Hi ladies!

Not too much going on today. Last night Chloe & I went to Lowes for a little Christmas project her school had. They made cute wooden snowmen which meant all these pre-schoolers had HAMMERS!! What were they thinking??!! With about 50 kids, the noise was something else! Plus tiny, tiny nails. The adults had to get it started and then let the kids wham away -and did they ever!! They were so serious about it, it was cute. (They all had safety goggles too, made them all look like frogs!) By the time we got home she was too tired to decorate the tree, she put on 2 ornaments. So tonight I'm trying to finish up. The family room will have to wait another night or so.

DS called and is bringing his new girlfriend for the weekend. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. She's only 21 and he's 28.

My office is having the annual holiday breakfast tomorrow morning at a really nice restaurant. I will try to be good - no promises though!

Thanks for all the good thoughts about my facial "wound". It still hurts but is looking a bit better.

Hope everyone is doing fine.

Connie

Jane, I know what you mean,,,I was/am appalled by some of the things that are being done over Christmas. It makes me want to put a brake on the whole thing and bring back the basics.
We were told no holiday carol songs,,,just Christmas songs...ahh ok. I found out that jingle bells is actually not a real christmas song. And a few other songs that blew me away.
The whole idea for christmas is lost...to most.

Connie,,,enjoy your breakfast. And glad to know your owee is getting better,,,like Jane said,,,use vitamin E..helps with scarring.

Marti have fun! and hope you took alot of pics. Clarinet is what I played for 4 years.

well off to bed I go,,,night ladies.

Cristi,,,forgot to say,,,looked at your pics...,,,what a good looking gentleman you have.
He probably has to beat the girls off with a stick...lol

Hi Connie, I hope you don't get too tempted at the holiday party. You've done so well - 10 pounds is a great loss! Have fun though :)
Oh, and my husband and I have a 15 year age difference, its worked out pretty well actually. ;)

As far as the Christmas thing...
I've never really understood why Christians would choose pagan celebrations to celebrate the birth of Christ...Honestly, thats been the biggest head scratcher about Christmas to me.
I love it though, I think of it as a time to share love and good wishes to everyone and help those less fortunate (Just I'm that group of people this year lol) and spread Christ's example of his love. But, never as far as his birthday...That just never made sense to me! I guess what I'm thinking is, they can call it the Holiday tree if they want, but I get really, really, really tired of the commercialism of it all. The love feels like its been taken out of Christmas. & in my short 23 years on this Earth - thats what I will always miss about it. No love anymore, just politics & money...Sorry, I'll quit being a downer. Besides, how can I say theres no love? Today I recieved a gift card today b/c I signed up as a needy family. I bought laundry soap, shampoo, jumper cables, and a couple movies for Darlene (she LOVES veggietales and the wiggles like you wouldn't believe), and with the remainder of the money we decided instead of buying crap with it, we'd buy something for a kid on the Christmas tree's they have set up. Well, we chose one and all it says is "BOOK"..
What kind of book can we get for an 11 year old boy? Anyone have suggestions, and plus it has to be under $10 cause thats all we have.

But anyways, here I am griping about how there is no love yet some perfect stranger sent my family a gift card and is in turn helping us to help an 11 year old boy...So, I guess there IS A LOT OF LOVE in Christmas, we just have to look a little extra...Kinda like the best present under the tree!

I gtg, I'm sorry if this is incoherant, I'm half asleep.
Have a WONDERFUL, OP day and I'll check in later M'ladies!

EM

Hello Everyone, Just thought id jump right in here and say HELLO to everyone ....My name is Jewel and im going to join WW. I'm not sure weather to join on line or at a center...Which one is better??
I need to lose 85 pounds ...I know its alot but I know I can do it...Iv checked out other WOE AND WW seems like it well work for me....
I like the meeting aspect of it....Do they sell there foods at the meetings or do you just buy it in the store? I live in Portland, Oregon so does anyone know a good place to start or they all about the same?? Iv checked on line and found a meeting close to Division
Thanks for all your help and I look forward to your reply and learning about WW I'm VERY EXCITED

Jewel Im @ [email]

Just a quick Hello, I have been physically exhausted, every night and can barely move.......putting up a new store is hard work, we are building the shelving,,,,,, my job has been to use a warehouse pallet jack to move the shelves.....from the receving to its disgnated spot. moving and carrying all those metal bars and putting them together I look at it as big giant legos, not all the pieces want to cooperate, so we have t use a lot of elbows grease to make it work. ....on my way to work this morning and wanted to drop a hello to everyone. I havent had time to read everyones....post nor do I have time to post to individuales Merry Christmas everyone.......God bless you all.
Michelle
Welcome Julie.....:) I hope you make your home here with us

Good Morning!
Miss Leigh has the sniffles, so she's keeping me company today instead of going to school. I have a little more time this a.m. to post...yay!

Just to follow up, all her blood work and EEG came back normal, so the challenges she's facing at school are based in her temperament, as I felt all along. I am still glad we tested as we could have been overlooking something neurological and would never have known it. Turns out Leigh's unresponsiveness is just her way to cope with the noisy classroom, so she just needs a bit more direct communication. She is in speech therapy, so I also think some of people's confusion about her stems from her developing vocabulary. She's just fine; it's the grown-ups that need to adjust, ha ha.

EM - the Lemony Snicket books seem to be real popular among my son and his buddies. They are 9, but are all really good readers. I agree with you about Christmas. I read a great book called Unplug the Christmas Machine which is very helpful for trying to minimize the commercialism and stress that it brings. I kind of like the intermingling of Christian and pagan... particularly this time of year. With advent we are anticipating the coming birth, yet we are also anticipating the change of seasons, the year, the lunar calendar... I just love it all and can't see why we can't just appreciate the gifts all celebrations bring to us. But people seem to have a need to get their knickers in a twist over something this time of year...that seems to be a holiday tradition as well.

Cristi - Thank you for sharing your pictures ( thanks for the postcard, too)
He looks great - I can tell you are so proud and have every reason to be. Hope he gets stationed close, but I know what will happen will happen.

Welcome Julie! And hello to Michelle, Jane, Marti, Angie, Susan, Connie, and everyone else.

I am off to deliver the greens I sold for the preschool fundraiser, go grocery shopping, and hope my daughter is not coming down with something worse than the sniffles.

Cheers