Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

Joy to the World

The Lord is Come!

Picture copyright Trinity Acres

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

I'm the one holding the book, of course. And yes, that is Gollum!

 I got a nice array of amazing gifts. My camera doesn't take the best pictures, but you should still get the idea.

The fan was from a lovely friend. Thank you Eve! Eve's blog She is an amazing person!

The little jar is full of writing prompts, which was accompanied by a notebook. They were from another friend. Thank you Alley! If you have gotten a book certificate from me, you should thank her. She was the one that gave me the idea for book certificates. Now three or four years later, I am still using them. The weird screw thing is some kind of puzzle, which is supposed to come apart. It came from my grandma along with a hat, a pair of socks, and an awesome shirt which has EBH #3 on it. To those of you that don't know what that means, it is my initials and the 3 stands for third grandchild. Of course my dad and brothers solved the puzzle screw and I did not. I'll get it one of these days. Thank you Grandma! The piece of paper is an airplane ticket. My sister Galadriel and I are going to Washington for a couple of days to stay with an aunt AND go to the March for Life! Whooo hooo! Thanks mom and dad you are the best! The book is one of my own books. My brother arranged to have one of them printed up in book form. I have a whole box full of them! MY PRECIOUS! Of course since I wasn't in on the plan it never got any series editing, so this is mostly a fun edition! Thank you Frodo! And the others that helped! I also got some candy, money and cards from other people. Thanks everyone!

 Box full of my treasures!

Notebook and writing prompts.

I decided I was going to do one prompt per day until they were all gone, then I was going to have someone refill the jar.

This was the prompt I pulled out this morning

"Here's what I know about sibling rivalry."

The drabble

"Here's what I know about sibling rivalry." I told my grandson, "My sister, the Spider; and I were deep in a heated debate one year involving some serious bruises and now then a clatter of anything breakable. Our mother had stepped out for a moment, otherwise she might have showed her enthusiasm for our little debate by helping it along with a swinging broom. Mothers can get carried away sometimes."

"Hey, is this some kind of joke?" my grandson whined, "That's the same thing I do with Toad, Cow and Piggie, when we're trying to kill each other!" This kid had no taste whatsoever. You don't try to kill your siblings, you have gentle debates with them.

My wife peered into the room and frowned. I figured she was blinder then I realized because she looked at our grandson instead of me.

"Don't encourage him, you fool!" she yelled, "He'll grow up even worse then he already is!"

"I'm doing my best grandma." my grandson said. I wonder what he could have meant by that crack. My wife was obviously talking to me.

"Shut up you two and listen while I explain how to take care of sibling rivalry!" I barked. Sometimes I have to be a little rough, when I'm not given the proper respect. I have threatened not to tell my stories to them, but for some odd reason that usually makes them double over.

"We're listening!" My grandson said as he started flipping through a magazine. I would have smacked him with it, except I couldn't afford to crunkle it. That was my brand new gun magazine.

Just then my oldest and biggest, not to mention ugliest granddaughter came into the room. Having so many grandchildren has dimmed their names in my memory, perhaps it is actually my brain cells rotting with age, or because I beat my head against the tree after failing to hit a dear who was right in front of me, my aim is usually off by 90 degrees. I don't know why, it just is. Anyway, my grandson and I call her the Toad. She resembles one too. Warty face, muddy brown hair, thin complexion, evil eyes, power sucking lips. In short she was nearly as ugly and evil as my sister, who was definitely a Spider.

"Grandma tell grandpa not to start on his silly stories of experience." Toad cried, "He's teaching Billy to call us names." I like to pride myself on the fact that I had drawn my grandson's attention to the fact that his three sisters looked remarkably like a Toad, a Cow and a Pig. My wife reached for her broom. I moved to the couch so the rocking chair was between us. You can never get to coutious when it comes to swinging brooms. Particularly if it is bigger then you. Both the broom and the woman. Not that my wife was bigger then me, except in temper. I'm a nice kind of guy though.

"When I was ten years old, I figured out how to take care of sibling rivalry." I began. The broom twitched. I picked up a cushion. As I said before one could never get too careful.

"Get on with it grandpa!" Billy shouted, "I got a baseball game, so the sooner I figure out how to make the Toad drive me, the better." That boy just loves my stories. I think I could just detect a certain amount of affection in the downward curve of his mouth. My stories are so amazing. Every word is the absolute truth too.

"Your game is at the other end of the street!" Toad barked.

"What's your point?" Billy asked.

"Gramps!" the Toad said sharply, "What exactly do you know about sibling rivalry? You didn't have any siblings." I could have sworn the Spider was my sister. Maybe she was my cousin or aunt or something.

"Are you trying to teach Billy and Teresa not to fight?" my wife asked. She lowered her broom. I knew she would thaw out towards my story.

"Naw," I drawled, "I was just going to tell them that sibling rivalry is really just an excuse to fight. Kids like to keep their parents on their toes!"

"Hey, I knew that!" Billy shouted.

My wife threw the broom at me. It hit the rocking chair bounced off, hit my cushion and swung up in an almost human way, right into my face. Bullseye! Luckily it didn't take all my teeth out. I think that will be the last time I educate my grandson in front of my wife.

Yeah, I read to much Patrick McManus.

You can see my shirt and hat in this very blurry picture. The hat has an E on it.

 Our big Nitivity set. It has been in the process of enlargement for over twelve years now.

This picture was taken near the beginning of Advent, so there isn't a lot of people up yet.

~E