It's Christmastime! And an AMAZING...DID I SAY AMAZING GIVE-AWAY!

I absolutely love Christmas! I mean who doesn't, really?! Above is a collage of some of my Christmas decor. I love "trees" so I have several. 2 big ones and then lots of little ones. For fun I bought an orange tree from Tree Topia. They have many festive and novel trees...check out their web site by clicking on their name. Why orange? Well, for some reason I am drawn to the color orange. I started posting "Orange Item of the Day" on my Instagram page but that is not important right now!

This year I seem to be more up on getting things done than in previous years. Maybe because I have had to stop working because of M.S. Who knew there was an upside? But that is not important right now either....

Here's what I want from you....

What is your favorite Christmas tradition? Tell me in the comment portion of the post. Now, for those of you who think you do not have a Google account and can't post, here's what you do. Click on "comments" link at the bottom of this post. Then click in the box and write a comment, in this case I'd like to hear what is your favorite Christmas tradition. Then click on Name/url. In the box put your name...it doesn't have to be your real name, but something you can identify if you win. You don't have to put a url, it's optional. Then push "publish your comment". It's that easy!

So, let's go...I'm gonna tell you my favorite Christmas tradition....
I use to love that fact that we move the Wise Men (with camels and now a star) around the house. It was so fun to wake up and see where they were on their way to the nativity scene. We use to do this to be able to talk to the kids about the birth of Jesus and what was real and what was not. But now, the kids are grown and gone and it is mostly a formality that Gene and I do.

I would say at this time in my life I love the pickle search. Mostly because my 30ish age kids do not want me to stop it. So I have to have 2 (now 3 pickle presents) on Christmas Eve because they still want to search for it! Over the years, due to the fact that I have different trees, I have had to modify the pickle search. But it is always fun seeing them spend 40 minutes looking for it on a tree LOADED with ornaments!

So...what are we playing for....wait for it...wait....

I am giving away a D23 membership! Yes you heard me right! I will give you an one year D23 membership!

Now let me explain this. you may NOT be getting what is seen here, I have never given away a D23 membership, so I am not sure EXACTLY what you get. But you can see on their site, what they say you get and the watch is in the picture...but I can't say for sure.

This is to show you what D23 does. They send you a beautiful magazine 4 times a year. Through out the year you get little things. Last year I had that watch waiting for me on my door step one day. I don't know what they will send or that it will be as grand as a watch. But, you do get the magazine, and will get emails and inside info on all things Disney. I'm guessing it will be a great thing to have this coming year due to the fact that the new Cars Land will be opening!

So, you can read about D23 by clicking on the logo. I will be giving the GOLD membership!

This time I will allow the extra chances with a tweet and/or FB mention! But you have to come back to my blog and say I tweeted or mentioned on FB. I want a separate comment for each thing because it makes it easier to choose the winner. So.....

1. Leave a comment about what your favorite Christmas tradition is.
2. Leave another comment saying I tweeted the giveaway! Tweet something like this "Go see this amazing D23 giveaway by @pampensiero"
3. Leave another comment saying I posted your giveaway on FaceBook! And be sure to post it on Face Book!

To get the extra chances, you must do it that way because it makes it much easier for me to put the numbers into random.org. Thank you everyone good luck and Merry Christmas!

Oh, I almost forgot....I will choose a winner on Wednesday December 14 at 8:00AM. Be sure to comment!

Thank you Lord for a wonderful year!

Amidst all my complaining this past December and my feeling that I somehow missed things...I had a realization! I did a lot! Every year December comes and goes and I always feel I have missed it! And every year I vow to make the most of it next year! And every year, I get older and slower! So...I'm going to recap what happened in my December and be very thankful that I got to be here to enjoy it!

This year was my Grandson's first Christmas! That will never happen again, and I was here to see it!


We made Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls with our Granddaughter!

This was our second year attending the Chaffee Zoo program called Zoo Lights! This year John, Mary and CJ went along with us!

Our church had a women's brunch where we had many talented ladies share their cookies with us!

It had been 15 years since we went to the local living nativity. Every year I want to go and every year I miss it. I want it to be a regular thing. The Riverdale Assembly of God church puts on a living nativity. The last time I went was before 1996 when my mom was alive. We took her to it. It was awesome! They act out the scenes from the Bible about Jesus' birth.

There was an angel hoisted up on a big crane! And below her there were lots of sheep. But we were in our car so getting a picture was hard of them because a light came on on the angel and then goes off when she is not doing the proclamation.

There were lots of animals...like this camel!

I was able to make my PAMAgranate jelly. And I have an amazing BFF that made labels for me so I look really cool!


We had a joyful Christmas Eve day celebration. It began at Gellyo's home. (Gene, Kelly and Geno) We had a delicious breakfast of just about everything you could ever dream of!

Gene read stories to Geno and CJ. (I love this picture!


Then we all came over to my home for the traditions that we began. (in our family) The pickle hunt...where Johnny was king! I think Garry (John and Mary) have won the past couple of years!

We read some of our favorite stories. Santa, are you for real?, The Cajun Night Before Christmas, The Gift of the Magi and the Twelve Dogs of Christmas to name a few. Here is a taste if you have 3 minutes-



We added a new tradition. The introduction to the story! That was pretty great!

Then at 4ish we trek over to CCH and have a Candlelight Christmas Eve service. After that we go over to John, Mary and CJ's home and enjoy a delicious soup made by John and presents!


I think my favorite gift was this one. The Rapunzel hair. It was like CJ transformed into a princess right before our eyes! She loved that hair! Such a joy to see how simple things like this make a little girl feel like she is special. She promptly ran off and put on one of her "princess dresses"!

On the Sunday after Christmas, the Children's choir sang in church and that was a wonderful treat!

CJ is there in the second row.

And after that service, some generous and hard working folks made pancakes for the cafe. They made me special Mickey pancakes!

Now, you can't beat that..right?

All in all, it was a wonderful fun packed December. I had time to goof off and take pictures of myself in reflections!


I mean..really, who could complain?

Hope you all had a wonderful December as well!

Of soap and bread!

My husband came to me today and said "I put the sponge in the dishwasher (as we do often to clean it...why we just don't use a new one, I don't know...but that is not important right now) and I guess it had too much soap in it". The pictures are what we saw.

I couldn't help but flash on a story with my Dad. As I said before, most of the memories of my Dad are bad, but this one is funny.

It was one Christmas Eve and my Dad took me out Christmas shopping for my mom. (or that is how I remember it) Why we stopped to do some laundry, I will never know. I do remember it was Christmas Eve because I remember being concerned that Santa was on his way and we would miss him. (there was the Santa tracking report on the radio)

Anyway, there we were at the laundry mat and I remember a scene much like this, only way bigger! (or maybe I was smaller, who knows....the mind is a funny thing) He put too much soap in the machine and then all of a sudden soap was everywhere. Kind of like that episode of "I love Lucy" where she was baking the bread that was expanding from the oven!

Back to my story....I said "Wait, I have to take some pictures!" I couldn't help but laugh and remember that Christmas Eve so many years ago.

What is God trying to tell me?