Two Christmas ago Trudy and I were shopping at Lowe's and we both saw these beautiful Christmas Cacti blooming. So we each bought one and brought them home. Immediately they dropped their blossoms. What a disappointment. I remember when I was a child my dad, a school teacher, always had Christmas cacti blooming in his classroom. When he retired and brought them home they never bloomed again.
Well I kept mine alive and last Christmas nothing. Nothing at all bloomed. So I thought I will try it one more year. I stuck it out in the sun porch and kinda forgot about it. About once a month I watered it. Then when I had a party here I decided to put it in the master bathroom where it was sorta dark but got the humidity from our showers.
When I went to put it in the front room the leaves were starting to turn a funny color. I almost threw it away. Then two days later I noticed these small buds on the end of the pedal. Ah Ha.
You could almost see it growing. Now I'm not going to bore you with all the pictures I took but here are some of them.
This plant just seemed to jump at night. We would get up in the morning and more buds on the ends and then the buds just started to bloom.
I just had to take pictures of the blossoms. They are so delicate and beautiful.
There are even more blossoms today than yesterday when I took the pictures.
This is how I imagine Dad smiling at my blooming Cactus. He did love the Christmas Cacti.
Trudy does such a great job. Noah tried to take my picture with Trudy coloring my hair but the batteries had gone dead. 
Here we are waiting for our 30 minutes to be up so we could wash our hair and quit itching.
We're done. All I need now is a hair cut and a new thin face.
Then we caught Grandpa in the bathroom touching up his sideburns. To bad there wasn't enough hair color left and we could have matched.
After our delicious meal it was time to make gingerbread houses. Here is all the candy that we used.
Everyone waiting for the icing to be made.
Tina and Trudy in the kitchen hurrying to make the icing. The kids had been waiting for awhile because Grandpa and Tina had been practicing a song that Grandpa is going to sing in Church on the 14th of December.
And now the fun begins. I hope the rest of the family blog their pictures. I have a bunch more but I think they take better pictures. Zane and Noah.
Justin
Baxter
Tina gluing hers together with a glue gun.
And the finished product. Grandpa's Tree.
Zane's
Noah's
McKay's
Baxter's
Justin's
Stevie's
Ceci's
The whole village
This is the back view of the village
As you can see we had a great time like we always do.
Well Trudy sent over her boys and Stevie to help grandpa clear up and pack up. With Baxter, Zane, Noah and Stevie's help, putting things in big black trash bags and hauling them under the house so that the day after they can be brought back up for grandpa's business they got things done. They even found the stud in the wall so they could hang my quilt up out of the way. Stevie started burning boxes for Grandpa and then Zane and Noah took over and then had to shower because of the good ole burning smell. They all did a great job.
Inside I was baking lemon meringue and cherry pies, making a salad and getting the sweet potatoes ready. It is nicer now with the family raised and they bring their share of the meal and I don't have to do it all. Tina and Trudy are such good cooks and Ceci and Stevie love to help. I don't know if anyone helped Tina or not. I know she was at the ER with McKay most of the day.
On Thanksgiving morning I got up and made Oreo truffles and Pretzel Turtles. I did the m & m's for the kids, but the adults liked them better than the ones with pecans also. Grandpa talked me into the M & M's, he is so smart about those things. 
Isn't Stevie cute and Ceci did such a great job!!!!!!
This plant just seemed to jump at night. We would get up in the morning and more buds on the ends and then the buds just started to bloom.
