The Weather Outside is Frightful!

Yesterday it was a high of 7 degrees. I believe they said with wind chill it was past -10degrees. Crazy! For the past 2days our older windows have had ice patterns painted upon them. It was cool and disturbing at the same time. Today, at present, it says it is 18 degrees with a high of 35! This weather is crazy! I am thinking of buying some cheapy sleds as an add on gift under the tree. I got this crazy idea 2 days ago while out in the freezing weather. I really hope it snows on Christmas day. I just have this beautiful vision of the kids so happy they found the sleds under the tree because there is a foot of snow out side! They are so excited that they forgo breakfast just to get out in the white stuff! The reality is weather channel says rain tomorrow, Rain! Then cloudy and a high of 27 on Christmas, and rain on Friday. Yuck!
I see the weather channel possible reality, but I'm still hoping for a Christmas miracle!

The Guests are coming! The Guests are coming!

Twas 3nights before Christmas and all threw the house people were scurrying to clean up the house! Why does the story not start that way? Probably because it isn't very catchy. Well we are scurrying about. We are spending tonight cleaning from top to bottom. The Other Half's folks and Bro come into town tomorrow. They will be staying with us until Friday! While we clean tonight the other half is going to try to hon his mad fire making skills. That way we can have a proper fire on Christmas eve and Christmas. Sounds cozy doesn't it?
I have to tell you we must be crazy. We really should be locked up. We have volunteered to host Christmas Eve at our house for my sister, her hub, my mom, and my fam. Then Christmas day is The Other Half's entire family.
In order for the kids to have fun on Christmas day, and stay out of the way, we are rushing to get the floor finished in the basement. It really is a must. They will have a play room therefore keeping them from running threw the kitchen in an attempt to go upstairs. Mayhem! So we are hoping we can get that project out of the way by Christmas eve afternoon.
I am really hoping that The Other Half's mom takes the lead in cooking on Christmas day. I have found I am a spastic perfectionist like my Grandmother. Which means I freak out in an effort to get EVERYTHING out on time, all the while alienating/scaring family members. It isn't pretty. We will see...
I have almost all my shopping done. Tomorrow the last of it should be finished. I just love shopping or making things for others for Christmas. It's one of my favorite things to do all year long!
Well I should get to work on the house...I wonder, if I procrastinate further do you think the house will clean itself? I better not wait and find out. I am off!

Give to Yourself and Help Someone in Need

I have only tried the peppermint mocha and let me say it is delicious!! It tastes like a liquefied Andes mint. Yummy! I can only imagine that the other two are equally as scrumptious.
Now if none of these 3 make your mouth water, remember that on December 1st is world AIDS day. On that day Starbucks will donate 5cents from EVERY handcrafted beverage. So on the 1st treat yourself to a tall Chai, Caffe Latte, or a Vanilla Frap. You will feel a little less guilty and it will taste so much better because you are helping out the less fortunate.
Happy Start to the Holiday Season!!

Have Yourself and Eco-Friendly Christmas...

We are headed to a "Green" Christmas Party tonight with a gift exchange. My first thoughts when I was invited were: is this a spin on a white elephant but I bring something green, and that's a cute incorporation of the Christmas seasons use of the color green. It was good that I asked about the whole "white elephant" thing, because I was sooo wrong! It is to be an environmentally friendly gift. We have to be creative and the gift must be an,"interesting and fun gift that is either made from sustainable materials or will help in some way, by it's very use, to reduce energy consumption to put under the tree for a gift exchange." This struck me as a fun challenge. I mean it's easy to find eco-friendly things, but to find something "fun" and "creative" that seemed to pose more of a obstacle. So I have spent the past week racking my brain and scouring web sites. Last week I read a great article in our local paper that helped me on my journey.


According to the newspaper, "going green" for Christmas is the thing to do. So much so that the accounting company of Deloitte & Touche surveyed on the subject. They found that 12% of people in my state plan to buy more eco- friendly gifts this year. while 20% will use less plastic bags when they make their purchases. 19% of people, state wide, were planing on not wrapping their gifts with traditional wrapping paper. (It doesn't recycle, so it just sits and landfills.) It was good to see I was in good company this holiday season, but this didn't help with where I could find cool, green, gifts pronto! Further in the article I had my answer! It would seem that Home Depot, Target, Yahoo! and Walmart (?!) all have environmentally friendly products on their websites! How great is that?! So I perused Target, Home Depots, and Yahoo!. Great sites all. Great selections. Now I didn't end up buying anything from the site, though I may in the future. (I didn't have enough time for the shipping) But I did do something that I know to be easy on the planet and that is: I shopped local. There is a Wild Birds Unlimited not too far from me. On top of selling bird seed and bird things, they have a good selection of eco-friendly soaps, jewelry made from natural materials,and natural jewelry by women in Africa. So I chose from that and am putting my gift in a reusable tote. I think that meets all the requirements. We'll see. I am off to have a good time and I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with!


More Tips For a Planet Friendly Holiday:

• Buy a potted Christmas Tree. Replant it in the spring or donate it to your local parks department.


• Use LED lights on the tree. They use 90% less power that traditional lights, but they do cost more to purchase.


• Make your own gift. Who doesn't like something so thought full as something made by hand? From candy, to soaps, to scarves, all ways a way to make it creative and personal.


• Make your own wrapping paper. You can use the comics, maps, brown bags, ect. I did this one year using brown bags and paint. I painted the bags free hand and I used potato and rubber stamps. It was alot of fun!

Links to Websites listed above:

Home Depot http://www6.homedepot.com/ecooptions/

Yahoo! Green http://green.yahoo.com/

Target http://www.target.com/b/sr=1-1/qid=1197750629/ref=sr_ilm_1/602-6617218-2806255?ie=UTF8&node=357202011

O Christmas Card! O Christmas Card!

I was at a Christmas party several years ago. Someone there expressed how they found the end of year letters, that some people put in their Christmas cards, to be annoying and self important. I was opening cards, yesterday and reading some letters, when I was reminded of this conversation. I love those letters. I am not the best on the phone. My lifestyle does not provide a lot of time for the phone or meeting up with my friends on a regular basis. Plus, some of them live out of state. So I find these letters give me a chance to find out of all the fun things that have happened to them this year. It gives my friends and I something to talk about next time we meet. I also enjoy each persons unique writing voice. Receiving such a letter makes me feel that the giver finds me to be a close enough friend that I probably do care about what has transpired in the last 365 days. So, to all of those out there who fill their cards with an end of the year synopsis, keep 'em coming! You are not gloaters! 98% of we recipients get a joy out of reading your years joys and adventures. Bring 'em on.

And to those of you that feel these letters are "annoying and self important", don't read them. That way you aren't annoyed by someone who has mistaken you as someone who cares. Also, don't complain at parties about these things. You run the risk of hurting the feelings people who only have the best of intentions by sending these letters. If you think about complaining openly then you have to ask yourself ,"Who's the real self important one here?"

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love the holidays! One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is to have a nice hot cup of Starbucks Christmas blend and mint M&M's. These are two things you can't get any other time of the year other then December. I love them so much that I usually try to stock up on a few bags of both before they leave the stores for another 11months.
Some times it just the little things, ya know?

I love Christmas and family. I love the shopping, giving gifts, decorating, and having family stay with me. It's nice, even when it isn't. Thankfully there weren't any real dramatic episodes to report this holiday season. I enjoyed my house guests. I enjoyed visiting all types of family. I just hated having to observe some of my family. Let me explain. Christmas eve eve was nice, until I got into a heated discussion about Brittany Spears with my sister. BRITTANY SPEARS?! Who argues about Brittany Spears?! We do. I didn't realize until much later that my critic of Brittany's mothering skills was, in a way, a critic of my sister's mothering skills. So I fought with myself over my feelings of guilt over inadvertently dissing my sister, but not really feeling all that guilty about it.
Then there was Christmas. Christmas was wonderful, it really was. We finished it off by visiting my Dad and stepmom's house. It seemed like a perfect way to end the evening, and it almost was, except for the fact that my dad is an alcoholic. Some people don't think this is a problem because he is not a mean alcoholic. I, however, find his alcoholism to be a problem, because it isn't good for his body or our conversations. My dad talks forever about the same subjects over and over again when he is drunk and you can't get away. All I can think of during our conversations is how sad his state is, how much I know he doesn't want to be this way, how awkward this all is, and how can I get out of here! I know all I can do for him is pray. Nothing more. Sometimes I worry about he and my sister. My grandma tells me not to. She says I've always tried to save people and that I can't save anyone who doesn't want to be saved. She's right. So when I worry about them, I get into some major prayer. It really is all I can do.
So, with this you are probably saying, 'this doesn't sound like a wonderful Christmas.' It was because I was able to spend a good amount of time with all of my family. Everyone enjoyed their gifts, I enjoyed mine. This holiday also opened my eyes even more to my sister and my dad and sisters problems and helped me to resolve to pray for them more. I also hope the conversations my sister and I had will bring about some epiphany for her. I know it did for me.