"We're Making Christmas Mom!"

"We're making Christmas mom!" Those are the exact words I heard from my lovely daughters. Sometimes as a parent you just cannot leave the room for a minute without kids causing mischief. Granted my girls do not cause much mischief, so when they do I am in awe at times. Maybe in awe because I just cant fathom what gives these not so wonderful ideas. Oh that's right; their imaginations. And our girls sure have huge imaginations.

The story behind the picture begins way back in all reality with our neighbor who had passed away for sometime now. He was a single older man. Let me fill you in a little first. When we first moved in our house it was in the middle of winter. Here in Michigan we sort of hibernate in our homes during winter months. It was a snowy day as I looked out our front living room window to see our neighbor in big rubber boots, a trench coat and bright orange hat. Think of the scene from the original movie, Home Alone. 

Once we finally met our neighbor we all grew close. The girls would talk to him out of their bedroom window while he let his dog outside. Our dog adored him. As for myself I felt safe knowing he was my neighbor even if his appearance might have scared me a little at first. Never judge a book by it's cover. He was a great neighbor. 

When he had his heart attack, his home went into foreclosure. The house sat for at least a year; nothing touched or moved. Yesterday the courts came and finally cleaned out the house. To be honest I was kind of okay with thing the way they were. I'm not good with change. Watching them clean out the house it hit me that its officially over. All his stuff is gone; he is really gone. 

Back to the white Christmas. The nice gentlemen who were cleaning out the house gave our girls each their own stuffed dog that use to be our neighbors. Helen thought it would be a fun idea to ride one like a pony. The neck snapped and out pored the white stuff almost like Styrofoam. Granted it did look like snow and they were acting as if it were, I was not pleased. In the moment I couldn't feel mad at them so I laughed, cleaned up the mess and explained to them I was not fond of that type of snow. 

I tell myself these are just memories. The clean up may not have been fun, but it lightened all our moods. Oh the joys of parenting. He he he.

Would you have freaked out or stood in awe then laughed like me?