December Gray with Christmas Blues

This holiday season has snuck up on me. I find myself missing the holiday spirit and my brother. A year has passed since he died so very quickly. Dad is lonely without him. He has no one to complain and stump with about the current poltical climate. He is into the "alternate news". I just think there are more important and interesting things in this life to talk about then politics. It is all the same with politicals. All the fighting and finger pointing. It is always the other parties fault. No one ever accepts responsibility or takes accountability for their actions. And you can never get anyone to change their mind; they think they are always right, so what is the point; I find life blah right now. I feel redundant! I see this world full of light, gray, and darkness. The scale is always moving between the good and the evil, never in balance, never staying still, never at peace. Always at struggle, I am always struggling to keep ahead of my own demons. I am struggling to stay hopeful. I have started to take care of my health again, after neglecting it for all of 2020. I am on new diabetes medications, a new diabetes meter, working on eating healthy, and even going to the dentist for the first time in 6 years. I will have to take a day off for the dentist; having my teeth cleaned gives me a migraine. It will be a journey, my health, a day to day journey with no end. The thought overwhelms me, but I must try....

Lost Its Shine

Christmas has lost its shine for me.
i have a tree. it is decorated. it has presents under it.
i went shopping. i spent money.
i opened doors for people. i smiled. i listened to christmas music.
i said merry christmas. i said happy holidays.
i asked people if they had plans. i called family to wish them joy.
i feel dead inside. i am void of all emotions.
christmas is death.

i was in the mall. i went to get away from this chattering little annoying man at work.
while i was eating my lunch a christmas song came on the loud speaker.
it was one of my mother's favorite christmas songs.
i suddenly had a wave of christmas memories of my mother come back to me and i cried in the middle of the mall food court.
i could not stop it or avoid it, i cried into my sandwich.

my mother loved loved loved christmas.
she was very poor growing up as a kid.
She was one of eight children; her dad was a drunk that seldom worked; grandma didn't work and they barely ate.
She married dad who did work and they could afford to celebrate christmas.
We didn't have a lot of money and I don't think it was really about the presents.
My mom loved the process and the excitement and the spirit of christmas.

She loved christmas, she would just glow at the holiday.
we'd have to go to church functions.
we'd do caroling and drive around to look at christmas lights.
the presents were wrapped and the tree was decorated with care.
we'd bake cookies and decorating them.

my mother went all out for christmas.
she made it really special for me and my brother's.
i still hang up the christmas stocking she made me by hand while she was pregnant with me.
she added my name right after i was born so it would be on there for my first christmas.
i wasn't even a month old on my first christmas.

Of course when we grew up and became teenagers we ruined it for her.
We became ungrateful and greedy and just a pain in her ass.
And then I redeemed myself and had her first grandchild and christmas was saved again.
She had 4 years with her grandbaby; 4 amazing christmas' filled with the wonderment and awe only a child can bring into the mix.
I miss those christmas years of the shine and the glow.

Yes, for me christmas has lost its shine.

The Winter of Sickness

It's been awhile.

I got sick around my birthday.
I spent turning 40 with an ear and sinus infections and bronchitis.
A week later it got worse and I was diagnosed with walking pneumonia.
I spent December in a haze of codiene cough syrup, antibiotics, and nyquil!
I am still coughing but not as much.
It's day 9 of the new year and I've had two migraines already.
I don't have an immune system, it went on holiday and hasn't returned yet!

The worst part was having zero energy!
I didn't even work up enough to go down to my Dad's at Christmas.
I did go and get him for my birthday and he stayed for 3 days, but I was sick the whole time.

I fought through it and we went bowling and then the bookstore.
We are such geeks. My dad, daughter and I spent nearly 2 hours in the bookstore.
We all love to read. I bought several books for me and dad.
I got one more that I haven't started from that batch.

It'll have to wait until I finish C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity.
If you have not heard of his books on Christianity and you are a logical person;
I'd highly recommend it.
He is very logical in laying out Christian concepts.
I read these books very slowly and highlight a lot of things.
I find it enlightening, but I'm a huge GEEK!!!

My favorite Christmas present I bought after it was over and on sale.
One of those one cup coffee makers.
I don't drink coffee, so we've been making teas and cocoa's on it.
Me and kid love it.
We are experimenting with different flavors and bought new mugs with our initials on them.

This year's goals -
Be a blessing to everyone I know and meet!
Buy a home!
Be healthy in heart, soul and body!

I'm not ambitious at all this year!

I hope you all had a great holiday and new year!
Blessings to you all!

An Uneventful Christmas

i hope everyone had a merry christmas out there in internet land.
my christmas was uneventful.
scott left a snowflake necklace on my porch christmas eve.
it is very pretty but i can't wear necklaces well, i have a thick neck.
so i hung it from my rearview mirror.
i gave a few of my neighbors some anchor shot glasses.
they all seemed to like them.

we got new movies, a new wii game, i got meemaw's perfume, windsong.
as soon as i sprayed it, it was like she had never left.
that's a perfume i would have never guessed at, thankfully, she told her friend what she wore.
it does smell so good.
i keep spraying it so i can think of her.

i spent christmas day eating snickers and drinking alcohol.
it was merry.
only burger king was open so i got dinner from there.
today is all about cleaning.
and walking my laps.
sophie the puggle loves her christmas toys.
there's a squeaky purple bear that she is dragging everywhere.

my kid is spending the week down at her dad's family.
she always has a good time with them.
i'm glad she's close to his family.
at times i wish i had more kids when i was younger.
she's so spoiled a sibling close to her age wouldn't have hurt her.

jan. and feb. are hard for me.
mom died one month after christmas in 1996.
then her and dad's wedding anniversary is feb 10th
and her birthday is feb. 17th.
my thoughts stray to her alot this time of year.
she so loved everything about christmas.
she grew up so poor they never had anything.
i know i'm blessed and lucky.
i have everything i need and even though there are things i want
they are the things you can't buy, like love, attention, time with the one i care about.

so i think my priorities are clear.
God bless you all.
Happy Holidays!!!

No Joy to the Season anymore

I tell ya Christmas without little children to help celebrate it is just about as exciting as watching grass grow. Seriously, me and my 19 year old, already knew everything we were getting, tho, I did manage 1 little surprise. We've already opened everything and life has moved on. There's no joy in Christmas without a young child's thrill, awe, and excitement for the holiday. I miss the Christmas' when my kid was like 11 and under. Before the reality of no santa sunk in and it became about what she was getting more then the joy of the giving itself.

I guess someday, not soon or even in the next 5 years, when I have a grandchild (cuz isn't 1 always enough) the joy of Christmas will come back to me. I look forward to it.

Santa Claus, IN rocks if you have young kids, google it!!!

christmas is disappointment

well, i'm spending christmas eve without the man i adore. he's on call at work christmas eve and day for snow removal. and he has to report to work an hour after being called and i live 3 hours away. so he just can't come to visit. so much for playing naughty santa. it just totally takes the cheer out of my christmas spirit.

my kid works noon - 4 tomorrow. and christmas day we are supposed to be buried in snow, so no driving 2 hours to visit family. the car can barely handle driving back and forth to work. wow, christmas is going to suck. which is so sad.

christmas is all about disappointment. first when you are a kid and you rip open all your presents totally excited until they are all open and you didn't get a damn thing you wanted! And then when you get a little older and you find out santa isn't real, what a disappointment. then when you become an adult and you make all these plans and they fall through or you can't afford to buy any christmas presents, major disappointments. Christmas is and always has been tied to disappointment!

i miss my mom now more then ever. this was her favorite time of year. i can't believe that 15 years ago this was her last christmas. today is my nephew's 15th birthday. mom went to see him in virginia and a month later she died. she'd be so proud of him and all her grandchildren. my mom was truly a person that lived for others, especially her grandchildren.

merry christmas and happy new year. i'm already disappointed so there's not much more depressed i can get at this point.

I love giving awesome gifts for christmas

Bret and Jade loved the video of the puppy I posted for them. And Bret gave me the okay to pick them the puppy up as their Christmas present. I picked up the puppy, yet to be named at lunch today and he is just so much fun. He and our dog, Sophie, are just having a blast.

He's whizzed in the house 3 times now!!!

I think he's trying to mark his spaces. Sophie makes sure he gets no more attention then she does. I'm excited. Bret thinks I'm more excited then he is and he's probably right. I just love that I found their dog for them. I feel like a matchmaker full of happiness and love.

Christmas rocks!!!

It's been awhile

i can't really say i've not blogged cuz i've been busy. i've been more in a blue funk really. i get excited about christmas, realize how broke i am, and how much i miss my mom, and how my relationship isn't exactly what i hoped it would be, and i get depressed, sit on the couch all day and star out the window!

yup, exciting right?

but now i'm getting sick, so i'll have a real reason to mop and not just the emotional baggage that i carry around in my head. sore throat, stuffy nose, and a headache, all right before the weekend. and i have alot to do this weekend too, more then the standard cleaning that i put off until sunday at 6pm to do. gab's got work. i got to prep for visitor's next weekend. the washer is fixed, so laundry must be done, work won't like it if i come in naked.

so much to do, there's barely any food in the house, i got bills to pay, the dog needs bathed, brushed and fought with to get her toe nails clipped. that's like trying to brush the teeth on a alligator. she doesn't like it and goes wild like a bucking bronco when you bring out the toe nail clippers. i could pay someone to do it, but you did read how broke i am up above right???

tis the season to lose your mind, fa la la la la f*ck!!!