Carl Crossman

One thing I really enjoy about Christmas time is the time I am able to spend with my family. Two of my cousins were able to stop by last night and stayed the night with us. They are on their way to Kentucky to visit even more family members. Even so, we had a nice time this morning sitting around the fire and playing a game of cards.

My Mom and I teamed up against them for a game of pinochle. Mom and I lost by one point but it was fun all the same. They will be leaving soon but it was nice to see them and catch up on family matters. Christmas is truly magical for those who are fortunate enough to have family to spend it with.

Written by Sherri Hicks

As far as I’m concerned, one of the best parts of the entire holiday season is the opportunity to watch the best old Christmas specials every year. The animated shows are probably my favorite overall — and though it’s hard to choose a favorite episode of all, if I had to pick my favorite, it would be Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Every year, I love to watch as Rudolph struggles with being different, faces the Abominable Snowman, and ends up finding a way to save Christmas for everyone.

This year, I watched Rudolph on Direct TV with the little girls I babysit for. The younger one had never seen Rudolph, but had heard plenty about him from her older sister. As a seasoned Rudolph fan, the older sister sat next to me and talked about her favorite characters, telling me why she loved Rudolph himself the best. When the show came on, the younger sister was simply in awe. It was amazing to me to see how engrossed in the old style animation she was, especially in comparison to the modern shows the girls usually watch.

However, I suppose that’s what makes Rudolph such a classic and is one of the reasons that it’s my favorite Christmas special. There’s something about it for everyone that transcends current trends and popularity, making it a timeless classic.

Guest post written by my buddy Keith Kramer

Every year Cheryl and I take a full day to go Christmas shopping together. We plan the trip over the phone, about a week before we meet. It’s a standing ritual to make sure that sometime during this phone call we remind each other to set our home security alarms before we leave our houses, always remembering the year I forgot to do that, and had to leave the mall to go back home and adt security home alarm.

We meet at a designated shop at the mall at 9:30 AM, and begin the shopping day separating from each other for about a half hour so we can buy each other something special that we exchange at lunch time at our favorite restaurant. We usually take along a gift bag and tissue paper so we can make the exchange festive without a lot of fuss. We only see each other rarely, and it’s so nice to have the opportunity to see the smiles on each other’s faces at this Christmas shopping luncheon.

Except for that lunch break, we’re serious shoppers until we’re broke or too exhausted to take another step, whichever comes first. It’s an occasion that has become a tradition for the two of us that we look forward to every Christmas season.

Written by Sonny Quinn

I woke up this morning, raised the shade in my bedroom window and was surprised to see that it had snowed overnight. This is the first snow of winter this year. The first snow is always special to me for some reason. I remember as a child that when the first snow came, we would all race home, grab our sleds and head for the nearest hill.

It didn’t matter that there may have been only one inch of snow on the ground when we got there and it wasn’t good for sledding, but, we would wait. Sometimes we waited for hours for the conditions to be just right. Once they were, we would set sail down those hills on our sleds as fast as we could. The races we had were fantastic, the crashes were always fun for some reason and just the general comraderie we felt with our friends was worth all of the cold and runny noses.

Today, I still get that feeling when I see the first snow of winter. I think maybe I should grab my sled and hit the hills. I am sure my back and legs would not appreciate that, so I think I’ll leave that for the kids and just watch. Once we have finished out sledding, we can all go inside and watch a great movie on our satellite tv from www.DirectStarTV.com.

One of the more exciting events that is happening in our family is that my daughter is moving. She was recently married and her husband wants to move to Texas to start his career there. Although the two have been planning the move for some time, there are still a lot of loose ends to wrap up before they leave. I thought I would help them out in any way I could.

I visited the house the planned to move into and I must say that it needed a little work before it would be fit to live in. I spent some time looking for carpet cleaning solutions austin. I knew the rugs were in pretty bad condition. Another thing I looked for was a water damage company austin. There was some damage in the kitchen that needed repair.

One thing that we all liked about the house was the big back yard. It had a big fence for privacy and a nice deck. The problem was that the deck was weathered. That’s why I needed a power washing deck austin. The good part is that once all these problems were taken care of, the house would be a great place for them to start their new lives. I am glad I could help out the young couple and hope they will do well in the future.