Saturday, December 20, 2008

Candy Cane Lane

There is a particular aisle in our local Target that my sister and I can't seem to resist. It is the candy aisle. For the most part of the year, we can walk down it and discuss the contents, perhaps buy some good for you dark chocolate and continue on our merry way.

During this holiday season. our resistance is much lower. I have purchased more candy than I have ever had for Christmas. I have not only M&Ms but mint M&Ms, and peppermint M&Ms. I have the second bag of Hershey mint mix mini bars. We already ate the first one and it isn't even Christmas week.

This year I got hooked on Lindt truffles. They are so yummy. I love the milk chocolate filled with vanilla cream and the dark chocolate peppermint ones. I bought peanut butter ones too.
And not to forget the , Girardelli minis. I think I have peppermint bark ones.

I also bought little chocolate angels, gum, three Hershey kiss flavors, maple candy, and Pez.
I even bought Holiday boxes of Good and Plenty.

So on January 2nd, the day I get back on the scale, I may be a little fatter than I was but my whole family will be there with me!! We will start the New Year off right--on a diet!!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Unwrapped

I love buying gifts but not so much wrapping them. I would love to wrap each gift like a little jewel but I just get tired at the immense mound of them and end up throwing most of them in bags with tissue paper.
I did wrap some of them in paper and tied them with ribbon but not very many of them. I know the bags are good for recycling and we even reuse the tissue paper if we can. Remember back in the day when our moms used to keep the wrapping paper and use it for drawer liners?? I can still see my mom carefully folding paper because it "was too pretty to throw away." She really wanted to line drawers!
I haven't lined my drawers since the 70's. I remember I bought special blue paper to match my bedroom for the drawers in there. Can you imagine?? How funny is that?
Ribbon used to be a lot different too. My aunt always used that curling ribbon and she could make it do all kinds of fancy stuff. I never did figure out how she did it. My mother always used the stick on bows once they became available. I guess she never got the hang of it either.
Because of recycling bags, I have enough Christmas wrap to last about 15 years or so. No little odds and ends either. Whole rolls--some never even opened.
I hope the parents of little kids still wrap. You know there is nothing like ripping into those gifts whether you are the kid or the parent. It is equally thrilling and fun. I can still see my kids when they were little pulling the paper off and sometimes the paper would be so big you could wrap them in it!! You know how some of those toddler presents come in enormous boxes.
I didn't even wrap the gifts for the kids I donated to at church. I just put everything wrapped in tissue into a huge bag. For the 13 year old girl I put all the cute clothes on top. For the five year old boy, I put all the cute clothes on the bottom. Smart, right?? What five year old wants clothes?? Well, beside my daughter. I figure by the time he gets to the clothes he will be so busy with the toys his mom will have to take the clothes out of the bag and hopefully she will be as excited as he is!
We still do stockings in our family even thought there aren't any little kids at the present time. My two adult children come and sit on our bed with us and we take turns opening and oohing and aahing about the contents.
I still have a ton of gifts to wrap so I better get going. I love to pile them all under the tree until the big day. Nobody snoops any more....at least, I don't think so!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Let the Race Begin!

The days to Christmas will go by alarmingly fast now. It is already the 9th and I am not quite sure where the first 8 days of December went. I am making a plan so I don't get too goofed up and have to hurry hurry hurry just before the holiday.
This week, must must finish Christmas cards. So far I have sent three. Yes, you heard me. Three. I know I have to get going on them and I do have all the time in the world but where does it go?? I also have to drop off donations of food and the gifts for the Giving Tree at church.
Next week, I must bake. I have four kinds of cookies, cupcakes, candy and cinnamon bread to make. That will take up most of the week leaving a little time for work and fun with my sister. I must thoroughly clean the house so next week a lick and a promise is all the house will need.
Christmas week, I must wrap gifts and organize them by family under the tree. I use the term "wrap" loosely as mostly I just throw the gifts in those pretty bags and stuff in the tissue. But it still takes time. I have to remember to go to the airport and pick up my daughter on the right day. I have to get the food for the Christmas Eve Smorgasbord and the Christmas day dinner. I have to refill the candy dishes and make sure I have plenty of plastic wrap and foil for leftovers.
I have to do a last minute scan of the gifts under the tree and make sure there are enough.
In the evenings, we have to go and work out. We decided on a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday schedule for now but it is subject to a little tweaking.
We still have to hang out our outdoor lights. We still need to pick out one gift together. It's a secret gift so I can't say what it is. Then we have to shovel the walks if needed and make sure all the lights outside work.
I have to pay bills, and all the other stuff that doesn't go away during the holidays like laundry and dishes and more laundry!! I will try to be merry through it all. It's the least I can do. After all, look at the gift we've been given!

Monday, December 8, 2008

A Soapy Christmas

Every time I think my soaps can get no wackier, they go and do it again. Today, the crazy lady on All My Children was singing Silent Night while the camera panned over her sad, sad husband and his sad, sad, former girlfriend. Then for the cherry on top, she(the crazy one) imagined the former girlfriend in a casket. Well, hohoho.
There have been Christmas songs playing in the background of the soaps all this week. I thought it was a little disconcerting since on one soap they are all discussing a dead baby and on another soap, an Iraq vet is struggling with severe burns and his former fiancee. Oh, and on the other one, there was a kidnapped baby and his biological father shot up a bunch of bad guys to rescue him. Joy to the World!
By Christmas Eve, the soap world will turn from the usual shenanigans and try to show the families happy and celebrating. I don't know how they can celebrate. One family's daughter has given up her children to go into a sanitarium. One family's dad is in jail for kidnapping his daughter's boyfriend's mother. One family has a comatose mother of two little babies and a Lesbian couple with one of them having a giant secret. Hark! The herald angels sing!!
Santa has his work cut out for him in Pine Valley, Llanview and Port Charles.
Oh but all is not lost. One couple told some Christmas jokes to "lighten the mood". Here they are:
How many reindeer does it take to change a lightbulb? 1 to screw it in and 7 to hold down Rudolph.
Why did Santa's helper go to the Psychiatrist??( no... not to fit in with the rest of the residents of Pine Valley et al.) He had low ELF esteem. Oh, Holy Night!! What will they think of next?

A Sunny Disposition

Poor Sunny VonBulow was in a coma for 28 years and she finally died this weekend. That is my son's entire lifetime. That poor poor woman. Don't you wonder what was going on in her mind if anything at all was going on?? And how could her family keep her fed and going all this time?? Did they really think she would recover one day?
Did she resent it? Or was her soul out and free the whole time without a care in the world? I suppose there are two(at least) schools of thought for that issue. I hope she wasn't in there the whole time dying to get out and be free. That would be a fate worse than death.
And what about old Klaus Von Bulow?? Do you think he suffered for very much of those 28 years?? Once he was acquitted, I wonder if he ever gave poor Sunny a thought. I hope she haunted his dreams. I don't know if he killed her or not but I think he deserves to suffer if he had anything to do with keeping her alive this long.
Is this what Terry Shivo's family wanted for her????? I hope this revelation eased their minds over their daughter's death.
I hope to heaven that nobody keeps me alive like that. Even if my soul is soaring, I wouldn't want the expense and the heartache for my family. How do you keep visiting a shell of a person?? I just don't know.
I hope Sunny is at peace.

Friday, December 5, 2008

The Goose is Getting Fat...

I heard on the news that every American gains one pound during the holidays. I hope that is me. One pound is nothing!! Just think how easy it is to get rid of one pound as compared to five or ten. You could just pee and lose a half a pound!!
So, in light of that information, I have given myself permission not to get back on the scale until January 2, 2009. That way I won't be beating myself up every time I eat a cookie or have an adult beverage. I won't think about the calories in just one little Lindt truffle( try the ones filled with vanilla cream--divine!!) or one little taste of Bailey's Irish Cream. I won't worry about eating mostly vegetables and hardly any dip.
In other words, I am going to give myself permission to have fun and enjoy life. I think the Christ child would be all for that as long as I don't overdo it. I'm sure my family will be glad not to hear me lecture about eating healthy foods. I still will make good food but I am not going to worry about low fat everything!
You know, I don't mean to obsess over food and calories but I have been watching my weight for so long, it is just a habit now. So this holiday season, I am taking a well deserved break. I will think about healthy eating on January 2nd and not one minute sooner!!
Pass the cookies and give me a glass of milk!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Christmas is coming...

And I can't stop it so I have dealt with the problem in my new pass through! We decided to have the electric fixed after the holidays and then paint in January so I sanded it all down and on the kitchen side I painted a holly and evergreen design to camouflage the messy wall.
It looks great!!!!! I am so proud of myself for thinking of a clever way to deal with the whole big fat mess!! When it is time to paint a coat of KILZ will get rid of it and not let it bleed through to the new color we choose!!
Well, that got me going and I did all my decorating except for the tree which I would have done if I could have wrangled the box in from the garage. Some things are just beyond me.
The house looks cozy and warm and Christmasy. It smells good and it is all glowy from the (fake) candlelight.
You should have seen me I was a Christmas whirling dervish. I slapped that paint up there with abandon. I think that is why it looks pretty good--I just went for it. Then I started bringing things down a few at a time from my storage upstairs and before you knew it, I had Christmas!!!
I LOVE Christmas. It is the best time of the year--presents and loved ones and cookies and carols at church....all the makings of great times. My whole family will be together for five whole days. We'll eat too much and drink too much coffee on Christmas day while we open presents.
I'll make a big Christmas dinner and we will have a wine toast with Santa Claus wine.
Christmas Eve, we will eat too much and have too many presents but it will be a blast. The smorgasbord will be groaning and we all will say we are only going to eat a little but we will be lying(not on purpose--smorgasbords kinda sneak up on you)!
All the in laws will be over on the Saturday after Christmas and again we will eat too much, have a lot of presents, and the house will be full of people. We will even have a little baby with us this year!!! We haven't had one of those for a long time!! I will spend too much time in the kitchen, but I don't really mind that much. All the sisters-in-law and the aunts are pitching in so it won't be too bad.
I can't wait for people to open the gifts I got them. I hope everyone will love them! I have so much fun picking out just the right things. It is really heartwarming when the recipient thinks it is just the right thing too.
Oh, and Santa will be here..in our hearts. Even though my kids are grown we all still Santa believers. Our stockings will be hung by the chimney--oh, wait, we don't have a chimney--oh well, they'll be hung somewhere and we will all open them first thing!! I CAN'T WAIT!!