Merry Christmas!

I wanted to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas!  I hope that you are all having a wonderful day with your families if you celebrate, and a wonderful day doing something you love if you don't.  I hope for my Jewish readers out there that you are enjoying your Hanukkah this holiday season.  I hope for all my Kwanzaa celebrating readers out there that you enjoy your holiday traditions tomorrow and for the rest of the week.  If you don't celebrate any of these holidays, then I wish you a good close to the year 2011 and hopeful anticipation for the year 2012!

More pictures to come next week.  For now I'm spending the holiday with my family and friends and enjoying the day.

Merry Christmas

Joyeux Noël

Feliz Natal

(How cool that now I know my ancestry and can wish you all a Merry Christmas in all the right languages?)

This Christmas...

This year is different.  I'm not vacuuming in anticipation of twenty plus people coming to our home.  I'm not spreading the table cloths over the dining room table, the one time a year it gets used.  I'm not frantically wrapping gifts before everyone gets to my house.  And I'm not trying to get it all done in time to change just before heading to Church an hour early so we can get seats together.  Instead, I'm relaxing at home with my family.  I'll still make it to Church, but not an hour early because it's just me and my grandmother this year.  Afterwards I'll come home, we'll have a nice dinner, and we'll end up just spending time together as a family.  It's actually going to be pretty nice.

Rather than focusing on the entertaining part of it all, we're focusing on spending time as a family this year.  Christmas this year isn't about the presents, the decorations, the holiday music, any of that.  It's instead about spending time with the people we love and enjoying the time that we have together.  Who knows what next Christmas will bring.  So for now, I'm going to enjoy this year.  There's nothing wrong with how we used to celebrate, but this year I think it means a little bit more.

Sometimes I think we all get so caught up in the holiday season that we forget what it's really all about.  I'm the biggest offender of this.  So it doesn't surprise me that life found a way to smack me in the face to get me to wake up.  I spent more time this year thinking of others.  When people asked about my Christmas list, I told them what I was doing for my family and friends, rather than what I wanted people to give me.  It's just a difference I've noticed when I compare this year to last.

So as I sit here, looking at our amazing tree (which my sister picked out and decorated), I am thankful for the time that I do have with my family.  I'm thankful for being here with the people I love.  I miss the ones who aren't here, and I always will.  But I'm going to enjoy the holiday for what it is, a gift.  Because who knows what next year will bring.  So I'm going to enjoy today and tomorrow and worry about that another day.

So I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season this year.  Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Solstice, and Joyous Kwanzaa.  And Happy New Year too!

Picture Sunday: Week 12

Sorry I'm a little late today!  Holiday fun the week before Christmas!  And I did edit these a bit late... Sorry about that!  These pictures are from an event I went to a few weeks ago.  Each company in this office building, as well as surrounding school and business, created a themed Christmas tree which was put up in a raffle.  All the proceeds went to the Ronald McDonald house.  Such a great event and a fun day!

Nice and Red :-)

Peace on Earth Tree

I liked the colors on this white tree

Patriotic Themed Tree!

Holiday Fun

Off for some wonderful holiday goodness today!  Me and eighteen (yes, you read that correctly) other people are headed in town for a holiday show today.  And I'm related to all by four of them.  No joke.  This is going to be a whole bucket full of family fun time!  Oh, and we're all women... Don't know if that makes all that much of a difference.

We used to do things like this all the time, but lately it's dwindled.  I remember seeing the Nutcracker every year with my mom, sister, and aunts.  It wasn't Christmas until we put on the dresses with the holiday tights (I hate tights) and made the trek to the Wang Theater.  My favorite part was when the tree grew.  How magical.

My uncle is dying of cancer.  He's been putting up a good fight for the past three years, but he's not doing super great these days.  Now my mom is dying of cancer, but she's still at the beginning of her road and has a lot of fight left in her.  Another uncle is in remission after nearly dying several times two years ago.  Before my uncles and my mom, nobody in either of my parents family's suffered from this horrible disease.  We sort of were hit all at once.  The reason for this depressing paragraph is that it really has made my family realize what's important.  We value our time together a lot more now than we did before.  We made more of a conscious effort to spend time together making memories that we'll have forever.

So this year we're going to see a Christmas show.  It's the earliest show they have so my mom is able to go and still make it home for a nap.  We were going to go out to a restaurant, but it would have been too much for my mom and too much for the restaurant (party of 19!).  So instead we'll go back to one of my aunts' homes and have a pizza party instead.  Then if my mom needs to go home to rest, I can take her home without an issue.

I hope that we get a tree this weekend.  I'm going to push to go tomorrow.  My parents have a Christmas party to go to (it's a family party but half of the family wasn't invited) but I'm hoping we can quickly pick out a tree maybe even tonight so my sister and I can decorate it while they are at the party and when they come home the house will be finished.  I'm also going to try to get everything wrapped by the end of the weekend.  How nice would that be?

I'm proud of myself for getting so much done.  Normally I'm shopping Christmas Eve and wrapping gifts at midnight.  Finishing not only my stuff but my mom's as well a whole week early is amazing for me.  I'm pretty proud.  We'll have a nicely decorated house, a tree with wrapped presents under it, the whole nine yards!  And we'll be able to enjoy a nice Christmas and make nice memories.  I don't want a disappointing Christmas, one that's so different from all the others that we can't help but think about why that is.

I hope you're all having good luck with your holiday preparations!

Santa Baby!

Nearly peed my pants... I love you Bastards!  Thanks for making this and uploading it Linda!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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Christmas To Do List

Just so you can all see the insanity that I have going right now.  These are actual screen shots of my current To-Do List for the holidays.  Shoot me now...  I just changed some of the names and took off what I'm actually getting my friends and Rudy so if they read it here, they still don't know what's happening.  I'm sneaky like that. It's funny, but in the past my Christmas List was about what I wanted for Christmas.  Now it's all about what I want to get others for Christmas.  Wow, I feel like such a grownup!

So there you have it.  The plan is to get the the gifts purchased first.  I know what I'm getting everyone so I can run into each store and then run out.  So that's the whole top of the list.  And then I'm going to handle the house thing.  And then the Christmas Cards.  And I'm leaving the wrapping for my mom (I just need to wait for a few things to get to my house so I can wrap my own gifts).  And we'll deal with the tree when he deal with it.  And the baking is just for fun for me.  So I can get it done.  I know I can!  Besides I might be going to my grandmother's so she'll bake with me!  Yay!

Today's musical choice is the Nutcracker soundtrack.  It's amazing.  We used to go every year when I was a kid.

Hope you're To-Do Lists aren't that long!

Christmas Decorations and Music

My Favorite Ornament

Enough with the drama that is my life the past two weeks.  Today's post is about something fun!

I've been blasting Christmas music ever since Thanksgiving.  Confession.  I really like Jessica Simpson's Christmas music.  I don't know what it is about her.  I just really like the music.  Oh Jess and Nick.  Baby It's Cold Outside was a wonderful song.  So nice.  You made wonderful music together.  And entertained me with mindless fluff.  And Jessica, you made me laugh...  So much more funny than the whole Kim/Kris drama.

Moving on.  The decorating hasn't been done yet.  I'm starting to stress about it.  I'm not going to lie.  I wanted to do it the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Rudy was visiting and my sister was home.  Which meant there were three of us because we all know that the Grinch isn't going to help us and my mom can't.  So the goal is to find a way to get it done this weekend.  But I also have to finish my shopping.  And do the Christmas cards.  I've been criticized again for not dong the Thank You Notes, even though nobody made a list for me.  It's a bit hard to get on that, seeing as it's a daunting task.  Maybe when I have some time off in a few weeks.

I need to get it done.  I don't want my mom to get stressed.  She's got a few jobs to do herself over the next few weeks.  I will have all the gifts, but they need to be wrapped.  She's good at wrapping and it gives her something to do other than watch TV.  It's going to take her a while, but it's something to do while people are visiting.  They keep saying they want to help out, and this is a way to do so.  Plus I hate wrapping....

I just need to get the stupid decorations up.  Stupid decorations.  And we need a tree.  Good grief.  The whole thing is compounded by the fact that I'm going away next weekend.  It's a much deserved break.  Much much deserved.  And needed.  Oh how badly I need this.  I'm going to see my school mommy and sister!  I miss them so much and I can't wait to hang out with them for a whole weekend!  I get to act like a normal person without all the responsibility for a few days.  My school mommy will make sure I'm fed, I'm rested, and she'll ask me about my life and offer good advice.  She'll do what my mom isn't able to do right now.  And that's just what I need.

So my list now includes putting up the decorations in record time (three hours is totally doable if I scale back slightly).  I'm a speed cleaner (it's a form of exercise if you clean the way I do) and putting up decorations is like cleaning in that you have to put everything back in it's place.  We decorate nearly every room in the house. No joke.  But I can clear the dining room in about twenty minutes (it's small), the living room in 30 (we do a lot of decorations in there normally but less so this year because nobody goes into that room unless its our open house which we canceled this year), and an hour on the kitchen and family room each, the two most used rooms in the house.  Each bedroom gets a few small decorations (more in my room than the others).  We do lights in the windows which takes about a half hour because we have to check all the bulbs and make sure they stick to the windows (PITA).

But while I'm doing all of this, I'll be listening to my Christmas music.  Which makes me super happy!  Yay!  Right now I'm listening to Harry Connick, Jr. It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.  I used to love him on Will and Grace.  And I got my mom an early Christmas present, which I may have put on my iPod; the Micheal Bubble Christmas Album.  Haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but so far it's amazing.

Side note: I've already broken the cardinal rule of Christmas shopping: don't buy yourself stuff.  I just couldn't not get the Shirley Temple Box Set Volume One.  How could I walk away from it?  I adored Shirley Temple as a child.  She had curly hair like me.  She danced like me.  She could sing, something I wished I could do.  And we would watch her movies at my grandparents, so I have wonderful memories there.  Oh well, some rules are meant to be broken...

All over the place today I know.  It's just that time of year...

Happy Holiday Season

Christmas 2006

It's now officially the Christmas season.  I love this time of year.  And as a disclaimer, I'm not going to be PC about the holidays on my blog.

When I was little, my mom would go all out.  The house would be decorated from top to bottom.  There were always cookies in the oven.  The house smelled like evergreen.  Our stereo would always have on a Christmas carol.  And the lights!  Don't even get me started on the beautiful lights that graced our house.

It wasn't about Christmas morning, it was about the season.  Spending time with family.  Enjoying each other.  And celebrating a very special birthday.  That's just how I was raised.  Sure, Christmas morning was fun, but I do think if I had to pick between the season or just Christmas morning, I'd pick the season.

As I've gotten older, things have changed around our house.  The decorations are fewer in number.  We get our tree later and take it down earlier.  Christmas music is more likely to be coming out of a bedroom radio rather than the main stereo.  We go to less parties, and see less people.  The Christmas card numbers are declining.  And this year it's only going to get worse.

I've decided that I'm not going to let the Grinch steal Christmas.  Normally my mom will stand up to the Grinch and make Christmas special.  This year she just doesn't have it in her.  So I've decided that it's up to me.  Which is a lot of work for one person, but I'll find a way to make it happen.  I'm going to decorate the house tomorrow while I have Rudy visiting and an extra pair of hands (preferably while the Grinch is at work).  I've ordered Christmas cards and will be sending them out.  I'm setting up my old iPod with as much Christmas music as I can find and leaving it plugged into the stereo. 

I'm going shopping this week to buy the most special present.  At Church, we have a giving tree.  I got a six year old girl who requested Princess Dolls.  I can't wait to go find something for this little girl.  I was obsessed with princess dolls when I was a kid.  I loved princesses, loved my dolls, and loved Christmas.  Lately I haven't had any little kids to buy gifts for, so this is special.  It's funny, but it's selfish.  I think I'm going to get more enjoyment out of this than she will.

I've already started my shopping.  I bought my sister a gift already, and bought a few things for my mom to give me and my sister.  I went outlet shopping and saved about $600.  No joke.  Spent $400 and saved $600.  I was pretty excited.  So my mom's shopping is done.  She can wrap up the boxes and feel like she contributed. I just need to get a few things for the Grinch from her (his main gift has been ordered already) and pick up stoking stuffers.  I plan on taking care of some of that this week and next.  Just after the rush of the holiday weekend.

I know it sounds shallow, but I need to get this stuff done.  I'm worried about it and stressing out.  But once it's finished, I'll really be able to get down and enjoy the holiday.  I'm traveling (hopefully) in a few weeks to spend time with my "other" family from school.  We're going to look at Christmas Trees (for a charity) which is kind of funny because they are Jewish.  I'm going to spend as much time with my family as I can.  And by that I mean my extended family.  I haven't had time to see a lot of them and I miss them.

So now this rambling post has kicked off the season.  Wish me luck in getting up the decorations!  Hopefully by next week I'll have some great pictures for Picture Sunday in order to get in the spirit.  Until then, Happy Holidays!