Best Christmas Present EVER!!

Okay, knowing me you are probably expecting some profound, sappy post about some wonderful, emotional present that embodies spirit and happiness. Well, this is not it.

I got plenty of Christmas presents this year like that such as all of my wonderful kids home for an early celebration. However, one of the BEST presents of the season is not even one that was given to me! It was given to Gabriel. He got a little personal "pup" tent that is shaped like a puppy dog. He loves it so much that we put it on his bed for a night to let him sleep in it...for fun. An amazing thing happened, he slept through the whole night AND did not wake up until late morning. We thought it might be a fluke because he had not been feeling well. So, we kept the tent up. Amazingly, this has been the pattern every night since then! I am soooooo excited! For anyone who does not know, Gabriel does not sleep very well and will get up several time during the night and walk around or get his sister up or wake us up. It is a symptom of his disability. So, needless to say, this has truly been wonderful, and the best part is that he seems to be more rested and not so emotional throughout the day.

I would have to say this constitutes as one of the Best Christmas Presents EVER in my book. Now, let's hope the pattern continues :)

Don't leave home without it!!

Marina and I went to Las Vegas on Monday. I had some stuff at work I needed to take care of so I worked for about 5 or 6 hours and then we headed out. I ran home and unloaded the vehicle because we always have junk..uh, I mean stuff, that needs to be taken out of the cars. I could have sworn that I left my purse in the car because we were going to leave really soon. Well, as luck would have it, I did NOT leave my purse in the car and did not find out until we were about 200 miles away from home when I stopped to get gas. That is when I found out that I was sans purse. Lucky for me, I had filled the tank up before leaving town and had put the ATM card in my coat pocket instead of my purse. However, I did not have any ID with me and we needed to check into a hotel. That would not have been a big deal because Marina and I have the same name, however, you have to be 21 to check in. I also left my cell phone with my purse. This was sooo going down hill. The final problem was that I had to have a hold put on my ATM card that would have normally been put on my credit card....if I had my purse.

It all turned out fine though. We got to LV, I realized I had my Prison employee ID (thank goodness I went to work that morning because I did not plan too) so was able to check in, my parents were in LV so they gave me some emergency money until the hold was taken off my debit card plus a little something for fun, Orey worked his magic and came up with an emergency stash of money for gas for the trip home. Marina and I got to hang out together and enjoy each other's company. We had dinner with my parents, ran into an ex-client of mine who is doing REALLY great right now with a new job and car, and generally had a good time. The weather was awesome too since it was rainy and foggy which is some of my favorite patterns.

Anyway, the moral of the story is to make sure you have what you NEED when you leave on a trip! Either that or have an awesome support system in place :)

When is Christmas exactly?

Last week we had Christmas! Yepperoo, you heard correctly, we celebrated Christmas on the 5th of December. All of my kids were home for the holiday so we had the Mexican Christmas with a billion kids, generations of family, good friends, lots of tamales and other Mexican food, all wrapped up in a ton of love!

I learned many, many years ago that Christmas is not a day, it is a time. A time for family and love. So over the years I think we have celebrated Christmas on the calendar day just as many times as we have celebrated it on a non-traditional day. However, we always have fun. Of course, Santa always comes in the night of December 24th.

Whatever day you are celebrating the "Reason for the Season", the birth of the Christ Child, I hope your heart is filled with love and hope.

Merry Christmas!