Now it will feel like Christmas!!

Do you remember when you were a kid and there was that one thing that made Christmas feel like Christmas. Maybe it was decorating the tree after Thanksgiving with your family or making cookies to leave out for Santa. It could have been a million different things! For me it was the nativity set that my mom had. It was ceramic and she had chalked it and it was beautiful. I loved when it was time to get it out of its box. We would dig through the shredded newspaper til we found all of the pieces and then we would arrange them on the piano in just the right way. Since I have been married I have wanted to find my own Nativity set, but it had to be the same one that I grew up with. My mom did hers a long time ago so I didn't know if I would ever find it, but I kept looking. A few months back I was searching on ebay and on the web to see if I could find a nativity like the one I wanted, and guess what I found it. It was the same one- so I bookmarked it and checked back periodically just to look at it. I mentioned to Ryan kind of in passing that I had found it and he said "oh that is nice." Well fast forward a few months and my birthday is coming up and Ryan is talking an awful lot to his mom and they are being really secretive!! When I would ask Ryan what he and his mom talked about he would say "secret birthday stuff". So I knew they were conspiring, but I figured it was for my benefit so I let the secrets continue. This last weekend Margaret and Greg (Ryan's mom and step-dad) came up from Salem to celebrate my birthday a week early. Margaret was taking me to a scrapbook fair in Seattle on Saturday (yeah it was a blast) and then we would have dinner and I was going to be able to finally open the much anticipated secret gift!!

The kids were so excited to help me open up the presents!! Do you see the look of shock and amazement as I realize what Ryan and his mother did. They got the nativity set and his mother applied the finish and had it fired for me. Beautiful isn't it!! Thanks Margaret!!!
Now it will feel like Christmas!!! I can't wait to put it up and look at it all December!!
Yeah Ryan did an amazing job on my birthday this year. He even got me a Cold Stone birthday cake. He knows how much I love Cold Stone, plus he watched the kids all day Saturday so that I could go spend money on scrapbooking stuff!! What a guy I have!! Thanks babe, and I love ya!!