Where Romance and Suspense Collide

Tag: Santa

Merry Christmas!

SMJ’s Last Christmas Countdown Entry

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well, it’s Christmas Eve and I wanted to post this since I’ll be busy with family tomorrow as I’m sure you all will be!

It’s not exactly a silent night, but imagine us singing it to you.

 

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Until next year this is SMJ & Sandra saying have a blessed Christmas and a

joyous New Year!

 

SMJ’s Christmas Countdown Continues

Apologies, Apologies for missing so many days of the Christmas Countdown!

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I really have to apologize. There is no excuse for my lack of posting the past few days except…no, there’s no excuse. Can I make it up to you by giving you some M&M’s? I don’t mind sharing even though M&M Peanuts are my favorite.

You’re probably thinking, what’s he doing with M&M Peanuts. Didn’t he just recently make chocolate chip cookies?

I know, but I needed a change from cookies. Besides, I know I’ll be making more cookies over at Sandra’s someday soon. She likes to bake up a bunch of different kinds of cookies. I can’t wait to find out what we’ll make this year. One cookie she makes that I really like looks like a candy cane. They’re fun to make and eat. If she makes them, I’ll try to remember to post a picture. I’ll also see if she’ll share the recipe with you, though I can’t promise. You know how people can be about ‘secret’ recipes.

So, while there are other things to tell you about, I thought I would show you what I was doing yesterday when I should have been posting. See, it was a SNOW DAY for most of the schools in the area. You know what that means, right? We hChristmasTreead a bunch of snow! I mean a bunch! Oh, first, let me show you how snowy and cold it was with a picture Sandra sent me. I know, I know, it’s another Christmas tree picture, but look out the window behind the tree. That’s not just snow on the window, that’s how hard it was snowing outside. The little dog at the bottom of the picture is Rudy, Sandra’s dog. Here’s a fun piece of trivia. Rudy is a rescue from Japan. Yep, you read that right, Japan. Before you ask, no, he doesn’t bark in Japanese, silly.

As you can see from that picture it was pretty crazy weather. We had to wait until the afternoon to go outside and play because it was too windy. When it stopped snowing and the wind eased up a little bit, some of my Sock
Munkee family here at Mom’s house and I went outside to play in the snow.

IMG_20151215_052233Yes, yes, that is a reindeer Sock Munkee, but it isn’t the one from the last post. I’m still hoping Mom might bring him home for Christmas. Although, as long as he finds a good home, I’ll be happy and I know Santa will make sure he does.

This is only part of the crew. They pushed past the rest of us and ran out the door. Then they all jumped in the snow and started singing. Silly, silly, monkeys.IMG_20151215_052159

Over to the right, you can see a couple more of the family. See the one with the orange sweatshirt? He never takes that thing off. He’s such a Syracuse fan. He watches or listens to all the games. When they don’t win or at least play well, he is not fun to be around. He pouts and grumbles for hours. Now that I think about it, he acts kind of like Sandra does when her Yankees don’t do well. Sheesh, sports fans are a little crazy.

FIMG_20151215_052447or now, here’s one more picture of all of them after we came in from playing.
I’m not in the picture, because I took it . I’m getting to be pretty good with the camera. Don’t you think so? It’s a pretty good family pic, but there’s still more family. I’ll have to remember to get Mom or Casey to take one of all of us for Christmas so you can see everyone.

I promise to try and do more catching up tomorrow. What did you do on your last snow day?

Later!

SMJ

SMJ’s Christmas Countdown #10

Christmas Tree Viewing with New and Old Friends.

Welcome back everybody! I think this will be the last time for a Christmas tree post. Well, unless I see one that I just can’t resist showing you. If that happens I’ll sneak it into a post somewhere. Teehee. Hmmm, that reminds me. I haven’t posted Sandra’s decorated Christmas tree yet. Look for it in a future post.

Let’s start tIMG_20151209_075649his adventure through Christmas trees with an introduction to a new Sock Monkey, Reindeer Sock. I can’t remember ever seeing a monkey with antlers before, but I try not to judge by looks. Besides, he is pretty cute. He’s also generous. See the sticker on the floor next to him? It says Sock Monkey Peppermint Candy Canes. Really, they were labeled as HIS candy canes, so there was no doubt who they belonged to. However, he shared them with anyone who came by him. What a guy! I LOVE candy canes. If we hang them on the tree at my house they don’t last long because I keep climbing up the tree and eating them. I know, it’s naughty, but I just like them so much! Mom just shakes her head and reminds me I still have to eat dinner. Anyway, back to Reindeer Sock. I really wanted to bring him home with us, but mom said no. I didn’t gripe or whine, though. It is only a couple weeks until Christmas. I don’t want anymore naughty marks on Santa’s Naughty or Nice list. I did glance up at her soon after we walked away from him and she had this silly little smile on her face. That usually means she has a surprise planned. I wonder if she already arranged for Reindeer Sock to live with us after Christmas. I hope so. If not us, I hope someone gives him a great home because he’s such a sweet kid.IMG_16691559204088

The next friend I wanted to introduce you to is hidden inside this shiny tree. Can you see him? Look right in the middle and you’ll see two little eyes and a pink nose. That’s Pooh, Casey’s kittie. When I saw this picture I imagined I was in a safari with lions and tigers hiding everywhere. Then I remembered there aren’t any white, frilly, trees in the jungle and they definitely wouldn’t have pink and blue lights on them. Whatever Pooh was thinking, he looked a little silly with all the white branches and sparkling lights around his little face. He’s usually not this daring. On the other hand, his brother Tigger? He’s another story.

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You met Tigger before. He was in the black and white picture I had in a previous post. His eyes were glowing just like the tree lights in that picture. Here I think he’s trying to help decorate. Granted, it’s more likely he was trying to knock it over or grab something off of it to play with. Tigger is one of those kitties who looks for trouble. He really doesn’t have to look hard. It usually finds him.

I shouldn’t pick on him too much. He’s a Cool Cat. Like how I did that, made him sound like he’s the Cat’s Meow. Oh, someone stop me!

“Thanks, Tigger.” He gave me a little swat with his paw (no claws, he wouldn’t do that) to snap me out of silly line phase I’d fallen into. See, I can always count on Tigger to help out.

Next up in the Christmas tree tour today is Casey’s tree. This one is reminiscent of CharlieIMG_20141201_101205 Brown’s tree in A Charlie Brown Christmas. The show came out in 1965 and it’s still a favorite of people everywhere. Just so those of you living out here in Colorado’s time zone don’t miss it, here’s a link to all the best Christmas movies and where/when to watch them. I don’t think A Charlie Brown Christmas will be on again until Christmas Eve. Although, you can see his tree right here. Or, Casey’s version of his tree. She puts it up every year. I think she feels sorry for all the passed over trees left in Christmas Tree lots. This is her way of telling them someone loves them no matter how many needles they’ve lost. Isn’t that what Christmas is all about, showing love to the world? That’s what I believe.

What do you think is the true meaning of Christmas. I’d love to hear it. Leave a comment and I promise I’ll read it and comment back. Connecting, that’s another great part of Christmas!

More later!

SMJ

#9 on SMJ’s Christmas Countdown

Find a Great Book for Christmas!

IMG_20151210_081114Hey everybody! I don’t know about you, but I love books. Of course, you already knew that since I help promote Sandra’s books. What you don’t know is I love going to the library. I think I got that from Granny. She lives behind a library and walks over a couple of times a week. Man, can that old lady read.

Anyway, I stopped into the local library the other day and took some pics with the trees theIMG_20151210_081031y have displayed around the place. This one was pretty cool with all different kinds of ornaments on it. I liked sitting by it. It made me feel as special as a present.

This one has hats and scarves on it. I think, but I’m not sure, the hats are going to be given to kids who don’t have hats to keep their heads warm in the cold. It was decorated by the Loomy Knitters and is appropriately called the “Hat Tree.” Pretty cool for the library to do something like that. I liked that they used the hats to decorate the tree. It looks like the tree is playing dress up.

This next one might be my favorite. It’s called the “Oragami Tree.’ All the ornaments, IMG_20151210_080928eve the gold star on top are made with paper. That’s a lot of folding and creasing. I hope it wasn’t one person doing all the work. Can you imagine how long that would take? Some of these ornaments are really detailed. Although I’m usually not into white trees, this one really shows off the paper ornaments.

These three trees were brought to you by the Loveland Public Library. Right now they have a special Winter reading program going on. Click the link above and you can learn all about it. Kids from K-12 can win prizes for reading this winter. Cool deal!

If you visit the library, I’ll bet you can find some of my favorite Christmas books. A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker, The Night Before Christmas, and of course the original The Christmas Story about baby Jesus. Sandra has a set of all four books and they’re pop-up books. In The Night Before Christmas one there’s a page where Santa pops up while putting presents under the tree. In The Christmas Story, the first page has a donkey and lamb that pop up. These were the books she read to her boys at Christmas time before they grew up. She still has them and someday her boys will probably read them to their kids. It’s one of those Christmas tradition things.

So, do you have a favorite Christmas book? Leave a comment telling me what it is so I can go to the library and check it out.

Time to go grab a book to read before I go to bed. Until next time!

SMJ

SMJ’s Christmas Countdown Day 7

Decorating the Christmas tree. Yippee!

Sorry, everyone but I have to interrupt the tree decorating post for a special announcement.

I met SANTA CLAUSE!

Sock and Santa at Christmas Party

Remember I told you about Henderson Management donating a bunch of goodies for our Christmas packages? Well, they also host a Christmas party for children of their tenants every year and I attended. My mom works for them. Anyway, she asked if I could get my picture taken with Santa and they said yes! I was SOOOO happy.

Okay, SMJ and Christmas Lightsback to decorating the Christmas tree.

Like everyone else, I started with the lights. Obviously, that didn’t go so well. I was trying to untangle them when someone plugged them in. It startled me and I ended up in the middle of the tangled string of lights. It took quite a while for mom to get me untangled. By the time they freed me and we got the lights on the tree, I needed a break. So, mom fixed me some hot cocoa.Sock with Hot Cocoa in Sandra's favorite mug.

Mom’s the best. She even gave me extra marshmallows! Can you read the mug? We borrowed it from Sandra. It’s her favorite mug. My mom gave it to her as a gift one year because Sandra always says her characters talk to her until she writes their stories down. I like to use it once in a while in the hopes that characters will start talking to me and I can become a writer like Sandra.

Okay, if you haIMG_20151116_093513ve been following the countdown, you know I really decorated my tree earlier. You remember the picture with me hanging the shoes from the Mastering the Brides book on the tree? No? Here’s a picture of me with the shoes and other ornaments I wanted to put on the tree. It took some time to talk mom into puttiIMG_20151116_094218ng shoes on the tree, but I pleaded my case (and maybe whined just a little) and she gave in.

Of course, she wasn’t thrilled when I climbed up the tree to hang them. She told me I was supposed to use a step stool or some such thing. Personally, I thought climbing was fine, but then, I AM a monkey. 🙂

Next post I’ll show you some of the Christmas treats I made.

So, do you have characters talking inside your head? Or, have you silenced them by writing their stories? Any Christmas stories?

Until next time, this is SMJ signing off.

Day 2 of 25 Days of Christmas Fun!

Welcome back to SMJ’s 25 day Christmas Countdown!

Okay, IMG_20151110_021056so I’m taking a break with some more hot cocoa because of technical difficulties at my mom’s getting things going. I know, it was a little misleading yesterday with me talking about Sandra going away for Thanksgiving. Sorry about that. I’m getting confused about where I am at any given time right now. Anyway, my cousin, Lil Sock sent me some pictures of him decorating Sandra’s house, so I thought I would share those with you. Fair warning though, he gets a little crazy sometimes.IMG_0968

Here’s Lil Sock taking a break after setting up the village in Sandra’s front window. If you look closely you you can see the lady from the quilt shop he’s sitting next to is handing out cookies. I wouldn’t put it past him to try and snatch one. Lil Sock has a real sweet tooth.

After theLSandSanta village (and his pilfered treat) he moved onto the step-case. I’ll admit, I’m a little jealous of this one. He got to ride in a big sled AND visit Santa’s workshop AND Santa. I want to meet the big guy too.  I may be older than Lil Sock, but I still believe in Santa. Don’t you? You better or you’ll get coal in your stocking. I don’t know about you, but I do not want coal. Hmm, I guess I better put visit Santa on my list so my mom doesn’t forget to take me.

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I’m sure Lil Sock drove Sandra crazy while she was decorating. Check out this picture and you’ll understand why. See the gingerbread men ornament? Look closely. Yep, that’s Lil Sock monkeying around. The kid never takes anything seriously. I guess I can understand, though. It is Christmas time and it’s so much fun playing with all the different decorations!

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Since it’s been pretty cold here in Colorado, Sandra hasn’t wanted to go out and play much. Actually, there’s not a lot of snow to play in anyway. That didn’t stop Sock. He still found a way to play with snowmen, snow-women, and snow kids! Leave it to my little cousin to know how to make a cold day fun. This kid rarely stops.

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Case in point, look to the right. If you look at the right hand side of the picture, behind the reindeer, you’ll see a stocking on the floor. Yep, that’s right. Lil Sock was supposed to be hanging the stockings, but he got distracted by the reindeer’s bells. That’s his story anyway. Oh, and there’s another reindeer (who’s not in this pic) that sings “Grandma Got Runover by a Reindeer,” so, they were probably all having a grand time dancing and singing.

Well, folks, I’ve got to take a break and get some lunch. Just looking at Lil Sock’s pictures wears me out. Kids have all the energy. Sheesh, wish I was young enough to take a nap and not get teased. Oh well, I guess we all have to grow up a little, but never so much we stop believing. Right?

Later, we’ll join Lil Sock as he decorates the tree. I can see it now. Lights tangled, decorations every which way. But hey, he’s having fun.

Do YOU still believe in Santa? What do you want him to bring you for Christmas this year? Leave a comment below and tell me. I’ll send a special note to Santa to remind him for you.

SMJ

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