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 Rank: King  Joined: 8/5/2009 Posts: 2,760 Location: lost in state of complete confusion
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Thanksgiving comes 'later' this year, on Nov. 26. The earliest it can fall is Nov 22, and the latest possible date is Nov. 28th. 
Nov. 26th means less time for everything: shipping packages, (maybe to Afghanistan?), sending out cards, (with a 'Christmas letter'?), decorating, making out that list, (and checking it twice?), shopping, (gifts, party clothes, food, etc.), baking, cooking, partying, getting that second mortgage to pay for it all, or raiding your Christmas stash, and let's remember religious preparation.
So what have you done so far, especially TODAY? Shipped anything far away? Have you bought all of your decorations yet? Tested all those old strings of lights?
Will this be your first Christmas with a new baby or grandbaby? Or maybe the first Christmas without someone who is far away or someone who has passed away?
What traditions does your family have... the kind of thing where it's just not Christmas without... (maybe Aunt Zelda's fruit cake or maybe midnight church service). Where will you spend Christmas this year?
Now after all of those reminders, you're probably thinking "I've got to get off this blasted computer and GET BUSY NOW!!!" 
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Rank: King  Joined: 10/7/2009 Posts: 1,138 Location: Purgatory
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Nahhh!!!! I'll be investing in my 100 stamp roll here in a bit then send my cards. Everyone but my Mom/Stepfather, Dad/Stepmother, Brother, Gram, Two Uncles/GF's and Godchild get cards. The above mentioned get gifts. I enjoy giving practical splurges. (back scratchers, scrubby gloves (you use in the shower...ohhh they're so nice!), Mugs filled with teabags or cocoa n' goodies, etc.) Or something practical but thoughtful that goes with what they are doing that particular time in their life. I once got a value pack of AA Duracells and a flashlight for my car the same year I got a Television. I got more excited over the batteries and flashlight becuase I used my walkman so much I ate batteries like they were going out of style and I was always driving at night and with an '89 escort you break down often, it's nice to have a light. The TV collected dust until I moved out on my own 5 years later. It continues to except when I have Mayghen overnight with movies. I dont even have the rabbit ears for basic channels. What's the use??? I can get the news from the net or radio! Plus News Anchors creep me out. Dont ask. "I am one of those unhappy persons who inspire bores to the greatest flights of art. "
Edith Sitwell
"Inka-Dinka-Du" -Jimmy Durante
Contemplating manifestations hidden in buried wounds. Bleed forth bringing old pains to new light Every step is cleansing, renewing and growing In the inertia of cycles, new inspiration flows like Wisdom's kiss.
(c) 2010 N. Marie L...
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Rank: King  Joined: 8/5/2009 Posts: 1,228
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I'm GO and getting in the mood. Doesn't take much, as this is my time of year. From Autumn October on it's a happier time for me.
I've been retired for awhile, and make homemade goodies for children and grands each year which they all like. Usually put on a tray,decor bowl, or container families can use again for something else after the sweets are gone.
OR
I like to sew, and I have several projects already begun for my families. I have a few friends I like to do things for as well.
I plan a special table cover for one daughter and son-in-law. They are busy taking care of me for a few weeks, and I already have beautiful fabric and trims in hand.The design is in my head.
I will add some handmade sewn Christian items, and hope to make a 'Christmas Only' runner for it as well before the big day. The basic table cover will be generic enough to be used for any occasion and company.
Sewing & Cooking are about the only areas of creative work I do, but I enjoy it so much and usually feel really good about the results because it is original, specially for them, and a keepsake too.
The stores are decorating already, and daughter and I have had some great stroll thrus already..Each year I am amazed at the artworks & decor items fresh and different.
Lovin it.
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Rank: King Joined: 6/15/2005 Posts: 2,978
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Sigh.
I've dealt with the American perception of Christmas for a long time. For kids, it's great...at least for the moment when all the goods come in. I think it should be good for LITTLE kids. After ten or twelve, kids are kind of old to expect Santa.
But for years, it's been the standard. Spend too much for some kind of tree, and waste an evening making it pretty. Sometime about 1990, doing that started to seem like a chore to me and not fun.
Then, cook. I spent lots of Christmases cooking fine turkey dinners for my parents, and I'm glad I did it. But it occurred to me finally that I spent most of the day in the kitchen, not enjoying Christmas. Cooking, serving, cleaning up. Then making snacks.
In recent years, I've really seen how good Christmas is for a lot of men. The wives do the shopping. The wives do the wrapping and mailing. The wives do a lot of the decorating, but men to pitch in there. But when it's all over, no men or kids are in sight for the taking down. The wives do the food shopping, preparing, and serving. The wives do the cleaning up while the men amble off to the ball game on TV. I'm not even a wife, but I'm in on the wife stuff.
I've thought for years that we should forgo the gifts for adults. Most of us could buy ourselves something just as good or better with less hassle. Maybe the dinner and clean up thing can't go away. But I think all consumers of Christmas dinner should contribute to its making and its cleanup.
Other than that, church on Christmas Eve...and simplicity. And maybe, somewhere...a big thought to the actual humility of the season?
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 Rank: Rook  Joined: 9/27/2007 Posts: 494
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I am real lucky as my adult son does all the Christmas decorating of my house and my ex's (his Dad)house as well and he does a fantastic job of it. He decorates the living and dining rooms so beautifully and can hardly wait to do it each year. He also puts out some lights on the front deck of our double-wide home. Really looks terrific. I am so glad he likes to do all this, as I don't care for decorating and much prefer to cook.
I will be cooking a big ol' Christmas feast for everybody as usual, I imagine. I have 3 grown kids and 5 grand ones ages 8, 6, 5, 5, and 4. We have alot of fun during the holidays.
My daughter has a Christmas party usually a week before the 25th and there is quite a big turnout. We do a Chinese Christmas way of exchanging gifts and it is alot of fun for everybody. We plan on that again this year and look forward to it.
I haven't done anything today to plan for Christmas except think of what I am going to cook. My son plans on putting up the tree on Dec. 1 (as usual) and then I will wrap what gifts I have already bought and get them under the tree.
This Thursday my son and I will go shopping for Christmas cards to be sent the 1st week of Dec. and just do some shopping for gifts and out to eat at a new restaurant near the mall. I am so looking forward to it.
I hope everyone will keep uppermost in their minds about the TRUE meaning of Christmas this year as they go about their Christmas activities....and that is Jesus Christ and his birth so long ago. There would be no Christmas if Jesus had not been willing to leave Heaven and come down here to earth to save us. Don't greet others with "happy holidays", but rather "Merry Christmas"....keeping Christ in Christmas!!
Linda
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Rank: King Joined: 8/5/2009 Posts: 2,760 Location: lost in state of complete confusion
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From Henrietta:
*T’was the month before Christmas*
*When all through our land,*
*Not a Christian was praying*
*Nor taking a stand.*
*See the PC Police had taken away,*
*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*
*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*
*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*
*It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say*
* December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.*
*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*
*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*
*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*
*Something was changing, something quite odd!*
*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*
*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*
*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*
* At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.*
*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears*
*You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.*
*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*
*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*
*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*
*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !*
*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*
*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*
*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*
* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*
*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*
*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*
*So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'*
*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*
*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*
*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS,
not Happy Holiday !*
Please, all Christians join together and
wish everyone you meet during the
holidays a
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Christ is The Reason for the Christ-mas Season!
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Rank: King Joined: 8/5/2009 Posts: 2,760 Location: lost in state of complete confusion
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Am making that list and checking it twice about now, in preparation for 'black Friday'... and even more tough than the list is 'The Search'.
My Christmas shopping really does begin on Dec 26, and all year long, I see things that would make a nice gift, and I buy them... and I hide them...
Just last week I found a really nice calendar that I bought ahead of time and stashed away... a calendar for 2008!
If anybody ever tries to burglarize my house, they'll never find nuttin'! 
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Rank: King  Joined: 12/9/2003 Posts: 1,790
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Except for buying the ingredients for Christmas dinner (which will be at my house this year), there isn't much left for me to do. Because of my budget limitations, I take advantage of sales all year 'round and have those gifts stashed in the closet waiting to be wrapped.
The decorations won't take much time. We put up a small lighted Christmas tree with only a few ornaments (all unbreakble because of our cats) and a wreath on the door and that's it for the house.
As far as I am concerned, it is the people who come to celebrate the Day who are the best decorations that any house can display. They bring energy and brightness to this place and make it ring with joy, something that no ornament could ever do.
Merry Christmas to all!
Enjoy!
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Rank: King Joined: 8/5/2009 Posts: 2,760 Location: lost in state of complete confusion
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We got an unexpected invite to my husband's relatives for Thanksgiving and probably will be back at 'em for Christmas.
So for a take-along, I put effort and spared no expense, on a chicken, veggie and noodles Alfredo casserole, which as usual NOT ONE PERSON EVEN TOUCHED. I doubt that the fault is in my cooking, as no one who has ever lived under my roof ever had a problem with loosing weight or being underweight. In the past I have even tried taking a cake from a bakery. It was stuck off to the side and never cut.
It stems from my husband being estranged from that side of his family, years before I met him. I even had to cancel plans for my daughter's college graduation party when all of them (including her grandmother, who was her only living grandparent) felt it was more important to go to a professional baseball game than to go to our daughter's college graduation. Could not help but believe that it also stems from my husband graduating from college and having 2 more post-grad degrees when none of them had graduated from high school.
My husband and our family has always been treated like this by them, which is why we did not expect to get the invite in the first place.
So now what do I take for the Christmas dinner with this bunch? And if I take nothing... that will just give them something to talk about: my being a free-loader.
And as far as not going... every holiday might be my MIL's last...
Sorry this is not in the 'Christmas spirit' but all too often holidays do wind up being just more grief for lots of people.
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Rank: King Joined: 8/5/2009 Posts: 2,760 Location: lost in state of complete confusion
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Have decided that I'll never waste my time cooking for that crowd again.  I'll just grab something from the WalMart bakery... maybe something off the 'day-old' clearance rack!
And I feel better already! 
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Rank: Rook Joined: 9/27/2007 Posts: 494
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Loved your great poem "tree", ML. Don't fret over telling us your Christmas woes as I'm sure whoever lives long enough will surely have one of their own as well. People can be both looney and very irritating as well. Had to LOL at you're saying you would pick up something in the day-old category at a bakery becuz before I read that post I was going to suggest you just bring a package of rolls. That would be contributing something yet very inexpensive and if the lugs don't touch it...oh well, right? hehe. I'm probably not as nice as you, becuz I would announce in a very loud voice as I plopped the rolls down on the counter, "Attention everybody....I just brought rolls since nobody ever touches what I BAKE and I'm tired of being hurt by it".  That would sure liven up the party, wouldn't it...  Here's a story for ya: One year my SIL asked me what I was going to bring to the Christmas party at her sister's house. I told her and DANG if she didn't bring the IDENTICAL dish herself. Steamed me.  I thought "what the heck??"  I never mentioned it, but should have and would today as I am getting alot more outspoken in my latter middle age. Just getting sick and tired of some people. My only guess as to why this SIL did this was she felt I was incompetent to make the dish as well as her. NO way....I was always a better cook....LOL (that's not braggin', that's according to my family).  Linda Linda
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Rank: King Joined: 8/5/2009 Posts: 2,760 Location: lost in state of complete confusion
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Really enjoyed your comments, Linda. Thnx.
Today my daughter (24 yrs old) said "Did it seem to you like they really did not want us there?..."
I'm convinced that the only reason we were invited was because they did manage to get my MIL there (by 'medical transport', kind of like a low-grade ambulance). If she was there and my husband, her eldest, was not, she'd demand to know why. I was VERY surprised to learn that she was coming because I was told a few months ago that she was permanently bed-ridden, but they did get her dressed, hair fixed nice even a fresh dye-job, and in a wheelchair for about a 2 hour visit.
And I was the one to offer to chip in on the cost of $85.
Glad you like the poem, but I can not claim credit. Got it from Henrietta. Long time ago, she told me I could post anything from her. Hope she hasn't changed her mind...
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Rank: King Joined: 8/5/2009 Posts: 2,760 Location: lost in state of complete confusion
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If you are looking for a very inexpensive gift, maybe a 'stocking stuffer' for a man (or a woman) WD-40 has a new item. It contains the same lubricant as WD-40, but it is in a 'pen', about the size of a thick highlighter, and the lubricant is applied with a dauber instead of a spray. The dauber enables it to be used with no odor! And no over-spray on floor et. al.
I have tried it and found it to be very useful in about 90% of the places and ways you would use the WD-40 sprayer can.
And the best part is it costs only about $3. But you will probably have to make a stop at a 'real' hardware store. They do not have it at the big box discount stores. I found mine at an 'ACE Hardware'.
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Rank: King Joined: 12/9/2003 Posts: 1,790
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I didn't know that WD-40 came in such a handy applicator. Thanks for the info MLawson. As soon as I can get someone to take me to our ACE Hardware that's going to be a nifty surprise for folks who drop on by during the season. I really hate to hand out Christmas candy nowadays because of those extra calories that nobody really needs around these parts.....
It is great to have a personal shopper like you finding those little treasures for me since I can't get out and about and do a real job of shopping now.
I love your avatar!
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 Rank: Queen  Joined: 1/21/2005 Posts: 100
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Downloading more animated GIFs as codas for my emails. 
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Rank: King  Joined: 9/30/2009 Posts: 2,934
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It took two days this week to get the tree decorated and it looks beautiful. I still have to put the train up underneath the tree. My tree decorations are a collection that has grown over decades, even the ones my kids made years ago I still hang on the tree. Remember those stars made out of paper dipped in wax and sprinkled with glitter? And then there is the reindeer made out of clothespins, and the stockings the kids put their names on in glitter, and the lollipops made out of a stick stuck in a Styrofoam ball covered with a piece of Christmas cloth tied with a piece of yarn...every year they go on the tree. The mantle is decorated with greens, red candles and the stockings are hung. The mirror is draped with garland as is the stair banister with tartan plaid ribbon and bows. Today I worked on the Dickens' village on top of the piano. All the little houses and buildings complete with street lights, skating pond, covered bridge, sleighs, carolers and of course snow. It looks real pretty all lit up at night. I have a few more things to do inside and tomorrow plan on hanging the wreaths on the windows and door and get the candles in the windows. Maybe put some lights on the bushes and decorate the front porch.
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Rank: Queen Joined: 1/21/2005 Posts: 100
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I put up one string of lights. I unsealed the box of cards I bought last year and looked at one. My town has an open house every Saturday in December. Stores stay open later. I mooched 3 cookies, 1 cup of cider, 1 glass of wine, 2 pieces of peppermint candy and 1 piece of chocolate.   My car needs repairs.
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Rank: King Joined: 6/15/2005 Posts: 2,978
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I am, tomorrow, week 2 into a bathroom remodel. Last Sunday I put up a small Christmas tree, and Spenser promptly destroyed it.
The ONE bathroom I have is still under construction. The guy told me last Saturday I might be one day without bathing facilities. I STILL do not have them. The guy is very careful but Georgia slow.
I pack up gear and bathe at my sister's or else sink bath. It's driving me nuts.
But it does put things in perspective for me. Most people I spend a lot on Christmas don't ever much care.
I think I may give everyone a snapshot of my finished bathroom and tell them THIS is my Christmas spending. Come and take a shower.
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Rank: King Joined: 8/5/2009 Posts: 2,760 Location: lost in state of complete confusion
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jfloyd wrote:But it does put things in perspective for me. Most people I spend a lot on Christmas don't ever much care.
I think I may give everyone a snapshot of my finished bathroom and tell them THIS is my Christmas spending. Come and take a shower.
That's a good one, J... but be careful who you send that invite to... Some might take if for an invite to come and visit you... for a few days... or a few weeks. 
And others just might take it to be an invite to something naughty!
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Rank: King Joined: 9/30/2009 Posts: 2,934
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Boy those bathroom renovations can be a bear. Hubby is planning on gutting two of our bathrooms after the holidays. The master bath and the hall bath are back to back. He has discovered a lot of wasted space between the two. I don't really understand all of his plans only that he wants to make the hall bathroom more like a half bath with a makeup vanity and extra storage and a half bath off of the master but between the two have access to a space with a tub and shower. I have always wanted an old-fashioned ball and claw tub. They are the best-est to take a soak in and I have always wanted a shower with a sitting bench inside. Another thing I have always wanted in the bath are windows up high that let the natural light in with a shelf for plant life. And one more request I had was to use some of the gorgeous glass tiles they now have out to choose from in the decor. We shall see.....
Things are starting to look rather festive around here. Got the wreaths up on the windows and found these battery operated candles that have flickering flame lights that sit perfectly on top of the ledge of the window and centered inside each wreath. They have timers in them and burn for 8 hours then shut off. Looks nice from the street. Tomorrow Mr.Humbug is suppose to put up the lights outside. I on the other hand will be out doing a little Christmas shopping and having lunch with a friend.
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