WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS

FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE???????

Okay, it was sad but I took off some of my graphics and blinkies. Yes, it's probably hard to tell since I had so freakin' many. I thought they were pretty but I guess I went a little over board.
Let me know if you can tell a difference especially if you have dial-up. I didn't realize I was making it so hard to say hello! I hope it helps.

I do still have sinusitis. It is now leaving my head and going into my chest. I have that wonderful scratchy, deep voice and yucky, phelgm cough (TMI?). I don't find it real sexy since I think I sound like a scratchy ole frog. LOL.

I do have to work half a day tomorrow and boy! it's gonna be busy!

Tomorrow is Christmas for my family and also my dad's 70th birthday. My sister is having a shin-dig or should I say a fiesta, over at her place. Fajita bar. Margaritas. Cerveca. My dad definitely doesn't look 70 and he sure doesn't act it!!! He's rowdy. So I get it honest. It's gonna be my sister, my brother, his wife, their little girl otherwise known as my niece, my honey, my dad's sister, who is a hoot!!! and her husband (they are just an awesome, fun, entertaining couple!), my dad and his girlfriend, and myself. It will be a fun evening, scratchy voice and all.

Other plans for Christmas:
the next night, Saturday, it's the girls party. My sister's place again. We, as in my sister and me are hosting this little soiree (more so my sister since it's her place and her money!). It's our group of gal friends. On the menu--- Martinis: peppermint-tinis and Christmas cosmos and hors d' oeuvres: tenderloin beef on small rolls, tomato and cheese crostinis, stuffed mushrooms with walnut & camambert cheese, roasted red potato bites, florentine artichoke dip, a combo fruit, veggie & cheese platter, some sweets. We plan on having a gift swap or chinese Christmas. Should be loads of fun.

Sunday, Christmas eve it will be my honey and I and pug and kit cat. I am planning on going to midnight mass. I have never been to a midnight mass. I am planning on really soaking it in and this being the capping off of my Christmas. I want to truly feel the spirit and let my heart be overwhelmed.

Monday, Christmas day my honey and I will celebrate with his side of the family or my 'other' family. We plan on going to his oldest brothers' home with his wife and their two youngin's, my husband's other brother and new wife, and maybe my husband's sister and a couple of her kids.

And somewhere among the hustle and bustle of visiting I have to get in my very, very favorite Christmas movie of all time: A Christmas Story. I have to have a little Ralphie, Randy, Double Dog Dare ya!

Back to work on Tuesday! No after Christmas sales for me.

Hoping your holiday is absolutely wonderful and you can take a moment to remember the true reason for the season. Oh yeah! And I hope Santa is real good to ya!
BLESSINGS!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

So we are already on the 4th day of December. Are you done with your Christmas shopping? I have only bought 2 little gifts. Pathetic. Where is my Christmas spirit? My office Christmas Party was this past Saturday. I listened to one Christmas song after another. Better yet, I tolerated one tune right after another. I am feeling blue. I'm not trying to feel sorry for myself or have a pity party but sometimes my past haunts me. And during the Christmas season, I tend to feel down. I ask myself why when I as I mention over and over how blessed I am. Thoughts of Christmas past keeping popping in my head. Christmas pasts were unhappy. No one one wanted to put up the Christmas tree. There was no real traditions. No advent calendars. No reading of the Twas the Night Before Christmas. There were no real gifts that I remember getting that were so awesome and just made in particular Christmas memorable. There was no faith. No remembering or real mentions of what Christmas was truly about. Christmas always seemed to be a pain; a stress. I guess due to the negativity of Christmas past, it's hard to shake it. It's hard to break a pattern. I know I am in control of my Christmas's now. I can put up our Christmas tree. I can decorate our house anyway I want. I can celebrate the way I want to celebrate. For Heaven's sake Christmas is the birth of our Saviour!! God graced this world with His Son, Jesus. And yet, I feel down. What the heck is the matter with me? I see Christmas lights decorating the houses on our streets. Yet, this doesn't prompt me to bring out my pretty Christmas wreath and hang it on the door. I don't know why I can't bring myself to bring out our little tree and place it where the pets can't get to it (Hence why I don't put up the big tree). I look thru catalog after catalog and think about the possibilities of different gifts for people, yet I don't pick up the phone or get on the internet to purchase.
Yesterday was the first day of advent and I was too lazy to get out the advent wreath, candles and say our little evening advent prayer. Pathetic. That's how I feel. I know what the real meaning of Christmas is.......so why can't the reality of it jolt me into jubilation? I don't feel bah-humbug. I just feel blah. I really feel that I try to get over my past. The past is the past. It is behind me and then in the snap of your fingers something" (like Christmas!) triggers a memory, a memory I wish to forget. A memory that I thought I was "over" it. And come to find out I am not. When will I get "over" "it" where it doesn't bother me any more?
How does one truly make peace with their past? Is that possible? Memories never really fade. Sometimes I feel so strong and so positive. I feel I have conquered my past. And then today, and yesterday, and the day before that, things, thoughts, memories, just kept creeping in. It is tho as the days from Thanksgiving have passed, the flood gates have opened.
I am not PMSing. I just feel melancholy.
******note I do want to mention that I know my Christmas's could have been so much worse. I did have a house, I did have a tree (when someone went to the basement to get the box it was in), I did get gifts when so many don't even have that! I realize what I did have when so many didn't have anything! I just get all caught up listening to my friends, co-workers, church family talk about the priceless, beautiful memories they have of Christmas. How their families celebrated. All the love, faith, caring, joy, delight just makes my heartache especially when I know that my life was so void of it. And I just get to questioning why it had to be that way.......

Sunday Seven - Episode 66 from (www.patricksweekender.blogspot.com)
Each year, the Jones Soda Company comes out with bizarre soda with holiday food flavors. This year, for example, you can drink Turkey and Gravy soda, Sweet Potato Soda, Dinner Roll Soda, or Pea Soda. For you dessert fans, there's Cherry Pie, Banana Cream Pie, Key Lime Pie, Apple Pie, and Blueberry Pie. If all of that weren't enough, this year, there's Antacid Flavored Soda! This oddball collection of flavors is the subject of this week's question.
THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:
Come up with your own list of strange flavors that you think are worthy of Jones Soda's concoctions. (They don't have to necessarily be "holiday" foods, or even flavors you'd want to drink.)
And my here's my list:
1) Hang Over Soda
2) The Morning After Soda
3) Candied Yams Soda
4) Rejoice Soda
5) Peace Soda
6) Love Soda
7) Joy Soda
8) Green Beans Soda
9) Sin Soda
10) Heavenly Soda
11) Corn Puddin' Soda
12) Marshmallow Soda
13) Egg nog Soda
14) Santa Soda
15) Rudolph the red nose Reindeer Soda
16) Elf Soda
17) Down the Chimney Soda
18) Three Wise Men Soda
19) Jingle Bells Soda
20) Scrooge Soda
21) Bah Humbug Soda
22) White Christmas Soda
23) Blue Christmas Soda
24) Santa cookie Soda
25) Fruitcake Soda
26) Snowed in Soda
27) Twas The Night Before Christmas Soda
28) Candy Cane Soda
29) Icicle Soda
30) and last but not least, in honor of me: Blessed Soda
****Okay, it's your turn to list some flavors****