Clean up and shape out

Here I am on Jan. 8 2008 and I am just getting things cleaned up from Xmas and New Years. How can that be you ask?

In my case that is not hard because to me cleaning up from this important time means cleaning up not just the decorations but all the junk food and chocolate as well. I have been well under control with the tree and decorations but this year the goodies and junk food are taking a little longer than usual. I'm not sure if it is because we have had more junk food this year or less company. Anyway, it is one of those chores that if I admit truthfully I kind of enjoy.

What seems to get in the way is the ever popular New Years resolution of losing weight from the Christmas season. Okay, I admit from the past year or maybe the last oh... 2 or 3 years. No matter how you look at it, it is the guilt of this chore because of the urgency of this resolution that gets me in a fluster.

How am I to look good for spring and summer clothing when I need months of weight loss to get to that much desired goal. (By the way, I never reach the goal, it is just to high and there just isn't enough time.)

And so my dilemma goes on. I eat chocolate, chips and dips, cookies and cake while watching exercise videos and reading weight lose books. I even try to figure out if I can afford to join the various weight lose clubs while I'm trying to finish this chore of cleaning up the Christmas food. After all, we all know that you cant' start any new program until your house is cleaned out of all the bad foods. (I can't seem to bring myself to throw that kind of food in the garbage.) So here I am well into Jan. and working my way at getting things done. (Oh, what we women must do to get things back to normal.)

I hope your house is all righted around from the festive season. If you find that you have the same problem with this chore of food clean up then let me know. After all, there is comfort in knowing that you aren't alone in these difficult times.

P.S.
For those of you who know me, you know that one of my first loves is chocolate. So there is a certain amount of bliss in all of this, it is just those darn mirrors.

The gift of giving

This blog was written back in the Christmas season and for several reasons it didn't get posted. I have decided to post it anyway because the gift of giving is really a year round gift. Hope you enjoy it.

Have you ever wondered about the gift of giving?

Well, that is what is going through my head at this moment. I have just spent some precious time reading devotions with some of my family and the reading today came from I Peter 3:8-17 in the Bible. The particular part that stood out to me was verse 17: "Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong."

If you take the time to really think about the situations you see around you of people suffering for things that they have done, it is usually those who do things that are wrong choices that suffer the most. I have been in both situations and let me tell you, it is much easier to hurt for making the right choice than to hurt for making the wrong choice. I believe that the primary difference is guilt over selfishness. It is much easier to hurt when you know that you have made the right choice. I think it is a miracle that it is actually a peaceful suffering. I know, you're saying to yourself "peaceful suffering?". Yes, peaceful suffering. I believe that peaceful often gets mixed up with feels good. You can have peace in the hardest and most uncomfortable situations when it comes from right choices. The reason that happens is because you don't have to deal with guilt. It still is painful but you have peace that you made the right choice. I believe that God blesses the hearts and emotions of those who do right, thus giving you the unexplainable peace at the root of all that is happening.

So, as Christmas is the time for giving take the time to make some right choices, even if it hurts, and bless someone who really has a need. And if it is nothing else than making a right choice of action or attitude toward someone and giving up something that is totally selfish for the health and happiness of those you love, then blessings to you in your suffering. God is so good and loves to comfort and bless you who make the right choice.

Merry Christmas and Blessings to those who experience the "gift of giving".

A hunting we will go

It's been a while since I have had the opportunity to blog and as I was waking up today my mind was on all the Christmas shopping that is left to do.

I know that for most people in this world they finish their shopping well in advance and each year I have good intentions of being just like the norm, however in my world there always seems to be interruptions that stop the process. I thought that I would take the time to share some of my shopping experiences with you.

I usually like to have a shopping list but some years there seems to be no good ideas, so when I go to do the Christmas shopping it becomes a hunt. That is a very dangerous things for me because in the hunt I seem to find things that I need and often they seem like buys that I can't pass up.

A number of years ago, when my children were just getting to the age where they had their own money with which to shop it never cross my mind that they may shop for me. That was my first year of making the shopping blooper of buying something that was to good to pass by. My kids faces dropped when I got home and revealed the find of lifetime. A little while later they approached me and asked me if I would mind not buying anything more before Christmas. I felt terrible and have never made that blunder again until this year. I just bought myself pj's that are just the greatest. That was one of my list items so I am sure hoping that no one thought of, or saw the great buy that these were. If any of you have done so that's okay, I'd love to have pj's and could still use one more pair.

Lists are the most important part of Christmas shopping. Well this year has been hopeless. I have already given two kids their gifts because they were going to make the Christmas blooper and buy the item just before Christmas. So what's a person to do but give it early. It now makes me feel like I have not completed the shopping thing. I can't imagine what it will be like to open gifts without everyone having at least one big gift. So, my hunt goes on.

P.S.
Since I started this blog on Dec. 20th, we have opened gifts and guess what? You guessed it, I almost made two bloopers this year. My pj's were #1 and the almost #2 was my Tim Horton's coffee maker. I had this item on my list thinking that no one would give it to me and guess what, my kids did.

We didn't celebrate our Christmas til today, Dec. 29, because all the kids were away for the 25th. In that time while they were away we had company staying and everyday that they were here, which was every day til today, I planned to go out and buy my coffee maker. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that the line in Timmy's is so long that the wait goes on forever. With so much happening each day I couldn't take the time to wait in line. (My company had to have coffee from my substandard coffee maker.) I had a good chuckle when I opened my gift and there was my coffee maker. All I could think of was that I almost made the Christmas blooper two times this year.

By the way, my Christmas turned out to be one of the best. Next year I am hoping to have my list so that my hunting will be just for those who I love and not for me. Hope your Christmas hunting was successful and that your Christmas was great.

I hope to catch up with you again in the next few days, if not "Happy New Year!"

"Deck The Halls"

I thought that it would be appropriate to follow "Oh Christmas Tree" with this topic of decorating the halls of our homes for the most exciting time of year.

I don't know about you but for me Christmas is my favorite time. It is the time when I get the warm fuzzies and my emotional side tends to show up. I work hard to get the atmosphere just right. I have my little villages that I set up and different ornaments that help to give that feeling of kicking back and sinking into a stress free time of the year.

Here is the funny part of that last statement. "Stress free". The actual days of Christmas break are mostly stress free for me but the decking of the halls are not. I must say that this year it has gone well so far but it hasn't always been that way.

Most families have their traditions around decorating the Christmas Tree. Well, so do we. Ours has always been a family thing. We decorate the tree on the Sunday as close to the beginning of Dec. that will fit our schedule. When the kids were home we would go out and pick out our tree from the tree lot. (No traipsing through the forest for us. We did try that one year and found that we didn't like the cold that much, besides we also don't have an eye for sizing.) It would then unthaw for a couple of days and when that next available day hit we would decorate in the late afternoon, early evening. We then topped the evening off by watching the old Alastair Sim movie "A Christmas Carol". That was a family tradition. The decking of the tree was always interesting. Hubby would put the star and lights on first, then the kids and I would join in with the decorations. The finishing touch to the tree was the tinsel. Hubby would insist that it be put on one strand at a time. (What he doesn't know is that I would do the back of the tree and speed up the process up by increasing the numbers, moving around the tree as he moved so that we were always opposite.) Anyway, when it was done we would stand back turn off all the lights and admire our handy work. The joke for the rest of the season was that Mom was always poking in the tree and fixing things.

For a number of years now we have been without kids. They all grew up and left us so now the tradition is left to, you guessed it, Hubby and I. As a matter of fact it is mostly I. Somehow as the years have progressed I've become a little pickier about how the tree looks.

Last year it took me about 6 hrs. to get the 400 or so lights just right. It started out with Hubby and I doing it together and when he got frustrated with me fixing his efforts, he gave up. I was working away, grumbling about how I don't like putting on lights when I realized that I was alone and there on the couch was Hubby sound asleep. That does absolutely nothing for the warm fuzzies. Well, we did get the job done and that tree was absolutely beautiful. What we came to realize was that although we think that doing the tree is a special tradition we have changed with our tastes on what is acceptable for a tree to look like. I a little pickier and Hubby a little more relaxed. That adds a little more tension to the process, thus making the heart warming feelings a little less visible.

This is the reason that I was out looking for the perfect tree this year. One that was artificial, full enough to not see through, and had lights already in it. It worked, and you will be pleased to know that the decking of the tree this year was much more fun and alot less stressful because the lights were not an issue.

I am almost done creating the "Christmas Cheer" inside the house. All that is left is the downstairs tree in the family room. One job that I tackle by myself because Hubby thinks that one tree is enough of the warm fuzzies. It's all he can take each year. I, on the other hand, feel like I need a decorated tree in the family room because we spend so much of our time there. I love the feel that colored lights on a tree give the room.

So, I will go about my merry way and continue to "Deck the halls......." and attempt to get just the right atmosphere so that for a few days it will feel like Christmas, and when it is all over will be glad that I took the time.

I sure hope that you are having fun decking your halls and creating "Christmas Cheer" in your homes.

"Oh Christmas Tree"

I don't know about you but I have a thing about the perfect Christmas tree. I realize that it is impossible to get that right but in my head there exists the perfect tree.

When our children were at home we always had real trees and they always looked like Charlie Browns Christmas Trees. One year I had to lengthen the string on the ornaments so that they could hang far enough down to hid the missing branches. Once we even had to turn the tree so that the back wouldn't show because there really wasn't much tree there. We did manage to put a few ornaments on that back side so that it gave the illusion from the front that there was a full tree. Anyway, there I'm off topic, this is about buying the right tree. The decorating will probably be a later blog cause that in and of itself is quite a feat.

We have been having an artificial tree for quite a few years. It happened the year we left our Christmas tree buying til the last possible moment and all the choice we had was from about 4 trees in our price range. They were really sticks with a few branches and the weather had been so warm that year that most of the pine needles had fallen off. In fact, they we ready to start taking on the brownish hue that happens after they've been in your house for a couple of weeks and managed to dry out a few times. WELL, that is when my dear hubby broke down and bought us this beautiful expensive artificial tree. The artificial trees had been bought out as well, no options of anything cheaper. What we don't do for Christmas. But Christmas isn't Christmas without a tree.

We have enjoyed our fake tree for many years now and this year I felt that it was time to move on to something new. There were two reasons for this decision; the light issue and the fact that when I fluff the branches they are falling off. You guessed it, we were moving into the Charlie Brown nightmare again.

I decided to replace both the upstairs and the downstairs trees. In my hunt I came across one in a store and I ordered one off the catalogue site. Well, here's the skinny on what I found. You should only buy the ones that you can see so that you know what you are getting.

Tree #1: Looked pretty good but I could still see the center pole. Has 450 colored lights threaded in and costs under $100.00. This is very good news for my basement.
Tree #2: Looks more real with the needles but I can see the centre pole. It has 550 color lights threaded through but there are holes everywhere. This tree may be brighter than tree #1 but it is 3 times the cost.

As you can imagine, tree #2 is back in its box and will shortly be on it way back home to the warehouse, where ever that may be.

On a side note, I can imagine that our neighbours must really wonder about us. I didn't pull the blinds closed because the trees were set up and back against the window. There we were with our two trees, lights a blazing, in our living room and our neighbours probably thinking "over kill".

Anyway, I'm on my way to see if there is another tree that is a little fuller, artificial, lighted with color lights, and at least 1/2 the price of tree #2.

Wish me luck! If you have not found your perfect tree yet, here's to your hunt. Cheers!

By the way if you are successful in finding the perfect tree please let me know how you did it. And if you find yourself in the same dilemma that I'm in, it would be comforting to know that you are out there, experiencing the pressure of getting Christmas just right.

"Oh Christmas Tree...Oh Christmas Tree...la la la la la la la la."