Christmas Clutter

I've been going through some pictures tonight and came across this one. It was taken in the early 1990s before we went to digital cameras. For some reason, this picture makes me laugh. Everything is so cluttered, but I suppose that's typical of most people's homes on Christmas morning. Nicole is sitting by me wearing her Baby Bop slippers. I think she was sick that year and wasn't feeling too good. I have to laugh at the stocking on the fish tank. Yes, our fish got presents too, even if they had to use an old Baby's First Christmas stocking. And you can see Belle poking around back when she was just a little tot.

It's such a funny picture to me, and this is probably one of the ONLY pictures you'll ever see me without make-up. I tend to shy away from cameras when I don't have it on, unless there are sunglasses involved. I remember that silly sleepshirt too -- it had a big Garfield on it. The socks matched and looked like they were Garfield's legs and feet. Thank goodness you can't see them. What really cracks me up is the huge pillow in front of the TV. I'm not sure why that's there. It was either to keep the girls from crashing into the TV, or maybe to keep them out of the cabinet underneath. Then the blanket is over the bricks on the fireplace, and I'm pretty sure that's because the girls used to play on it.

It's fun to find these silly pictures and study every little thing in them. I don't know if Nichelle would remember her Little Mermaid lunchbox or not, but we still have the Berenstain Bears book. If fact, we have a huge collection of those. Who knows -- maybe the book in this picture got us started with that collection. We've replaced fresh Christmas trees with an artificial one, but we still have a lot of the stuff that's visible in this picture. It's amazing to think how long we've had some of it.

I was looking at a picture of me and my grandmother recently. It was taken on Christmas morning. In the one below, I can see my mom's nativity set. I always thought that was just the coolest thing ever. It's fun to look at these old pictures and study everything in them -- even in the middle of all the Christmas Clutter.

Hmmm ... I just looked at the picture above and realize I have no make-up on in this one. I guess that's a good thing, huh? I couldn't be more than 3 or 4 years old. That has to be some kind of record -- me posting TWO make-up-less pictures of myself in one day. I miss my grandma. She'd probably be horrified to know I was posting a picture of her with messy hair, without make-up, and in her nightclothes for the entire world to see. She was such a sweet, gentle woman -- and the true definition of a lady.