[Bagzz]

OKAY,SO NOW WE ARE STARTING THE CHRISTMAS WEEK POSTINGS=====I HAVE NOT DONE ALL MY SHOPPING AND MAY BE HAVING A PANIC ATTACK----next year i will join one of those countdown sites that tells you what to do and when----i have some things to mail to a few cows but it is obvious that they will not get out on time----that's okay--the cows always understand---that's why i love them------------okay, a big NOR'EASTER i approaching and i sent the boys out to get a tree before they all get buried----so many people i know are switching to fake trees but i still need a fresh one---who goes out in the backyard and cuts down a tree---??? maybe kiwi's doggie??

[Kiwonk]

Don't say Christmas WEEK, that's just mean! I live in denial you know. Christmas season! Time for celebration! Yuletide!

Okay, panic, I'm with you. It wouldn't matter if someone told me what to do and when, I wouldn't do it. I would spend most of my time doing something else and wonder why I never have enough time to finish what I want to or should.

It's been snowing here for a few hours. So far we only have a couple of inches. But it's on top of a foot of snow at least -- hard to tell because it has drifted. When I took Jet out for some exercise (couldn't throw the ball--it was still an iceball from yesterday and it would have been buried in the snow every time I threw it anyway) I put on my snowshoes just to walk around the yard. It was tough going in a lot of places! She had to jump up and down out of her own footprints

Right now it's coming down like crazy. I think we're really in for it.

DH wants to cut down a tree this year; he's waiting for DD to come home before he does it. I hope he can find one! We always have a fresh tree; I can't bring myself to put up a fake one, even though evergreens make me sneeze. Fortunately, that is one area where DH and I agree.

I'm making Needhams -- chocolate covered potato/coconut candy. They are going to be so good I believe I will be making them again. The filling hardened overnight and today I have to dip them. Tres decadent!

Kiwi's doggie does like to cut down trees in the yard. The bigger the better, but we are not letting her use the chainsaw until she is 18.

[Bagzz]

kiwi!!! it is blowing like crazy out there and the stupid cat went out in it--he ran out the door----i thought he would run back in,now i have to find the twit----DS IS CLAMOURING FOR A SNOWDAY AND IS NOT DONE HIS HOMEWORK---- he wants to put it off til six am tomorrow just in case-----remember the days of wishing for a storm!!! it is very cozy inside here but it has started to become freezing rain which sometimes takes down the power lines----i don't like freeeezing in the dark--i know that much!!! merry merry merry christmas SEASON!!!ALSO--i agree with keeping Jet away from the saw til he turns 18----when can he start drinking???

[Cowpernia]

Jet is drinking? I am so confused.

Tell me something Canadian to say to my customers. I hate it when I ask where they're from and they say "Canada." I hate Obtain more but I hate this. I mean ... you're going to ask "What part of Canada" aren't you????? Don't they expect that?

[Bagzz]

yes,it helps to have some geographical knowledge--we are always surprised when Americans know that we don't all live in Toronto. Ask where they are from---they will be from Ontario,Quebec,"the Maritimes" {all nice people from here},"out West" or VANCOUUUUUUUVER {Hollywood North====the cool people}If they are from the Maritimes or Atlantic Provinces ask them if they know me,and now that it's winter, you can tell them that you heard there was a lot of snow this year---as i write this,THE EFFIN HOUSE IS SHAKING!!!! THIS NOR'EASTER IS A SERIOUS DEVIL!

[Cowpernia]

yesterday when I posted confusion, Kiwi's artistic post did NOT appear on my puter. I was the second poster. Now I'm really confused.

I don't want you to have a NorEaster. I want you to have picturesque light fluffy snow and pretty birds on branches. In the pictures, there are always red birds on branches in snow. Poor birds.

Does Jet sleep in the bed? It's too cold on the floor.

[SugP]

Are y'all (except Peachy) buried in snow???? I bet my brother is now thinking that moving his family to Ottawa was a BAD IDEA. Probably shouting "Stop the weather, I want to get off!" at this very moment. Is a Nor'easter worse than a Sou'wester? We just have regular wind here.

Peach, just say "Oooh, Canada? I been there once. Which province? Any puffins? Do you know my friend Bagzie?"

We are doing minimal Christmas this year. No gifts for adults, just for the kids. Our and one other kids we know. Baked some cookies, decorated a bit. Tree isn't up yet. Dinner with in-laws on the 24th. Real Christmas turkey just for the four of us at our place on the 25th. No fuss, no muss, no stress.

My parents are going away for 4 days over Christmas to avoid the usual chaos. Sooo...they had their big Christmas dinner yesterday. It was originally going to be just my brother and the two nieces but somehow ballooned into inviting 4 other people as well for a total of 9. Ahem. "I've been cooking for days", quipped my mother yesterday on the phone, "and I'm just about to go out to do some more shopping this morning!" And this coming from a woman who can barely walk and is waiting for a back operation, for pity's sake. Will they ever learn??????

Must go clean something.

[Kiwonk]

We were lucky -- we didn't get the freezing rain, just snow snow snow. It's still blowing like crazy, but we haven't lost power. We did have a leak in our kitchen right before it started. Shades of past horrors came creeping back -- but I think this time it was because of ice buildup on the roof, not because the roof was still leaking.

Yes, I'm sorry to say that Jet has already been caught in underage drinking. Out of the toilet There is no drinking age for that, but that's no excuse.

People always assume you don't know anything about where they come from. Of course, most of the time, they are right. Can you imagine informing the average American that you are from Calgary, or P.E.I.? They would just look at you stupidly, or ask you if that's in Georgia. The thing that annoys me is when you obviously show an interest in where they're from by asking "whereabouts in Massachusetts?" and they answer "the eastern part". The implication is you are too ******ed to know about cities in their part of the universe. Sometimes you just have to give up, they're so secretive (or perhaps condescending).

It appears there is no escaping the holiday ratrace, eh Sugar. I hope you have the quiet family Christmas you're looking forward to. What I hate is that perennial feeling that I've left some huge thing undone -- usually it's the cleaning and decorating that get left out because of all the other holiday things that are more important to me, but I feel crappy when I realize I can't possibly do that even partially well. I think it's going to be that way again this year, because today I have get stuff in the mail, tomorrow I'm driving to Boston and won't be back until Wednesday night. Then the tree will no doubt be put up before I can get to any clearing up. Yuk.

I was up until 5 AM trying to finish my parents slideshow present ( we got them one of those electronic picture frames). Yawn.

Kiwi

[Bagzz]

oh sugar,your christmas sounds so civilized---we will have the usual,entire family at my sister's on christmas day----plus various others who have been invited--it is rarely less that around 30-40 people-----the kids love it and the food is good,but the chaos is CHAOTIC!~!!!!!---- we are having a SNOW day and the ds is home playing nintendo with a friend----so i didn't go into work,and they are calling me with reports like "we are out of the SMALL bags"----i hate those types of reports---i have dh running all over town looking for the small bags and of course i am marooned here because our van is in the shop and has been for a week and may be UNfixable----yuk!!!!! my lord,we have not had a WHITE christmas in years----right now we have a couple of feet of snow out there---i imagine it will stay for another week---all the ski hills are jumping for joy---some of them almost went under the last few snowless seasons!!

[Bagzz]

hey kidonk!!!--i mistyped that but i kind of like it----kidonk!!!---we got mil one of those picture frame things too---we were thinking of loading it with pics that she hates for fun----like when dh makes terrible faces and some of her cleaning lady wielding garden loppers as though she were a crazed lunatic {i made her pose like that to tease the mil} THEN,after we show her these we will load NICE pics that she likes-----how about that----what a lovely thing to do to an 80 year old sweet lady !!!!!------i must say that freezing rain made the snow almost impossible to shovel--it was like cement bricks and the stupid plow managed to build a three foot drift at the end of the driveway---ds and i shovelled it cause poor ds is afraid that dh will have a heart attack since our friend who died last week was the same age as dh-----sigh

[Schatzi]

I am looking out my front window at the most tastefully decorated house. No wooden waving Santa, or mechanical deer, no blowup anchored thanksgiving day balloony things staked in the ground . I believe I have to lower this neighborhoods standards. but not this year... and no cowcards from this cowette.

Dear Gawd I remember the great storm of 1977 or was it 78? So many feet of snow it buried my white car- and we had to poke for it... I think I may have scratched a few neighbor cars... I remember the big storm of 1983/84 too. We were in this house rental - the owners were 100 years old with heart conditions, they had a lazy son and a princess for a DIL.. they had a quarter mile drive way and no snow BLOWER!! DH and I shoveled from sun up til passed sun down.. I was so concerned the elder folks would have a heart attack and we wouldnt be able to get them out.. I dont miss the snow at all.. I thought I would but I think I like hearing about it just fine.
Suggie- your Xmas plans sound most civilized and sane. Bagz yours sound insane .
I havent bought 1 present. I will be amounst the hoards out on the 23rd in NJ.
When I go to Ireland and they ask where I'm from I say "The States" ... some roll their eyes and say my axcent gave me away... but where ? NJ NY MA? Very continental and well traveled these dubliners.

We had an invisible fence installed today. now wouldnt that be a scam... yeah yeah no there really is a fence there you just cant see it... anyway its for the pups so that they can run free and frolick. We started training them today... take them up to the flag and their collar beeps and you pull them away saying NO and then praise them... quite confusing... poor darby and casey didnt want to go near the flags thinking, what!!! you put me up to it, jerk me back saying no... -- I can hear the high pitch beeping - DH cant... I think its a male defense mechanism that they cant hear that beep --the pitch is similar to a shrilly fishwifes carping and nagging . The ASPCA "correction" shock is next after the flag thing.. It feels like one of those shocks you get when you rub your feet on the carpet and touch somethin to mee its painful and I'm not so sure I want to have my girlies shocked ... I tried it and threw the collar out of my hands .. DH looked at me distastefully as he retrieved it from the woods..

One of my dogs is becoming a sneak eater hoarder. I found hamburger bits under the rug

[Kiwonk]

Originally Posted by Bagzz

---we were thinking of loading it with pics that she hates for fun----like when dh makes terrible faces and some of her cleaning lady wielding garden loppers as though she were a crazed lunatic {i made her pose like that to tease the mil}

Great idea! I would do that if my mom lived nearby and I could switch them in and out myself. I figure my parents are going to do well to get the thing running. Next time I visit (like next year) I fully expect to see that it has been running the same slideshow the whole time.

Have people never heard of a plow? I shudder at the thought of shovelling any driveway, let alone a 1/2 mile long one!

I think it's sweet that Bagz' DS is willing to get out there and shovel to save his dad from a heart attack. Next time, you might want to remind him that you are a delicate flower too.

[Wabby]

My dog too, Schatzi - I donated a chair to Goodwill and when I was loading it up, I found a dog biscuit hidden under the seat cushion. No spare change though.

We have liquid snow here. It's snowing up in the mountains like crazy, though. All the skiiers are ecstatic.

[Bagzz]

yes,the stupid snow will not stop---we are expecting MORE on Thursday---first time the ski hills have been open before Christmas in a while--dd21 went skiing today---i hope kiwonk gets back to homeport before the snow starts again---she is in a nice sturdy suv,so that is good-----i feel cold and grouchy today-----my mind is all over the map,i have so many things to do and feel like doing nothing----the tree is up with no lights or decorations on it-------it is exactly one week until Christmas Day!!!!!!!yikes.

[Bagzz]

i see that kiwonkers is away----no one is in here to play------i'll come back another day.