Christmas

Christmas was pretty different than normal this year. For lots of reasons. It was still good. I didn't think it would be so I was pleasantly surprised. We basically had a big dinner with my kids & grandson Braedon. Brae got some gifts and played on the rocking horse....

Sorry for the red eye. My computer died and I am on a loaner which has none of my good editing programs. Grr. You can still tell how TOTALLY ADORABLE little Brae is though!

I know I promised y'all Dirty Santa party pictures but, sadly, I haven't seen any yet. IF and when I get them, they will get posted. I promise!

Tomorrow is the beginning of another new year. I hope 2012 will have less grief and more happiness. For all of us.

Some time between now and tomorrow evening, I will fine tune my annual list of famous people we lost in the past year and get it posted.

AND if you like tattoos and haven't checked out my new site, underground ink, you should go see it when you get a moment.

Happy New Year everyone! I'll see you in 2012!

Merry Christmas Eve

This photo and story is being passed around Facebook right now. I found it absolutely beautiful and impossible not to share this Christmas Eve.

Our 14-year-old dog Abbey died last month. The day after she passed away my 4-year-old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so, and she dictated these words:

Dear God,

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.

I hope you will play with her. She likes to swim and play with balls. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith' in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies.' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help and I recognized her right away.

Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you. I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I'm easy to find. I am wherever there is love.

Love, God

Merry Christmas everyone. Love,

Odd Christmas facts

Most of you know that I have a thing for oddness. For Halloween I gave you some odd laws that were still on the books. Now it's time for some odd Christmas facts.


There are 364 gifts mentioned in "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

America's official national Christmas tree is located in King's Canyon National Park in California. The tree, a giant sequoia called the "General Grant Tree", is over 90 meters (300 feet) high, and was made the official Christmas tree in 1925.

In Armenia, the traditional Christmas Eve meal consists of fried fish, lettuce and spinach.

Alabama was the first state to recognize Christmas as an official holiday, and the tradition began in 1836.

In 1647, the English parliament passed a law that made Christmas illegal. The Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell, who considered feasting and revelry on what was supposed to be a holy day to be immoral, banned the Christmas festivities. The ban was lifted only when Cromwell lost power in 1660.

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia leads the world in exporting lobster, wild blueberries, and Christmas trees.

Electric Christmas lights were first used in 1854.

Every year since the 1930's, Hollywood Boulevard has been officially re-named Santa Claus Lane, during Hollywood's annual Christmas parade.

Christmas wasn't officially recognized as a holiday until 1905 in Oklahoma.

Americans spend approximately $31.9 billion dollars on Christmas.

A few of my favorite things

*Note: I did not receive any compensation or free items for writing this post. I just love these things and wanted to share them with you.*


Christmas is fast approaching & lots of us still haven't gotten the gifts we want to get for people. It's not too late! I found some deals on sites that I visit regularly and wanted to tell you all about them!

Better World Books

Every time you purchase a book from this site, money goes to fund literacy worldwide. You get great books and people get to learn how to read because of it. It's a win/win situation. And every single book I've ever ordered from here has been in excellent condition (yes, even the ones that said they were "used, slight damage" looked brand new!) and I've never had to spend a fortune to get them. Plus right now, if you use their Expidoodle shipping by tomorrow (12/9), it will get there by Christmas Eve.

CSN Stores

I absolutely adore CSN Stores and have gotten many wonderful things from them. And yes, I have received products from them at no charge for reviews and giveaways on my cookbook, but I've also purchased many items from them and have always been happy with what I received. They have over 200 sites that offer everything from furniture to school supplies. And right now they are offering Stress-Free Holidays: Items that are marked with a snowflake are guaranteed to arrive by Christmas & returns have been extended through January 31st.

Amazon

I actually love Amazon so much that I have my own personal Amazon stores on the sidebars of all my blogs. That doesn't mean you have to shop at my stores (although I wouldn't complain at all!). There are so many things that are available through Amazon that I know you could find a gift or two (or three, or twelve) there. If you qualify for prime shipping then your order arrives two days after it ships. Plus they offer gift wrapping!

JibJab

JibJab is a really fun site! You can Elf Yourself (like I did here), send holiday e-cards and buy personalized gifts starting as low as $4.99. Check it out. I think you'll like it there.

I hope I gave you a few good ideas and took a little bit of stress out of your holiday shopping! Merry Christmas everyone! It will be here before we know it!

People are crazy

Saturday our town had their annual Christmas parade. The parade was scheduled to start at 4:00 so we got out there about 2:00. You might think we were the crazy ones for going so early, but by the time 4:00 came around, we were completely blocked in.

About an hour into our wait, people were really getting weird. We saw several almost wrecks and tempers were flaring. Fists were popping out of windows and curse words were in the air. There's nothing like a parade to whip people into a frenzy!


Sitting in our nice, safe spot just off the road, we watched as people tried to jump into traffic after cutting through the parking lot we were in.


Suddenly, a little black...something (I think it was a Neon) came speeding through the lot and bolted into traffic almost hitting a bus that slammed on his brakes to avoid the accident. Tires were squealing, horns were honking and people were screaming. I held my breath.

There was a very heated exchange between the bus driver & the car driver. I could see a fist shaking in the wide front window of the bus, threatening to punch the driver of the car. A head popped out of the window of the car and he began screaming such nice things as "Bring your ass on out of there and I'll show you!" and "Stupid, crazy, mother f****r". I think my jaw was on my chest. If any flies had been buzzing around in the 30° air, they would have had a nice, warm place to land.

Then it was all over. The cars tires peeled out and he was in front of the bus, speeding down the road. The bus started moving again. That's when I saw the back of the bus. And I practically died laughing. I jumped out of my car and snapped a picture for you:

I tried to zoom in for you but all it did was make it blurry....Maybe you can still read it...

Not only were they "insain", they were bad spellers too.

Muppets. Christmas. Nothing better!

Just because. ☺

Now THAT'S better

I was scanning the news stories a little while ago and it seemed like all I saw was bad. First case of highly drug-resistant TB found in US. Seniors worry about Medicare Advantage cuts. Jon Gosselin's NYC Apartment Ransacked. Weapon Involved in Charlie Sheen Domestic Dispute. It made me really sad.

I was about to just give up on the news for the night when a different kind of story jumped out at me. It made me feel a little better about the world.

It started out sad but it ended up warming my heart.

A woman in Italy went to retrieve the Christmas gifts she had hidden for her two toddler daughters and found they had been stolen out of the basement. Frantic, she rushed around town trying to buy new gifts from gas stations. She didn't want them to wake up on Christmas morning and not have anything under the tree. When the police found out what happened, they contacted a toy store owner in a nearby town. He opened his store at 4:00 a.m. just so the lady could get her daughters new gifts.

I hope they caught the low down thief that would steal presents on Christmas Eve and I hope they treat the toy store owner like a hero. If you ask me, that's exactly what he is.

Christmas Cookie Rules

Hey guys! Sorry I've been away all week but I've been on a cookie baking mission! I baked right at 500 cookies for family members this week. Wait. It gets better. I cooked them all from scratch. Better yet... I cooked them all in a toaster oven. LOL True story. 8 cookies at a time... You KNOW I've been busy busy!! I finally finished frosting the sugar cookies and packing/wrapping the cookie packages up last night. Late last night. So now I'm back :)

But I'm tired.

So today I'm just going to share an appropriate email that I got from my mom last night. Her timing couldn't have been better! I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season! See you tomorrow!

Christmas Cookie Rules

1. If you eat a Christmas cookie fresh out of the oven, it has no calories because everyone knows that the first cookie is the test and thus calorie free.

2. If you drink a diet soda after eating your second cookie, it also has no calories because the diet soda cancels out the cookie calories.

3. If a friend comes over while you're making your Christmas cookies and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend. Because your friend's first cookie is calorie free (rule #1), yours is also. It would be rude to let your friend sample alone and, being the friend that you are, that makes your cookie calorie free.

4. Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your feet and eventually fall off as you move. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass.

5. Any calories consumed during the frosting of the Christmas cookies will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting from a knife without cutting your tongue.

6. Cookies colored red or green have very few calories. Red ones have three and green ones have five - one calorie for each letter. Make more red ones!

7. Cookies eaten while watching "A Christmas Carol" have no calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel.

8. As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breaking causes calorie leakage.

9. Any cookies consumed from someone else's plate have no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to their plate.

We all know how calories like to CLING!

10. Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed have no calories because cookies used for medicinal purposes NEVER have calories. It's a rule!

So, go out and enjoy those Christmas Cookies!

Which is your favorite?

Last night I watched several of my favorite Christmas specials and it got me thinking about all the things I love to see and do this time of year. It also got me thinking about all of you here in Blogland and what things you like to see and do at Christmastime. So I decided to put up a poll and find out! Let me know how you voted by leaving me a comment please. Merry Christmas everyone!

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Santa's Helper? Not quite..

It is the Christmas season so really I was not too surprised to come across a story this morning about Santa. Ok, it was about a mall Santa not the real Santa. Well, it was about a mall Santa and an Elf. About a bad Elf. A very bad Elf indeed.

Specifically the Santa was a Southlake Mall in suburban Atlanta Santa and the Elf was 45-year-old William C. Caldwell III who decided Santa might like some dynamite for Christmas.

Caldwell decided he wanted his picture taken with Santa so he donned the Elf costume and stood in line with the kids at the mall. When it was his turn, he told Santa he had a bag full of dynamite. Santa decided he didn't want to take any chances and called security who showed up and detained the bad Elf until police arrived and arrested him. The mall was evacuated but alas, the bad Elf was also (thankfully) a lying Elf because no explosives were found.

I think this picture sums up my thoughts about that bad Elf...

Exactly.

Feeling just a little grinchy

I haven't quite gotten into the Christmas spirit yet. As a matter of fact, I really do feel just a little grinchy...



Maybe it will hit me soon....

Pop! Pop! Yay!

Well Christmas is over for another year. I’m sure a lot of you have wrapping paper, torn boxes and toys covering your floor. And I bet quite a few of you have some bubble wrap laying around too. You know those sheets of plastic with air filled bubbles that protect the contents of packages and drive you crazy with people popping them.

I’m one of the poppers. I just can’t help myself. And I have to pop every single bubble on the sheet. I’m not happy until I have. And each bubble must be popped individually. It’s an obsession.

A man in Brooklyn has turned this obsession into a money making deal. It’s actually a very cute idea. He’s made a bubble wrap calendar. You get to pop a bubble every day! I’m not sure if this would be a good gift for me though. I’d probably pop the whole year when I hung it up.

I wonder if he uses recycled materials to make these adorable calendars? If he does, I think I wouldn’t be able to resist buying one. You can currently buy one for $29.95 with free shipping in the United States. They are also available in different languages. And all major holidays are printed on them as well.

If I were still a kid (and I am) I would say they were really neato. Way cool. Totally awesome dude!

Click here if you’d like to purchase a Bubble Calendar

Attack of the 20 foot man! ...or something like that

Snow is harmless right? Specifically snowmen. Kids out of school for Christmas break that live in places where snow falls abundantly build them all the time. They don’t come to life and wreak havoc on our neighborhoods. They don’t have any magical powers. And they don’t build themselves. Or do they?

According to a man in Anchorage Alaska a 25 foot tall snowman, dubbed Snowzilla by his family and neighbors, just magically appeared in his front yard on Christmas morning. Call it a Christmas miracle. He practically does in his interview.

This is the fourth year that Snowzilla sits in the front yard of the Powers family. He’s equipped with all the snowman details including a stovetop hat and corncob pipe. Halfway through the building of this years Snowzilla, the city stopped Billy Powers and his seven children from finishing the snowman citing noise and traffic complaints.

A notice was put at the base of the snowman as well as on the front door of the Power’s residence to cease and desist from erecting the snowman. The city says it is a nuisance because of all the extra traffic and noise from people wanting to see the snowman with their own eyes.

They also stated that it was a safety hazard. I imagine it takes a lot of snow to make a 25 foot tall snowman. I can actually see the cities side. But I also think he should be able to do what he wants in his own front yard. And I would love to see Snowzilla for myself. I’m torn between which side I stand on in this debate. Maybe by the time Christmas 2009 arrives I’ll have decided.




Click here to read related Snowzilla stories in the Anchorage Daily News

Click here to watch the video of Billy Powers stating his case

Merry Christmas everyone!

I was going to write about Odin for you today but instead I decided to post videos. The one here is Celine Dion singing Happy Christmas (War Is Over). Besides her beautiful voice the video is full of beautiful images. Merry Christmas everyone! Have a great one!