And this is what Santa left under the tree.  Amazingly it was all assembled by the elves and Santa’s helpers.  It brought a gasp from LB and then utter quiet apart from the Choo Choo as the trains were racing around the track…the expression on his face was worth the price of admission…it was a great Christmas morning….

Its Christmas Eve and Santa is on the prowl.  He comes to our house and finds little Barry in the kitchen.  I don’t know if  you can see the expression, but it is one of the widest grins you will ever see on a three year old.  And the big day has not even arrived yet…..He has made it clear to all who would listen that he has been GOOD this year.  He is learning the rules of the game early…..

Oh the excitement!  The tree is laden, its base covered with presents.  The Angel on top beams down on all of us and it is almost a white Christmas outside.  This has been a relaxed year for Xmas in many respects.  The crowds were not overwhelming in the malls, Sandy started preparations well before their due date, and the Christmas party (normally a scene of Ok food) this year was catered by a friend and was a STUNNING success.  So we enter the final run up to Christmas relaxed, laid back and confident that no matter what, little Barry’s joy is going to be our best Christmas present anyway.

Here is the Christmas Village, just one tiny corner of the house….

I am married to a “Christmas Person”.  By this I mean at Xmas time Sandy decorates the house until Santa himself would feel at home.  We have at a wild guess at least 100 Santa’s all over the house, not to mention his little helpers, large pots of Point setters, mistletoe, green boughs hanging from every available nook and cranny, a huge Xmas tree (don’t even mention ornaments because the mind boggles) and the Xmas music starts in November and does not end until February.  I learn to tolerate it, then I learned to cope with it and now I have come to love it.  Of course all this stuff has to be stored somewhere and it is a huge task just to carry the various boxes, sacks, containers etc up from the basement to be positioned ready for display.  Little Barry is mesmerized by the whole process and has the idea that something BIG is in the offing.  When he saw the Xmas Village go up his eyes bugged out of his head.  And now the question resonates every day “When is Christmas coming”

First you have to take off all the ornaments.  These are the ornaments from just ONE tree.  They represent years of Sandy collecting ornaments, each one is fragile, each one requires a box. Have you ANY idea what our basement looks like during the rest of the year?  Anyway, first you take them all down and I have to ensure they are all collected…just one missing and the wrath of Sandy descends on my head.