[BillBlueEyes]

Wake up! It's only three days until Christmas if you celebrate and haven't noticed.

Last night was the longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere. (Longest day for our friends down under.)

Today sports a New Moon - easy to get to love if you're a fan of the Full Moon.

Alas, it's also time to avoid holiday cookies regardless of what one celebrates. Some broken pieces arrived in my life from a friend's baking - she didn't want to eat them all herself!

My job today is to finish the two gifts that I have to have under the tree by Wednesday night.

[JayEll]

Good morning!

My main task for this week is trying to get a birthday dinner arranged. How thoughtless people are to be born near Xmas!

One holiday party on Xmas Eve--and we have received a box of Royal Riviera pears, so we'll have something festive and delicious to bring.

[alinnell]

My chore is to go to work today. And then come home and work out because after several very disturbing bad dreams last night I talked myself into not getting up at 4 AM for my usual workout. It should work out okay as it is the time of year where there are a lot of reruns on TV so DH can watch football and I can run on the treadmill.

We went to my uncle's service Saturday and I'm glad I did.

Tomorrow I am taking a big step. I'm ditching blonde for brunette. I figure if I hate it I can add in hightlights on my next visit. My thoughts are that my hair is getting darker and darker as I get older (I used to be a very bright blonde--now all I can describe it as is "mousy"). I've been doing highlights for about 10 years to bring the blond back and the past few years doing lowlights as well. I really like the color of the lowlights and that's what I'm going to do all over. My stylist wants me to keep some highlights but I'm trying to get away from that "stripe-y" look and besides, perhaps my roots won't be as noticeable with it being brunette.

I'm so looking forward to Christmas and the long weekend!

[CalCounter1003]

Good morning! Wow, being off all my jobs for two weeks is great. Yesterday I slept until 9 and today till 8! I did have to finish grading for the two college jobs yesterday but now I'm free. Except for lesson plans for January. Today I need to focus on what I've purchased and what I need to purchase. Going to cook some of the sides tomorrow for Christmas dinner. Btw, my 29th anniversary is Christmas Eve. We forgot it completely many years because we were busy putting together toys.

[saef]

I'm continuing to push at the boundaries of living with an unusable left leg.

Yesterday, I made it to the 1:15 PM matinee showing of "Wild" at the theater in our village, after calling to ahead to ask which movies were showing downstairs in the building and were accessible to someone with a walker. I know those two screening rooms have seat sections that are handicap-accessible. We got really, really lucky with a parking spot directly across the street from the theater. But there were some difficulties: What I hadn't noticed as an able-bodied person was the high curb, which I had to hop up on backward, the steep grade inside, a ramp upward to the screening room door, and the long downward slope of the theater aisle. The movie was great, and yeah, I totally get the irony of someone who can't walk watching a movie about a woman getting stronger from walking over 1,000 miles on the Pacific Coast Trail.

Today, I'm finally going to attempt a trip to the hairdressers, again in the same village. I'm worrying worrying worrying. Worrying about the curb, the sidewalk surface, the salon doorway, the constant explanations that seem to be required, the backward lean over the salon sink, etc. Oh, and yeah, I have anesthesia hair. It's dry and brittle, someone else's hair that somehow got transplanted onto my scalp. But if I could just feel better-groomed, it would help my morale considerably.

[Mudpie]

I'm 35 minutes ahead of schedule today so popped in for a minute. Got all my "last" shopping done and have started the job of washing all the dishes we don't normally use so guests won't be treated to 3 kinds of cat hair (I'm still finding occasional contributions from the two deceased as well as peewee ninja's aka Natalie), dog hair, and dust along with their food and bevvies.

DH elected to fix up the downstairs bathroom - started yesterday. He is working until the 24th so the bathroom fixing is in the evenings and it's right in conflict with laundry, storage of Christmas drink mixers, etc. But he's trying to contribute so I'm working around him. It's mostly insulation and stapling stuff to the ceiling work so there's not so much dust being kicked up on to my (now clean) dishes. I will have to Swiffer all the cans/small bottles of mix before putting them out on the bar.

I have lost the table runner. Natalie's Christmas job is to find it. She is being very helpful. I got a tree skirt 1/2 price to hide our rusty tree stand and it doesn't quite fit. Natalie dove under it at least 10 times while I was trying to adjust it while lying on my belly on the floor. Trixie is mostly hiding upstairs. I'm happy that she is - 60 lbs. of dog "helping" me right now I don't need.

Now that I have everything in the house and have a plan kinda sketched out in my head of where everything will go I'm a lot calmer. I had to buy extra cutlery and cups so got those at Target. Cups are rather nice, cutlery (even though it's stainless and from what used to be a good brand) is not but it will do for this year.
Now I'm off to take Trixie for her second walk, then take the car in for a minor repair and install of winter wipers, do a cat visit, and then back home to start dinner. I'm ahead of the game right now.

Dagmar

[traveling michele]

We all sound busy now!

Saef.... I'm so glad you successfully navigated the movie and I've got my fingers crossed for your hair appointment. I'm sure you'll feel so much better when it's done.

I've spent today getting ready to head to Houston tomorrow. Hopefully I've packed enough and not too much! I wrapped dh's gifts so he wouldn't see them but the rest of the wrapping won't happen till Christmas Eve.

Dh went with me on Saturday and today to yoga. I'm hoping he will continue as I'm sure he will see the benefits but it really hurts his bad knee and he has to be careful.

I ordered one more gift today and am shipping to Houston. I also ordered some kindles yesterday.... Great deal... But they will come tomorrow so we probably won't get till we return.

Hello and Happy Holidays to everyone!

[CalCounter1003]

Saef, glad you are getting your hair done! That always helps me too. Not that I've had to go through what you are, but just in general.

[saef]

Yes, I got my haircut yesterday, and it has indeed improved my morale. I'm learning that when you're disabled, even temporarily, people who encounter you are looking for the story behind it. Adults are more circumspect than little kids who ask plaintively: "What happened to your leg?" or "Why is that lady like that?" But human curiosity is universal. Also the way they speak to you changes. They use the voice people use for the elderly, children or animals -- there is a bit of an assumption that you are also mentally impaired.

Anyway, getting into the hair salon and out was physically not difficult. The problem was my mother, who was daunted by the nonstop bustle and lack of parking spaces in this NY-area village during the week before Christmas. She also got fixated on our errands of finding an appliance light bulb, her prescription called in locally, and mechanism for inside the toilet. She is task-oriented, not people-oriented, so she kept forgetting that I was sitting out in the car, waiting for her. Also she made me stump along for pretty long distances because she wanted to keep the good parking spot she found near her errand.

At the end of the day, I was really tired, mentally and physically. But yeah, my hair looks a lot better now.

[saef]

Bowl of chicken noodle soup at 6 PM. That's dinner on Christmas Eve. Mother watching something on Lifetime that's going to drive me out of the room soon. Me with an ice pack on my knee. Low in spirits because of this broken Christmas and broken leg. And because the furniture restorer brought back my full-length tilting mirror, and it looks all wrong. I think the 130-year-old mirror cracked across the bottom, so he had the glass place cut it, re-bevel it and resilver it, because the mirror is shorter than it was. The proportions look all wrong, and now I wish it wasn't in the house. I wish I could sell it and get it carried off on the spot. Anyone in the market for a restored full-length tilting mirror, 19th century, American, Renaissance Revival style?

[JayEll]

It sounds like nothing is right, saef. Hard to believe things will ever be any different, but please know that they will be. Nothing stays the way it is now forever.

We spent much of the day socializing. It was enjoyable to an extent, but I'm not a very social person. By now I'm tuckered out. Food options were not the best, and although I avoided most of the sugary stuff that no one needs, I feel dyspeptic and hungry at the same time. I think it must be time to head for bed. I love my bed!

[saef]

Jay, thanks. You're right, I felt like I'd hit bottom at 7 PM on Christmas Eve. Went to bed at 8 PM, cried, slept, woke again at 2 AM and read a book.

This morning, it feels like Im just be gritting my teeth, trying to hang in there for 24 hours, till everything returns to normal and reopens for business as usual. When my mother said airily, last month, "Oh, let's not do Christmas this year, it's too much trouble," I don't know if she understood what that was going to be like.

[Mudpie]

Christmas Eve went really well. Trixie and Natalie were the hits of the evening but everyone also enjoyed my food and drink and I was complimented on how great my house is by three of the younger guests.

I'm making turkey stock today to use in a soup which I will serve to my younger cousin and his family Sunday night. Anything left over after that will get chucked or frozen.

Tomorrow I'm going to go out and get a new point and shoot camera and I'm also going to revisit the Alex Colville exhibit at the art gallery before it ends.

Happy shopping today everyone!

Dagmar

[saef]

Yesterday got better for me after a friend stopped by in the afternoon, bearing Chinese takeout at 3 PM (which my mother & I put in the fridge for the next day, since my mother had planned on a prime rib roast for our Christmas dinner at 7 PM). His girlfriend was a kind, sincere person, a relief for me because at one point, he'd been a potential boyfriend for me, till we agreed to just be friends -- so the prospect of meeting her was a little weird.

Then much later, after dinner, another friend and her husband stopped by, bearing a huge plate of struffoli (those deep-fried, sticky Italian honeyball cookies). That's now the centerpiece in our dining room table. As long as I think of it as part of the decor, and not edible, I'm okay. The point is not the food, though. The point was human contact and conversation, which I needed to pull me out of myself.

Now it's the day after and I'm back to my routine of physical therapy and errands. And I'm hoping for a movie this weekend, too.

[traveling michele]

Sounds like an enjoyable time with friends.

Dagmar.... Glad your get together went well too.

I've had an interesting trip so far. Christmas Eve was somewhat of a train wreck. We went to mass at 6:30 pm and for some dumb reason, the plan was to cook after church. We didn't eat till after 10 pm. We traditionally have lasagna which I didn't want because it's lousy and I was having a low carb day. Sweet dh made me and dd a delicious zucchini lasagna but we had to wait for everything to finish. Older dd was pulling out her hair since she still had to drive home to feed her dog and she has a bad cold.

Christmas was also frustrating with the full dinner and all that entails. Food is definitely an issue here but I'm trying to limit bad choices. My gift from my inlaws was a Hermes scarf! I've never worn a scarf in my life and it's ungodly expensive. I will be making a trip to Hermes soon to see what I can exchange it for....

We left today for a vacation from our vacation in San Antonio. Beautiful resort but we got here hours after we planned due to traffic and other issues. Waiting for dinner now. Am starving which is never good. Not sure what tomorrow will bring but if the weather is decent they have a lazy river. Also a very posh looking spa! We return Sunday to the inlaws and will pick up my brother in law and his family from England.

Hoping my girls can ge along for two days in a hotel room.