7am

It's 7:30 am on a Sunday and I am awake. This is really not like me. I have somethings to do this morning before our trip to Portsmouth for the Annual Bickford Family Yankee Swap.

Keeping The Secret in mind, I have decided today is going to be a wonderful day - and it will!

We LOVE the Yankee Swap! Nearly 30 of us will gather today at my Aunt Jen's house and exchange some rather crazy gifts. Well, some will be crazy, others plain stupid but at least one will be wonderful.

My father's mother died when he was 13. None of us ever had the opportunity to meet her. So, every year at the Yankee Swap one of the gifts is her cross necklace. You get to keep the necklace for a year, wear it if you like, then you pass it along to someone else. The year that I was in school I got to have the necklace and I wore it most everyday.

It isn't anything spectacular. In fact, I have an allergy to some metals and get itchy with a rash if I wear anything too long and often that would happen to me when I wore it. But it is just nice to have something of hers.

It can get a little crazy at Aunt Jen's. Her house is small (well, small for 30 people) and it is NOT childproofed in any way, shape or form. Last year she had a bottle of fingernail polish sitting out and Andrew decided he would open it and dump it. The year before he knocked over a table. But this year - well, this year is going to be wonderful. He is going to be so well behaved. Mom will make a quick scan of the place before Andrew is released and move anything potentially dangerous or mess worthy. We will bring a favorite toy and a book or two and he will be an angel.

Keep your eyes out for my next post. I am going to bring the camera and I hope to get tons of great pictures of the fam.

Have a great day, I know I will!