Christmas is finally over!! It's been, as usual, very busy here. It seems as tho as soon as we got home from vacation after the Thanksgiving holiday it's been go, go, and go right up until Christmas.
Right off I threw a party for about 60 of us at the top of December. That was alot of fun with many surprises tucked in as well to make for an enjoyable evening. Then we had our Cantata a week later which kept me busy even tho I wasn't in it. It was a packed house two night affair. We probably had 250 a night and was the best ever.
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The boys came home, one with his girlfriend, and they stayed for about two weeks. David gave me the most talked about gift this year....a banana holder. Oooookay. . I laughed really hard and said I'd put it next to the ab roller he got me last year. The serious look on his face telling me how practical it is made me laugh even harder. He ran to the kitchen and put it together and put my bananas on it. Usually somebody gets a pez dispenser but none this year. Somebody goofed.
The two weeks went really fast. We spent one day ice skating and had a great time. It was the first time for me this year. I went quite a bit last year. I was the only one to stay completely on my feet as both my son and his gal went down at least once. I came close when the ice was getting icky but managed to get thru that wobbly incident. Of course my son went whizzing by and said...."I saw that."
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I think I managed NOT to overeat this year even with all the food given to us thanks to my diligent stair stepping ways and my upcoming trip to Bermuda. After all, I do want to fit into my summer clothing even if it's 20 degrees in January in my neck of the woods.
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We invited two ladies (mother and daughter) over for Christmas dinner. They are homeless and are living in a motel. I had some presents for them to open when they got here and only wished I did more after seeing their very grateful expressions. They are a mother and daughter pair and many in our church have been helping them in all sorts of ways. Right now we're trying to get them a car since the one they had died on them. They live in this motel because it's very close to their employment where they both work. We also had a very independent widow in her 80's eat Christmas dinner with us. She's the only one left in her family outliving her entire immediate family. She had many invites but decided on us and we were glad to have her. So we had a busy Christmas day with all the company and all.
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I finally started running again the week before Christmas with three days of three miles each and have gone from there. So far no foot problems with most of my running limited to the treadmill with an occasional outside jaunt. My legs feel great but my breathing is a bit off which is not surprising with five or six weeks of only stair stepping.
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David left Thursday for Chicago and will be at his gal's home with her family for a week or so before he heads back to school. He's actually house sitting for her family while they are away and taking care of their animals. Not only does he have to care for dogs and cats but they have race horses. I guess tho all he has to do with the horses is give them a mint a day. All but one he feeds out of his hand. The other one is a giant horse that scares the life out of my 6 foot son. He throws his mint into the stall. This horse has tude he says and there is no way he's going to offer his hand to this very exciteable race horse.
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Speaking of animals. One of my friends and her husband were away over the holidays. Actually they went to vist his dad and on the way to CT his dad died. They didn't made it in time. Tragic but not unexpected. He had cancer. Before they left they asked David if he'd care for their animals while they were away with what was going to be 3 or 4 days. Well because of this death, it turned out to be 8 days and David had to leave to go to Chicago. So that meant I was to take over the animal duty. So I went over with him on his last day and we did the rounds. First the outside cat. Then the in the barn in a hutch bunny. No problem so far. Then it was the chickens. Well I wasn't so sure about chickens. I was attacked as a teen by a goose so me and big birds don't get along too well. But I went into the pen, very timidly, they had rigged up in the old barn . One of the things we were supposed to do was to take the eggs off the nest. There were five chickens. On this day, four were clucking around our feet with one on the nest.
I said to David, "Are you going to check for eggs under that white chicken?"
He said, "Are you crazy.? I'm not going to move her. You do it."
I said, "um, no you should do it, and I'll watch."
Well we argued like this for a few minutes and then I said...."Oh all right. I'll just do it. Why did I have boys for anyway?"
I had big mittens on so if she pecked at me, it wouldn't hurt so much. I went in there with my arm way extended from my body and with quick hand motions tried to unsettle her. She made some noises and stood up, kind of agitated and I grabbed the 3 eggs under her. Mission accomplished. Not so bad after all. It's a wonder I didn't break those eggs in my haste.
I went back the next day very confident. This time a diff chicken on the nest. I attempted to do the same thing only this gal wasn't quite so submissive as her sister and pecked me back. After jumping back a bit and getting now angry I did it again only this time more forcefully. After all I'm much bigger. She got the message and moved only for me to see....no eggs this time. Geeesh.
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In the past we've had New Year's Eve parties at our home. It got so packed we had to call it off last year. I have a small house and we must have packed about 100 in it. We did this for about three years and everyone raved at what a great time they had but we were so packed in it was like living in a submarine for three or four hours. We'd move all the furniture to take advantage of every square foot of space we could but it just got to be too much.
So this year, we stayed home alone. No company. We rented 5 movies and ordered in Chinese Food. We had to order that 2 and a half hours ahead of time. We were prepared for this knowing how busy this place can be. So, Pork Fried Rice, Egg Rolls, Richard Gere and Robert Redford. What's not to like? It was probably the best New Year's ever.
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This is all now the past. I'm looking forward now to the future and specifically Friday. This is the day we head to the Bahamas. We stop first at a friends home in FL for a couple days and then head for the boat. I am so looking forward to warm weather. I have never taken a vacation in January and have never been to a beach in the winter and am so looking forward to this.
It's going to be weird for me to pack shorts and tees and such in January. I'm thinking of sweats and jeans right now as we have a few inches of snow on the ground.
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The next decision is to find time to take down all the Christmas decorations. It's a chore to put all this up but it's much more of a chore to put it all away. I can see why all my older relatives don't bother any more. Do I want to see this when I return from my trip? probably not. So I'm thinking it's gotta go tomorrow.
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I can't believe it's already 2007. Can you remember all the hoopla over the 2000 New Year? Didn't that seem just like last year? It does to me. Reminds me of a poem that goes like this:
When as a child, I laughed and wept......time crept
When as a youth I dreamed and talked....time walked
When I became a full grown man.....time ran
When older too I grew.......time flew
Soon I shall find in passing on......time gone.
Happy New Year!!