Sounds like the perfect yard sale - Congratulations.

U.S. East Coast finally has December weather so that walking about requires proper clothing. Maybe not Dagmar quality, but respectful of Mother Nature.

It's time to get serious about all the Christmas goodies that are appearing everywhere folks gather. It's no longer acceptable to meet without a platter of homemade cookies calling "I made them - you have to eat them."

Dagmar, so glad you are okay. Amazing you held onto the dogs!

Yes the goodies are definitely arriving. Some advice I read on one of the forums last year said don't tell yourself you can't have it, say you can have it later. For some reason that worked for me. At least last year it did!

Had a busy weekend but it was pretty good. Reviewing for exams the next two days and then exams start for my classes on Wednesday. Yay!

One of the benefits of working outdoors is that there are no platters of goodies to tempt me. Occasionally someone brings some Christmas baking to the off leash area and we all have one of whatever it is.

I am trying to eat healthily for the most part but I know I will succumb to some temptations at some point. I am going to step on the scale Dec. 27 and push the restart. It's holiday season and I will enjoy things but it ends then.

Dagmar

My mother told me that she didn't want to "do" Christmas this year, since I'm housebound and she's taking care of me, and neither of us can really shop. Well, she could, since she does run errands. And I could, because it's not like the Internet and the postal service doesn't exist. But she doesn't want to. So we're basically just ignoring the approaching holiday.

Nevertheless, she cared about decorating my apartment, at least what the neighbors can see. So we have the usual single candle in every window and two large wreaths with bows hanging on either side of my French doors.

Maybe as the holiday approaches, we'll catch the spirit, but we haven't yet.

I wanted DH to string some lights outside yesterday but he was so busy cleaning the garage that he ran out of time. I hope to get something up next weekend. And I'll do some minimal decorating inside as well. I doubt we'll put up a tree--it's just too difficult with the cats...

We went to our monthly wine women dinner last night. Chef Alain (French) made a wonderful dinner. I love that he doesn't seem to "need" to throw in a beef dish. The salad was so different. Shaved vegetables (radish, zucchini, yellow squash) with halved grapes, pomegranate seeds and grapefruit slices and a nice vinaigrette. Second course was char (a fish I'd never heard of--very mild and good) and then duck a l'orange. And dessert was a trio of mini things--one being the tiniest creme brûlée I've ever seen!

Back to work today to work on employee bonuses.

I'm hoping to take Wednesday or Thursday afternoon off this week to do all my Christmas shopping.

Saef-- I can understand you and your mom not being in the mood! Years ago, I suffered my second miscarriage 10 days before Christmas (we had no children at this point and were worried we never would). Two days before Christmas, the pipes in our house (and most of the houses around us) froze and then burst, virtually destroying our house (all ceilings came down, all floors and walls ruined, kitchen cabinets, furniture, etc). We just wanted to crawl in a hole. My inlaws insisted we still come for Christmas. It was awful to try to put on a smile when the world was crumbling around us. Maybe just put on some Christmas music (if you feel like it), having some egg nog or something else festive and maybe give your mom one thing you know she would like/use? Or do nothing.... you certainly don't have to if you're not up to it!

Allison-- that salad sounds divine. I've had char and loved it too. Hopefully your *ahem* employee that you mention won't be receiving a (big) bonus!

The treats are plentiful at my school for sure. My trick is to tell myself that someone has probably breathed or sneezed on them when they're sitting on a community table.

I think I'm going to call the doctor today and see if I can get the MRI on my back as it just isn't better.

Dh came home from China for 20 hours! He's off to Houston today. He spent several of his 20 hours asleep on the couch surrounded by Dewey and the cats. At least we got to go to sushi and we looked at and booked our shore excursions for our cruise.

I hesitate to tell you what I discovered Friday. We closed our books on Friday but our old company had already had all the reports run on Monday, the 1st. She brought me a problem Friday afternoon in the old company. When I discovered what it was and fixed it I was extremely perplexed on how it had happened. She played all innocent and said that since I didn't know and she said she hadn't touched it, that it must have been the Christmas elves (seriously, she said that). It bothered me so much I decided to run an audit trail and lo and behold, there it was--I had done a credit on 11/17 to a customer's account. After the reports were run, she deleted that credit and credited a different customer and THEN made a deposit making it look like the first customer had actually paid us. Then it showed my fixing it on the 5th after she brought it to my attention. At this point, both DH and I are in agreement that she will NOT be able to do any input in the software for our new company. The old company will be dissolved by the end of the month and I don't expect too many things to be input there so it'll be easy to keep my eye on what she does.

Oh, and she royally screwed up one employee's paycheck as well. She got real defensive when I pointed that out. She's not going to last long at this point but DH refuses to lay anyone off in the month of December.

Not being particularly Christian, we don't "do" Christmas and haven't for years. For decorations, we have a couple of small ceramic trees with lights that sit on sideboard or bookcase. Also, we have a crape myrtle in our yard that's bare this time of year, on which we put shiny ornaments. And that's it. Sometimes I send gifts to siblings, sometimes not. Sometimes we get into holiday cards, sometimes not. Without a bunch of kinds and grandkids etc., we're free not to bother. That suits us.

Oh, we get plenty of Christmas anyway. It's unavoidable.

This week we're taking an overnight trip down to where we used to live, farther south, to see some friends. Should be nice.

Michele, I know I said this once already, so it is with a bit of trepidation at the risk of harming our e-friendship that I will say again: you have GOT to stop doing yoga (esp. hot yoga) for awhile. Right now, anything that hyperextends your back (enhances the natural lower back arch) is going to excacerbate your pain and prolong it. Since you're now more than 10 days out from the acute injury, you should definitely be doing PT, and generally speaking, PT is the first-line treatment for low back pain. Best exercise for people with acute LBP is either swimming or biking (spinning; elliptical trainer is ok too).

MRIs are fairly worthless. The American Association of Neurology has come out with a formal statement apprising physicians of the futility of MRIs in cases of low back pain without associated leg weakness or numbness. The reason is that the physical abnormalities seen on MRI don't correlate with the presence (or absence) of pain: by age 50 or so, nearly 100% of people have an abnormal MRI, but only a small percentage of us have acute pain. Pain will come and go, but once a disk is herniated (or arthritis sets in), the abnormality remains forever, so imaging is not helpful, and surgeons don't operate for pain alone (only if there is associated weakness/numbness to suggest nerve root or spinal cord damage).

Forgive me if you didn't want to hear this. I really truly just want your back to feel better.

As for "doing" Christmas, count this Jewish girl among the "not doing" crowd :>)

Andrea,
Thank you for your kind words and knowledgeable advice. I am doing PT and I do have symptoms down my left side-- foot tingling, numbness, etc. I thought spinning would be bad. You think that, the elliptical or swimming would be ok? My MRI is Wednesday. Interesting feedback about those that I didn't realize. I can hold off on exercising but I get anxious and don't sleep well without physical activity.

I'm Jewish too, but since my hubby isn't, we "do" Christmas.

I am "doing" Christmas in a big way this year. Since I was born we have always celebrated Christmas Eve (the original 3 couples were all from Estonia and this is when they celebrate) with the same 3 families alternating between the 3 homes. After my mom was killed in 1992 my dad and I didn't host ever again. My dad just flat out refused and I never had a place big enough to host a crowd.

This year I finally have my own home which is big enough to squeeze the 12-15 people (boyfriends and girlfriends of my cousin's kids are welcome too, as is anyone who doesn't have a place to go - a nanny friend of one of the kids came one year) in for a celebration.

We will have a real tree - always do - which, in honour of Natalie, will be tied to the ceiling somehow. I know she's going to climb it so the most precious ornaments (glass balls from my childhood) are going to sit it out this year. Anything up to the level of Trixie's tail is going to be wooden.

I am doing a cold buffet and hot appetizers. The major foods - ham, turkey, excellent breads, etc. - are being commercially made by other people. I have discovered people, over the years, who excel at one foodstuff or another and who make them themselves in small quantities.

My cousin is bringing a whole bunch of baking for dessert as she loves to bake and has specialties for Christmas - reindeer cookies with pretzel antlers, cranberry cheesecake, etc.

I am taking a week off work to put this all together. DH is now immersed in year-end accounting so he will be working. This year he told me way in advance so I know he won't be available for most of the work.

He has volunteered to tend bar, bring home the ham and turkey, put up the lights and tree, etc. so he is contributing what he can.

My mother would be spinning in her grave but I'm using paper plates and napkins. Our kitchen sinks are tiny and so is our dishwasher so this is the most effective way to not spend all of Christmas Day cleaning up. I did buy some new glasses from Target as DH politely objected to plastic. he will also be in charge of washing cutlery as we DO have enough of the real stuff to use it.

I'm going to enjoy seeing these people and finding out what the younger crowd is doing - I don't have contact with most of them during the year. This will probably be the last time most of us do this together - one of the kids is already not able to come due to commitments with her fiancée's family - so I want to have a good memory of this event.

I think my first time hosting will be a celebration, rather than a chore. I'm looking forward to it.

Dagmar

I LOVE the idea of saying to myself, "I can have that later" when facing a Christmas snack at a gathering! I'm going to use that.
I consider myself somewhere between Scrooge and Tiny Tim around Christmas. Karen and I will see Nutcracker and Messiah, and our best friends always organize a Christmas lights tour which is especially fun because they are both atheists anyway. But we don't decorate our house on the outside. Karen puts up a tiny artificial tree and hangs tiny monkeys and musical instruments on it. Very few gifts. A big meal for family, that's about it.

I have not reported in for a while but am holding at 135 lb.We are going to Europe for a cruise on the Danube on Thursday and returning 2 days before Christmas.I always have Christmas Eve at my house and am doing so again this year.Dagmar..I am doing like you and have ordered a turkey dinner with trimmings to be delivered to the house in time for 5pm dinner by a catering company.I am all prepared with paper plates and plastic cutlery but drew the line at plastic wine glasses.
This trip will be a test of my maintenance skills and I will report when I return.
There will be alot of walking because we are doing the Christmas markets tour and I am hoping that will offset the few extra calories.
I am getting really excited and will be spending my 70th birthday in Europe.

The tour sounds great! Are you doing one of the Viking company's cruises? I keep getting brochures from them and drooling over the offerings but you have to book as a couple. DH is not a cruiser. I've never been so don't know but I think I'd love it at this point in my life.

Enjoy! And Happy Birthday!

Becky did a river cruise a year or so ago (was it the Danube?). DH and I are contemplating doing one as well, but I think I want to first do one around the British Isles and/or Greece.

Christmas will be low key at our house. The kids will all be there (the past two years I've been DD-less as she and her husband went to Washington to be with his parents). We adults are not exchanging gifts but we are getting gifts for the kids. I hope to do that shopping tomorrow. I'll decorate but I doubt I'll put up the tree. Instead we'll spend time together, playing games and watching sports and movies, without the disruption of homework.