Friday, December 27th, 2013

Lucy Maud Montgonery, "...We pay a price for everything we get or take in this world....."

Today was basically about resting. We had a busy trip to Tulsa for Christmas and then I had to go do my annual "day after Christmas shopping" and we headed back home to Winslow.

We took the doggies to their annual vet visit and they are doing good so after that we came home and watched the rest of our Christmas movies that we didn't have time to get to before Christmas, The Santa Clause and Scrooged!

Not a very exciting Friday Night in Winslow but most of them aren't, that's kinda the point!

We finished up the evening with stuffing our faces with some leftovers and making plans for tomorrow, whether or not we can get started on our winter tree trimming or not.  Though we have a lot to do and didn't get much done last winter, we opted not to this weekend!  Instead, we decided to take a road trip up to Eureka Springs..... To look at chapels!!!  That's right, we're thinking of a small family wedding in Eureka Springs in late March and are waiting to find the right place before we finally set the date.  I'll keep you posted!

That's it for me, goodnight!

Just for fun:

Bought about $150.00 of 50% off after Christmas sale items but only paid $75.00!  

Christmas, 2013

Mario Puzo wrote, "The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in it's loyalty to each other".

Christmas is my most favorite holiday.  I'm sure I've said that a million times but it truly is my favorite and not just the day, but the time of year.

I had a great time with my family in Tulsa, last night, we went out to visit Damon's parents and exchanged gifts and ate a great dinner. This morning, we exchanged gifts at my Mom's house in the morning and ate more great food around lunch time.  Then of course, we were all in a food coma and all we wanted to do was go to sleep!  In fact, Damon did take a nap, I tried, and in spite of how tired I was, couldn't fall asleep (I think this may have something to do with staying up late with one of my brothers (James) and my sister (Red) and there may have been some wine involved......

At any rate, we had a really great Christmas, my niece and nephew were visiting their mom out of state for Christmas so I didn't get to see them this trip but everyone else made it.  Great food and being with family, what more could you ask for?

I do hate to say that when I go to explain what I love about Christmas I will usually say something like, "decorating the tree, shopping for family and friends, eating too much and especially the sweets, getting and giving Christmas cards, etc", and I could go on, but some of the thoughts might not sound so commercial and be more meaningful, like "spending time with family and friends, helping others, and adopting a child from the angel tree".  

Sadly, because of everyone being so politically correct these days, I never say "because I'm celebrating the birth of Christ".  Feel free to stop reading my blog now if you don't care for what I'm saying, but I am a Christian.  I said, I'm a Christian, not a lunatic!  I don't try to cram my religion down anyone's throat, I don't try to recruit people to turn Christian (though, I have on occasion argued my beliefs against those of my friends who disagree with Christianity, but that wasn't to change their mind so much as it was that we like to argue our points with each other) and honestly, I don't care what you believe or don't, just don't get pissed off at me if I talk about Christmas being Christ's birthday and don't shoot me because I said I'm a Christian.

I know, here I am rambling again but I tend to do that and you should know that by now, unless this is your first Friday Night in Winslow!

Anyway, this is Christ's birthday and I'll be the first to admit that I haven't done much to celebrate that.  Tonight, i'm left hoping for a change in my traditions for next year.  I hope to make Christmas a little less about money and how many gifts I receive and focus on the gifts I can give, and I don't mean necessarily going out and spending money, I mean giving of myself and my time.  I hope to do away with all the stress and drama and worrying about monetary things, and focus a little more on spending time helping others and on Christmas day, just being together as a family.   

No matter your tradition, make sure it's meaningful.  The material gifts you receive, no matter what they cost, can't replace or make up for, time spent with your family.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

Friday, December 20th, 2013

Elbert Hubbard said, "No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one."

Finally!!!!

Today marked the first day of my vacation!  I'll be off work for a week and a half and I need it!  Things have been a little crazy lately and Christmas is my favorite holiday, so I always save my vacation time for Christmas!  To be fair, I just worked from home for a week due to the snow, but that is truly not a vacation. I work more hours when I'm working at home than I do in the office!  I guess it's because of the quite, no one coming into my office, no phone ringing off the hook, etc.

At any rate, I'm done with all of my shopping but we did have some last minute gift wrapping to do and a couple of gift baskets to put together so we finished that up tonight!

I think we're all set for Christmas, other than some food were going to cook on Monday!  I'll be making my yummy homemade dinner rolls and Damon will be making his southwestern sweet corn to take to our family dinners.

Since we can't do that until Monday, we decided to continue our Christmas movie marathon tonight and we went with "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation".  No matter what you might think of the movie, in fact, I imagine that most people think it's silly or just down right stupid, but we still find it pretty flippin' hilarious!!

I don't really care for Randy Quaid, I just don't, but I have to admit, in this movie, I love him.  Mostly, because I think it makes me think of how awful it would be to have a cousin like this in my family!! Still, he's pretty hilarious and while I don't generally care for Chevy Chase either, this is the best of their little vacations this family has ever taken in my opinion!

The movie is full of ridiculous moments that have to make you smile and at least chuckle just a little bit!

Merry Kiss My Ass

I hope you all have plenty of smiles and laughter this Christmas!!

Just for fun:

Bought only $19.50 worth of food and household items, but after coupons and sales: Spent only $14.50 out of pocket.  

Friday, December 13th, 2013

Mark Twain "If it is a miracle, any sort of evidence will answer.  but if it is a fact, proof is necessary."

Friday the 13th, you say?

No superstition going on here.  We're just kicking off our Christmas movie marathon, and what better movie to start with than "A Christmas Carol"... the one with George C. Scott of course!

I have a ridiculous number of Christmas movies that I've recorded on DVR, but most all of them are those Hallmark and Lifetime channel movies that Damon won't dare watch, but I've been watching them here and there without him.  Damon is under the impression that those channels are where has-been actors go to die, and considering who I've seen in some of these movies, he's not too far off!

Damon and I have our favorite classic Christmas movies that we watch every year, they may not be "classics" to you but they're our tradition!

Others on the list include, my personal favorite, "It's a Wonderful Life", which most people say is 2 hours of sadness and 5 minutes of happiness, but I don't care!  That movie really is life, how many of us truly get a lifetime of happiness and only a few minutes of sadness?  We all have disappointments, things don't always go right, but then we have those moments that are worth a lifetime of sadness.  George Bailey truly was the richest man in town, not because he had a lot of money or lived in the nicest house but because he had family and friends, people who loved him and people who would come to his aid in his darkest hour.  It's things like that that make a wonderful life so I'm perfectly content to watch two hours of this poor mans life and watch seemingly every single thing go wrong, just to see such a wonderful and happy ending!

I'm rambling so I'll stop now... Next, we have other classics like the original "Miracle on 34th Street" that we watch every year, as well as the fun Christmas movies like "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", "Scrooged", and "The Santa Clause".

Anyway, hopefully everyone has their own favorite Christmas movies and traditions that you get to enjoy with your family and friends each year!

Good night all!

Just for fun:

Bought only $12.00 worth of food and household items, but after coupons and sales: Spent only $7.00 out of pocket.  

Friday, December 6th, 2013

George Gissing "For the man sound in body and serene of mind, there is no such thing as bad weather...."

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

Who doesn't absolutely love the snow?  As you can see, the dogs are super happy getting to play in it.  They didn't like it so much when the snow was falling but now that it's stopped they are having fun running around in it.

I was pretty pissed to walk all the way down to the mailbox (look below) and there wasn't any mail there (because I went when it was still snowing and like 15 flippin' degrees outside) but I guess that was my own fault no matter how much i'd like to blame the post office for being lazy and not wanting to deliver mail in the snow.

Anyway, our Friday night consists of freezing our butts off in the snow for fun and then warming up with some beef stew and a bottle of wine.  We're just thankful it's warm in the house because earlier today, the power went out!

I of course went immediately into survival mode and lit some candles in our bedroom, put a blanket over the window and shut the door but the power came back a few hours later...... I'll have you know, the room did stay quite warm while the rest of the house dropped in temperature pretty quickly.

Enjoy the snow, act like a kid, go play with your dogs, ride a sled, make a snow angel, just enjoy it!

Just for fun:

Bought only $15.94 worth of food and household items, but after coupons and sales: Spent only $11.94 out of pocket.  

Black Thursday, 2013

"It was once said that love was giving someone the ability to destroy you, but trusting them not to."

Happy Thanksgiving all!!  I hope everyone enjoyed too much food, family and friends, happiness, and lots and lots of laughter today!

Our dinner went off without a hitch, good food and family is all you need on turkey day!  After eating and chatting, my brother broke out the Black Friday ads, but I stopped doing the whole Black Friday thing years ago.  The thought of fighting with people, getting your feet run over by baskets, getting pushed and shoved around, no parking spots, and waiting in ridiculously long lines just doesn't appeal to me anymore.

However, my mom and sister are staying over and they saw some things that were on sale tonight and my sister talked me into going with her for just a few things.  I figured it would be relatively painless and anything for my sis!

It wasn't as bad as it could have been but.............come on......really?

Yeah, look way down there and see all the boxes up in the air and all the people.  I think my sister is down there somewhere but I went about half way down and had some snotty girls yell "Excuse me!!!" as loud as they could from right behind me and believe me, it wasn't said to be polite.  The little you know what's thought everyone should get out of their way when literally, there was nowhere to move to.  Anyway, I told them to get over themselves and decided I should leave before I said or did something that would get me in trouble.

Leaving saved us a lot of time though, I made my way to the checkout side they had set up and my sister was on the other side.  So, she handed me her stuff and I went and got in a very short line.  I don't know exactly how Wal-Mart thought that herding people around the store was going to make things go smoother, I think it just slowed the process.  They literally wanted you to walk all the way around the store before you could go to the register.  Anyway, we didn't have to do that so yea us!

My advice, skip Thanksgiving sales and shop early, just be smart about it!!!

Just for fun:

Bought only $15.81 worth of food and household items last week, but after coupons and sales: Spent only $9.11 out of pocket.