This is my ‘magical time’ of the day – every day… The only ‘no-no’ is that I can’t make noise or cook anything that would wake any of my family up… The world outside is still dark and the earth smells clean and alive… The birds sing their harmonies and it is just great to be alive, ya know?
Yep, even on a bad day, it’s great to be alive…
I’ve already had a few emails from REAL Family members and the world truly does go on, despite changes in everyone’s lives… The amazing thing about life is we tend to think how it is right now is how it has always been… Christmas is all about your religious beliefs (or not at all if you don’t have them) and the commercial enterprise of the holiday that began in the 1920’s…
To me, it’s hard to imagine Christmas without a tree… The two other ‘standards’ to me are a great fruitcake and a Honey Baked Ham… The first is an old tradition that started back in the days of Egypt and the Pharaohs… But the second is one that actually began in my mother’s era… Isn’t it funny we think of these things as always ‘having been’ when actually it all depends on someone’s marketing plans for this time of the year?... LOL…
I couldn’t find a decent fruitcake this year… I looked… And looked… The one I finally found just doesn’t cut it for being a good fruitcake… In a block form and not a ring, it isn’t chock full of the candied fruits and has a blah taste…
A fruitcake is the one thing I really enjoy about Christmas… After my disappointment this year, I’ve decided next year I’m making my own… My mother has a great recipe that I have somewhere and tomorrow I’m going out to get the candied fruits needed before they disappear off the shelves again… Come June, I’ll be making a few fruitcakes and even if no one else enjoys them, I will~!!!… LOL… Guess it is the reputation of it that has caused people to not buy it as much any more…
Last night, Desiree went off to her house-sitting gig about 5PM and I had already started a fire in the fireplace for her before she left, so it was going when Paul came home as well…
Usually Paul sits in the family room watching TV while Desiree and I set up shop in the living room… For a switch, he came into the living room and watched TV here last night… There’s a gas starter in the fireplace, so it’s a simple thing to start a fire, and we still have wood from about 3-4 years ago… It’s just never hot enough to get a fire going, but when I redid the living room last year, I purposely positioned the futon and TV so you can sit and enjoy the TV with a fire…
It’s a nice and cozy spot – Desiree’s favorite in the house and with the bottom kick-out of the futon up, the puppers climb up with you, snuggle in and it’s really a comfy place to decompress after a long day… Santa had already made a stop here for most of us, and he backtracked with Desiree’s gifts late last night as well… LOL…
Doubtful that Desiree will read the Press ahead of time, so I can now tell you all that she’s got a ‘Betty Boop’ Christmas headed her way… Other than the two books she specifically asked for, everything else is ‘Betty-Booped’… LOL… She’s gotten into this theme in the past year or so, and this year for Christmas, I decided to do it all in that theme…
Everything – from car mats and sun shades for her car --- to personal things like a wallet, tote bag, earrings --- to a doggie T-shirt for her Riley – is done up in Betty Boop… She’ll LOVE it… I even managed to find a pair of slippers for her in the motif… I wore out the poor Fed Exp and other delivery services as they arrived from all over the place with the stuff… Thanks to the Internet, and the resurgence of the popularity of this icon, Desiree is going to have a ‘boop-boop-be-dupe’ Christmas! LOL…
Paul has off tomorrow too… A four day weekend where I don’t have a major project to be done around here… LOL… That’s MY Christmas present to him…
Every Christmas he asks for some series on DVD and this year was no different… I’m guessing he’ll be watching this year’s Christmas gift, although we still have that cabinet door to install, so who knows?... Maybe he’ll surprise me in that regard!
The Christmas lights just came on across the street… They have two young sons (about 10 & 11) so I imagine the wrapping paper is flying over there right now… Our presents are around the tree, waiting for Desiree when she comes home in a few hours… She says 9:30AM but if I know my daughter, I imagine she’ll be home sooner than that! There were no late night calls last night, so I’m guessing she’ll be a bit homesick this morning when she finally wakes up…
I’m not a good present receiver… I get more enjoyment out of watching others get gifts… Both Paul and Desiree tell me I’m just too hard to buy for because there’s not really anything I want or need… But I sure love watching them open gifts and their reactions doing it~!!!... THAT’s Christmas for me… Watching my family happy and healthy, ya know?
I’d like to go see “Marley and Me” at the movies this afternoon… It premieres today and all three of us read the book this year – and LOVED it… I understand they changed part of the plot and Marley was adopted, not bought at a breeder’s… Maybe Hollywood is finally waking up to their contribution to the unwanted overpopulation problem we have… That would be a nice thing, huh?...
Speaking about nice Christmas gifts, do any of you all remember Malibu?... He was a Chihuahua foster I had for about 6 weeks in 2007… He had a heart on the side of his coat and was scheduled to be killed because of overt aggressiveness?... Malibu got adopted by a nice lady and her teenage daughter and few months later, in Christmas of 2007 Paul played “Santa” at PetSmart… Malibu and his owners came into have their pictures taken and Malibu recognized Paul despite the Santa costume~!!!…
Well, last night I got a call from Malibu’s owner and she told me how great he has been doing… That was the best ever Christmas gift… He’s dearly loved by her daughter and his best bud (canine-wise) is a large Siberian Husky… Apparently when Malibu gets chilly on these early mornings, he stands in between his bud’s legs and has a full canine coat around him to keep warm~!!!... I can just imagine the visual of that… A Chihuahua standing between the legs of a Siberian Husky to stay warm on a chilly Californian morning…
What a neat call to get on a Christmas Eve for me!... These are the neat things you can’t wrap up and put underneath a Christmas tree~!!... They truly are PRICELESS~!!!
Hugs to all and Merry Christmas!
The Lady
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