So This is Christmas

Don't we spend a lot of time on traditions at Christmas.  I still carry on with traditions that began with the Captain, well, some from my childhood I guess  Just this pictures brings so many things to mind.  I've always loved "Activities" ( nativities).  I have them of every make and model.  Though I don't remember what happened to the one in this picture.  I have tiny ones and great big ones and all kinds in between.  I work very hard at walking a way from new ones, though an old one in an antique store will give me cause to pause, still.
Can you see that little angel with the blue velvet skirt on the top left of the tree?  On the Captain's first Christmas, he pulled it off the tree and bit it.  For years she graced the tree with those tiny teeth prints in her forehead.  Alas, when we moved to the country and stored  Christmas in the attic, a wee critter found that little angel's face as tasty as the Captain, a removed most of it.  Still, the tiny teeth prints were there and still, when I decorate a big angel tree, you'll find her in the mix.
I also have a thing for rocking chairs. The Handy Man says we he'll have to build an addition on the front porch if we get another rocking chair.  Those chairs stay busy rocking poo-pies all summer long.
My kiddos sat in my lap until they left home.  Sometimes that seems like so long ago, hence dragging out these old pictures, remembering.
I love this outfit he's wearing.  That wasn't the type of outfit I could afford.  Most all of my kids clothes came from Value City.  Kaye had a friend that bought her boys the most beautiful clothes, then I would buy them from her, or sometimes they were gifted to me.  At the time of this picture, I was ginormously pregnant with the Captain's siblings and terrified.  I was so completely eaten up with this boy, I could not imagine every loving anything like I loved him. Wow, you can't understand the flexibility of that heart muscle until it's put to the test.

The next Christmas found two additional sprites under our tree (which was in the playpen) and I was every bit as smitten with them.  My quiver was full and overflowing.  I would love a lot of children, but none who could compare to these three until-

And though that tiniest finger isn't quite so tiny, Mr. Beantown, still has me wrapped around it.
I had no idea, and on it goes through Ol' Henry and Bugg and Antebellie and Linee and Buttercup and Blue Eyes  and Baby Boy and Giddy-up and Buttons and  I'm looking forward to the continued expansion of my heart when we get a call that one more is on the way.  Ahhh, remembering.