Homies!

Should I start the Countdown to the Holiday Season 2010?????

We've had an assload of snow lately, and our house looks pretty cute all covered in it, if I may say so myself. I'm sorry about the crappy quality, my camera apparently doesn't cope well in the dark.

Your Christmas what was it like? (cross posted to my own journal)

6 little questions

1. What do you normally do on Christmas Eve? Did you have to work?


2. Who did you share Christmas with?


3. When do you open presents? Do you have stockings?


4. What time did it start? Do you wake early and excited?


5. What traditions do you have? Did you keep them or add any new ones?


6. Can we see your trimmings please?

( my answers behind the cut )

Hey everybody,
so, today is my least favorite day of the year. i always get kinda depressed on this day.  There's so much build up and anticipation for Christmas, basically starting in October, and then on 26 December it's all over.  Everything that made me almost burst with joy from day after Thanksgiving-yesterday (lights, christmas trees, christmas music, christmas movies, egg nog ect.) just makes me gloomy today. last night even, i saw a Christmas tree lot with trees still in it and it was one of the most depressing things ever. i find myself thinking that getting through the next year, waiting for my favorite holiday, will be torture. so, my question is do other people have this annual Christmas crash? and if so, how do you deal with it?

i'm so glad i'm part of a community that i can share this with and that will understand!

Well, Christmas is almost over now. :( But I hope everyone had a good one!

And it'll continue to be Christmas year 'round here at this community. :D

What did you enjoy most about this Christmas? Anything specifically, or everything?

I think the highlight for me was sharing a beautiful Christmas service at my church last night along with my family, being with them and singing Christmas songs.

I wish everyone peace and happiness for the new year. Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas! As I may have mentioned, I posted twenty-four days worth of Christmas/holiday themed posts in my blog during the month of December, and my twenty-fifth is directory of them all, for easy backwards browsing. Click below, and have an amazing holiday! xx

Merry Christmas, everyone.

In a way, this year dragged by much slower than I liked.
In a way, it went quicker than I ever imagined it would.

I hope today is a wonderful day for everyone, and that whatever problems you're facing seem brighter, even if it's just for today. I hope you spend the day surrounded by the people you love and that you spend it doing everything you love.

(Oh, by the way, it's only 365 more days until Christmas. ;))

Waited through Spring & Fall
To hear silver bells ringing
See Winter time bringing
The Happiest Season of all

-From Mel Torme's version of The Christmas Song

Merry Christmas to all of you here in Christmaslovers!

Look what my mom sent me! It's a Charlie Brown Christmas tree! I love it. And in true Charlie Brown form, in taking it outside to photograph it I broke the red ornament, so now there's a substitute from my other tree on it. But it's okay. It's Christmas Eve! Warmth and health and happiness and love to each of you!

Just a little something I wrote for Secret Santa on a forum.  Nothing special, and the first poem I've ever written, but it was fun to write.  Hope it's okay to post it here.

Late on a misty Christmas eve,
A jolly old man drags his sack, with a ho and a heave.
With spark of Christmas twinkling in his eye,
He squeezes down the chimney to grab his first mince pie.
Presents he leaves beneath the tree,
Like honey from a happy bee.
His reindeer clatter on the roof,
Their light hooves leaving not a trace of proof.
In the blink of an eye, he is gone,
And the children soon playing with their Pokemon.
His job now done, it’s time to unwind,
But he’ll soon have to start next year’s grind.

EDIT:

I wrote a second one, don't think it's as good as the first though.

Lost and alone on this Christmas eve,
Our poor little elf couldn’t help but grieve.
How he had got here he just didn’t know,
He couldn’t even find his way home through the snow.
In his head our poor elf could clearly see,
Snug by the fire, his close family.
Shivering, cold and froze to the bone,
Our poor elf wondered if he would ever get home.
When up overhead, what did he see?
Jolly Saint Nick had set Rudolph free!
He had followed his nose,
And to the sky he had rose,
To rescue the poor little elf,
Before the cold weather affected his health.
Soon, nice and warm, snuggled up to the fire,
Our unfortunate elf faced his families ire,
And never again did he wander alone,
(Well, at least not too far from home).

Although my icon is a wolf I also have a deep love of cats. We currently have four. Two of them are just a little over a year old. For the last two years we have not had a Christmas Tree. I was concerned that the tinsel and glass ornaments would be dangerous to the cats. It finally occurred to me that tinsel was not required and ornaments could be made out of material such as felt. So, last night I went tree shopping and found a 6 foot Nobel Fur. Its a solid tree with a robust stand that, should a cat climb the tree, wouldl probably continue to hold tree and cat upright.

I brought it home and set it up in the livingroom. It was about 10:00 PM. The cats initially fled, but we figured that their curiosity would lure them back.

Denise came downstairs with her camera all ready to take cute cat pictues of kittens peering out through the folliage, playing with ornaments, etc. But furst, a picture of the plain tree with the cats inquisitive noses checking it out.

No sooner did Densie set up for the Photos than Max, our bravest hunter walked up to the tree. What would he do? I figured he would climb it, or scratch the trunk.

Nope. Max, in a most dignified manner, turned his back on the tree and sprayed it. Needles, limbs and rug.

I snatched up the tree, took it outside and hosed it off. Denise grabbed the cat pee cleaner and took care of the rug.

Ok. So we have an outside tree.

Today I went to the craft store and picked up a large red ribbon and some fake red berries and silvered fake mistletoe. I figured that these ornaments would last out in the weather. I brought them home and Denise agreed it was a good idea.

It was and it wasn't. The ornaments were a great idea. Setting the plastic bag of ornaments on the end table next to the couch was not a good idea. I went upstairs and heard a crash. Ok. The cats knocked the bag off the end table. No big deal. Then I heard a sound like galloping pregnant Rhinoserouses and several more crashes.

I ran down stairs. Rose, One of the younger cats, had got her head stuck through the strap of the bag and panicked. She took off like a 4th of July rocket and was still accelerating as I watched and tried to catch her. She made two rounds of the kitchen, dining room, living room and entry way before she hit the stairs, now just an orange blur. At the top of the stairs she made a hard left and dove through the bedroom door and under the bed in one leap.

Once in the dark closed in space she stopped running to catcher her breath. Denise got the bag off of her. The bag was fragrant. Apparently Rose in her fright had had peed in the bag and then spread it, along with the new ornaments, all over the house as she fled from the plastic monster.

So, the house is once again clean. The ornaments are on the tree outside. Rose is undergoing brushing therapy and I'm sitting here wondering why at my a dvanced age I am still doing such dumb things.

Happy Holidays.

Saw this in a random person's profile on youtube and absolutely had to post it here because it is just so true of the Christmas season. I'm absolutely amazed by the fact that yet another holiday season is 3 days from being over again. It reminds me of how fast life is going. But I hope you've all made the most of it. I've felt very festive this year and I've felt like I've done a lot of things to make my holiday season memorable. So enjoy this quote and think about how true it really is:

"Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved. " ~Augusta E. Rundel

Happy Winter Solstice everyone!

Today is the first day of winter, according to the calendar.

It's already FELT like winter for a while now though.

It's a little strange - December is usually associated with Christmas, and Christmas is associated with winter. Yet the majority of the month of December is officially still autumn. December just doesn't seem like an "autumn" month, like October and November do.

Hello and Merry Christmas to all! For all those, who wants to feel the Christmas spirit not only in real, but in the web too, we made an awesome Christmas web-project – World Christmas Tree! Join us – you could just claim a spot, decorating the Tree with your photo or art. Or you can send wishes to your friend, living far away and even send him a little gift or postcard. Finally, it’s just cool – to take a part in the global Christmas community!

This is something that's puzzled me for a while, and who better to ask than a Christmas-related comm?

I've only seen the 1951 Christmas Carol (the Alistair Sim one) on a copy recorded off the television. I'm puzzled by what seems to be a scene omission and am wondering if it was edited out for TV but was present in the original film, since it's an important scene: the part where the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to see the Crachits' Christmas Eve dinner. In the copy I've got, it goes straight from Scrooge seeing his former fianceé helping the poor to the Ghost of Christmas Present preparing to leave, and I can hardly believe the original film would have been that way. Anyone know?

Fun little Christmas quiz see if you can guess them all. Click on link below to see the answers
16 Christmas Carols / Songs Quiz

I got a late start to listing my favorite Christmas movies this year because lots of work & school biz. Enough about that. This year I'm doing it a little different. Instead of just ranking them, I'm instead suggesting a different movie for everyday in December that bring the Christmas spirit to you with a dash of disturbing images, silly jokes & fun loving action sequences. If you are one of the bored folks that reads my list every year, you'll recognize a lot of these but wont recognize them all! Since it's already the 18th, I guess you'll have to use this as a reference for next year...or just ignore it like most people do.


Dec 1st: Let the festivities start with the most delightful Christmas adventure ever made
Die Hard (a heartfelt story that takes place on Christmas Eve about a hardworking NYC cop that's invited to his wife's business' Christmas party in LA and ends up giving her and her co-workers the best Christmas gift ever when he saves their lives from deadly terrorists who are planning to overtake their new high rise building and kill them all. As John McClain, Bruce Willis outwits the sophisticated European criminals with his big city street smarts and caps them off one by one. Complete with a fair share of blue collar street smarts, a super-tough guy played by a ballet dancer, just the right amount of techno-babble, an exploding high rise, a giant fake corporate Christmas tree tumbling to the ground & a great deal of California bashing; it's not difficult to see why this is my favorite Christmas film of all time! This is an instant holiday classic that the whole family can sit by the fireplace and enjoy.)


Dec 2nd: A movie to remind you why you wanna be home for the holidays
Running Scared (Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a Christmas tree getting blown to pieces in a climactic shootout between a viscous Colombian drug lord and a couple stereotypical Chicago cops. And boy, does this film deliver on that! While it doesn't contain a whole lot of Christmas overtones, it does include every buddy cop cliche one can imagine and an overdose of unrealistic action scenes bound together with the face straightening humour of Billy Crystal and tap-dancing sensation Gregory Hines. Perhaps the greatest gem this film offers is a the notion that retiring and moving to Florida may seem like paradise at first, but in the end year-round warm weather and bikini-clad ladies don't compare to the dirty, dangerous town you grew up in. And anyone who's ever accused the two stars of closet homosexuality, need only watch a few minutes of their masculine gun play an female seduction to realize they're probably right. "Oh, sweet freedom, shine your light on me.")

( See the rest if you dare! Sorry, kids, it was late and I forgot to cut it. )