Not such a quiet Christmas after all!

Well, I THOUGHT it would be quite here but not so! Apparently my sister decided at the last morning (read: Christmas Day around noon!) that she was NOT having Christmas dinner at her house and instead, "What time should mom, dad and I be over for dinner?" LOL!! She was originally going to have dinner at her house for my mom, dad and her in-laws but because her in-laws said that they would not be showing up (much to her delight, I might add!!), she changed her plans...which was just fine. Instead of 8 for dinner, we had 13...no biggie.

Our eclectic menu included: Ham, barbequed ribs, grilled steak, green bean casserole (c'mon... you neeed to have this oldie at Christmas!), mashed potatoes, shrimp scampi over rice...you name it, my husband grilled it! We had a good time! Busy, but nice! 3 pies, a cheesecake and a box of cream puffs later, my family left. I have soooo many leftovers, I can feed my own family for the next 2 days!

My husband took 2 of our daughters to the mall this morning. I thought I'd surprise him and make some scrambled eggs with ham and fried mashed potatoes for breakfast. Well, of course, because I NEVER make breakfast, he stopped while he was out and picked up fried eggs sandwiches for all!! LOL! Fortunately my in-laws are still here so everything got eaten!

Need to get some laundry done...the girls have been hording their dirty clothes and I am now facing at least 20 loads of laundry! YIKES! Luckily for me, I actually enjoy it...very relaxing..Crazy, right?

See ya!

Quick Christmas update..

Apparently while we (my husband, 2 of our daughters, and myself) were at Church, the remaining daughter was in the hot tub and saw a small child run down the hallway. (You can see into the house via sliding glass door onto hot tub deck.) My son was in the family room so she knew it wasn't him.

Then, very early this morning, my oldest daughter and my son heard someone strumming my son's guitar! (They sleep in the same room because A) my oldest daughter doesn't like her room in the basement AND B) my son is afraid to sleep alone.) My daughter thought my son was doing it until he said, " Sister' name, are you doing that?!" SHe opened her eyes to see a very large orb fly past her and he saw something white fly by him!

They told us this morning when they woke up to unwrap their gifts. I explained that the ghosts were probably excited children, waiting for Christmas Day, also. Sounds right, doesn't it?

The youngest daughter felt badly for them. Feels that perhaps we should have gotten gifts for them, too! LOL!!

Anyway...Merry Christmas agian..I'm off to my mom's for a bit and then home to start cleaning up before my in-laws get here. Looking forward to a nice, quiet Christmas Day..OH!  Just one more thing! When we arrived at Church last night, there was a rose on the chancel rail, signifying the birth of a child to a member. It turns out that our Interim Associate Pastor's wife gave birth to a daughter yesterday morning! How fitting! And he was at Church last night...a tired but excited man!

Peace!

Merry Christmas to all!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Getting ready to go to my sister's house. We have a birthday party this evening for my soon-to-be 8 year old nephew who was born on Christmas Day! We'll also exchange gifts with my mom and dad. The only downside is that my sister's in laws will be over and we really don't get along with them. My sister and husband don't get along with them, either! Oh well..'tis the season, right? LOL!!

Got out of work early..ran to pick up last minute items for dinner tomorrow night and a few more stocking stuffers..(I've spent about $40 per child on stocking stuffers this year!)..My kids think that their stockings are the best part of Christmas. Me, I'm looking forward to serving Communion at our Church's Candlelight Service. Ah, some peace, quiet and reflection time.

Well, I hear the children showering so I've got to take a number and get in line!

Peace on earth, goodwill to ALL men...Amen.

Hmmmmm..

(*"Boo" is our 14 year old daughter's nickname)

About 1 hour after I wrote my  post, Boo screamed from the basement. We ran down to find out what happened. Apparently she saw a "white figure" to her right..The figure then reached out and threw a cracker wrapper on to the floor! It really scared her because "they've" never done anything like this. I suspect that "whomever" it was had been reading while I was typing my post and decided to play a trick. Still, we're not frightened.

Tonight my husband and I decided to spend some time together, alone. We went out to dinner up the street to Charlie Brown's. When we came home, Boo reported that she had heard a little girl crying while she was in the basement. (Note: We have 2 computers,1 for the children and 1 for us. They are both located in the basement.) She thought it was "Ray", our 15 year old daughter. She ran upstairs to make sure that Ray was ok but Ray reported that she was fine, hadn't been crying...The basement HAS been particularly "busy" lately so I don't doubt that Boo has experienced these things. She seems to be the one with a "sixth sense", if you will.

One story that I had to delete from last night's post was the story of "Catherine".  Catherine was named by Boo. She is a spirit that is approximately 6-7 years old who is dressed in Colonial clothing...white dress, ribbon in the middle of the dress, hair is curly and short. Boo says that she looks lost. Well, Boo is the only who had seen her until one night. Boo and Ray share a room upstairs in our home. Ray NEVER  believed Boo's stories about Catherine until 2am one morning. That night, she called us and told us that she had just seen something. We ran upstairs to check on her. She told us that she had woken up to see Catherine floating above her bed, just watching her. We calmed her down, asked her if she's like to sleep with us. She declined and went back to bed. Half an hour later, she called agin, only to tell us that Catherine had now positioned herself on Boo's bed, just sitting there, swinging her fett, watching Ray sleep. Well...I decided to send Boo downstairs so that I could sleep in her bed and figure out what had happened this evening. Hmm...I just fell asleep!! I was soooo tired I just conked out! But Ray was able to sleep that night so it was ok...

Until my next post...Peace!

Arghhhhhh

I hate the 2500 words or less thing! I edited a great deal from the previous entry so I decided that I would just delete one of the stories and tell it another time!

Got the report!

We recv'd the report from the investigators.1 of them felt someone lightly touch his arm while he was in the basement!He had the feeling that there were "children playing hide and seek" with him. Here's how this started:

One night we heard a crash.The dog ran into our room and wouldn't leave.My husband smelled a chemical-type odor on him so we thought someone broke into the house and tried to subdue the dog with some sort of chemical spray.We got up and saw that one of our 10lbs.chairs was in the family room, approx 7 ft away. We felt that something had scared the dog and he dragged it there. We checked on the kids.After10 mins.we went back to bed.I'm so sure that I'm going to see a robber that I leave my glasses on and keep looking down the hall.A while later, I noticed a small, glowing object on the hallway wall. I kicked my husband and made him look. He rolled over and went back to sleep.I keep observing this object. Then it floated down my hallway, past my door and looked as though it turned towards me. It had no shape but it was the size of an avg person. It went into the dining room, next to my bedroom. I said to my husband, "You are NOT gonna believe what just happened!" So, again, we jump out of bed and cannot find a thing!

The next day we told our neighbors. Since they knew the previous owners, Sam and Betty, they gave their daughter a call to see if she could shed light on this. Turns out that Sam, who had passed away on the corner of our property 3 yrs earlier while mowing the lawn, used to work in a chemical plant and kept his clothes in the dining room closet!!

Since that night, we have had many experiences in the house. Our oldest daughter swears that she heard Sam talking to the dog one day while she was home alone. The only reason she assumes it was Sam was because he was an older African American and she described the voice as being such. Funnily enough, 2 of our daughters were good friends with Sam's 2 granddaughters who lived with him for a period of time. When we were house hunting we asked to see another house on our same street but the realtor accidently brought us to this house, thinking that this was the house we were talking about.  It was exactly the type of house we needed for our large family!