Dec. 19, 2012

Only 5 days, 1 hour, and 16 minutes more. 

There's not much to write about today.  It's been rather quiet.

Bob and I ran an errand uptown plus I had to go to the post office. I had one more Christmas card to get in the box.  It was to someone local, so there shouldn't be any worry about them getting it late.

When we got home, I took care of a load of laundry while Bob gathered up our collection of aluminum cans and took them out to the recycling center.

Yesterday we went out to WalMart to get the ingredients I needed for my fudge and cookie recipes. I'm hoping to get started on them tomorrow.

I just saw a commercial on TV for an upcoming episode of "Super Nanny".  I usually don't watch the show because I get too upset. I can't believe there are families out there that have such horrible kids. It's awful watching those little hellions' run the house, talk like that, destroy things and physically take out their frustrations on their parents.  But I think I've seen some of those kids at WalMart.  It's just un-real. Society has made parents so afraid to punish their children for fear someone, or even their own child, would turn them into authorities for child abuse. They are now raising a generation of angry, violent citizens.

Question:  Bob and I are very fortunate to still receive many Christmas cards in the mail and I love getting each one. The number is dwindling down, what with the costs involved, but I cherish each person that still sends one to us. I've been standing the cards on the mantel but it's looking cluttered. My question is …. is there something special that you do with your's? Do you have a favorite way to display them? I'm looking for ideas.

We are under a winter storm advisory until tomorrow night. They're watching a storm west of us that could hit us. Well, afterall, it is December. And we've been lucky with the weather so far.

Hope everyone has a great Thursday.

Take care.

God bless.

Monday Dec. 17, 2012

I'm still working on our Christmas plans and I can see that my time is running out. The days are going by too fast for me. I am more organized this year than I was last year at this time. I'm working on my grocery list now, the things I need to pick up for our family gathering on Christmas Eve. I'm doing a buffet so most of the cooking will be done early, with several crockpots.


I did get 2 more gifts purchased today. They were for our twins birthday on Friday (which is also my birthday). I was hoping they could come see me like we always do each year, but one daughter has to work. She's the one that has the 3 hour drive to get here. As it looks right now, we won't see her until Christmas eve.

My boss came in today to finish up some work I was doing for him. He took the final print-outs I had done  and gave me a Christmas present. He's such a nice guy, and so easy to work for. He does this every year and the card always says "for all the things you do to help me".

Bob and I did go out to eat supper at Orchard Tree. It's our favorite local eatery with a full salad and hot bar, plus the best homemade pies around. It felt so good just to relax and let someone else cook and serve me.

I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow.
Take care.
God bless.

Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012

The weekend has just flown by. Time will do that when we're busy. Yesterday was nothing special except for Daughter #1 and her family coming in last evening. They were here a couple hours, but my migraine prevented me from enjoying their visit.

Today's chore was cleaning the bathroom... taking down the shower curtain, replace the liner with a new one, and throw the outer curtain, bath mat and rug in the washer.  I just got that finished when Daughter #3 and her youngest, Bryan, came in.

Teresa and I then ran out and picked up a graphing calculator that Curtis, her oldest, needs to take to college with him when he leaves next month. He's majoring in computer engineering and it's a requirement that he have one. Those things are so expensive, she needed help getting one for him. It's going under the Christmas tree.

While we were gone, Grandpa and Bryan played games on the Wii. They stayed and ate supper with us but I had an awful time trying to get the 2 of them away from their game to come to the table. Bryan was so sad when she told them they had to leave. He was having so much fun. Don't tell him I said this but I know Bob was having fun too. I should have taken pictures. It was fun just watching them.

Tomorrow's plan is to hit a couple stores in search of 3 more gifts. Our twin daughters' birthday is Friday the 21st and I have to pick up their gifts. And something for grandson #5. We hadn't decided what to get him until last night. Bob said we may eat out when we're finished shopping. I'm looking forward to that. 

Wishing you a good week ahead.
Take care.
God bless.

Our Christmas decorations are up

We finally got the tree up today. What a relief. That's such a chore for us old folks. I read the other day where someone referred to her "remembrance" tree. That's kind of what we have here. Every single one of our decorations we hang on our tree have specific memories attached to them. We both have ornaments that were our mothers. I have a special ball that was my gr-aunt's.

There are several little porcelain characters that our daughters painted when they were teenagers. Several little odd decorations were made by our grandchildren and given to us. There's no way I can part with them. I have some my sister gave me as gifts that have words on them about sisters. Plus I have 7 homemade yarn circles with each of the grandkid's baby picture in the center. Each time one of them was born, I made an ornament for our tree representing their first Christmas at Grandma's. Each ornament is a story and when we put up the tree each year, our minds wonder back to the "good ol days". Our Christmas tree means a lot to us and I always feel good when it's up.

I have a Christmas village that I usually put on the mantel each year. I didn't do that today. I wasn't sure if I wanted to bring it all out, but I might yet. I'm still thinking about it.

Well, I hope everyone had a great day. I'm calling it a night.
Take care.
God bless.

Thurs. Dec. 13, 2012

I had a good day. Busy, but good. The sun was shining so bright and I could even feel the warmth from it. We've needed this. It's been so dark and gloomy lately. The sun does a body good. My sister sent me a text message that she was even "laying" on her back deck, soaking up some rays. I had to laugh. I could just imagine her, sitting in her deck chair with her heavy coat on.

I had written in an earlier post about putting together a genealogy book for my 8 year old grandson. During that time, I wrote a cousin hoping to get some information on her father, my dad's brother. I haven't seen her in over 50 years. Well, she answered me back and we've been exchanging emails with pictures and lots of information on our families. It's been good talking to her. I never figured we'd ever get to this point. She sounds like she's changed a lot. We never used to get along when we were kids, but now that we're both "old ladies", it's time to make another attempt. Maybe we could actually become friends. (now, Carol, don't count your chickens before they're hatched.)

I worked most of the morning, finishing some paperwork for my boss then emailed it to him. Then Bob and I ran out to the grocery store to pick up some things we needed, plus some things we didn't. By the time we got home, I had to start supper. We had beef and noodles with mashed potatoes. We had planned on putting up our Christmas tree today, but by the time we got back home, I was tired and out of the mood. Hopefully tomorrow.

While we were eating, I got a couple emails from my boss. I have them set to come through on my cell phone. So after we got the supper mess cleaned up, I went back to work. I just finished up the last of it, so now my brain is ready to relax. I'm going to be seeing numbers in my sleep.

Hope everyone had a good day.
Take care.
God bless.

Danger ahead.... new movies

I have something I want to rant about, so if you want to leave, I'll understand. I was just watching TV and they showed a preview for a movie coming out in the theaters. It upset me.

I'm showing my age here, plus an example of my morals, hopefully, when I write about my down-right disgust at the statement....  "to be released in theaters for the "holidays"!!!

Oh no!

For example, we have the movie  "THIS IS 40" …..

Storyline: After years of marriage, Pete lives in a house of all females:  wife Debbie and their two daughters, eight-year-old Charlotte  and 13-year-old Sadie.  As he struggles to keep his record label afloat, he and Debbie must figure out how to forgive, forget and enjoy the rest of their lives…before they kill each other. "

In the preview, he asks for sex and the language is horrible. Now is that any kind of "holiday move"??

Then we have "TED" …

This one came out in the theaters last June, but it's now available on DVD "for the holidays".

Rated R…  "for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, and some drug use."

At first, it looked like they had a cute movie with a talking teddy bear. Oh, yes, he talks, but ..!!

Storyline:  "Follow John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg), a grown man who must deal with the cherished teddy bear who came to life as the result of a childhood wish… and has refused to leave his side ever since." That is one nasty bear. Vulgar. Horrible. Another 'holiday' movie?

And coming to theaters near you on Christmas Day(!!!)  …. "Parental Guidance"

This movie does look like it could be cute …. sort of, if it weren't for the fact that body parts on Grandpa seem to be always getting hurt by the adorable grand-children.  Billy Crystal can be very funny, but at the same time, his language isn't.

So, there you have 3 examples of our society/Hollywood view of new holiday movies.

It makes me sick.

A quick post

Happy 12/12/12! I was going to write this when the clock also said 12:12 but I'm too late. When you think about it, this will be the only day we can say that in our lifetime. Now, the big question.... does that make you feel good or sad?

I've only got a few minutes to do this. My boss has sent me so much work to get done for him today so I have to get at it. Plus Bob is going through the Christmas lights to see if we have enough working strings to put on the tree. We've had a pre-lit tree for years and loved it. Until the lights started going out. So last year we sat on the living room floor for hours, cutting the strings off. Now we have just a big 'fake' tree.

Yesterday was busy for me. I met my sister for breakfast at Orchard Tree. We sat and talked, laughed, etc. for 2 hours. When we left there, I had errands to run. I got home around noon. I then spent the next 2½ hours working for my boss. I got that paperwork done and emailed off to him but I was too tired to start on the next batch. I told him I'd have it ready by this afternoon. So I better get at it.

Hope you are having a good day.
Take care.
God bless.