saying, "Here's one right here, Miss Carla". But, yes, the shells are all found on the beaches here."
Luke added, "Yeah, the shells are from East Beach and the moss is from the trees in Miss Carla's backyard and the paint is from China. So don't lick it."
Luke also had lots of opportunity to check out the other photography booths and also found lots of model subjects for his portfolio. He has a way with folks that just makes them love him. Lucky for him.
A Mother and Daughter were here from Washington State and were having so much fun with us about our thick Southern accent. The Daughter said she had asked another Southerner here to repeat their sentence 3 times before she realized they were speaking English. Now THAT'S funny, ya'll.
There were times we were having so much fun, Luke won't even allow me to divulge it.
I'm calling that "leverage" over him. Ya'll, as Luke's pseudo Mom, I have the goods on him this time. Only a Mom could help him out in the way I helped him. It was just short of wiping his butt. I'm loving that leverage.
We met and talked with so many wonderful people from all over the U.S. and it was absolutely AWESOME! We can hardly wait until the next Festival to do it all over again!
And don't forget to go to my profile page to order your St. Simons Santa for Christmas this year!
