Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blessings, Christmas, cynicism, ex-husband, gifts, holidays, homeless, kids, retailers
Oops, that was supposed to say Santa’s Little Helper but that underlying subconscious of mine made a mistake….or did it?
I like to take the Christmas season to reflect on what I’m so blessed to have: my children, my fabulous husband, my great career, amazing friends, deep faith……the list goes on and on. To say that I have more than I deserve is an understatement.
So maybe it goes without saying that there is little that I “need” or really “want” for Christmas. Actually peace on Earth, feeding the hungry, and clothing the poor sounds like a nice gift idea. I think it’s possible that having reached a certain age I’m just not that into Christmas gift giving anymore and I don’t know anyone that wouldn’t agree that Christmas is over commercialized and exploited to benefit retailers.
Now that my kids are getting older it just seems like Christmas cheer is losing it’s luster, but I digress most likely due to the fact that I have kids….teenagers. They still want toys at this age, but their toys now consist of high priced technology, expensive sporting goods and designer clothes. Gone are the days of legos, Barbies, books and generally affordable low ticket items that when purchased in bulk could take all of Christmas morning to open! I could buy 10 toys then with the money that I now spend on only one video game or designer jacket. Of course there is a positive in the fact that gift giving now only takes a few short minutes compared to all morning.
Maybe my cynicism with the holidays stems from the year that I unwillingly received a “gift” from DA. It was the first Christmas after our divorce was finalized and I was already in a great new relationship with MFH. The box was presented to me by my unsuspecting children who announced “Daddy got you a present mommy….isn’t that nice?” Eyebrows raised, M(future)FH and I exchanged a knowing look as I explained to the kids that mommy and daddy shouldn’t be exchanging gifts anymore, that it was inappropriate now that we were divorced and as nice as the gesture was I was going to donate the gift by placing it under an “angel tree”. With the distraction of their own presents to open they put the gift out of their minds and moved on to the next item. It wasn’t until later that night that MFH and I opened the box in private, only to discover that the uneasy feeling I had about the boxes contents were accurate. Please keep in mind that DA does not possess super human intelligence, or perhaps any kind of intelligence at all but I have to admit that when I pulled out the large sized night shirt with “Ho-Ho-Ho” written across the front that the message was received loud and clear.
That shirt left my house as fast as it arrived, and it went directly to the homeless shelter. It gives me a warm feeling to know that some very large homeless man or woman may be wearing that shirt as I type this. Albeit that happened 5 years ago but does holiday-wear ever really go out of style? I think not, and it lasts longer as it only comes out for a short season.
Either way it feels good to know that something positive came from DA’s crappy gesture. And now when I see a homeless person, I think of DA.
Merry Christmas!
So ho ho funny.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Arizona, birthday, Christmas, dinner, family, food, friends, in-laws, Pasadena, Rose Bowl, stress, travel, wine
Why do I do this every year? This Christmas season brought a tremendous amount of stress…..the season always does but this year was a bit more than I should have taken on and I’ll be paying for it for years to come.
In a nutshell this is what we did in chronological order, beginning at the first of the month:
* Attend the Oregon Civil War Game
* Attend MFH company Christmas party
* Had our friends 30th birthday party at our home
* Hosted the junior youth group progressive dinner (the main course of course)
AND ALL OF THIS WAS JUST THE FIRST WEEKEND! Then:
* Flew down to Arizona for a 4 day weekend to visit the in-laws
* Starved and fasted to win the Biggest Loser contest (which I did)
* Hosted the office Christmas party at our home
* Sold a home & took 3 new listings
* Took an entire day to bake treats with my daughter
* Attended 3 Christmas Eve open houses
* Hosted Christmas dinner for my family including out-of-town overnight guests
AND IN THE WEEK TO COME:
* Driving down to Pasadena to attend the Rose Bowl!
All of a sudden I have a raging headache just thinking about it. But the real question is why? Why must I do this every year? And it’s only getting worse; I keep taking on more every year. In all honesty there were a few days when I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown but fortunately I’m way to stubborn to let that happen, so I pressed on…..and had drink or two to get me through.
So, here are some fun highlights of this past month:
* The progressive dinner took place with 16 unruly “youth” in my home and 5 adult drivers. These were all people from my church and the dinner was the day after the 30th birthday party, which had a Las Vegas theme and was too much fun for MFH who spent the entire next day in bed. The host was still in the process of cleaning up the house and the birthday girl was asleep in my daughter’s bed….don’t ask me why but she was. When one adult wanted a tour of my home another person/friend gave her the tour but told her not to go into my daughter’s room because there was someone in there sleeping off a hangover…..she was horrified……it got better when MFH decided to come out of his cave, walked right into the kitchen wearing his PJ’s and looking pretty ripe; the adults were eating and I was mortified. I did A LOT of explaining and some of it was fictitious.
* Every time MFH and I fly anywhere it’s always a nightmare. He gets really uptight and bossy…..which is my job. The highlight of our arrival into the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport was our departure from the airplane. As we exited he walked about 10 feet faster than I could catch up to him and I wanted my roller suitcase so that I didn’t have to carry my shoulder bag……so I asked him to stop, politely. Then I asked again (thinking he didn’t hear me the first time). Still he continued walking. Then I got a little more stern and a bit louder with “Dammit, stop!”. Almost everyone ahead of me stopped…..including him 
I got my bag but not without a fight. MFH marched off ahead of me again and this time I let him have it…..something like “What the hell is your hurry, calm the f*** down!” I’m not sure what he said next but I flipped him off. I’m pretty sure we looked like a couple in love.
* This past Father’s Day we hosted our dad’s and their wives for a very nice dinner. Everything was wonderful, food was great, company was very pleasant, there was just one small mishap. My father-in-law can’t keep up with my father when it comes to wine consumption. Don’t get me wrong, he made a great effort……one that made him very sick for a few days. I mention this because this Christmas my mother-in-law attended our dinner and she similarly also got sick….in my kitchen sink. To be clear it was not from alcohol consumption…..which doesn’t say a whole lot for my cooking.
So now there’s just one more hurdle before normalcy can resume, getting down to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. Considering all that we’ve done this month I’m actually looking forward to a road trip…..it will force me to sit down. Once we get there however, that should be another story
I’m pretty sure that it’s beyond the generally accepted time frame for exterior Christmas illumination but maybe I’m wrong? What do you think??
Let me know, cuz’ it’s driving me nuts!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cards, Christmas, decorations, leftovers, new year, resolutions, tree
On the first day of Christmas my true loves gave to me: a fabulous wine opener and some wine stoppers! Finally, something I can use.
On the second day of Christmas: we took back our Christmas tree! Here’s the deal, this year we bought a fake tree. Being an Oregonian I have always thought that there was something very wrong about having a fake tree however I also remembered that real trees are messy, expensive, need water and cost money to dispose of. So I broke down and we bought a tree For $240 at a local big box store (that shall remain nameless) on December 13th. On December 14th they went on sale for $188. A few days after that MFH and I went to get a credit for the difference and the store refused to follow through with their own pricing policy because they claimed that the item was “on clearance” and therefore we were not entitled to a refund of the difference. SO, we bought the same tree at a local store for 50% off and took it back to another store, with the original receipt from the 13th! We showed them! They could have saved over $50 by just giving us the credit but we received almost $110 back because they were jerks! Merry Christmas!
On the third day of Christmas: I counted all of our Christmas cards and realized that half of the people that we sent cards to, didn’t return the favor. Do they hate us? Is it the economy? Either way, they’re off of next year’s list! And what about those Christmas letters? I finally got to read them and realized that I know a lot of perfect people with perfect families and perfect lives (yeah right).
On the forth day of Christmas: I started throwing out the leftovers, and there were a lot. Green-bean casserole, boiled potatoes, even pie and cookies! I can wait another year to see some of those dishes again.
On the fifth day of Christmas: I was ready for school to start up again!
On the sixth day of Christmas: I attempted to motivate myself to get some work done…….but wrote this post for my blog instead
On the seventh day of Christmas: I will prepare for another party! It’s New Year’s Eve and another reason to celebrate!
On the eighth day of Christmas: I’ll nurse my hangover.
On the ninth day of Christmas: I’ll write my New Year’s resolutions list…..and it’s gonna be long!
On the tenth day of Christmas: I’ll break my first New Year’s resolution.
On the eleventh day of Christmas: I’ll break all of the remaining resolutions!
On the twelfth day of Christmas: I’ll pack up all of the decorations, the ornaments, the stockings, goofy hats, and clean my home….unless I feel that blogging would be more fun and motivating.
Happy Holidays to all!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: brag, celebration, Christmas, decorations, envy, homeowners, lights, neighbors
Please do not misinterpret this post but I have a problem: Why do people insist on turning on their exterior Christmas lights before Thanksgiving? Being prepared is one thing but do they have to actually turn the lights on?
It’s bad enough that every year the stores put up decorations and lights a week earlier, pretty soon we’ll hear jingle bells in July! But when homeowners do it it’s like they’re embracing this bad behavior and it’s irritating.
I love Christmas but it defeats the specialness of it to have it last longer than the month of December. That’s as obnoxious as the people who take an entire month to celebrate their birthday….it’s one day people, celebrate and move on. But we have to take the birth of Jesus and make it last all of December and most of November nowadays. Yes, I know that he’s the Messiah and that there was preparation for his coming and that’s typically why we celebrate all month long, I get that. AND I’m going to spare you the “it’s overly commercialized” because that’s a given. My problem is specific, it’s the lights!
In a time when the economy is in the toilet, is such decadence as Christmas lights even necessary? (Don’t even get me started on how we cut down and kill trees in celebration) AND aren’t we trying to “go green” and not waste the energy associated with the electrical usage that Christmas lights require? Bah, humbug!
I look at it as a bit “in your face” for people to turn on their lights early. Kind of like they’re bragging. They’ve got their lights up and are way more prepared than anyone else and they want everyone to know it! I actually have a neighbor that pays a service to put up their house lights every year. The service was out there two weeks ago, and my response was “You have got to be kidding me!” However, these people are tactful enough to not turn the lights on yet. If they’re reading this, I would like to say on behalf of the neighborhood, Thank You!
What it really boils down to is envy. That’s right, I’m jealous of the fact that a few of my neighbors chose to take advantage of the beautiful weather this past weekend and put up their Christmas decorations and lights and we didn’t. Nope, the day we finally get our shit together will be the crappiest coldest, wettest day on record but we will not be outdone, the lights will go up……eventually!
