Ah....vacation

I took some days off to relax and enjoy! Simple things like sleeping in, making a nice breakfast and watching a mid morning movie. Having some petit fours for brunch. Spending some time with my daughters. My soul feels refreshed and my mind recharged. I will be smiling and happy when I head back to work and hapkido.

Wishing you peace, hope, joy and love

Pet food and wine

Headed off to the grocery store to buy dog and cat food. Good reason to buy wine, sparkling non alcoholic and the real thing. Met my son and a neighbor shopping the aisles. The weather has held, brilliantly sunny here. Makes flower delivery and travel from other states easy. This Christmas Eve, we will help take my mother to church to celebrate Christmas. After, a simple family dinner. Wishing you peace, joy, love and hope.

Good morning

Rainy and wet outside this morning. Had breakfast and in a few minutes, my daughter and I will drive to my parents' home to help clean the family room and set the table for a big Christmas dinner. My dad is concerned about a seating arrangement where everyone will feel comfortable and have enough room. My daughters made sugar cookies and will pick up some food coloring to use in bright icing to decorate them. Tonight I train in hapkido, the last class for a week.

Early morning peacefulness

I woke up early this morning and couldn't seem to settle back to sleep. I got up and Pudge, the puggle and I are enjoying the early morning quiet. He had some dog food and a biscuit for breakfast, I had fruit, toast and hot cocoa. We got the dishwasher unloaded, the cupboard doors wiped down and the floor swept. The lights on the Christmas tree shine in the living room.

Thoughts

4500 American lives lost
30,000 wounded
Trillions of dollars spent in the 8 1/2 year Iraq war

What is the proper consequence for a 16 year old missing curfew?

Grounding
Writing a sentence 1000 times
Writing an essay

I do concur with the grounding, and putting in some volunteer hours at a food bank for example.

I enjoyed putting up the Christmas tree yesterday. The lights and ornaments reflect Christmas light, joy, peace, hope and love. My brother mentioned that he can tell that the cats have climbed on top of the hutch, where he has set up his Nativity set. The donkey, camel and sheep have been moved!

Almost ready

My husband and I put up the outside lights yesterday. Had to rethink the strings that decorated the yews and the rose of sharon bush since these were removed in the spring. We wrapped the string around the new porch rail and continued the "pink" string on the evergreen bushes. Put all the lights on a timer. On Wednesday, on my day off, I will put the tree up. Have a few small gifts to purchase and would like to make some sugar cookies. I am feeling relaxed and peaceful and enjoying this season of Advent.

Beautiful

Yesterday we spent the day with my husband's cousins celebrating the life of their mother who passed away early on Wednesday. All, but two of the cousins were together. It was a time to remember the life of a beautiful woman. Left widowed at at early age with two young children, this aunt found a job and made a home for herself and the girls. She worked with psychiatric patients at the veterans hospital. She loved to travel--to Hawaii, England and Florida. She couldn't help herself--snuck table food to the dog. One year, she experimented with chutney and gave it to us as a Christmas gift. Her favorite color was yellow--yellow roses on the casket and at her head. And our flowers were appropriate--beautiful but simple as were all the other flowers and plants. And then a time of fellowship at her favorite restaurant.

A Long Night

I couldn't fall asleep last night. Lay in bed trying to settle down. Probably was the chocolate brownie that I ate. Once I did drift off, I tossed and turned, trying to decide which arrangement to send to the funeral home. I had to get up early today because I wanted to celebrate a Holy Day. It made more sense to go to church before work than to work for 9 hours, then go to church and sleep through the service. I asked Ron's mom (deceased) which arrangement she thought I should send for her younger sister. An arrangement of white flowers in a blue vase caught my eye. Now I hope she didn't lead me astray.

Good bye Sweet Aunt

My husband's cousin called today with word that her mother had passed away early this morning. I remember picnics and swims, birthday parties and gifts, and Christmas Eves at Grandma's apartment. She would visit us often and, up until a few years ago swam at the recreation center. She always had a kind or encouraging word.

In Loving Memory
Aunt Dorothy
July 1,1930-Dec 7, 2011

Dealing

I suppose it takes a special kind of fortitude to deal with life's curves. Last night the computer man came to bring back two laptops and in a blink of an eye, our old lame dog ran over to him and bit him on the leg. He went to the ER and got a tetanus booster, and is going to another doctor tomorrow, but does not have insurance. The questions are: will the dog people come and take the dog, euthanize the dog, how much will the doctor bills be, and so on. If we could only go back in time. All this worry in the midst of Christmas preparations. My husband and I shopped and finished purchasing gifts. We now have some stocking stuffers to buy, but I enjoy this, because these gifts are fun, not worth much, and nonsensical. Christmas preparations are coming along. Gifts to wrap, easy sugar cookies to bake, a trip to the church for a special service, and a tree and outside lights. Oh and gifts for the pets, even though one pet doesn't deserve anything. Tomorrow, I am having lunch with a work colleague. We have been trying to get together for weeks, so tomorrow we are going to "carpe diem." I also am staying with my mother while my dad goes for a check up. As far as the friends site, I have decided to limit my time on the computer as the sitting is making me stiff. I haven't made any real friends. Better that I visit with the people in my life that I can see and hear.

Christmas Preparations

Yesterday we celebrated the second Sunday of Advent. I put up the Nativity--the traditional figures and also figures of children bringing eggs, musicians, dogs, cats, geese and a fox. I set up the Christmas village on the mantel. My husband told me that he liked the village. I found a good spot on the hutch for cloth carolers and Santa and his rein-dog with presents galore in a boat. I have two animated Santas--an old one of my mother in law's who rings a bell and looks scary with his red eyes and another one who sips hot chocolate and a cookie. I set up pine cones in a fireside basket, not by the fireplace but up on a shelf. Today I put stamps on the Christmas cards, so they are ready to go out, and picked up some candy for the stockings.

A Decision

I have registered on a site where I can chat with people from around the world--the UK, Canada, Scotland, Wales, the US and other countries. I have been invited to post a story that I wrote on this site. However, I am not sure that I want to do this. Because people from many different countries are on this site, I do not think my novella will be relevant. I write to work through situations and to organize my thoughts so that I can move forward in the proper direction. I do not write to seek attention. I do not want to put my work on the web, only to have it criticized.