Our Favorite Things

Christmas was very restrained this year, but we each got a few favorite things.

Mine: Red Rose Tea from my Evil Sister in Canada. I love Red Rose tea and you can't buy it here in MN.

Tom: Three heavy weight chamois shirts from Cabela's.

DS: a Genuine NFL Vikings team jersey with his own last name sewn on the back.

DD: New snow tires.

DD's BF: Who knows? (We gave him leather gloves and a flashlight.)

Free Food

I have too much food - so help yourself to my post holiday Buffet of Leftovers:

--Assorted Christmas Cookies.
--Assorted Cheeseballs and Cheese Varieties with Assorted Crackers.
--Lots of Chips, a Few Dips and Salsas.
--Turkey and Ham, choice of breads.
--Most of a Cheese and Egg Strata Thing.
--Caesar Salad
--Chocolates, mostly Dark Varieties.

But nobody can have my clementines. I love those things!

Random Pre-Holiday Thoughts

1. I love my tree this year! I say that every year - and every year I mean it.

2. We decided on fewer gifts this year so I have had more time to focus on the wrapping. I just love to make every package look beautiful and different. I pretty much stayed with the traditional red & green this year but with lots of sparklies on the packages. I like sparklies!

3. This year for the first time I managed to find my little sliding paper cutter on the same day I wanted to wrap most of the gifts. It works really slick! Especially when you need to cut a smooth line in a looong sheet of paper.

4. We will have a white Christmas. Again. I actually got to see a snow front move in today! When I got up it was snowing heavily on the north side of our house, while the south side was clear as a bell. The front kind of "froze" like that for about 5 minutes before it started to snow all around.

5. I am going to make my giant Santa head bread art thing this year. I'll try to remember to take a photo of it. I think it is brilliant.

6. Tom only has two days off - :( - The 24th and the 25th.)

7. I want to be in Hawaii. My DD and her family are there with my older sister, helping her get her house ready for sale. It's warm in Hawaii.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!

World Without End

Is better than your average 1014 page historical fiction novel. When Ken Follet nails one, he nails it.

In other news I am finally making the family's holiday cookies today. Reindeer Poop (a soft, sour cream based drop cookie) Chai Crescents and Thumbprints. I like cookies!

Internet Friends Are The Best

On a weekend when I was feeling kind of down I got whole little flurry of holiday cards from my imaginary friends. Thank you so much! They have been carefully hung where I can see them right from the 'puter.

I'll blog about the first thing that got me down later some time - not sure when. And maybe the other thing too. Not so sure about that.

Right now I want new snow. We had to shovel out the trailer, and that spread a bunch of ugly, brown-speckled snow around my driveway. I want pretty white stuff!

I Am In A Very Grinchy Place,

So Bah Humbug on everything.
And bugger all reindeer.

Oh Fer Pete's Sake,

A couple of days ago I bought 2 artificial poinsettias because they were practically giving them away and I thought they would brighten up a couple of dark corners. Today, I watered them. *sigh*

Also today I got my annual Xmas letter from the news boy. The first year we had him he included a self-addressed envelope with one paper, so we could conveniently tip him I guess. Then the next year he upped the ante to a small card with his addie info and a plaintive little note about how if you stick cash into the paper box sometimes it blows away and stuff. Now the news boy is all grown up and knows how to beg for money properly. We got this lovely little Xmas letter from him today, printed on fancy paper with red & green stockings across the top:

"Each year during the holiday season, I take great pleasure in setting aside time to send a heartfelt message to all my customers to thank you for your continued business. Delivering the newspaper from Blank to Blank, and Blank to the river is a real privilege. It is over 200 miles long (I see over 50 deer a night) but there is little doubt this area is the most beautiful area in the seven county metro."

Blah, blah, blah... "best wishes, Happy Holidays", and his name and address.

Isn't it nice when the children grow up and learn how to solicite money properly?

Stood Up

Yesterday I was supposed to take my daughter and her BF to see Beowulf 3D. She was going to go from her class straight to the BF's house, where I would pick them both up and then go to the movie.

I arrived at the agreed on time. Her car was not there but the BF's mom's was. I rang the bell, I knocked - no answer. Since the shades were all drawn and the mom works shift hours I did not stand there and bang away at the door. I tried calling DD; her cell was off. I tried calling BF; evidently he has a different cell number now. So I waited for 25 minutes (until it was too late to have made the movie) then left.

Stupid kids. Do they not know Santa was ticked off?

DD swears she arrived within seconds of my leaving. Evidently BF was home but didn't answer for unknown reasons. I figure he was probably deeply in on of his computer games.

In an unrelated event, my Christmas tree is still sitting on the front steps. It almost made it inside this morning, but Tom got all frustrated by the new stand and just left for work instead. I am SO getting an artificial tree next year. I love real trees but I am so tired of all the delays and drama involved in getting the big real tree into the house. An artificial tree I can handle by myself.

Little Snowflakes

I am not a card maker like Breezy or Boo, but I did stamp my envelopes with little golden snowflakes this year. They look so pretty all decorated with the golden stamps. Later today, I am thinking of stamping my body all over with snowflakes. Tom won't be home until about 11 pm tonight so I will have lots of time...

I'm Sending Them Frosty

Most of the cards I send out at Christmas time are fairly non-denominational. I like beautiful Christmas trees on the front, or sometimes horse-drawn sleighs. The ideal card is all sparkly with gold foil and stuff, the front picture is embossed and the envelopes are embellished. My main criterion for selection is "pretty".

Since I am sending to cards to people who are and are not Christians I try to be respectful of that. It is MY wish to them. People who routinely send me religious cards usually get more religious ones back each year. I like the Three Wise Men story and there are lots of "pretty" Three Wise Men cards out there.

So I hate when people send me cards or Christmas letters that tell me how to properly celebrate instead of just wishing me whatever version of Happy Christmas they subscribe to.

Like my newly-married nephew, sending his own cards for the first time. He married a minister's daughter. Their wedding was very, very religious - fine - it was their wedding and I respect that. Her dad (who married them) managed to imbue the whole ceremony with an anti-gay prejudice which I thought was both bizarre and plain rude. So in the reception line I just shook the dad's hand very limply and didn't say a word to him.

Fast forward to Christmas card time. Darned if the nephew and wife didn't send out a Christmas letter that told me 3 times how to celebrate Christmas their way. Everytime they used the word Christmas they italised, bolded and underlined the 'Christ' part. Christmas.

For Pete's sake, I do not want to be hectored and I do not want my beliefs directed! I am happy to receive and give best wishes and blessings. Not so happy with the veiled criticisms of religious control-freaks.

So now I am going through the free cards I received from WWF and The Nature Conservancy and such, looking for the least Christmasy card I can find.

Do I have the Holiday Spirit or what!?!

Everything is digital now

Even mammograms. Which is a huge improvement if you ask me. Used to be, the sadistic bitch in charge of the x-ray mammo machine like to really crank down those compression plates until I screamed. But with the new digital machine she just positions you and then the compression plate squeezes gently to some pre-determined psi which I found quite bearable. Maybe I won't wait so long before I go back again.

Gyne exams, of course, have always been digital - only in a different kind of way lol.

On an unrelated topic my Christmas tree is still sitting on the front stoop because my fancy new stand that lets you level the tree with one hand and then lock it in place was missing a few nuts. I hate that! I'm going to have to break out my starter cards for a little Holiday cheer.

11 thru 20 and a Little Rant

Continued from yesterday - obscure titles for well-known Christmas carols:

11. Assemble Every Adherent.
12. Hail the Hallowed Pre Dawn.
13. Alabaster Noel Fantasia.
14. Clink Tintinnabulation.
15. One Dozen Twenty-four Hour Yule Periods.
16. Befell During the Transparent Bewitching Hour.
17. Homo Sapiens of Crystallized Vapor.
18. Desiring Dual Yuletide Incisors.
19. I Spied Maternal Progenitor Osculating Beneficent Trespasser.
20. Perambulating Through A December Solstice Fantasy.

and a bonus 21 I just now thought of - Puerile Percussionist.

Now the rant. I hate the Homeland Security airport rigamarole! Yesterday my oldest daughter and her family were flying from NY to Hawaii and they were in MSP (the Minneapolis MN airport) for a 2-hour layover. We discussed it, and it was just impossible for me to go and have a nice hour-long or so visit.

Security will not let me much past the front door. DD's family would have to exit the secure area to meet me - which means they would have to go through security again to make their connection. Always a risk. DD is ethnically ambiguous-looking since her dad was from India. Her husband is an ethnic Inca from Equador and also has a "look" that is not common. One or the other of them is always singled out for special handling by Security. So they have to allow extra time to go through the security gates. Two hours is nothing.

Bummer. I miss the Good Old Days when you could just go meet people at their gate. Stoopid security.

10 Today, 10 Tomorrow

Hopefully, these have not been all over OT and y'all are bored with them. Since I don't go there anymore I have no idea. Anyway - here are ten alternate titles for ten classic Christmas songs. Can you figure out the proper title?

We'll start with the easiest one. Tomorrow's ten will be a little more obscure.

1. Quadruped with Crimson Proboscis.
2. Eight pm to Six pm Without Noise.
3. Minscule Hamlet in the Middle East.
4. Mirthful Ancient Benevolent Person.
5. Adorn the Vestibule.
6. Exuberance Directed to the Planet.
7. Listen, Aerial Sprites Announcing.
8.Trio of Monarchs.
9. Yonder in the Hay Rack.
10. Cherubim Audited from Aloft.

I am easily entertained so I think these are great fun. I will post the answers later today, but I'm sure you can figure all these ones out.

I Cheat At Cards

No, not that kind of cards! I cheat at Christmas cards.

I am one of those people who thinks Xmas and Holiday cards are pretty and fun, so I put them up. I have a couple of large doorways that I like to frame with cards. Problem is: I am ready to hang cards by about December 10th or so but I have received very few cards by then. Most people send later and later every year. So I cheat. I hang "starter" cards that I have saved from last year.

I have about a dozen classic cards that I like so well I hang them every year, and then I hang additional cards from last year (saved in my box of wrapping paper) until I have covered the top of both doorways. New cards get added down the sides.

Is that weird? Cards just make me feel all cozy and cuddled and loved.

If you want a card from me, send me an address at simcoe02@hotmail.com

Meme For Colorful People

(you may have to highlight 6 and part of 8 to read it)

1. The color of my eyes is:

2. Is there a use for puce? What is it?

3. I wear something that is black just about every day. Y/N

4. English is a defective language. It contains no words that rhyme with "orange". Please make up a word that rhymes with "orange" and explain it's meaning.

5. My three favorite things which are green are:

6. All my ceilings are white. Y/N If No, please state other colors.

7. The main colors of my own blog page are: (I had to go peek because I didn't remember exactly (Y/N)

8. If snow could be any color but white I would like it to be:

9. The color of my favorite beverage is:

10. The color of my father's and/or mother's eyes is:

Bonus Q. The color of my main vehicle is: , but I wish it were:

Oh the weather outside is frightful,

But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Because it is already coming down fast. All the "wait until December" people must be so happy - it is snowing on their first big shopping day!

Okay you December people. Tell me what's the FIRST thing you bought this year, once Holiday shopping was allowed.

I can't find my favorite, 6 ft tall outdoor rope-light Christmas tree. I found two 5 ft non-rope spiral trees that I meant to give away this summer but didn't. I found my 3 ft light-up buck where half the lights don't work but someday I'm going to spray paint it dark brown and wrap it with vines so it becomes a grapevine sculpture instead - but not my favorite rope-light tree. I found 2 little 'entry' fake trees with wired-in lights that I bought one year and decided looked cheap. But my fabulous rope-light tree? Missing. *sob* They don't make them that nice anymore.

My first gift for myself arrived in the post today. A gorgeous long-sleeved teeshirt from southwestindian.com. I absolutely love it! I ordered the cutest little shirt for grandson at the same time, brown with a huge green gecko all down the front - but it is backordered for 4 weeks. :(

DD's boyfriend is getting his first paycheck today. I hope he buys some decent clothes because he really needs them.