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December 4, 2007--It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas
Well, there is actually snow out there. And cold. And Christmas decorations. So, it must be close to Christmas. We're even getting a little ahead of ourselves this year and thinking about our Christmas website. Usually we have consumed (okay, my husband and mother) half a bottle of Merlot and it is Christmas Eve and the turkey is cooking before we think of it. So, we've started a new tradition by thinking about it already. We have yet to break the tradition by actually making the site before Christmas Eve. But then again, we do have a bit of time still.

The tree is up.

Some presents are wrapped.

One card has been sent.

Santa has been visited (two times).

But no eggnog has been harmed yet, so maybe it isn't that much like Christmas yet. (BTW, don't even bother with the 'light' eggnog crap. It is all thin and uneggnoggy.)

December 17, 2007--One Week to Go!
Wow, here comes Christmas! I'm ready and counting down the days.

Santa has been visited once again. All the presents have been purchased. Eggnog has been harmed.

The Christmas website is still sitting there. It isn't up. It has been started on, but it probably won't be finished until Christmas Eve. So I suppose we aren't breaking that tradition. Speaking of traditions, I had better tune up my downhill skis for the traditional Christmas day ski trip.

I've been editing 'Wedding Story' which really needs a better title. Usually I have a couple I can't decide on, but with this one, I can't even think of one decent title. The editing has been fun though. The beginning of the story is a bit gloomy and I am not sure what I can do to make it more upbeat, because face it, who wants gloomy, gloomy, even though it is the lead in to amusement and the gloomy is just part of the character's life which leads into the whole story of push and pull that she goes through. Maybe I should call it 'Push and Pull'. Ack.

I saw the finale of Survivor: China last night. Didn't we all know that Todd would take it? I didn't expect Courtney to take more votes than Amanda, although given, Courtney answered the questions from the jury better than Amanda. Amanda just didn't have the confidence in herself to just grabbed the reins from Todd and go for it, whether people hated her for it or not. And that, in my opinion, is why she did not win the million dollars.

Hmmm, I just wore part of the 'e' off of my keyboard. I did that with my last laptop too. I wonder what is so special about the 'e'. I don't think that it is the most used key. I mean, in the last sentence, I used the 't' way more than 'e' and the 't' is fine. Go figure.

December 22, 2007--Merry Christmas Everyone
Wow, the grocery stores are busy today. I hate to think how busy the city is. Yikes! We drove through yesterday on our way to the ski hill and it was surprisingly busy--and it was a work day. Did you know most people work December 24th? For some reason, I thought that was a holiday. I guess it isn't. I've just been lucky to have jobs for the most part where I got that day off. To all of you who work. I am sorry. That really blows.

The Christmas website is still not redone. I am guessing that the make it up on Christmas Eve is going to be a tradition untouched. (oramproductions.ca) I did start a countdown. It kind of got forgotten. Somewhere around our fourth visit to see Santa for the year. Not that I blame Santa for the abandonment of my countdown.

My hubby, I am learning, is a bit of a rule stickler when it comes to Christmas. No wonder he doesn't like Christmas. He won't let us open presents early and was, I think, a bit miffed that I took my present out for a run on the trails as soon as I got them. Which was good since the snow has been crap since. We had a big wind that made it all hard and drifty and patchy. I made Barbie clothes for our daughter and he won't let her open them now. Whereas I am thinking, she has so many presents, if she opens one or two now, she will get to play with them now and they won't get lost in the opening shuffle. Plus, she has discovered her missing Barbies. (They are wearing their new duds in the wine gift bag under the tree.) It's crazy, she didn't play with her Barbies for days and days and now, here I snuck them out seriously, not even six hours ago, and she decides to play Barbies and notices that some are 'missing'. Crap. So I told her the truth. They are part of a surprise and she will find out soon. If I have my way, that will be tonight after supper.

I like the way my late grandma approached Christmas. She opened her gifts as they arrived. Sure, she didn't have anything to open on Christmas Day, but what's the big deal? It isn't like the day is holy or anything. Okay, it is holy. But, well, okay, there goes my argument.

Merry Christmas everyone.

December 27th, 2007--Poor Planet Earth
Christmas sure is hard on the environment. Think about it. We slice down trees and put them in our houses for a few weeks. Then decorate them with lights. So right there you are using up all this extra electricity plus killing a tree for fun. What happens to that tree later? Burned? Chipped and reused as mulch? What about all that goes into growing that perfect tree? Chipping up that perfect tree?

What about outdoor Christmas lights for your home? We put ours out that were handed down to us, but you know what? I can't bring myself to plug them in for more than an hour or two each year. I just can't do it. And I am not even an extreme environmentalist. I just can't see the point of wasting that electricity and money.

And Christmas cards? I like getting them. I reuse them as gift tags the next year. But still, the creation of them, the shipping of them, the energy used to recycle them. My hubby mentioned something I hadn't thought of which was all the extra weight for shipping the cards around by the mail service. The extra gas? The extra truckloads of them? How about the extra idling time by the mailperson as they drop off all those cards in everyone's mailboxes? He didn't think of that one, but I wonder if it makes a difference.

This morning as I was unpackaging the multitude of toys that my daughter received, I realised, not for the first time, how much toys are over-packaged these days. Particularly are Fischer Price Little People. Those little things are taped in, elasticed in and twist tied in. Sometimes they are even screwed in. It took me forever to get her Barbie clothes out of their package. Then to sort and take apart the packaging for the recyclable parts and the non-recyclable parts. And the gift wrap, and the bows and the tags... Christmas is just not friendly to the environment.

What is scarier, is going around town (we live in a fairly educated town) and seeing all the recyclable things in the overflowing garbage bins after Christmas. It is disappointing and disgusting.

It's tough. What do you do? Personally, I would like to start a door-to-door recycle program in our town. There are bins, but people are lazy. They don't want to collect, sort and then take it all across town to dump it. Part of the problem is that some neighbourhoods have dumpsters, so how would you encourage the people with dumpsters that they should recycle? If they are restricted in the amount they are permitted to toss out, they may be forced to recycle. But they are not restricted. So then what? Peer pressure?

I don't know the whole answer. But I can't be alone.

Merry Christmas Earth, here's some more crap to tuck under your skin.

Until then...

December 29th, 2007--Twilight Zone
It isn't really the twilight zone, but I've noticed 'coincidences' with my preschooler. Like the fact that sometimes she seems to be able to read my thoughts. I am pretty sure she has an old soul. She's quite the sophisticated, mature young thing at times. Sometimes, it is hard to recall the fact that she is still so small and young and that so much of our world makes little sense.

She is smart and observant. She puts things together. Like when she was three, her grandparents asked her where we had gone shopping that day. She replied that we had gone to the big store with the orange letters. We had gone to Home Depot. She didn't know the name, but she knew how to describe it.

Anyway, all that is beside the point. Today, a few minutes ago in fact, I was looking up some lyrics on my computer. She crawled into my lap and had her back to my computer which was on the couch. I was rocking her back and forth while reading the webpage. Half listening to her, I hear her say something about how 'that reminds me of Sarah. The one from my cottage.' (We annually see two different Sarahs at the cottage.) I glance at the top of the webpage which she cannot see and there is an ad. It says, 'type your name in and see it in glitter'. The name that was being typed in was...wait for it...Sarah.

I look at my daughter who still has her back to the page and ask her what made her think of Sarah. She says she'll show my on my computer (she can't read, by the way) and proceeds to show me a picture of the Sarah she has in mind on my computer.

So what made her think of Sarah just when there was an ad flashing her name on my computer screen just behind her? Coincidence or twilight zone?

December 30th, 2007--Hello? Dr. Kevorkian?
Take a cat with ailing kidneys. A cat who has been with you as long as you have been with your husband--in fact it was your then-boyfriend-turned-husband who suggested you bring him home from the Humane Society where the grouchy little bugger weaseled his way permanently into your heart. And I'm talking about the cat, not the man. He was already in there.

So what do you do with this cat? His pink nose that turns a gorgeous bright pink when he's happy. His amazingly bright whites that puts Sunlight Laundry Soap absolutely to shame. Your daughter has scars from this cat. You buy special food at the vet's office for this cat. You moved apartments and took on a roommate for this cat. And now the kitty with the glued on blue plastic claws is having digestive and uh...bum...problems. Just how many accidents and 'drop plops' do you have to live with before it is time to play Dr. Kevorkian?

Unless said cat is evidently anguishing, how do you live with the guilt of assisting him painlessly (and I'm sure with a hefty veterinarian bill) into the great feline hereafter? I mean, he seems okay. Other than being skin and bones and guzzling water if he eats dry kibbles. And, of course, the whole bum thing. (How much stink can one cat make, anyway?) I mean, he's still that loveable cat that gets in your face and is simply irresistible when he tries. He's still that grumpy old goat who likes his 'face space'. He's still that curious guy who meows for you when you are gone. He's still that poor abandoned cat who was rescued on your first night at the Humane Society, all grateful and purring even though he had lost part of his one ear to frostbite and had been abused and was missing a tail so nobody else wanted him or would love him. Except me.

He's my pal. What can a girl do? What can a girl do?

All I can do is wait, hold his kitty litter encrusted paw and be his friend.

December 31st, 2007--Too Late?
Is it too late to put out that Christmas website? We never did actually finish it. I'm not sure if anything even got posted. Ah well. There is always next year. Am I going to make a resolution. Damn straight I'm not!

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