Back Amongst the Living

We have had the most dreadful gomboo at our house for over a week now, which equates to a combination head and chest cold, the kind of coughing that turns you inside out, stomach flu, fever and (for Hubby) a sinus infection. We have been passing this mess back and forth like we're playing ping pong and it has left everyone feeling pretty much like this ...

I had to call in sick to my new job two days this week. Gaaaaah! And don't even get me started on how far behind I am on Christmas now. Just thinking about it makes me want to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head. But, nope, I'll be blasting some Christmas music and making a To Do List. I have one week left to get everything checked off.

Before we got sick, we managed to get a few Christmas decorations up on the front porch ...

And the Granddaughter has always put up her own 4' tree, decorated with a lot of Ty Jingle Beanie ornaments ...

Yes, that is a PINK tree!

When we first bought our retail store nearly 10 years ago, the Granddaughter was 4 years old. She loved, loved, loved to spend time at the store and she had no problem chatting with customers. She'd walk up to anybody and everybody and say something along the lines of, "Let me show you what I like." Then she'd march them over to the section with Beanie Babies and plush toys. 

We did a lot of custom printing of stationery and holiday cards and wedding invitations and such, and had an area of tables in the back of the store where we'd sit with customers and take orders. Once when I was on a phone call with a vendor, an older gentleman came in to order note cards. Seeing that I was tied up on the phone, the Granddaughter climbed up onto a chair, grabbed an order pad and pencil and asked him, "How do you spell your name?" What makes that so cute is she really had no idea what she was writing down, but she proceeded to take his order. He was completely charmed!

The other thing in our store that she was extremely fascinated with was the cash register. She'd pull a step stool over to the check-out counter, climb up and start pushing buttons on the register. There were several nights when my totals were so off, I had to start from scratch to figure out what sales were like that day. So that first Christmas after we got the store, we bought her a Barbie Cash Register so she'd have her own to play with. This thing had all kinds of great bells and whistles, including a credit card swiper and a microphone with loud speaker. Hubby's parents were visiting that Christmas and we were all in the kitchen getting ready to eat when we heard my FIL in the living room calling over the loudspeaker, "Clean up on Aisle 4." Still cracks me up!!!

Hope you're having a Holly Jolly Christmas so far!