Well, the Holiday has come and gone...for most of us.

But not for us.
We (meaning, I) made the executive decision to wait until The Man gets home to officially begin our Christmas celebration. And the girls feel the same way (which is a good thing, 'cuz I gotta tell you, they don't really have much of a choice. LOL)
We are going to decorate the tree tomorrow (during the time when most of you are taking yours down) and then we will wait.
I, for one, would just like to have a holiday that occurs on the day it is supposed to. This makes Christmas #3 that The Man has missed, and last year we had to wait until the end of January to have dinner and gift exchanging. If we have to wait that long this year, I am just going to do it all without him and say "Oh, too bad, so sad, sucka!" (Not really, but that is what I will be thinking while he is whining about how he wasn't here for Christmas.)
Oh, yes, by-the-by, his mother -- she is just fine. No stroke, no heart problem, and (surprise, surprise) still a beeyyaatch. So basically, he has spent the past week in misery for a grand total of NOTHING. Yippee!!

Ahhhh....My NEW Absolute Holiday LOVE!!

I am officially addicted.

Dark Chocolate and DELICIOUSLY scented candles. Honestly, it doesn't get much better than that.
The candles arrived last week in a Christmas box sent by a WONDERFUL friend that lives halfway across the country in BEAUTIFUL Washington state. They are manufactured by the GANZ corporation under the label of Time and Again And they smell just fantastic.
The chocolates are manufactured by the company that makes the Ferrero Rocher brand of candies. Appropriately named "Rondnoir", they are oh so YUMMY! They are apparently NEW for the holiday season, and hopefully they will be sticking around for a while.
Just thought I would share the LOVE.

Lovely, just Freakin' Lovely!!

Ahhhhhhhh yes, it is Friday night in America. And I am stuck in my tiny corner at my tiny desk lamenting the fact that it is THIS close to Christmas, and I will have a grand total of half my family present for the holiday.
My husband's mother was admitted to the hospital 2 days ago, after presenting (what was thought at the time to be) the symptoms of a stroke.
-- I refer to her as my husband's mother because there is literally no love lost between this woman and I. I would NEVER wish any ill will upon her, and really feel horribly that this is occuring (especially at this time.) But I really think that if she weren't such a manipulative beeeeyaaatch all the time, we might have a better relationship. --
NEWay -- her CAT Scan/MRI/Whatever-test-they-ran have come back clear - so no major stroke as of yet. But the dr does feel that she is having mini-strokes, and that these will lead to a large one eventually. (Mind you, eventually could mean 10 yrs from now.) It is most certainly either that, or her blood sugar (she is diabetic), or her heart (at this point I would have been questioning exactly what it was that the doctor DID, in fact, know.)
So The Man is currently perched at her side, patting her hand, and consoling her. While we sit here about 1000 mi away.
As a general rule, I am not a bitter/hateful/generally rotten person, but they have the mother/son relationship of many varieties of animals that eat their young (not that she would actively eat her young, but that she has the same cunning, manipulative nature that animals that do predatorily consume their own species exhibit.) And, one would figure that he would rather be here (with the family that hasn't enabled his "neediness" and fed into his co-dependency and essentially held him down his whole life) for the holiday, than listening to her drone on and on with the "oh, please don't feel sorry for me. I will be just fine. Could you be troubled to hand me that paper over there though, as I feel the necessity to scrawl down my last will and testiment while I still have the strength to hold the pen in my hand" speech.
I understand that she is his mother, but (I feel) that there comes a point in everyone's life where the toxicity of a relationship outweighs the blood that flows between 2 people.
Then again, maybe I am just a great big BEEEEEYYYYAAAATCH!!!

Brava!!!

I am *ALMOST* finished with my "Handmade Holiday" items for my girls.
I decided a couple of months ago that I wanted to give them an entirely handmade Christmas (completely crafted by moi!) So, I made a list. I checked it twice. And I decided exactly what I was going to create for each child (although there are a lot of duplicate items - they fight over the stuff if I don't.) I also determined what I was going to make for my friends' children (because it kind of defeats the purpose of a "Handmade Holiday" if you purchase items for other children, and just not for your own.)
I have been sewing until 2 AM nearly every night, and running on just a few hours of sleep to get them done. But they are almost finished.
And I am happy!!! :)