January 3, 2009

Holidays are over and the tree is down. I thought I would have written in this about Christmas before now but I am a procrastinator…
Emmalyne had a wonderful Christmas and Santa was good to her, no surprise there. We spent the month of December shopping and shopping and more shopping. Emma was in 7th heaven with all the shopping. I thought it would wear her out but she loved every minute of it, so much so that when Papa and I put her in the car to take her around to see the Christmas lights she exclaimed “Yeah! Shopping!!” She is her grandma’s child!
Emma had a chance to see Santa twice. First time was with Cassie and I in Gillette with her being totally scared of him, terrified may have been a better word. The second time was in Sundance and she was scared, but warmed up to him when he told her that he brought ponies to cousin Bailey and Tray last year. He must be ok if he gives ponies and that is what she wanted the most. Before long she was willing to give Mrs. Clause a hug and even a kiss and well maybe shake hands with Santa himself. She spent time entertaining them by dancing and being silly while we were waiting for Grandma Marla to be done with her business at the bank.
I taped the Nut Cracker Ballet for Emma. She absolutely loves the movie. She gets up and tries to dance like them and wants to watch it over and over. I would like to find it in a DVD with the home alone kid. It is such a wonderful ballet. I sure wish they had dance classes available here, maybe when Emma is old enough to be in them, they will or we can get her in them in Spearfish.
Christmas eve we went to Grandma Eda’s and Grandpa Don’s. We had a wonderful time and Emma had a blast playing with her new doll she got from Cousin Cody, Holley and baby Chloe. She played non stop with it until the boys brought in Eda’s present from Don, a new TV. While Jordan was hooking the TV up, Emma found that the most fascinating play thing was the large box it came in. She and Cassie (yes, she talked Cassie into getting into the box too) spent hours playing in the box together. I was holding little Chloe, who is 6 months old and cute as a button, and she loved watching them. She would lean over that way and I could tell she wanted in there so bad with them, so I gave her to Cassie. She was so thrilled to be in playing with the girls, it was so cute. I wish Shelby and her family could have been there also.
After Eda’s, Jordan, Brianna and Emma went to Brianna’s grandma Bev’s for Christmas eve there. It sounded like it was a lot of fun and the weather was great for all the traveling, thank you God. One of Brianna’s cousins had drawn Emma’s name for the gift draw. He didn’t know what to buy a 2 year old girl (my mom never does either since Emma has so much stuff) so he gave her a $30 gift card to Wal-Mart. Brianna said Emma looked at it wondering what it was and Brianna told her that it was a Credit Card so she could buy what she wants at Wal-Mart. Emma totally loved that idea and told the gift giver “thank you for my credit card” She is her grandma’s girl!
Cassie and Emma stayed here over night Christmas Eve and before they woke up I called Brianna and Jordan to come over. Santa had come and Emma was so excited to see the spring horse and the dollhouse. She loves them both. I think she really likes Christmas now that she knows what Santa is all about. We also made sure she knew about baby Jesus and how we celebrate his birthday. We sang “happy birthday” to Jesus and I think she sang it often the rest of the day.
New years eve was a lot of fun also. Cassie and Emma stayed over here again that night. Brianna and Jordan went over to help with the bar. Cassie brought champagne glasses, red cream soda, a cake and horns to celebrate. She and Emma were writing happy new year on the cake, well Cassie was and Emma was watching. Cassie said “H A P” and Emma ended it with a “E”. She is getting good at her letters, she knew happy ended with a “E” So Cassie had “Hap-E New Year” on the cake. It was so cute. Because we have direct TV and no antenna we buy CBS and NBC which gives us both East and West coast stations. I turned on the NBC east coast and we watched the New Years Eve celebration with the ball dropping at midnight in the east but only 10pm here. At “midnight” (east coast) we blew the horns and celebrated” Emma was so excited with all the confetti and all the yelling and noise makers on TV all she could do was say “Ohhh WOW!” Afterwards she went to bed and slept wonderfully into the New Year.
December had some very sad times to end the year also. December 5th, a dear lady and neighbor of Emma’s passed away. Brenda Griffis is a angel in heaven just as she was one on earth. Emma loved Brenda and would always escape her apartment to run across the hall to see “Sissy” which is what Brenda’s family called her. Brenda is the daughter of Chicken McLaughlin. She will be missed greatly.
December 19 was another day of great sadness when Brianna and Marla were in Spearfish with Grandma Neil and they got word that Marla’s home was on fire. The fire department was out there but because of a broken heater in the fire hall, all the trucks were frozen. So many days with below 0 weather took it’s toll. They couldn’t spray any water to put the house out so nothing was saved. By the time Marla and Brianna got out there, the fire department had left and the house was a pile of 4 to 6 foot flames. It is so sad that after losing Ron in August, Marla would lose their life together and all they had. We are very thankful though that no one was home at the time. Had Marla been there, she very well could have been trapped inside since it started in the chimney. Had it been the next night, Jordan, Brianna and Emma would have been sleeping in front of the fireplace and had they gotten out, I could see Jordan and Brianna running back in to save special things of Ron’s. I think that Ron had watched over them to make sure that it happened when no one was home.
May 2009 bring about healing and a new beginning for all.