Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas!



I finally have all my gifts wrapped. My daughter will arrive here later today and then we will go over to my parent's house to celebrate Christmas with my whole family.

Nothing new to blog about but I wanted to wish you all a happy and healthy holiday!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

This and That



When I came home from work Friday night, I found a surprise in my living room. My parents recently bought a new sofa that has two reclining seats on each end. Mom said that she has been using one of the sofa recliners and Dad has switched from his Lazy Boy rocker-recliner to sitting in Mom's which was identical to his. She said that now that they have the sofa recliners they don't need two other recliner-rockers so they gave me Dad's. It looks a lot like this picture except it looks a bit more overstuffed and it is a dark steel blue color. It is in perfect shape and is very comfy. I am thrilled to have it!

I used to have a Lazy Boy rocker recliner but it wasn't as comfy and had wooden armrests. Eventually after many years something broke and I could not get the footrest to fold back in so I threw it out. I have a large overstuffed sofa and matching chair in the living room but I have really been missing having a recliner. My sofa and chair has a pattern with shades of steel blue, cream, brown and a peachy brown so the "new" recliner looks good with it. I told Mom today that I ended up not even falling asleep in my bed. I fell asleep in the recliner! She said that is very easy to do with that chair.

We got some snow last night. I didn't want to have to get out in the cold today but this morning I had to drive to the hospital to go to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription refills. I stopped at the gas station to get some gas. I tried three times to use my debit card in the gas pump and three times I got a message saying I needed to see the attendant. I didn't want to have to walk across the slushy and icy parking lot to find out what the problem was. I went in and the cashier didn't know why it would not work. I was trying to use my "pump perks" card from the grocery store to get some money off my gas purchase and then use my debit card to pay. I have done it many times with no problem. She asked me what exactly I did and when I told her the order of what I did, she interrupted me and asked me if I swiped my perks card. It is hard to explain here but she was not really listening to what I had just said. She was hearing me but not listening. She turned to a co-worker who was talking on the phone and told her "you need to go outside and help her". The co-worker swatted her hand in the air and had an expression on her face like "okay okay but I am on the phone here!" I told the cashier it was okay, I'll just go to another gas station. I didn't say it it rudely but I just was not in the mood to wait and I could tell it might take a while. The cashier told me, "no no wait...she'll go out and help you". Customers were lining up behind me. I work with the public so I know she was getting nervous.

I went on outside and in the time it took me to slowly weeble-wobble out to the car, screw the gas cap back in, shut the gas door and get in the car and sit for a few moments talking to Dexter who went along for the ride...I could see that nobody would probably be coming out anyway. So off I drove to another gas station. My grocery "pump perks" card isn't accepted there so I was going to just use my debit card. Well this time I got a message saying it could not connect. Grrr. I was beginning to wonder if it was a problem with my debit card or maybe the computer banking system was down.

After I picked up my medicine, I drove to McDonald's and ordered a fish sandwich and a plain cheeseburger to give Dexter a treat (I know I am a bad doggy mama for giving him human food) and my debit card worked fine there. So I went to a different gas station on the way back home and thank goodness my debit card worked at that pump. I was going to have to write a check if it didn't work. I only had a few dollars in cash on me.

On the way back home I was behind a truck at a stop light. I saw the oddest decal on this truck's back window. Well, I thought it was odd. It said "Christian Coonhunter". I guess I just wondered what is the purpose to announce to the world that you are a Christian coonhunter. It just struck me as funny.

We came home and Dexter did his sniffing and peeing in the snow before we went inside. He doesn't like to play in the snow like he did when he was a puppy. If it is super cold outside he will walk in a tippy-toe way and it is funny but I don't think he thinks it is.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Christmas Meme




I've been wanting to find a Christmas themed meme and cmk had this on her blog so I'm going to do it too.


1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
For the most part I wrap my Christmas gifts but I do the gift bags on a few things. (Whenever I give someone a birthday gift I always put them in gift bags with colored tissue) I used to go all out and put beautiful ribbons and bows on my gifts but as I have gotten older and apparently lazier I just slap one of those sticky-backed to/from labels on them and leave it at that.


2. Real or Artificial tree?
The last real Christmas tree I had was the Christmas of 1981. After that we bought a huge artificial tree which didn't look artificial at all. After my divorce I sold it because it was just too big for where we were living. Then we had a medium sized one and now I have a very small pre-lit tree that my mother gave me last year. It is really cute and I decorate it with about fifteen counted cross-stitch ornaments my aunt has made and given me over the years.


3. When do you put up the tree?
It varies. I never get it up real early. I think the Christmas of '02 I didn't even put up a tree except for a small ceramic one I have. That was the year that I had been so sick.


4. When do you take the tree down?
I am always very late in getting it down. I'm too embarrassed to tell you the longest I have ever had my tree up.


5. Do you like Eggnog?
Bleah. I might try a little sip but I can do without it.


6. Favorite Gift you received as a child?
Wow there were so many. I loved my Chatty Baby doll that I got when I was about five...I remember my cousin got the Chatty Cathy that year too. Some other favorite dolls I got for Christmas were Thumbelina and one called Teary Deary and of course my Barbie dolls with Mom's beautifully handmade clothes. Another year my mother had hosted a toy party a few months before Christmas and there was a doll on a stand (it was only to look at and not really to play with) that I wanted so badly. We have pictures of me opening it up on Christmas morning and by my open-mouthed look of shocked surprise on my face you would think I was going to cry.

Another favorite toy was something called a Doodle Bug? It was a battery operated writing pen shaped kind of like a gun but it was a bug with plastic wings on it. I got it in the early 60's and the pen would spiral around in circles as I drew pictures with it. I remember chipping a small part of my tooth on it while trying to open up the battery compartment. Some other early childhood favorites were Colorforms and my Slinky. I loved the Dip It Flower kit I got when I was about 12.

When I was a teenager my favorite gift was Peter Frampton Comes Alive album. Okay...I think that is enough of my favorites.


7. Do you have a nativity scene?
I have one from Home Interiors that my parents gave me for Christmas several years ago. Dad made me a rustic wooden manger with a roof and I lay straw in there and place the pieces in it.


8. Hardest person to buy for?
My father and my daughter. Dad has everything he needs or he just buys what he wants. I have run out of ideas with him. A few years ago he was reminiscing in great detail about a couple of his favorite childhood books and I found them on a rare book website and gave them to him for Christmas. This year I am giving him some comfy fleece sweat pants, a book called The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid and a golf related dvd movie called The Greatest Game Ever Played.

My daughter was easy to buy for when she still lived at home. Now that she is on her own with her own home she is much harder to buy for. She has very eclectic taste and her home is very modern in style. She doesn't like clutter. Her music style is completely different than when she was younger and I have never even heard of any of the artists she listens to. She rarely will tell me what she would like for Christmas but a few weeks ago she slipped and told me she would like a shower cd/mp3 player so she is getting one from Santa. I'm giving her an Egyptian cartouche pendant that says "I Love You" on it and I hope she will like that.


9. Easiest person to buy for?
My sister and my mother. We all like the same kind of things.


10. Worst Christmas gift ever received?
Probably the glass four-bottle set of bubble bath (I only take showers) that didn't smell very good or the used wallet that had crumbs in the creases, would not close properly and had a forgotten piece of gum wrapper in one of the compartments. Both were from my sister-in-law and I am embarrassed to even count them as worst gifts received because I think times were rough. It just made me want to hug her.


11. Christmas Cards...Snail mail or E-mail?
I used to send out Christmas cards every year but now I hit and miss with that. Last year I sent out several hand made cards that I bought off a nurse at work who is into the whole scrapbooking/card making craze. This year I will send out a few cards probably.


12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
A Christmas Story. I also just bought a dvd of one I loved when I was a kid and I look forward to watching it again and finding out if I still enjoy it. It is called The House Without a Christmas Tree.


13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
This year I started shopping in October and picked up a few things even in the summer but usually I am right down to the wire in getting things bought and wrapped!


14. Have you ever 'recycled' a Christmas present?
One year I got some Christmas tea towels from a co-worker and I ended up putting them in my Mom's Christmas stocking! So yes, I have re-gifted.


15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
I like my Mom's date nut bread, her turkey and noodles and her cheesecake. I like my sister-in-law's sugar cookies too.


16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?

Colored.


17. Favorite Christmas Song?
Little Drummer Boy, Silent Night, Oh Holy Night and The Chipmunk Song Christmas Don't Be Late.


18. Travel at Christmas or Stay Home?
Stay home! I certainly do not want to be at work on Christmas but looks like I will be this year.


19. Can you name Santa's Reindeer?
Okay, I am not going to cheat and look it up. I can think of Dancer, Prancer, Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen and Rudolph...oh my I guess I can't remember them all! It reminds me of trying to remember all of Snow White's dwarves.


20. Do you have an Angel or a Star on top of your tree?
A star. I have had an angel before but usually I have a star.


21. Open the Presents Christmas Eve or Morning?
My family always gets together on Christmas Eve and opens gifts and then my daughter would open more on Christmas morning. Nowadays our family gets together on the day that I am off work. Last year was the first Christmas morning that my daughter didn't open up anything from "Santa"...I had her open them up Christmas Eve before we went to my parents' house.


22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Pressures I put on myself and not seeming to have enough time to do what I want to prepare. I started my shopping early this year so I am not feeling too much pressure this year in regards to Christmas.


23. Shopping ... Mall or online?
I've done almost all of my shopping online this year.


24. Do you decorate outside for Christmas or just inside (or at all?)
I never decorate outside. Just inside.


25. Favorite Christmas cookie?
This is my favorite chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe. I also like my sister-in-law's decorated sugar cookies.


26. Do you own Christmassy clothing or jewelry?
I have a pair of Christmas earrings and a snowflake pin.


27. Do you believe in Santa?
I wish Santa existed. It would be easier on my pocketbook.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Yellow Snow Time


I found this poem on Comedy Central's website back in October and saved it so I could share it when winter time hit us. We are expecting snow tomorrow and it looks like this weekend we can expect even more.
I don't mind a little snow but I don't like the icy roads or walking on the icy parking lot at work.

(sung to the tune of Walking in a Winter Wonderland)
Dogs tags ring, are you listening'?
In the lane, snow is glistening'.
It's yellow, not white -- I've been there tonight,
Marking up my winter wonderland.
Smell that tree? That's my fragrance.
It's a sign for wand'ring vagrants;
"Avoid where I pee, it's my property!
Marked up as my winter wonderland."
In the meadow dad will build a snowman,
following the classical design.
Then I'll lift my leg and let it go, man,
So all the world will know it's mine-mine-mine!
Straight from me to the fence post,
flows my natural incense boast;
"Stay off of my turf, this small piece of earth,
I mark it as my winter wonderland."