saddle, sorting, and needles

A saddle, in geography, is defined as the lowest area between two peaks. I think of the week between Christmas and New Year as a saddle week. This one's been pretty productive... mostly.

• I've been doing some tidying, which I have since learned is a tradition in some cultures so as to start the new year with a "clean slate". I went through some boxes of stored goods while grumbling under my breath, thinking it was "junk" we've been storing for our kids. I was all ready to unload it upon them, only to find that it was mostly our stuff we never unpacked when we moved here four years ago. Ooops.

So I'm sorting through that, determined to rid us of "stored stuff". If we're gonna use it, it should be out among the living. I did find a few kid things, so my grumbling skills weren't totally a waste.

• Christmas here was a pleasant low-key affair. Meego and Wolfgang came over for food, gaming, dog walking, puzzle building, etc. And we speaker phoned a bit with Chaco, who relocated to the DC area for work not long ago.

Speaking of food and storage, while I was doing some actual cooking for Christmas, I came upon this little cast iron skillet I "won" back in 2020. As I remember it, the nursing home where I was working at the time had daily random drawings for staff to select a gift from a pile o' stuff during the days leading up to Christmas.

My name miraculously came up, and I selected the cute skillet, I think mainly because it was nicely portable for bringing home on my bicycle. It came with a small packet of brownie mix for making one round brownie in the pan. I remember making the brownie on Christmas, and the 5 of us split it into teeny tiny brownies. 

If it'd been a marijuana brownie, I doubt it would've had much affect after divying it up 5 ways. 

The skillet then got stashed with its larger siblings, hardly thought of again. But this week, I saw someone on reddit, who had received such a skillet for Christmas, asking what to use it for. The overwhelming response was "an egg!!"

Omigosh, it's the perfect vessel for making a one-off poached egg. I've been doing that in the days since the discovery while needing to chip away at all this damn leftover Christmas ham.

• Also this week, I visited that physical therapy place about my fritzed foot. They'd offered a special promo, so I partook. But the foot's been feeling better, and I figured I'd listen to the assessment, then likely continue to treat it myself. 

Welp, that didn't happen. The good Dr. uncovered weakness in my right hip - not a total secret to me - as likely the root of my problem and mapped out a good sense plan of attack.  After the initial treatment hurt so good, I'd plunked down the HSA card and paid for six sessions. 

He wants to do some "dry needling" - a term of which I've heard for treating sports injuries, but know nothing. I'm about to access doctor google, but it sounds kind of like acupuncture, which I've never had. I'm going for it.

repair and refresh

Christmas '22 has come and gone. I took down my sparse decorations on Tuesday, and we're back to darkness. We had a nice gathering, just us five. Thankfully, no one was having to fly to get here.

Chaco has been here since last Wednesday evening. Drove up in a blizzard and had elective shoulder surgery on arctic blast Thursday morning: Bankart repair after repeated shoulder dislocations. 

So we've become somewhat educated on arthroscopy and shoulder bits. It's been a week, and he'll likely return to his place tomorrow. Know anyone in Westminster that will shovel snow on demand?

The weather did greatly improve after the polar vortex, the bombogenesis, whatever the term. Temperatures mellowed out and most of the snow is gone, only to be replaced by another little spitting last night.

Work starts up again next Tuesday, then classes begin - heralding in new tutees - in mid-January. I feel a bit stagnant in the testing center. There's not much more to learn, and I have no wishes to "move up". The job functions as a steady trickle of income and 401k eligibility, so I remind myself that it's serving that purpose just fine. 

Our little workplace gift swap didn't happen since the campus closed a day early. I don't think anyone was particularly disappointed about that. It would've been a swap of re-gift items. Scented candles galore, I'm sure.

And yes, Boss did end up getting that promotion, so we'll see what happens. I was voicing my workplace ennui to Party Girl recently, and she offered that maybe that will change for the better when Boss moves to his new digs. Maybe? She's counting on it for herself. 

Here's to a happy new year all around 🍾

we know you love a party

"The test center is closed as we celebrate the Pagan Solstice.  We will reopen on January 3rd when our hours will be..."

"...However, if you are a virgin and would like to volunteer to sacrifice yourself to ensure the return of the sun for the rest of us, you may contact us at..."

Then again, we just went with the standard winter break message.

The boss, assistant boss, and I worked the final shift of the year yesterday.  We were only open for four hours for the last trickle of customers before the holidays.  We took care of some general cleaning and tidying - took down the holiday decorations, cleaned the breakroom, then penned and recorded the winter break outgoing message on the voicemail.  Done and done.

I'm as ready as I'm going to be for Christmas.  We don't go all out, especially since the kids are all up and out now.  But it's nice to have some time together.  I've got a few decorations up around the house, there are a few gifts and cards, there's ham.

I definitely don't want to take part in the deadweight loss of Christmas, minimalist clutterphobe that I am.  On a somewhat related note, my step-MIL has sent us an abundance of "treats" every year for Christmas for many years.  Store-bought cookies and candies, etc. that we never manage to consume on our own.

Most of it ends up going to coworkers and then expires into the trash.  I keep thinking to gently let her know not to send so much if any.  But then, Christmas passes and I forget by the next time I talk with her, and it seems wrong to mention it in my Christmas thank-you note.

Once again, I received and opened the "box of diabetes" a couple of weeks ago.  I brought over half of it to work, and during yesterday's cleaning, the leftovers went into the trash.  There's still a significant amount at our house that we will dole out to the kids, then chuck the remainder.

Any advice on how to handle this?  Mention it to her in my thank-you note?  Give myself a reminder to bring it up the next time they visit - possibly summertime? Just let her keep sending the crap and not say anything?  There are certainly worse things.

no kissing

"We could make this a COVID 'kissing zone'!"

We looked at her like, you can't be serious.  Are you serious?

At work, we are situated in a corral-style layout.  We invigilators are positioned in the center of the place while testing goes on around the periphery.  We are corralled in by counters and, because of COVID, plexi-glass.  

With the holiday season in full swing now, we've been putting  up decorations here and there.  We have some lights strung along the tops of the plexi-glass partitions,  and coworker J thought we should hang some mistletoe from the lights at one point - thus prompting kissing from respective sides of plexi-glass.

Yeah, no.  Nice thought, but there are easier ways to visit the HR department.

So, no mistletoe to be had, but the place is looking quite festive.  I noticed what looked like a headless snowcouple from my vantage point and had to walk around to see what it was from the front.

Oh, okay, just what I'd thought.  A headless snowcouple complete with disembodied heads.  Apparently, it was meant to be a hot cocoa pot, and the heads are the lid.  We're using it for candy - persistent leftovers from Halloween, but don't tell anyone.

On a side note, I remember a resident from when I worked at the old folks home.  She told me she asked one of my young coworkers for some cocoa and was met with a blank stare.  I guess "cocoa" is a word only us old folks know as "hot chocolate".  That pot must be an ancient relic.

We do have a tree on a shelf in a corner.  Public institution that we are, we cannot have any religious symbology as part of the decor.  Adorning the top of the tree is an ornament commemorating 2020.

Looking closely, I realized it's a dumpster fire.

For a mascot, the college has the Wolves.  We have no sports teams, but apparently all schools need a mascot.  

We thought to put him - Apollo - at the top of our tree, but the dumpster fire won out since we're not allowed to adorn Apollo with angel wings.

He functions well as our masked motivator anyway.

Signs of the times. I wonder what would happen if we DID hang the mistletoe...

Silver Liningness Sunday

I had China at the vet's late last week.  She had this puffy thing under her left eye, see it?

The Dr. determined that it was a tooth abscess, and that the tooth should come out.  Okay, easy enough.  EXCEPT (don't you just hate when there's an "except"?), the bloodwork to determine if she was clear for anesthesia came back saying, "Nope!"

A couple of abnormally high liver enzyme counts had me with her at the ultrasound place this week.  She has a "mass" in her liver, that we are waiting on the pathologist to analyze.  Magnum googled and found that "Hepatic nodular hyperplasia" - a seemingly benign lesion - is a common thing in older dogs.  She seems to be her usual self, so we're hoping that's all it is.  She's about 15 years old, just an estimate since she's from a shelter, so we're not shocked to learn of these things.

In the meantime, she's taken a course of antibiotics that has taken pretty good care of the abscess.  For now.  But the bad tooth - it's still in there.

The silver lining is that she doesn't seem to be bothered by any of this.  In fact, the things she does find bothersome are going to the vet's and the ultrasound place.  She actually looks forward to the pill popping.  I guess that's understandable since we wrap them in lunchmeat.

In other news, we got this cute little cactus when at the nursery getting our Christmas tree.  We haven't had much luck with houseplants.  I blame the lighting in our house and my nongreen thumb.  But this cactus called to us, so we brought it home and named it Roscoe.

This week has been  nice with Christmas and family time.  And while a lot of the east coast has enjoyed unseasonable warmth, we've had a rather "blue" Christmas...

But it's allowed me to take care of some indoor projects during the downtime - along with a healthfully slothful dose of recreational reading and Netflix.  And now Chaco has taken some more bulk from the old bedroom, leaving all that much more space for Meego.  We were straightening up some yesterday, and I told Meego I would help him rearrange things today.

He said, "Hey, now I can get a drum set..."

And I said, "Yep", and "Wait.  What?"

just pretend the house isn't 20 feet away

After all the build up, the day finally arrived.  But enough about Star Wars...

We did survive another night of We're-Not-Homeless Appreciation.  It seems to get easier every year.

We bedded down last night once Magnum got a cozy fire going in the tent stove.  In fact, it was downright HOT in there for a while.  Temperatures outside got down into the low 20s, but we stayed pretty comfy in our survival sleeping bags.  And yes, I wore double leggings, under the warmups!

China and Napolion came out for a while as we got ourselves situated, but then seemed to do a collective "You guys are stupid!", then headed back indoors.

I remember waking up once during the night after the fire had died out, and it was noticeably chilly.  I just mummified myself further.  Meego had a similar experience.

"I woke up and the fire was out.  There was drool frozen to my face..."

Ew.

Chaco's not keen on having pics snapped of him upon waking from hibernation...

Too bad.













I've got stuff cooking now, in the comfort of our real house.  Chaco and Wolfgang brought sweet corn muffins last night - well, the mix anyway.  I baked and Chaco made the "Honey Butter Topping".  They're all gone now.  We did some game night, and somehow the muffins disappeared.  Extra layer of fat for warmth?

And that's pretty much our Christmas.  Eat, freeze, eat some more.  A few gifts thrown in.  All good.

Merry Christmas, blog people!

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Silver Liningness Sunday

I was at the post office on Friday.  We have a P.O. box there, so I check it about once a week.  Migosh, the lines.  I couldn't tell where one ended and another started.  Merry Christmas!

It reminded me of years ago, not long after Magnum and I got married and were living in upstate New York, far away from family - which was rather plentiful considering the divorces and remarriages and all the step-branches in Magnum's family tree.  We'd buy things, and box them up, then go stand in long lines at the post office with all those packages.  Eventually, that practice thankfully ended.  With everyone getting hitched and then with babies popping out, we all collectively agreed to halt the mass gift exchange.  I sure don't miss it, so this week at the post office, I gladly bypassed the lines to the quiet of the P.O. boxes.

On that note, I'd say my shopping is done.  And thinking back to those olden days, I'm thankful for the internet and online shopping!  I went to the mall just once this week, and that was only to get a gift for the P.E.O. gift swap.  That was enough, and I couldn't remember the last time I was at a mall, even though there is one about a mile from our house.

That mall also houses a cinema, so with the opening of Star Wars coupled with the Christmas season, it's a good place to avoid if you're not big into traffic.

I am still feeling a bit of the stir crazies.  This week's snow storm was the messiest one yet, and it's still very sloppy out.  I'm already feeling sick of winter, and it's not even officially winter yet!  On top of that, I found that my normally trusty friendly running shoes that are such nice companions in the warm months turned total wimps once it got cold/wet/snowy/icy out.  They felt stiff, uncomfortable, and cumbersome, which left me feeling similarly.

I went to the local running store last weekend with my tale of woe.  And after a very helpful session, I came home with these wonderful Altra Lone Peak 2.5's

I'd heard good things about Altras - the zero-drop platform and the roomy toe box.  Now, I think I've found me a new brand of shooz!  These are SO comfy, and they did quite nicely at dealing with the winter slop.  I can't yet speak to their durability, but so far so good!

And remember that radio guy that said socks were disappointing Christmas gifts??  Well, he obviously hasn't heard of the Netflix Socks that pause your show if you fall asleep!  We all know THAT hardship, right??

I could use a pair of these

Merry Christmas!  Happy Holidays!  Merry Yule! Come on Spring!

Silver Liningness Sunday

Here we are, the final week of 2014!  I'm not quite yet organized for the year-in-review post, but I think I can handle the week just passed.

It was a nice week off from school and work.  And, as typical, we don't get too stressed around here for the holidays, but still manage to partake in the specialness.  The kids all seem happy with what Magnum and I got for them.  Maybe part of the Christmas Eve freeze-out is to increase the gratitude scale!  Heck, it works for me.

Plus they had Grandparent money to burn, so we did some Boxing Day shopping on Friday.  Mostly all at Bass Pro Shop, where I didn't care to buy anything, but I do enjoy looking at the fish.  The guys also went to Big 5 Sporting Goods, and I passed on that one.  Too bad because some drunk guy came in and started undressing!

I guess he was using the floor display exercise equipment and began stripping.  Management had to throw him out.  Dang, I knew I should've gone with them.

We've had fun gaming together, of the non electronic sort.  Along with the more wholesome games, we played that totally inappropriate game, and so now our familial relationships have reached a whole 'nother level...

Along more traditional lines, there's been jigsaw puzzling, working away on this Picasso.  Anyone know the painting?  Anyone?

In movie news, Magnum and I watched "The Grand Budapest Hotel".  What silly fun is that?!  I'd never heard of it, but Magnum found it at the library so we gave it a go.  It's just silly satire, and I suspect that the many big-name celebrities in it had as much fun making it as we did watching.  

And I will give a shout out to the makeup department.  Remember a while ago when I was bashing "Prometheus"?  One of my gripes was the terrible make-up job in making a young actor look like an old man?  Well, The Grand Budapest Hotel had it going on.  Tilda Swinton looked absolutely ancient!

So we're winding up the last of the year.  This week looks to be a blast!  As in arctic blast...  I suppose that's good, though, because I still have much to scratch off the to-do list.  I did get out today for a romp with Bella since it's probably our last nice bicycling day for a while.  The menfolk also took advantage by going to the shooting range and (literally) blowing away the Christmas cash.  

Have a great final week!  Stay warm!

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larvae little Christmas

Happy post-Christmas to those who celebrate!
Happy Friday to the others!

We enjoyed a nice day of much cooking, much eating, much gaming, and much general slacking off for the five of us.  No travelling, and no visitors.





We also managed to survive another Christmas camp.  In fact, this year was not nearly as cold as last, but that's not saying a whole lot because last year was freaking freeeezing!

The trusty tent stove did its job nicely, cranking out the warmth until it didn't anymore.  Strangely, no one wanted to stay up all night to feed it.  I think  it needs a name...

We think the temperatures got down into the upper 20s.  Livable for one night, but I wouldn't want to do it on a regular basis

Long johns are our friends.

I remember waking up cold around 4 a.m.  The fire had long gone out and I was craving my hoodie, which was outside my bag.  WHY did I not tuck it in with me?  I managed to funnel it in through the small hole in my mummy bag, but had no success in actually putting it on once it was in there.  I had to sacrifice crucial body heat and loosen the bag so as to put on the hoodie, but in the end, it was worth it.

I stayed snug the rest of the night in my cocoon, hoping to emerge a beautiful butterfly.

Spoiler Alert:  it didn't work.

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oh, holy frijole night

Here we are, Christmas Eve.  The "manger" awaits.

Yes, once again, we'll be re-enacting the original Christmas story. We've got a Joseph, a Virgin *COUGH* Mary, three wise guys, and some animals.  The only missing detail is the baby savior.

All right, well, we will be spending the night outside again this year, but it's not really a portrayal of the nativity.  I'm not actually sure of the why behind Christmas camp, but I'm pretty sure it isn't that.  Maybe it's to spend the night like homeless people to help us appreciate that we're not homeless or alone on Christmas day or any day.

Yeah, okay, I'm going with that.

Wishing you all laughter, peace, and love!  Oh, and warmth too, we mustn't forget warmth (inside and out)!

From the AbbyNormals
xoxox

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warm greetings!

The day hath arriveth!  I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday, however celebrated.  We woke to cold temperatures and fresh snow.  YAY, white Christmas!

It's been a quite fruitful morning.  Recall that I was worried that Meego's gift wouldn't arrive on time, but it made it with time to spare.  We got him a video camera, so he's been getting the hang of it.  Also, with the Christmas cash, he's paid off the remaining balance of his snake loan.

Put the two events together, and we have video of said snake.  As I said, it's cold here this morning.  He's fond of fleece.






I noticed after uploading the video, that Magnum's secret contraption can be seen several times.  I'm still not saying what it is.

Merry Christmas to all of my blog friends!  I must now walk the pooch and then make my (pretend) world famous scalloped potatoes.
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Merry Silver Liningness

Ah, Christmas has happened and it was good.

Yes, we had the decorations.  Yes, we had lights.  And YES, we had the tree - just in the St. Nick of time.  But what I'm grateful for is that, even if we didn't have those things, it would have all been good.

Our tree-gettin' did come down to the wire, but I really wasn't too stressed about it.  I wasn't stressed because I know these guys.  If something would have happened to keep us from getting that tree, we would have been able to laugh at ourselves. 

We would have come up with some stupid substitute - a cardboard tree cut out of stuff from the recycle pile, some twigs in a cup, I don't know.  But trust me, there would have been something and it would have been less than a Charlie Brown tree and cheesy and funny and special, and we would have christened it "Christmas 2011", and made it memorable.

And that's what I'm thankful for on this Christmas silver lining Sunday:  my wonderfully weird family.  We get each other.

That and my awesome blog friends.


“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.”
Dale Carnegie

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weekend

NaBloPoMo prompt:  What will you be doing over the weekend?

I've still got some wrapping to do, but it's just for the kids so doesn't need to be impressive. 

Magnum and I did a coffee walk earlier.  We went near the mall by our house, and surprisingly, it wasn't too busy.  Still, we won't be doing any shopping whatsoever today - well, other than the coffee.

I ran this morning - my first run in a week after zombie flu.  It was glorious. 

Yesterday, I ordered a new toy for myself. (get your minds out of the gutter). 

Merry Christmas to all of my wonderful blog friends!  I hope this weekend is full of love and warmth for all of you!

Love, Abby (comma optional)
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greenery

It was a week before Christmas
And there were things yet to do.
Oh how it sucks
To catch the Zombie flu!

There were days I did lose
To viral delerium
But I did somehow manage
At least a bare minimum.

Then I was better,
Renewed and reborn!
Only to be stranded
By a winter snow storm.

But time keeps ticking
It doesn't wait for me.
Christmas will be here
Even if there's no tree!

Would this be the year
We would remember as being
The year without a tree
Like a song with no feeling?

Then the clouds parted
The snow stopped falling
The sun even shone
As if to be calling

Go!  Go! 
Go now in the car!
Take the All-Wheel-Drive
The nursery's not far!

We mushed through the snow
And we got us that tree
At a bargain price too
With an ornament for free!

So now we can sit
Content in good cheer
That was a close one
What happens next year?
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getting impersonal

Does anyone here do the "Christmas Family Newsletter" thing?  I don't.

Now, I fully understand the purpose and usefulness of the things, and I do appreciate the work that goes into them.  They're just not my style.  I prefer personalized letters.  And I know that some may be thinking, "Ugh, that's too time consuming!", which it is if you send a bunch of Holiday cards out.  I send out a small smattering.

smat·ter·ing/ˈsmatəriNG/  n.  1.  A small amount of something.

In fact, I composed one (1) such letter last night.    There will be a few others, and that will wrap up 2011 as far as our mailings go.  And I've never really even been tempted to do the mass mailed newsletter thing, but if I were...

Dear Friends, Family, or Current Resident,

Christmas greetings to all you all! We would like to write personally to each of you, but it’s much easier to lump you all into the same one-line salutation and send you a form letter with obligatory photos.


The kids are doing fine.  Chaco apparently made a boat since I found this photo in a pile of stuff that was left to rot on the rec room table.  I deemed it Holiday Newsletter worthy, cropped out the other boat builder kid and show it here because Chaco can't find the school pics I paid for at the beginning of the year.  I also remember purchasing a boat load (pun intended) of blue duct tape. And he bowls.

Wolfgang still enjoys track and cross country and wearing loud clothing inside of putt-putt golf course caves.  He's also teaching his out-of-touch parents some teen lingo phrases such as "smash or pass?".  He has a school photo, but we like to keep things uniform.












Meego is a fine example of how being the third child results in having next to no individual photos.  He's enjoying middle school and his liberation from the chains of elementary school.

We enjoyed a family trip to the mountains last summer, after cancelling our epic Arizona trip since Arizona was on fire. 

Magnum and I celebrated 21 years of marriage in August, and we marked the occassion by ending the three-month fight over how to load the dishwasher. 




Merry Christmas and happy 2012, with much love from the AbbyNormals!  :)
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Silver Liningness Sunday

Another lovely week has been entered into the books...

Got our Christmas tree yesterday. I've mentioned here before that we traditionally get a small still-in-the-pot evergreen each Christmas and then plant it in the yard later. This year, it's a cute little baby blue spruce. Shhhh.... it's sleeping in the garage.

The kids had their last week of school before winter break this past week. It was finals week for the high schoolers. Chaco and Wolfgang say they think they did well on the things. We will soon find out if reality matches.

I've taken the last few weeks off from work. I'm thankful that I have such flexibility in my job. I'm starting to notice that I miss it though, and that's something to be thankful for too. I've got a class scheduled to start up in a couple of weeks - fresh out of the gate for the New Year. A gala it certainly will be.

So, we are pretty much on break-time status, which is temporarily a nice thing. I'm thankful for couch-potatoes and sleeping cats - not necessarily mutually exclusive items.

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Silver Liningness Sunday

Happy Sunday! I have much to be happy about.

For starters, my thermometer says "42". No, not "4.2", not "-4.2", but a whopping FORTY-TWO above zero! It feels like the Bahamas.

Okay, enough of the boring meteorological updates...

It was a good week. We had that blustery coldness, but that was actually kind of fun. Kids got a snow day and a delayed start out of it. The count now stands at 4 snowdays used up for this year. The schedule allows for 6. 2/3 down and it's only mid-December.

It was also quite productive. I was way behind on some of our financial mumbo jumbo - just one of the many hats I wear around here: financial mumbo jumbo person - and I'm glad to say that it's almost all caught up now. Much crunching of numbers.

On that note, I'm thankful that we have some decent numbers to crunch in these "tough economic times".

In other productivity news, My Christmas Shopping Is DONE! Can you believe it? Neither can I! Now, about those decorations....

In movie watching updates, we saw the latest Star Trek movie. I'm not a Trekkie. I'm not even really a Science a-Fictionado. Magnum and the kids liked it, though. I slept a bit and wondered why Uhura was often dressed in clothing that was 2 or more sizes too small. Eric Bana as the vengeful, tattooed, bad boy, Romulan, Nero was HOT, though.

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360 turnaround

It's done. The anticipation. The sleepless nights. The constant checking and updating to find out where HE is.

The day that seemed it would never arrived, finally arrived. Oh, that whole "Magic of Christmas" thing. Be good or maybe HE won't come. Of course he's coming. He's made a list and checked it twice.

We never did that whole Santa Claus thing with our kids. No, it wasn't really any sort of self-righteous decision, it just didn't seem necessary. There are the zealots out there that say it's wrong wrong wrong to lie to your children. Then there's the other camp that says it deprives them of the magical aspects to not go along. To each his own, we say, and passed. No mailing letters. No scare tactics to "be good or else". No cookies and milk.

Of course, they heard the stories, even saw HIM. And we just told them it was a story for Christmas, just for fun. And, by the way, don't spoil it for friends that still believe.

They're older now, and I think survived the deprivation just fine. And it's not like they don't still undergo the stress and anxiety of waiting for HIS arrival.

Chaco, Wolfgang, and Meego pooled the bulk of their Christmas money and savings to purchase an XBOX 360, a couple of games, and an extra controller this year. Mail order.

Omigosh, the constant checking of e-mail updates, tracking notices, google maps, etc., etc., etc. The thing arrived late last week after what felt like an eternity. Yes there is a Santa Claus.

He drives a FedEx truck.
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Silver Lining Saturday part XIX

Quick! What's the Roman Numeral for "50"?! Just thinking ahead here...

Another week down, and another week of good things.

First of all, it was Christmas here, yes, that's the one we celebrate. As I mentioned, it was relatively low-key here with us not travelling anywhere, and no visitors coming this way. It was a good day, and the kids like and appreciate their gifts. Now if they'd just all go back to school so I can play with their stuff!

The weather's been nice here too, making it easy to get out and about for those last minute shopping excursions and just to stave off the cabin fever. It's been cold, but not much new snow and ice to slip and slide around on, and I also appreciate that when I go outside to run.

For those days that are wintry, I'm thankful for our all-wheel drive Subaru. It's an animal!

And I'm thankful for the time off to get caught up on work stuff and around-the-house stuff. Also the family-time stuff. We played "LIFE", the board game, the other night. I ended up a teacher living in a trailer. I had a man, but no kids. That's LIFE.

Now I'm looking forward to the New Year. It's going to be a good one, I KNOW it!
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12*25

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Love & Kisses,
Abby
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