Months of planning. Months of shopping and wrapping. Months of preparing. One night of playing Santa and doing everything he’s supposed to do. Hours of cooking and cleaning up – And you mean to tell me it’s all over now?!

When I was a little girl, we used to go to my grandma Shirley’s / Pap-Pap (grandpa’s) place for Christmas eve.

All of my aunts and uncles were there.

All of my cousins were there.

Life was good.

The adults would be in the kitchen cooking, talking, drinking, laughing, or in the dining room around the table – joking around and having a good time. The men would be outside smoking, and us cousins – we were in the living room – just waiting to open gifts and teasing each other.

The Christmas bells outside of their house played music. They had some awesome Christmas lights lining their front windows, and everything was decorated inside.

Those we good times.

After a while, my Pap-pap passed, and grandma moved somewhere else, so my uncle was hosting Christmas at his place.

The adults would be upstairs, while us cousins were in the basement getting into mischief.

I remember one Christmas when one of my cousins was opening his gift from someone, held it up and yelled, “YYYYEESSS!”. Our grandma asked if he knew what it was, and he said, “No!”. lol. Someone told him it was socks. He had us laughing when he looked at a few of us cousins and whispered (sarcastically), “Just what I’ve always wanted. Now, I just have to wait to open a pair of Chonies!”. (Underwear). 🤣

One of my favorite Christmas memories – is when my Uncle L. went to the store next to my Uncle T’s house, and he told me and one of my cousins not to open the door for ANYONE. Nobody. He said he meant that, too!

So, when he came back and he was knocking to get in, my cousin asked who it was. My Uncle L. yelled my cousins name and told him to stop playing and open the door because it was cold out there. My cousin looked at me and smiled as we sat on the stairs right by the door. He yelled back, “You said not to let ANYONE in. NOBODY! You meant that, too!”. We laughed so much, and as my uncle continued to bang on the door and yell for us to open it, my cousin kept laughing and telling him, “But dad – you said….”.

When he finally got in, my uncle told his son, “Remind me to kick your ass later!”. 😁

I loved hanging out with certain cousins during Christmas at my grandma or uncles house.

Christmas at Grandma Shirley’s / Pap-Pap’s and Uncle Ts was fun because they always had the music blasted with either Christmas music or Mexican music. It alternated, went back and forth, and many times – family would dance and mingle.

People passing by could hear the music from outside and know there was a big party going on.

This is one of the photos I have from one of the many Christmas Eve parties at my grandma Shirley and Pap-pap’s place.

Unfortunately, I don’t have many photos of back then, but this is one I do have that I love.

A few of my cousins and me.

I’m in the white and black dress with the cheesy smile. ❤️As you can tell, they couldn’t get us all to look and smile at the same time, but that’s how pictures usually went. Some of my cousins were always ready, and some of them were always joking around and not taking it seriously. ha.

Christmas was always filled with so much laughter, love and good memories from Christmas Eve at my grandma Shirley and Pap-pap’s house, to the ones we spent at my uncle T’s house, and then rushing home to get to bed before Santa came. On Christmas Day – my other aunt and uncle on my mom’s side – would come over to my Yia-Yia’s place – who lived downstairs from us – and we’d celebrate Christmas day there, opening more gifts, eating more good food, and enjoying more love, laughter, and good memories being made.

As we got older – family traditions of going to anyone’s house kind of faded away little by little, and eventually – it just became about main family. Everyone started doing their own things, and when my parents moved into a new place, we started getting together there. Just my brother, his now ex-wife, his family and me and my kids. That was it. That became our new Christmas / holiday tradition.

We still had fun though.

Eventually, Christmas was at my brother’s place.

So, Christmas had changed a lot over the years, but I still hold on to some great memories of people, places and funny stuff from each and every one of them – no matter how or where we celebrated it.

One tradition I miss – that no longer happens – is the Christmas gift wars between my brother and me.

My mom used to call us “idiots” because we’d be trying to open prank gifts from each other for 20-40 minutes each year. We did our Christmas prank wars every year for many years, and we’d always try to top the last year by making each gift harder and harder to open for the other.

One year – my brother wrapped so much string around my gift and then zip-tied it.

I got through all of the string and the zip-ties – only for it to be this:

It says, “You just wasted all that time for this!”.

The following year, I zip-tied his, bubble wrapped it, and did so many other things to make it hard for him to open, only for him to finally get it open and see this:

“KARMA!”. lol.

He threw it behind him and tried not to laugh.

One year – he got me good though. I won’t lie.

I love trolls! The crazy-wild haired, big eyed 90’s trolls.

I walked into my parent’s house for Christmas one year, and he pointed at a bag and told me, “No jokes this year. No Christmas prank wars. This is your gift right here, but you can’t open it yet!”. I saw a little bit of it when I looked down, and I was so excited when I saw a few parts of TROLL HAIR! I couldn’t wait to open it and thought he got me new ones.

That night after dinner – when we were all opening gifts, he told one of my kids, “Give your mother that gift right there from me”. One of my kids handed it to me, and I opened it. I noticed it was three trolls that I already have, so I asked where he got them from to maybe exchange them, because I said I already had them. He and my mother laughed and he told me, “No, you HAD them! Those are yours!”.

He stole a few trolls from the top of my fridge in my kitchen when he came over a few weeks before, and I didn’t even know they were missing. My mother was laughing so hard at the fact that I was so confused and had no idea how he grabbed them without me noticing. 🙄

I admit – that was a good one.

One year, I purchased a safe at the store, put his REAL gift inside of it, and locked the safe.

It was a combo safe, and I only I had the combination that came with it.

When he unwrapped it, I told him that his real gift was inside if he could crack the code.

It literally took him 5 minutes, and he had the safe open without breaking it or anything.

My jaw dropped and I sat there wondering how the hell he got it open so fast without the combination.

He made me laugh when he said, “I’m in the Military. You’d be surprised what I could do!”.

Then again, it was a cheap safe I purchased as a joke, so maybe they all had the same combos?!

Sadly, my brother is dealing with a lot of stuff these days and other issues, so we don’t talk much and living so far away from each other doesn’t help either. Our yearly Christmas gift wars – have stopped, but those will always be some of my best Christmas memories. 💕

I’ll never forget the Christmas my kids and I went to his house – and I walked in to see him like:

I laughed so much at his outfit.

It lit up, too!

Our dad was in the hospital, and he said he was going to the hospital to see our father – just like this. I asked if he was serious and he made me giggle when he says, “I don’t have anyone to impress!”.

I also remember the Christmas when he was telling everyone, “You get wrapping paper for Christmas! You get wrapping paper for Christmas! You get wrapping paper for Christmas!”, as he pointed at everyone and had us all laughing.

Other favorite Christmas memories I’ll always cherish:

Always taking my kids to BASS PRO SHOP to see Santa and do some of their Christmas activities.

On this day – Santa asked my two older kids if they’ve been good all year.

I laughed so much when they both looked at each other and didn’t know what to say.

Do we lie or do we tell the truth?! 😁

No matter how old my kids have gotten, Bass Pro shop around Christmas time was the place to be.

We don’t have one close by anymore, and I hate that – now that we live off the grid practically.

Family tradition for years now every Christmas – has been going to my aunt and uncles on my mom’s side to celebrate Christmas with them. We love it there, and although they have a new house now, this house (above) held so many good memories as well. If I could buy that house that they had before, I absolutely would!

Every Christmas for years – my mom used to just love to sit down, relax and talk to my kids. This was one of those times – where she sat and had some funny conversations with my two older kids. 💕

Same house my aunt and uncle used to have – during this one Christmas – my little guy and my nephew kept going by the back door and wiggling the door handle, and we caught my nephew pointing outside – as we joked that they were planning their escape.

One Christmas – I had one of my cousins make my Tiffie “Jordan” a mug that said, “There is nowhere you can go that I won’t be with you!”. I never knew heaven would be one of those places. 💔

This photo always makes me laugh!

My brother’s face is priceless!

He was watching T.V. on this Christmas day and heard my oldest kiddo and her girlfriend talking about what they were going to do when they got home (adult conversations) – and my brother overheard them.

He gave them that look above and told them, “Okay, there’s airing out your dirty laundry when you did something you shouldn’t have and I’d be all in for that gossip, and then there’s AIRING OUT DIRTY LAUNDRY NOBODY NEEDS OR WANTS TO HEAR!”. 🤣 I couldn’t stop laughing!

………………..

And every Christmas – my brother ALWAYS made sure there was a YEAR BEAR under the tree for me – no matter where we celebrated. I have a collection of them from different years that he has given me them.

Again, we don’t live close to each other anymore and we barely talk now, so he hasn’t gotten me one of those for a long time, but I miss those Christmas’s when he did. I always cherish those memories, and our gift wars.

My kids know how much I love and miss the YEAR BEARS, so yesterday – when I opened one of their three gifts to me – imagine how happy I was when I saw that they got me one.

They said that they tried to get me his wife, but she was all gone and all they had was males left. They wanted to get me the pair, but I was more than okay with him.

So, let’s talk about this Christmas.

I was up at 4 AM yesterday morning preparing the stuff needed for a dirt cake / pudding / cool whip combo my mom always made – that my kids totally miss and love. She made it every Christmas because she knew they loved and wanted it. So, it became tradition.

That woman took the recipe to the grave with her, and while I offered to try to make it like she did, the kids didn’t know if it would turn out quite like hers. It sure did! It’s delish!

I was up early making my coffee first. I then made the cake, made the pudding, and put that – and the cool whip together.

I have no idea which layer went first, but I did pudding on the bottom, cake, then Cool whip, cake, pudding, cool whip – and I just kept layering it. My mom used to put toffee bits in it, but I couldn’t find any in the last few days, so I added Chocolate chips on top. I think it turned out pretty well!

Maybe not EXACTLY like hers, but close to it.

I thawed the Turkey out, and got everything else ready, while my little guy was begging me to let him open gifts.

Let me tell you what he did on Christmas eve!!

One of my biggest joys during Christmas – is him coming into the bedroom and telling me Santa came – and he’s so excited because he wakes up and checks the living room first thing in the morning every Christmas.

On Christmas eve though – the magic was ruined because he fell asleep and I put him in his room, closed the door, and at 8 PM, I took out all of Santa’s gifts from the closet that I wrapped early that day, so I could just have a few glasses of wine and enjoy a movie after I did everything that “SANTA DOES”. Thinking he was asleep for the night, I put all of Santa’s gifts out, threw some carrots outside pretending the reindeer ate them, crumbled up the cookies “SANTA” ate, wrote a few notes from Santa and the elves, and poured myself a glass of wine.

A few minutes later – he comes out of his room, sees all of the Santa gifts under the tree, and said he couldn’t sleep.

In all fairness, I knew I should have waited until the middle of the night when I heard him snoring, but I just wanted to get it all done. SO, there was none of him coming into the room waking me up excited that Santa came – because he saw all the SANTA gifts under the tree that night. 🥺 Ah well.

He’s 9 and this Christmas has been bitter-sweet, because I don’t know if he’ll believe in the magic of the elves next year, or Santa. It’s bitter-sweet because my youngest daughter is 17, so this is her last Christmas as a kid.

Time and life are moving way too fast! My kids are growing up way too fast.

It’s sad to think that on top of all the Christmas memories I’ve had as a kid and over the years as an adult in different places – this will be just memories, too! It’s also bitter-sweet because this is probably our last Christmas in this apartment, and maybe – Minnesota – as we plan to move next summer.

Yesterday – I made Christmas breakfast. Just some pancakes and Tator tots.

We opened gifts.

The daughter got some ducks – because she collects those little things. One was a graduation duck! One was a witch because we joke that she is one 😁and she also got one with a beanie because I know how much she loves Beanies. They came with cute sunglasses she could change on them.

I got her those.

I got her a Sloth nightlight – because she loves Sloths. I got her a Sloth snow globe. I got her a Chicago hoodie, a gingerbread man tumbler, an amazon gift card, Billie Eilish perfume because she’s been bugging me about it (lol), and a bunch of other things. She also got a computer lap desk that comes with charging ports, a place for her phone, a reading light and a fan on it.

My older son just wanted some tapestry stuff and posters for his wall. His walls are covered with different posters and drawings, tapestry, etc. I got him more. He wanted some monkey phone / controller holder, so I got him that. He showed me it on Amazon weeks ago. I got him cologne (2 bottles. Different kinds). I also brought him a computer lap desk, and – he always talks about getting a motorcycle.

Many motorcycle owners believe in the “Guardian bell”. A bell they hang somewhere on the bike or their keychain like a spiritual guardian angel for the rider. I’ve read legend says that it protects from evil spirits that try to attach themselves to the motorcycle or rider, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. Either way – it’s for protection for the rider.

The rule is – you can’t buy it yourself.

It has to come from someone who truly loves you and wants you to be safe, so while I’m against him getting a motorcycle, I feel like if anyone is going to get him a guardian bell – it should be me. So, I did. It says, “Never drive faster than your guardian angels can fly”. ❤️ I got him many other things as well, and both of kids loved their gifts – just as much as my little dude loved his.

I laughed when my son told my daughter, “She got me a guardian bell. Shhhh! Let me see if I hear a motorcycle pulling into the parking lot!”. I told the kid, “Nice try!”.

Little dude got a scooter, a dart board, roller skates, new knee and elbow pads, Legos, some street hockey items, and much more.

You want to hear something funny?

I forgot I brought him a helmet already from Amazon, so when “SANTA” went shopping, she also brought him a new helmet and didn’t realize there was one under the tree already. 🤣 I need to start writing down what I purchase – to avoid double orders. I’m thinking about making him pick which one he wants to keep (the one Santa brought is much cooler and lights up), so I may just give another child the one I purchased from Amazon.

With my Year Bear – my kids also brought me some things I needed, and an “S” for my computer desk.

Christmas was great.

❤️

The rest of the day was filled with blessings, love, laughter, and good memories being made.

After gifts, we cleaned up, and my older son and I started cooking dinner around 4 PM. I poured a glass of wine and sat down to watch the game between the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings last night.

I read somewhere yesterday – that Snoop Dogg came out with a song called, “Spending Christmas in Minnesota”. I listened to it and laughed and wondered what he knew about spending Christmas in Minnesota, but then I read that he was actually in Minnesota yesterday for the game – to do the halftime show. So, I had to watch it! 😶 He did a damn good job, too! Him, Lainey Wilson, and anyone else with him.

In case you missed it – here ya go:

My daughter and I watched it and we loved it!

There’s a front / better video on YOUTUBE of the entire thing, but the NFL decided to block it from being used on websites, so you’ll have to deal with this one, and go to YOUTUBE for the better view.

The Lions lost and we were cheering for them.

The tenants at the facility I work at – take the Vikings games seriously, so I joked that if the Lions won – I was going to go into work Saturday and tease them and see which tenant kicks me out first. haha.

After the game and dinner – it was pretty late, so we played a bit, talked a bit, and the kids went to their rooms while I cleaned up the last bit of mess from dinner, poured another glass of wine, sat in the living room in the dark – in silence, and thought to myself, “Good job mama! You have successfully gotten through another Christmas and made it happen once again!”. 💕

Sometimes, we have to be our own cheerleaders and motivational speakers because we just don’t have anyone to do it for us, and that’s okay.

My kids were happy yesterday, they enjoyed Christmas and we had a good time.

This is one more Christmas I’ll add to the “cherished ones of the past”.
We didn’t get too many photos as we were just living in the moment and enjoying all of it.

Today, it’s paying off bills from Christmas shopping, getting back into a regular routine, and trying to make the most of the end of the year.

I will say that if you’ve been following the news, you’ll know that four people have been arrested and charged with planning to place bombs in different locations out in L.A. and causing mass destruction / casualties possibly, and now – many countries are canceling their New Years Eve celebrations and plans.

I haven’t heard much yet about U.S. doing the same, but there’s been some talk about safety measures here.

I will also say that just because the FBI was great at catching these people who planned these bombs to go off at Midnight on NYE, DOESN’T mean that there aren’t more out there working with these people – who can easily carry out the attacks that were planned, so please – wherever you go or whatever you do on New Years eve – stay alert. Watch your surroundings. Avoid large crowds, and always – ALWAYS – plan an escape / exit route just in case.

DO NOT get stuck in the middle of a bunch of people, because in the event that there is an attack or something happens – you’re stuck and can’t get away, so please stay at the end of a crowd where it’s easy to run – or get somewhere safe and use the buddy system if you can. Never go anywhere alone – especially on NYE.

I don’t want to put fear in your minds, and I know we shouldn’t live our lives in fear, but NEW YEARS EVE is one of the biggest celebrations in the world, millions of people are out and about in very crowded places, and big cities, and I just want everyone to be safe and remember to stay on high alert and watch what’s going on around you!

Other than that – cheers to a new year soon, and I hope all of you have a beautiful 2026. 💕

In case I’m not back here until the new year – much love to all of you, thank you for your continued love and support here, and I’m so happy I know all of you, and get to enjoy your writings like you enjoy mine.

Before I get out of here – here’s a fun little photo of me from a few years back during Christmas:

And a fun little photo of this Christmas:

💕Shel💕