Christmas Traditions

Mrs4444 from Half-Past Kissin' Time asked about holiday traditions. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to post. I have my usually Ma'am-Ma Tinsel and Daddy's Picture story. But this year I just felt that there was something I was missing.

I found it last night when we went to get our tree.

Our first Christmas here, 2006, we were sent by a friend quite a distance for a tree. He said it was a special place with good people and that was where we were to go. We drove 30 minutes, passing other tree lots, to a small family nursery. There was no one there when we got there. But there was this sign:

It says, "If you need a Christmas tree, just help yourself. Pay if you'd like. Put the money in the jar outside the front door. Thanks, Bob Williams"

Here's the jar with some money in it.

Needless to say, having come from a large city, this overwhelming trust was just what we'd moved for.

But the best part was when we met Bob and his son Corey. Corey owns a barbershop but helped with the trees every Christmas. Anyway, inside of Bob's Nursery there is this wall. This very special wall. What made this wall so incredible is that every family that came to get their tree had their children measured there and the child them self wrote their name and dated it.

They'd been doing it since 1977. This was their third wall (paneling) and the first two walls were kept as history. There were people who brought their children there because they were measure there themselves as children.

Here's Bob measuring our daughter in 2006.

We bought our 2006 and 2007 Christmas trees there. He remembered us the second year we came. In 2008 Bear arrived and it was pouring rain and we had to use a fake tree for the first time in our marriage. We were all saddened to have not had one of Bob's trees.

Last night we headed out for our tree at Bob's Nursery. There was a sign with a number to call if we needed help with a tree. I got a hold of Corey who was just closing his barbershop and was heading over. The kids got all excited about being measured on the wall and eagerly looked for where they had been measured before so they could be marked down this year. I asked Corey where Bob was.

Corey just looked at me and shook his head. His Dad had passed away November 30th of this year. I blinked back tears.

We had picked out our tree before we called him and Corey simply loaded it into the back of the van. He had said earlier that his brother may be taking over the nursery, but even if his brother didn't and the nursery closed, that HE would be selling Christmas Trees somewhere. Bear tried to pay him, but he simply said, "Merry Christmas" and sent us on our way.

I cried silently most of the way home. The kids said that they had some tears of their own. And I believe Bear's eyes were a bit moist as well. It's hard to believe how someone you hardly know can touch your heart so deeply, and how loosing them can affect us so much.

So this year I share two traditions, one 32-year old tradition that our family has been part of for just a few short years, and new tradition we start this year. It's a mason jar under the tree with a single word written on the top of the jar, Bob.


Merry Christmas. And may you touch someone's heart this year the way Bob touched ours.

~*~*~Krystal~*~*~

Today MIGHT be my Wedding Anniversary Part 2

You may want to read YESTERDAY'S POST to catch up.

Batman has asked, "So, how much time went by from first date to marriage proposal?" Well, I don't had the exact date because my old journals are still in Florida BUT it was about a month after our first kiss. We were laying on the floor, after heavily making out, when we had the following conversation:

Bear: "So...how long do I have to wait to ask you to marry me?"
Me: "Let's go talk to my Dad."

Yes, I remember it ver batem.

My dress arrived in August (we had no date yet, but my parents already knew it was coming) and he hadn't asked Daddy and I didn't have a ring. BUT it was my dream dress and I knew IT was the one!

We told his folks at the end of September. He spoke to my Dad October 30, 1990. See, Bear had said he was going to talk to Daddy before the end of October. I think he was nervous. I don't know why. My Daddy totally ADORED him! So Daddy made it easy for him. He grabbed them each a beer and invited him outside to chat. LOL!

They sat on the back porch next to the pool. Mom and I were in the house peaking out the window. About an hour later they came in. The deed was done. It was official. I got my ring for Christmas that year and we set a date.

We actually had THREE dates and two sets of wedding invites, but I'll save those stories for next year. :)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, BEAR (again)!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!
Peace Out,

~*~*~Krystal~*~*~

Today MIGHT be my Wedding Anniversary

"MIGHT BE" you ask? Yes. Bear and I got married on Leap Day 1992. We've never exactly decided if our anniversary is the last day of February or the day after the 28th of February.

Either way, we've been married 17 years.

WOW! That sounds like a really long time...

Anyway, it may sound like a long time, but it doesn't FEEL like a long time. I feel like I've always been with him. That he's always been a part of me. That there was never a "before Bear" time in my life.

We had our first date Wednesday, December 13, 1989. He picked me up in his faded dark grey Camaro ("I ain't never rid in no Camaro before!"). We went to see the play Fiorello (I still have the ticket stubs). I wore a grey dress with my hair up. We went for a walk afterwards down by the sea wall. There was a women with a flat tire and Bear asked if she needed help. We had Burger King afterwards. LOL! We saw or talked to each other every day after that.

SIX WEEKS LATER, that man finally kissed me. My mother and my sister were beginning to think he was gay. I was thinking that maybe he wasn't all that in to me.

Naaaaaahhhhhh!

I remember that first kiss too. It was a Sunday and we had gone back to his apartment to go fishing in the lake behind it. I had changed out of my church clothes into a pair of his shorts (I could hardly get my butt into them) and one of his shirts. After we'd been fishing we decided to watch TV. I came out of his room with my shirt "accidentally" unbuttoned one button too many.

Did I mention this was after church? Yeah, I think I did.

He politely informed me that I had missed a button. I acted all embarrassed and turned around to fix it. We were watching tv and later that night he laid down on his couch to watch the movie (whatever it was). I think we watched two of them. I laid down in front of him on the couch. We hardly fit the two of us. After about an hour and a half he finally kissed me. So we kissed for a while when I finally had to go home (I was pass curfew, but WOW he was such an awesome kisser!!!!).

Now being the healthy almost 19-year-old hormone driven female that I was, I would have slept with him that night. Right. Wrong. But true. He, however, was a 25-year-old man who'd been in the Navy for almost six years who was a bit more mature than I was. He said he respected me and wanted to do the right thing by me.

How sweet.

Took me until August to seduce him. ***schoolgirl giggles***

But here we are 19 years after our first date. Nineteen years after our first kiss. Seventeen years after our vows. And five children later.

And I am as into him now as ever.

He's still an AWESOME kisser and now we can have guilt free sex.


HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, BEAR!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

Peace Out,

~*~*~Krystal~*~*~

"Smells like Mee-Maws."

As most of you know, Gilligan has an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Life with him is interesting and fun. There are days when I would love to just tie him to a chair and days when I just love wrapping my arms around him and counting him as a VERY special blessing.

Today he was a very special blessing.

This afternoon, while rummaging through a storage box because he does that kind of thing, he found this old stuffed dog of mine. I've had it since I was in first or second grade. It went with me everywhere. My son smelled it, because that it what he does, and he said, "Hmmmmm, smells like Mee-Maws."

I asked him to hand me my dog, I burried my nose in it and took a deep breath of my own. It does smell just like Ma'am-Ma's (that's what I called her). I gave my special son a special hug and just said thank you as tears welled up in my eyes. She's been gone for 4 1/2 years now. My Grandpa's been gone for 3 1/2. I haven't been in their house since he died.

They say that smell triggers the most memories. I don't know if that's true or not. But it was incredibly comforting to smell their home again. Though there were some tears, there was mainly a smile and warm memories.

So I just want to thank God for giving me my son the way he is, because none of my other children would have rummaged through a box and smelled an old stuffed dog.

Peace Out,

~*~*~Krystal~*~*~

Happy Anniversary to Me

My husband and I had had sex for the first time on this date 18 years ago.

Just a Fond Memory

When I was in 8th grade we went to Epcot for our class trip. When we were in France my girlfriends and I saw this Frenchman working there that we thought was incredibly cute. We all wanted to talk to him, but I was the only one willing to go practice my "flirting skills" on this man who was probably in his mid-20's.


I walk up to him grinning and slightly blushing and asked, "Parlez-vous français?" (Do you speak French?). He answered me in French of course. I only understood "oui".


Why am I telling you this? Because it came to mind for no reason and it made me smile. He was very kind to me. He could have just said "oui" and been done with it. It was obvious that I didn't understand a WORD he was saying, but he said it with a smile that said he understood what it took for me to go talk to him (my FRIENDS were watching!). He then asked me if I was having a good time and where we were from and that he hoped we'd have a great second half of the day.


Could he have been telling me what a disgusting little creature I was? I s'pose so. But I don't think he was. Looking back at the memory of an awkward brace-faced four-eyed little girl, and the way he treated me, I believe he was showing kindness, not because he was being paid to, but because he just understood.


And I have to say that it's a memory I'm glad to remember.


(Did I mention that I was wearing a pink and purple sombrero from Mexico?)