Glenbogle

I am just trying to figure out how to add pictures to my blog. This is the castle where one our favorites shows (Monarch of the Glen -avaiable at Netflix) is filmed. Great show, awesome scenery!

Scrooge wakes up

Not unlike how Dickens wrote it (was it Dickens?), I find my heart recovering from the Xmas blues! As I begin to see friends and family again after Xmas, I ask them all the same question, "Was Santa good to you?" Invariably the answer is "Oh Yeah!" or "He always is!" When asked what was the best gift, they all answer, "Getting to spend time with the family!" So even though we think all the hard work we put into finding the right gift doesn't get noticed, it does in ways we don't expect. The Joy of the Season fills my heart and I plan to hang on to it with both hands. (And if I need a vanilla vodka spiked hot cocoa every night to keep that grip, well then I guess that's what I'll have to do!) HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Resolutions

Okay, so the presents are unwrapped and being enjoyed, now it's time to reflect on the year past and prepare for the new one. I am all for it. This year has been good. I truly have so very much to be thankful for and feel blessed even when I'm crabby and complaining! I usually don't make resolutions, because I never seem to keep them. I find I don't need to purposely add to the long list of reasons I am often disappointed in myself. However, last year I made a resolution I was able to keep and that made other people happy. It may be mundane, but the cashiers at Wegman's were vocally grateful that I chose to make sure I weighed and sticker-ed all my produce items. One girl even remembered that I had mentioned it was my resolution. She was impressed I had managed to stick to it! Anyway, with one success under my belt, I have decided to do it again. I will be doing what most of America will be doing (at least for the month of January) and focusing on loosing weight. This is something that I have been needing to do for a while and never been fully committed to. It's so much easier not to bother excising and eating whatever tickles my fancy. Well, there is just too much of my fancy to tickle these days and I am ready to be fully focused. It will not be easy, but I think I am deserving of a healthier, happier, and also more attractive self. I deserve to look in the mirror and be pleased with my reflection. This will take some inside changes as well. So, I will be making a second resolution this year. I have already chosen to live my life in a positive light, leaving negativity out of my day to day as much as possible. When it isn't possible, and I get frustrated or really crabby, I tend to use inappropriate language. My goal to to drastically reduce the usage of "four letter words". Wish me luck and let me know what your resolutions will be this year!

Bah Humbug!

I hate this time of year. It's no wonder suicides increase this time of year! People finally get around to wrapping the presents they have spent SO much time planning, shopping for, money on and aggravation getting, and now they look like nothing. From like October, when you might have a little extra $ and think "now might be a good time to buy for Xmas so that stupid month with 5 weeks (and therefore, bills are received twice) won't crush me", til 2 days before when you get around to wrapping, it all seems to be enough. Then it's wrapped and it looks like 2 boxes of nothing that anyone would ever want. It really is more than the most hardly of spirits can handle. No one really wants to be a Grinch, so we watch all the Holiday TV specials and listen to Xmas carroles(singing along) and wish complete strangers everywhere a Merry Xmas. Then we look under the tree and feel like failures. Is it just me, or just this country? Or has the whole world become so focused on the size of the giving, and not the emotion behind the gift? Is it the media that makes us loose sight of the "reason for the season", or is it human nature to compete in everything, including presents? It's not just that there is so much extra food that we overeat and gain 2 pounds each Holiday season, it's the depression we suffer from finding and giving the perfect gift for too many people that makes us crave instant gratification in sugary foods. I guess those 3 Wise Men weren't so wise after all. Come and pay your respects to your king, but next time, skip the gift giving so generations of people don't have to suffer.

Greeting Cards

The hoildays are here and with them come many things, good and bad. One of the good is getting Xmas cards! It is so fun to receive snail mail that isn't a bill or another credit card application or some hideous catalog you would never buy from! The variety is SO big. There are the humorous ones with reindeer doing inappropriate things, the religious ones, the ones you can tell cost 50 cents for 900 at the dollar store and home made ones. Home made come in the Martha Stewart crafty self-made, the photo shop or the holiday letter. I love the photos, which is why I chose to do that for us every year. There are many people on our list that we don't get to see and they enjoy seeing how the kids have grown. This wasn't too hard a decision to make dispite the crafty history of card making in the family. I'm the one who can't draw. My mother took up what my great-grandfather Seedy started and draws her card every year. Everyone in the family is represented and the image is always fun! This has several down sides, but she overcomes that every year too. My brother and my cousin Kim also draw their cards. We receive only a couple of cards with letters - luckily none are boring! My friend gingersnapspice 's is so clever, it's as looked forward to as my mother's! After the card has been read, my mother started a tradition of hanging the cards around the livingroom entrance way. It is a lovely way to display them and a good way to know how popular you are! And finally, when the decorations come down, the card fronts are separated from the backs and used as labels for next years Xmas presents! So many good things from a small piece of folded paper!

Phew!

My brother-in-law came through his surgery with flying colors. It looks like they got all the cancer and that it has not spread! he is a little sore and groggy, but feeling good. He will be able to go home in 6 or 7 days! Thank you for your prayers! Thank you God for answering them!

Up too early

I am only writing today because most of the household is up too early. My husband was up extra early on a day off, to go pick up his mother, take her to breakfast and then to the hospital where his brother Bob is having a kidney, with a cancerous tumor on it, removed. The dog decided that the moment (5:15am) Joe closed the door, was a good time to get up, need to go out, and be feed. And the moment I was about to open the door to accoplish the first of these tasks (5:30am) was when my son Lucas decided it was time to come downstairs. He doesn't need to be up, however, until 7am to be able to eat breakfast, get dressed, brush his teeth and catch the bus at 7:40. Since he is happily watching Polar Express, the dog is back to sleep and the other son is thankfully still asleep, I thought I'd vent. It is amazing how even though they haven't a clue what's up, the dog and the 6 year old can sense something isn't right and somehow feel the worry that is filling the air. It one of those moments when 7 years of college and a medical degree would help ease the panic of the unknown. Usually, this type of thing doesn't shake me to the core - just a simple surgery, nothing to worry about. But Bob has so much to loose if things go wrong. He kids wouldn't remember him, his wife ... I can't even express how horrible it would be for her. And Joe has already lost one sibling to cancer. It would just be REALLY bad for so many people. Keep them and us in your prayers please.

Shaken, not stirred

I am more than willing to admit I am a James Bond fan. Enough so, that I have even tried reading one of Sir Ian Fleming's books, but found the excruciating details a tad boring. (I may need to try again considering that was 16 years ago!) I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the newest movie. No, the blond hair didn't bother me - it did make me want to learn more about Daniel Craig - if they chose him, he must be good, what else has he done. That is just the sort of train of thought that leads me to seeing movies no one else does and having lots of useless knowledge. I did find he was worth watching - dispite some odd scripts and was all the more eager to see the newest verion of Casino Royale. I was finally able to see it last night and was definately NOT disappointed!! Less polish, more grit, but all still pure Bond. Usually a Bond movie is fun and quickly forgotten, this one seems to lingure. I'd go see it again at full price. It's the longest Bond ever filmed, and you hardly notice. I am now looking forward to owning it!