It’s Christmastime

It’s that time of year again.

That means I’m officially off work for the season. Yay! It’s been a really long year, and I’m glad to have some time off. I’ll be off for eleven (11) weeks. Eleven whole weeks.
Lil’ SS will be here for 1.5 weeks after Christmas, and I know SS has things planned for when she’s here.

Two weeks from today is…

With our kids being older, Christmas isn’t the same as it used to be. Our tree isn’t littered with dozens of gift wrapped presents. There aren’t mounds of wrapping paper trash balls all over our living room on Christmas morning. And there isn’t Christmas music coming from our speakers. But, our house is decorated with lights, and garland, and everything Christmas. I spent an entire day taking the regular decor down, unpacking all the Christmas stuff, and then putting it all up and together. All while dancing around to Today’s Country music.

I don’t have a lot of horizontal space around my house, so I can only put out a few pieces of my village. Here’s one part of it…

This is the lighted garland that covers our bar…

The lighted garland carries up and around our banister to the upstairs. And that red lantern is my new, most favorite item, although I wish I had bought a second one…

When I asked RJ what he wanted for Christmas, he metioned one thing. Just one. When SS spoke with Lil’ SS about what she wanted, she said she just wants to go shopping. Our kids make shopping easy, thankfully.

With eleven weeks off work, I’m determined to find something to do every day. I’ll just have to surprise myself.

Until next time…

That Christmastime Holiday sprint …

…that everyone is always talking about, FINALLY hit me this year.

Don’t get me wrong. Christmastime while I was growing up was magical and everything you’d want it to be for a kid. But every year, it also included the dreaded parental swap from Mom’s to Dad’s, or Dad’s to Mom’s. It happened at noon every December 25th. And it sucked. As I got older, I started to dread Christmas just because of that.

Once I turned 18 and moved out on my own, just like any other teenager who thought they knew it all and ended up finding out they knew nothing, I struggled to eat every day, let alone decorate the little room I was renting in someone else’s house, or buy gifts for friends. That just wasn’t going to happen. I would receive gifts from my family in California, but I never could afford to send anything back, which made me feel bad and not look forward to Christmas.

I figured that all would change when I got married and had RJ. I mean, what Mom doesn’t get excited for all the holidays with a small child, especially Christmas? Me. That’s who. I was in a miserable relationship with someone I hated and regretted marrying, so thinking about celebrating love and family made me angry. I did all the expected things like decorating and baking and buying gifts and going to parties, but behind every smile was an angry young woman, just secretly wishing this would all end.

Once my marriage was over and I didn’t have the daily responsibility of a small child, I thought that would make the holiday time more fun. It didn’t. And simply because I didn’t get to celebrate the holiday with RJ. I would spend it with people that didn’t even celebrate Christmas, because at that time, I was dating a man that was Jewish.

Two Christmases ago, I was out of a job, so money was very tight. Paying our rent and bills became a priority, so gifts the kids received were from other people.

Last Christmas my sister was going through some very personal issues, so things just weren’t great around our family. I was depressed, and brought that depression with me everywhere I went. I tried to smile through the pain, but that just made it worse. I could feel the unhappiness in every smile line on my face, and it showed. It oozed off of me like an ugly black fog, and it lingured through the entire holiday season. I reluctantly decorated the house, but that was only because of the kids. If they hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have even brought the boxes out of the garage.

This year, things just worked out perfectly. RJ was able to fly out here for three weeks, and Lil’ SS is here for two. My mom was able to come down and spend several days with us as well, so that added extra happiness to my year. We had a little extra money saved, so everyone received great gifts.

I was, overall, just a much happier person this holiday season. I was surrounded by people that absolutely love me no matter what kind of mood I’m in, I have a job that I love, and my health isn’t failing. The first half of 2017 wasn’t wonderful, but the year sure ended on a happy note.

I’m grateful. I’m blessed. And I’m happy.
Here’s to a wonderful and amazing 2018.

It’s Almost Christmas

Christmas is nineteen days away. Nineteen. Am I ready? Absolutely not. Am I looking forward to it? Nope. Is my house decorated? Not at all.

Four weeks ago, SS and I pulled all the Christmas boxes out of the garage. At the time, I had promising intentions of decorating my house with red and green and silver and gold, but then family came to visit for Thanksgiving/my birthday, and finals happened. After working all day, and going to school at night, the last thing I want to come home and do is stand for one more second. So, the boxes are still unpacked.

SS and I aren’t going to see either of the two kids until after Christmas this year, so it’s kind of kept me out of the holiday spirit. I have no desire to hang stockings, or garland, or even put up a tree. It’s sad. And that makes me even more sad.

I talked to my mom the other day, and although she doesn’t usually give me great advice anymore, she did tell me that it was my duty as a mother, to make my house feel Christmasy for the kids. Regardless if they’re there on Christmas day or not.

Here’s to hoping I get into the holiday spirit soon……

Christmastime is here

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…..

It looks like Christmas around our parts. Finally got the tree up and decorated the other day. Yay!
It’s funny, I can remember just a few short years ago, feeling as if it didn’t matter if Christmas came or went. It was just another day to get things done. Life sure has twists and turns you don’t expect sometimes. I’m happy for that.

 

How is YOUR holiday decorating going? Do you have everything up already? Have you finished your shopping? Yikes! I haven’t. Back to it….

 

Christmas Music - Top 5 {Number One}

One of my favorite things about Christmas, is the music. BUT….I don’t want to hear it on every channel, all the time. I like a song here, and a song there. Too much, is too much.

From now until Christmas Day, you can find my top five favorite Christmas songs of all time.

Here is number ONE…..

Christmas Music - Top 5 {Number Two}

One of my favorite things about Christmas, is the music. BUT….I don’t want to hear it on every channel, all the time. I like a song here, and a song there. Too much, is too much.

From now until Christmas Day, you can find my top five favorite Christmas songs of all time.

Here is number TWO…..

Christmas Music - Top 5 {Number Three}

One of my favorite things about Christmas, is the music. BUT….I don’t want to hear it on every channel, all the time. I like a song here, and a song there. Too much, is too much.

From now until Christmas Day, you can find my top five favorite Christmas songs of all time.

Here is number THREE…..

Christmas Music - Top 5 {Number Four}

One of my favorite things about Christmas, is the music. BUT….I don’t want to hear it on every channel, all the time. I like a song here, and a song there. Too much, is too much.

From now until Christmas Day, you can find my top five favorite Christmas songs of all time.

Here is number FOUR…..

Christmas Music–Top 5 {Number Five}

One of my favorite things about Christmas, is the music. BUT….I don’t want to hear it on every channel, all the time. I like a song here, and a song there. Too much, is too much.

From now until Christmas Day, you can find my top five favorite Christmas songs of all time.

Here is number FIVE…..

Nine day till Christmas. Are you ready?

With only nine days left until Christmas, I’m finding it real difficult to stay in the Christmas spirit. When I walk through the stores and see all the Christmas decorations and holiday cheer being spread, I can’t help but smile. It makes me happy, and giddy, and I dance around in circles thinking about how much I’d love to be building snowmen and throwing snowballs at other people. Then suddenly, I’m snapped back into reality, and there’s no snow. Darn.

This Christmas, I’ll be in Phoenix, and I promise you, if I see any snow between here and there (on the way there OR the way back), I’m stopping to play in it.

It’s settled. I’m going to find snow for Christmas.

Merry Christmas

…from our house to yours.

Christmas means…

It’s Christmas time. Christmas time to me has always meant family.

Who am I kidding? When I was younger, Christmas was about who could get more gifts, me or my sister. Unfortunately, for my selfish mind, we always got the same amount. The competitor in me never won. It was so frustrating.

Once I got a bit older, Christmas was about time off school. While that was very exciting, it also meant we had to spend more than two days with my dad. And I hated every second of it.

When adulthood creped upon me and I had children to be responsible for, Christmas finally became about family. Nothing was more exciting than cooking a big Christmas dinner for my husband and our three children. We were, after all, a family.

Then came the divorce. Christmas didn’t matter to me anymore after that. It became something I dreaded and was, in fact, very bah humbug about. For six years I spent unhappily staring into other people’s living room windows, longing to once again have the happiness of a family at Christmas time.

I would put distance between myself and others who had invited me over for Christmas dinner. Pretending to be happy is not something I can easily do. The sadness and unhappiness eventually comes out and bringing everyone else down during the holidays was not something I was ever interested in doing. So I didn’t.

This year, it’s different. RJ is here and it’s all about Christmas. The neighbor (that always comes to help with my car) came over and hung lights on the outside of our house for us. He helped us get our Christmas tree. He offered to watch RJ for a few hours while I went Christmas shopping. He’s helped make this Christmas a memorable one. And I thank him.

RM#1 will be going to visit her family for Christmas, so it will be just RJ and I come Christmas morning. I’m anxious for him to open his gifts. I’m anxious for him to experience the kind of Christmas I feel every child should have. And I’m anxious to feel the excitement of family. He is my family. We are a family. Albeit small, we are family.

Merry Christmas, Readers. I hope your Christmas is magical!

It’s the Christmas season

And with that, comes Christmas music. I surely can’t help but turn it up real loud and sing along when this song comes on…

And this one…

A special Christmas ornament

A friend/co-worker mentioned having the coolest Christmas ornament ever. Naturally, my intuition says Yeah, right!

She wasn’t kidding. When she brought this to me, I almost died.

I went and hung it up on the rear view mirror of bff@work’s car. I can only imagine the hilarity that happened when he got in his car and drove away today. I wish I had seen it. It would have been priceless.

And for the record, I would TOTALLY hang that on my tree. RM#1 might disagree because it wouldn’t match all the rest of the décor, but I so totally would do it.

Happy Sunday.

Hello y’all! Guess who I found?

I found Rowdy Peanut lurking around the internet. (I found a cool website that allowed me to waste lots of time make M&M caricatures.) So, RP will be joining us for a bit. He’s my new mascot.

The time has finally come. I got a new Christmas Stocking. Since the one I had as a kid is the property of my dad, and we know I won’t be going there any time soon to get it, I figured it was time I broke free from the binds of childhood and got my own. Isn’t it cute? It’s like an elf shoe, with bells. RJ liked it. Said it was perfect for me. Maybe one year I’ll have my name put on the white part in glitter. Perhaps that’s a project for RJ. He can create the stocking that will hang on my fireplace for years to come. Awesome.

As RJ and I walked around Sis’s condo complex, we were surrounded by beautiful Birds of Paradise. They always have been, and always will be, my favorite flower. Nobody has ever allowed me to grow them, because they are such large plants, but one day, I’ll have a walkway path lined with them through my backyard. Awesome.

RJ and I took our Christmas card pictures today. I’m so overly excited about them. I can’t wait to send them out this year. EVERYONE I know is getting one, just because I’m excited about it.

Happy almost Monday, Readers. I hope your week is fabulous.

Merry Christmas!