Fully Alive…Ready to Smile

And a happy new year to everyone!!!  Hope it’s filled with blessings and wonderful things. 

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1.  Definitely, definitely go shopping in the middle of the night!  Avoid the crowds, line ups and lack of shopping carts.  Walmart at 1:00 a.m. is pure bliss!  Regardless of the fact that I should have been in bed and am paying for it today…I got the last little bit of my Christmas shopping done and I had a great time doing it with Shelley.  We wandered around the deserted store just enjoying our time.  I DO find, however, that I spend money that would otherwise not be spent because I’m not in a rush and my brain is a little on the slow side with decision making so I don’t listen to the little voice in my head that says “Um, you don’t need that!”.  Case in point, Shelley and I both purchased a bit of a novelty item.  She mentioned that she had never done a paint by number.  Seriously?!  Who has never done a paint by number?!  I found us some kick a$$ paint by number kits and we both bought one and we are going to do them together before she up and moves across the country Isn’t it fun?  It’s called “Taste of Italy”   

2.  Do NOT buy your 3-year old a grey sweater dress to wear as her Christmas dress.  She will NOT like it.  I put what I thought was a lovely dress on my darling child and she immediately and vehemently exlcaimed, “I want to take it off because it’s not beautiful enough!!!”  Okay, then.  My mom has set a standard that will not be lowered by my girls.  So a few days later, Granny took her shopping to pick out a pattern and fabric…y.  Yes, Aidan got to have the final say in the choice, since apparently her opinion has sway.  Here’s what she chose… 

 Are we surprised?  I know, neither was I.  We seem to have a nasty case of princess syndrome in our household.

3.  We all know now that you MUST, MUST, MUST check your tree stand before putting a large-ish tree up with hundreds of ornaments and lights on it.  Otherwise you WILL decorate it a few times.  It’s back up and it’s as beautiful or more beautiful than it was the first time.  My total hours of decorating this formidable tree came to something ridiculous like 7 hours…over the course of a week.  The first time took me 3 hours and then after the dang thing fell I kind of lost heart for a while.  I would hang an ornament or two and then just sigh and walk away.  Finally, on Saturday, one week after the “incident” I just got it over with and finished.

   

4.  No matter how cold it is (freakin’ -43 (which is -45 F) with the windchill…I know, we are ridiculous to live here!) or whether or not your child has puked that day, Christmas concerts MUST be attended.  Ella was determined to say her line and she did such a wonderful job!  I’m so proud of her because she loves being on stage and speaks so clearly, while both myself and Jer are terrified of public speaking and always have been since we were small.  So this is unexpected and wonderful!  And by the way, SHE was quite happy with the outfit I picked for her to wear this Christmas.  

 5.  Take time to enjoy a sunset, nature or the beauty in the stillness.  With the busyness of the holiday season I think a lot of us forget to stop and be amazed at the gloriousness of creation around us.  We get so wrapped up in the consumerism and the parties and the go, go, go, that we miss moments that are truly spectacular.It may be -45 degrees, but isn’t it lovely in my backyard?  (for interest sake, those are in fact the actual colors of the sunset that night, no PhotoShop involved)

 

 6.  Take pictures!

 

It appears someone is following in their mama’s footsteps  (To see more of my recent pictures, please feel free to go here.) 

7.  Most of all, remember how blessed you really are.  Enjoy time with your family.  Cherish every moment because life is too short.  If you have children, these are the memories that will stay with them, make them special.  Since it’s looking to be rather busy for the next week, I will likely not be here.  So I wish you all a very blessed Christmas!

    

I can just see the looks on all your faces after reading that title.  The only one who will truly understand and appreciate that title will be my cousin Elin, who affectionately dubbed me the “concert w*hore” because of the incredible repretoire of concerts that I have attended. 

If anyone had a chance to take a peek at my sidebar at any point during the last year, you would have noticed an ongoing list of concerts that were upcoming in my future.  Josh Groban, Michael Buble, William Joseph, Reba and Kelly, Oasis, Celine Dion, etc. 

I was sad to notice that the concerts are all over and the new year appeared to be dawning with no new ones on the horizon.  I’ve been searching Ticketmaster to see if anyone good was coming to town.  I’m THAT pathetic.  I go in search of concerts.  It’s an addiction, I know.  

Lucky for me, my cousin Jen saved the day.  I am going with her and two other fabulous girls to Minneapolis in April to the Britney Spears concert.  SQUEEEEEE!!!  Don’t go hatin’ on me for liking Britney ’cause she needs loving just like anyone else.  Her new cd is on my Christmas list and I have to admit that I had to stop myself yesterday from buying it.

 

Four more months…I wonder who else is coming to town in the meantime  

Today was the loveliness that is a day without children.  Today I started and nearly finished my Christmas shopping.  In a record 39 minutes I was in and out of Toys R Us with all but one of my girls’ gifts.  Yay me!  

I love shopping.  I love Christmas shopping.  I love Christmas shopping when I have no children to drag in and out of stores, dressing and undressing them to accomodate frigid temperatures outside and overheatedness inside.  I love Christmas shopping on a Monday when there is a more subdued, happy atmosphere in the stores because it is the people who WANT to be out shopping rather than the frantic, crazy weekend shoppers who HAVE to be there.  I love the bustle of said people in the stores and malls as they are searching for that perfect gift.  I love the sound of Christmas music playing in the background and all the decorations in the stores.  I love walking past Santa’s Village in the center of the mall, watching parents trying to convince their little ones to sit on a strange, fattish, bearded man’s lap for a picture when they don’t like pictures or strange men to begin with.  I love wandering around the bookstore, Starbucks Frappacino in hand, reveling in the merry atmosphere that bookstores seem to have at Christmas, while my wishlist grows and grows.  

I do NOT love my car’s heat not working as I drive from store to store in -30 C (-22 F) weather.  Although I DO love the new pink mittens I was forced to buy to keep my poor fingers warm while driving in such cold conditions.  I also do not love the toy department in Sears, which is in complete and utter disarray.  All other departments in the store are clean and well maintained, but the toy section…oh.my.word!!  Not a pretty sight.  In fact, it was so horrid, that I turned around and walked out.  I didn’t even spend the time browsing.  It would have been futile.  I also do not like ordering a gift for one of my girls on the same store’s website and being notified that the expected date of shipment will be March 23, 2009.  Um…right.  I think that may be just a skosh late to really be considered a Christmas present.  

I also do NOT love the thought of the impending tree redecorating awaiting me.  :(  But it must needs be done and done it shall be.  Tomorrow.  Today I am just too tired to tackle the job.  So instead I will wrap gifts…and I love wrapping gifts!  At least the tree is back in an upright position, so the presents can actually sit under it, rather than beside or adjacent to it.  The lights have yet to be detangled…a job that I have assigned to Jer, as it daunts me so.  My girls wonder if they can help with the decorating again, but I just don’t think I have the fortitude or stamina to be gracious through yet ANOTHER decorating session.  It was hard for me to let go the first time and let them lump ornaments in a mish mash fashion.  I totally took them all off and repositioned them after they were in bed.  The joys of having a mother who decorates as her job  Poor kids.  I’ve made up my mind that we will forthwith have 2 or more trees in our household from next Christmas on.  It will be for the benefit of all involved…unless of course they all decide to fall over, in which case we will ban Christmas trees altogether.  

 

 *Picture taken by Jer (first time using my camera)…not bad!

“OH NO!!!” and “What HAPPENED?” were not the reactions I was looking for this morning when the girls awoke.  I had striven for more of a “WOW!  That’s beautiful!” or “Oooohhh, it’s so sparkly!”

That was before it fell over in the middle of the night.  The tree.  It fell.  All my ornaments scattered and strewn.  Some broken.  The lights half hanging off in a tangled web of mess.  THREE HOURS of decorating.  THREE HOURS of thoughtfully placing each and every one of my over 300 ornament in it’s perfect place to create a masterpiece.  It really was.  Before it fell.  

I wanted to cry…in fact, I do believe there was a tear or two shed as I sat amongst the shattered ornaments and pine needles, wondering where to start.  It was devastating.  All that hard work for nothing.  The stand is broken, so I can’t even redecorate until we get a new one which won’t be until tomorrow.

The weird thing is I awoke to the sound of an ornament dropping to the floor and rolling.  I thought, “Ack, why does that stupid ornament keep falling off?”, but apparently it was a much louder commotion that woke Jer up.  He goes flying out of our room and I’m all like, “Whoa, it’s just an ornament, no need to overreact, there, big guy!”  He comes wandering back to our room looking decidedly dejected and I sit up with a vague sense of forboding.  

“It fell over, didn’t it?”  That’s the only reason I can think of for looking so down about the mouth.

In hind sight some of it was rather funny.  I’m sitting there picking up all the pieces of glass and hooks, putting the ornaments that were still in tact in a box, letting loose a stream of swear words in my head, but Jer is just sitting there sleepily holding the tree up.  For 10 minutes, he just sat there…blinking  He had no idea what to do.  I finished up and looked at him.  ”You planning to sit there all night holding the tree?  Cause I’m going back to bed.”  I’m pretty sure he glared at me.  Snarkiness reigns at 2 a.m.

He leaned it against the wall, dragged a t.v. up from the basement to set in front of the tree so that it didn’t slip, and crawled back in bed.

Then the girls woke up this morning and I cringed beneath my blanket as I heard their little footsteps going towards the living room.  The collective gasp and exclamations were almost enough to send me careening into another fit of tears.  Sigh.  

Repeat after myself, “I love to decorate, I love to decorate, I love to decorate…” 

Anyone want to take a wild guess what I did all afternoon?  No, didn’t fold the laundry that’s been sitting there since Sunday Monday.  Nope, completely ignored the girls’ rooms in the wake of Hurricane Ellaidan.  Wash the floors…right, I wish (actually when they are dirty with a slight film there is less risk of slipping and breaking a limb ).  I sang ABBA songs  Happy sigh.

Two days ago the ABBA SingStar disc was released and in my rather ridiculously impulsive manner, I sped to the big city (half an hour from home) in search of it yesterday, only to come home empty handed.  After about the 7th store Aidan sighed heavily, “Still no SingStar, Mommy?”  She’s 3.  

 

Today I called the Future Shop nearest our home (again, half an hour away) and asked if they happened to have the game.  She checked.  They had one.  I asked if she could hold it for me…”Will you be here today sometime?” to which I replied that I would be there within the hour.  This was at 10:13 a.m.  Ella gets home from school at 11:40 a.m.  The drive to the Future Shop is 35 minutes from my house.  Anyone do math?  I left home at 10:22, I made it to the store, got the game and was home by 11:27.  Oh yeah.  Where there’s a SingStar will, there’s a way!!  But I’m not obsessed.  Just saying.

Just as I’m also not obsessed with Twilight.  Or the movie.  Or Edward.  I’m not.  Really.  See…

 

What?!?  I didn’t tell you I was going to be in the movie.  Hmm.  Silly me.  Must have slipped my mind  :)  Because I totally don’t do stupid crap at 2 a.m like photoshopping myself into pictures.  Noooo!!!  I’m sleeping like all the rest of human kind out there.  Okay, maybe I have a bit of a problem sleeping a lot of the time and then I do things like that in Photoshop because I can.  

Okaaayyyy… 

~awkward silence (crickets chirpping)~ 

Anyhoo, today we went to pick out our Christmas tree at the local gas station (how quaintly small town, huh?).  Whilst there, we noticed our good friends had their tree picked out as well, marked with an orange tag ready to be delivered to their house tonight.  I had this sudden urge to take the tag and put it on a scraggly Charlie Brown tree so that they would get a little surprise upon delivery  Of course, I would have gotten their real tree to them after, but I just wanted to play a prank.  Unfortunately, she was under the weather this week and I didn’t think she would take too kindly to the joke and her hubby probably wouldn’t have thanked me for the trouble he would have gotten into, seeing as he was the one who went to pick out the tree.

Another funny thing happened on our tree excursion.  When you pick the tree you want, you go into the gas station and pay for it, then they give you a tag that says “SOLD” on it and you go back out and tie it to your tree.  We were in the process of paying when a friend came in and Jer stopped to talk to him.  Even though there was no one else in the tree lot when we had been there, I said “Let’s go Jer, can’t have anyone buying our tree!” kind of as a joke, since there is a largeish selection of trees.  Not so funny.  I walk outside to see two men getting ready to load a tree onto the back of a truck.  I wander into the tree cage and one of the men comes in after me.  ”We didn’t take the tree you had picked, did we?”  I glance over and notice a hole where our tree had been standing.  I giggle a little embarrassedly, “Actually, I think you DID.”  I felt so bad.  But it was a good tree.  Obviously.  I mean, what are the chances that we all wanted the same tree?

     Anyone else out there as unprepared for Christmas as me?  Let’s see…

* Christmas decorating – NOPE* Christmas baking – Uh uh * Gifts purchased – Not a one * Cards sent out – Again, no (remind me when I see you to give you one, they are actually made)

So I’m thinking January may very well be here before I actually get my rear in motion.  And you’d think I’d have had enough time to prepare.  I mean, it’s not like it comes upon us unawares.  Nobody suddenly changed the date of Christmas.  Nuh uh.  No excuses here.  Just too busy being lazy.  Perhaps I’ll be Ukranian this year and celebrate it a little later since that’s about when I’ll be ready  Although Valentine’s Day is looking a little more feasible at this rate. 

 

I made up my mind after my last post about the decisions…photography course, reflexology course, yada yada.  Today I enrolled in the reflexology course for February.  I also called the photography school and found out they have another offering of the course in April.  April = better roads.  That made my decision a lot easier.  As much as I really, really want to take the photography course now, I know that it’s more responsible of me to wait until I don’t have to commute in on icy roads each week.  Look at me being all responsible.  That’s new and different.  I’m super duper excited about the reflexology course.  I’m going to make everyone around me feel better one foot and hand at a time  In any case, I’m hoping it will give me the chance to earn a little extra money if I want.  It’s something I can do on my own time in my own space (or someone else’s).  And you know, I’d be willing to travel if you all out there want to have your feet poked and prodded.  Ha, ha.In the meantime I’ll keep taking pictures and trying to learn on my own and from books.  Here’s a few pictures that I took today.     To see the rest of my pictures you can go to my Flickr account.