Have a Wonderful Christmas!

I was up until 5:00 AM making pj pants last night and I'm afraid I didn't get a chance to put together a post for you. I was hoping to do my 3rd quarter link up with Emmy and Shell and my other blogger friends, but that didn't happen. I was up again about 8:30. There is just so much to do!! My sweetie insisted I lay down for a quick nap this afternoon, but it's nearly 2:00 a.m. now, and I must confess that I'm tired.

To help make my life easier, my sweetie is helping with this post. He wrote the family history story I promised a few days ago about the sleigh bells.

"A couple of days ago the sleigh bells were mentioned and the story behind them. I’m not entirely sure of the history of the bells before the late sixties and early seventies, but what I do know is that they belonged to my grandfather, and he said they came from a real and actual sleigh. He kept them in a closet under the stairs, and we would get them out and jingle them. 

We loved them because they sounded and looked just like the bells that Santa carried when he came to our church meeting on Christmas Eve. Every year Santa would come and give all of us kids a little sack with peanuts, candy, and an orange, and he always had the same bells that looked and sounded just like my grandfather's bells. 

All of us kids knew the difference between the fake Santa that was at the stores downtown and the real one who showed up at the church on Christmas Eve. He was loving and thoughtful and knew our names and was so sweet. He would often show up at our homes an hour or two after the program. I still remember the time he came to my house and told me he would bring me some Legos later that night...  Sure enough, the next morning there were the Legos! As the years passed, the real Santa must have gotten too busy because one year Santa sounded a lot like Bishop Hardy... and a few years after that I saw bishop Hardy come and borrow the bells from Grandpa a few hours before the program... 

My mom eventually got the bells from her Dad, and I borrowed them to play Santa once. After a few years of that they just stayed with me and my Santa suit.. Which is perfect because they look and sound just like the real Santa’s bells."

We hope you have a wonderful happy Christmas full of love and laughter.