Christmas and Thoughts on It

I think most people would be surprised at how I decorate at Christmas. For me and Love Bunny, it's all about traditions. While I believe new traditions can be made by each and everyone of us and our families, we pretty much stick to the traditions of our forefathers and mothers. But first of all I'm wishing all of you a

Merry Christmas!!!

I've flitted about the blogs these past several days looking at each person's Christmas trees and gifts under the tree but you'll find it a bit different in this household. I do NOT mean it's better or worse, just different. I wouldn't be mean to any of you chicks! My heart is a tender one most times. So sit back and just enjoy my Christmas post. I'm composing this on monday the 22nd of December and will probably "edit" it for the next 2 days. *Grinning*..........

I've always been know to do things a tad different when asked to speak at church or something like that. It's just my nature to try and put a different perspective on things so bear with me.

This is our Christmas tree. The cost of trees is getting almost prohibitive and we don't want to go to the mountains and cut our own. (Let me be clear on this: hubs does; I don't! I hate driving on snow covered roads.) So we decided last year to buy a faux tree. Yesssss, we succumbed in order to save that money for other things and we're seniors so for us it's not a big deal not having a fresh tree. Oh, I know some want the smell and the adventure of going out to find one whether it be the local tree lot or the local mountain. This works for us.

I would love a white one to be decorated in PINK! I think hubs would cry if I did that. He's truly the sentimental traditionalist in this family. Okay okay, I'll admit to it also. Who am I trying to kid? But that man does NOT ask for much and I give him things that are extremely important to him. I save my battles for pink things that I just cannot live without - like walls! He's like a little kid when it comes to Christmas and "his" tree. So we have the green tree.

Now, for the ornaments.

If you've never read most of my blog posts then you may not be aware hubs is a retired Marine, which means he spent 2 years away from us when we were younger. He went to Okinawa for 13 months in the 60s and missed being home for Christmas. That year I spent with my family in San Jose, Calif. Then again in the early 70s he spent another 13 months in Okinawa missing another Christmas while I spent that year in Pennsylvania near his family. The kids and I spent that year making our decorations. It's one of the things that kept me sane because I had never lived there and everything was so strange to me and not knowing anyone left a hole in my heart. We didn't see his family much that year. I painted and decoupaged those ornaments and that's what we've used on our tree ever since. We add a few others to the tree but those ornaments are always on there and always will be. I think hubs would cry if I changed that. It's the things like this that make a family unique I believe. So we have just a plain green tree with a lot of memories hanging from it.

I've only included a few on which to comment. This one reminds me of families sitting down together. Even one Christmas apart is one too many. We always sit at a table. I believe it's one of the most important things in our home: the dining table. It's where we talk, share stories of the day, discuss family business and teach our children manners. This isn't easily done at a kitchen bar with people sitting four, five, six or more in a row. It needs to be a "table" to bond properly I believe. In the "old" days just about every problem could be solved around that table. Even in restaurants I always ask for a table, in lieu of a booth. I love the it and all that it invokes in my heart. Our food is always blessed also. No eating without prayers of thankfulness.

Yes, I still believe in Santa Claus!! He's not the focal point in our home, but kids do soooo get a kick outta this character. ;-)

This ornament reminds me of the time we lived in Oceanside, Calif. when hubs was in the Marines and we had just had our second child. We were poor. Marines in those days didn't make near what the ones today make even with inflation. I do not begrudge them at all. I think anyone serving in our Armed Forces deserves as much as they can get. I'd gladly pay extra tax if our Armed Forces would be able to not pay any tax. That's how strongly I feel about it.

Anyway, it was Christmas Eve and we didn't have a tree. I had told hubby for 2 weeks we didn't need one. We simply couldn't afford the extra money to buy one so I decided that presents were more important than a tree for our 2 babies - both under 2 at that time.

Well, as is usually the case in situations like this I started bawling that afternoon that we "didn't have a tree." (Our '57 Oldsmobile didn't run either and the previous summer while trying to fix it by taking the motor out with the help of the government housing playground swing posts and a chain, hubs and friends bent the swing set in the playground! Only those involved in the incident of the Olds knew what really happened and they never squealed. It was a long time ago, but I seem to recall "adult" beverages were somehow involved also. *Sigh*....... ) So hubby left our military housing apartment on foot and walked the long distance into our town of Oceanside to look for a tree - a bit of a ways since military housing was out away from the town itself. There were absolutely none left in the town! So he walked to the next nearest town of Carlsbad - a couple of miles. Remember, he was a Marine and was used to "walking"! So he got to Carlsbad and found a lot with a few scraggly trees left. He had $2.25 in his pocket and that wouldn't cover the price of a tree. So the owner of the lot felt sorry for him and charged him $2.00 for the tree and that left him 25¢ to catch a bus back to our apartment as he couldn't walk that far carrying a tree. But he said when he got on that bus everyone looked at him as if he was crazy. He then walked from town out to our apartment and brought it into the house and I cried some more. While it wasn't the goose this guy in the ornament is carrying, it sure was golden to us to be able to have a tree for our son's first Christmas. It was late Christmas eve but we had a tree!!!

This one simply reminds me to have a song in my heart during this particular holiday season. I can carry about every 3rd note but I sing loudly in church especially during the Christmas season. Favorite song: Angels We Have Heard On High. I love the GlooooOOOOOooooOOOrias in that one!!!!

What can I say here, the man is hooked on trains! :-)

Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go......remember that song? I don't know about you but I never ever went to my grandmother's house in the snow, much less in a sleigh, but it does produce wonderful visions in my head of the scene in that song.

Reminds me of the above story of the Christmas tree and the rejoicing we did that night.

Kinda reminds me of "Scrooge" but I'm never a bah-humbug kind of person. This is a reminder to never be one either. I rejoice in the season.

This little jack-in-the-box always reminds me of "The Nutcracker Suite." Don't know why, doesn't matter; it just does.

Fireplaces are synonymous with Christmas, don't you think? Well, I do, even if we don't have one in this house.

I used to ice skate and loved it. I've never been on a sleigh on the ice though. I love the flippy little skating skirts we'd wear. If I tried that now I'd be in traction the rest of my life! Hah........

Yes, we all want peace on earth but it isn't happening and probably won't until our Savior comes again. BUT we can have peace in our homes. My home is my refuge from the harshness of this world. But it is still a wonderful world, my sweet friends, and this country is the absolutely best on the face of the earth. We are a truly blessed nation.

What would the holiday season be without the wreath hanging on the front door? It just makes everyone smile and happy seeing it.

Our current tree topper. It's changed through the years as they get broken but this one has stuck for several years because it isn't breakable and I'm too lazy and sentimental to buy a new one. This will have to do until Love Bunny decides that we need a jazzier one. ;-)

We talked to our kids a few years ago and told them to not buy us anything for Christmas any more. They decided to do the same thing also so we don't exchange gifts. (Besides, we now have 4, yesssss, 4 massage mats for our home and cars thanks to our son and his family.) There is truly nothing in this world I need or want that I don't already have. Priorities change as we "assume more years"! Hubs and I don't even exchange gifts now. Just don't need to do it as we buy what we want throughout the year. I do, however, buy him this box of candy each year since he loves licorice and I can't stand it. I can't even stand the smell. So you know how much I love that man when I can give him something that stinks so badly! That's a lot, trust me!!!

And lastly, this is, for us, what the season is all about. That Man that died for us over 2,000 years ago after being born in a humble stable in Bethlehem. For that I am soooooo grateful and blessed beyond measure. So from the top of my graying fluffy hair to the bottom of these "redone" toes, I wish all of you the very best Christmas you could ever want. We are truly blessed beyond our dreams in this household. I hope you are also. *Smiling at ya!*

Tribute to a Veteran I Just Happen to Love

A couple of weeks ago Love Bunny was asked by a member of our ward, who is a 5th grade teacher, if he would come to her class on Veterans Day and talk about veterans. Being a retired Marine (and a bit of a ham!), he graciously accepted. He is a state representative of VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars). He thoroughly enjoyed it and yesterday her husband dropped by and gave me some things rubber banded together to give to hubs. I didn't look at them. Just looked like blue construction paper folded over and I'm not particularly nosy. When he arrived home he looked at them quizzically and started reading them. They were "thank you notes" from the kids. Some of them were a tad funny and thought I'd share some of them with you. No names, of course, there will be first initials with asterisks (*) but all the grammar, spelling and punctuation is theirs as I type it accurately and have proofed each one. It is NOT easy typing incorrectly, ya know, trust me! LOL My comments are in brackets: [ ]. So I thought that today we'd travel through the years with a look at this man!

This is before I met him. I think he had a few "adult" beverages prior to taking this at one of those booths in a mall. ;-) He was probably 18 when this was taken.

On maneuvers in 1960s on a ship. That's him looking front.

This was in the 60s at my parents house when our kids were small.

We were living in the desert of California in the 60s at this time. Do you believe the orange and avocado furniture, lamps and rug? I think this is why I now hate orange! But truly, that sofa and chair that matched got more compliments than anything we ever owned. It was stunning and had an almost "aztec" look to it. I think that was my Spanish Colonial period! LOL But this was military housing. Furniture was ours however.

Somewhere in the 70s. We were going to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. Isn't it wonderful how far we've come with cameras since then?!

We bought this house in the early 70s and lived there until we moved to Idaho in the 90s. Isn't he cute?!

This always reminded me of an ad in a magazine of the father of the house cutting the turkey on Thanksgiving day. It just looks so "posed", but it wasn't. The decorating was atrocious at that time. I'm truly embarrassed to even show these pictures but it just shows you that anyone can "reform"!! LOL UGLY!!!!!!! Uuuuhhh, not Love Bunny, the decor....

This is my "hunk" around 1970. He was a lean and mean Marine then. Military housing here also. :-)

The kids and I caught him in this pose and couldn't resist the picture. I'm sure everyone has one of these embarrassing photos of hubby or wife that they never want shown. Hubs will NOT see this blog post!!! He's still the sexiest man I know in jeans!!

This is him in the mid 80s on his passport photo. You can only imagine the airline ticket agent the next time when he had a new passport with a "yuppie" hair style. The ticket agent even remarked about him "going yuppie", but we had to try this afro since we lived in the S.F. area at the time. *Sigh*...............

He's "matured"! See how the years can make a difference. And still sexy, too!!! LOL

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Okay, now on with the thank you cards from the 5th graders.

1. Dear Mr. C, thank you for telling us about veterans. and about how they died for our freedom. I learned a lot! thanks a lot. your freind, a kid.

2. Dear C, Thank you for coming to class and thank you for being a veteran. P.S. your welcome. from r***

3. Mr. C, Your speech was wonderful. To me it was very interesting. Thank you for coming, and for doing that Veterans Day speech.

4. Thank you for being a good veterans. !

5. Thank you for serving our country. Also thank you for wasting your time to talk to the 5th graders. thank you Mr. C I**** [Hubs did not consider it a waste of his time.]

6. Thank you for cooming for veterans Day. I hope you come aging. from N***

7. Dear –>Mr C thanks for cuming in are class and teaching use about how much veterens du for us. and thanks for serving. from W**** [I think the teacher needs to spend more time with this young fellow and his english grammar skills!]

8. TO ALL VETRENS thanks for everthing you bone for are contry and sining that blank check From W**** [I have no clue what "blank check" W is talking about! Not sure Mr. C does either! LOL]

9. I Salute u! God Belss America Before I thought that veterans day was just a regular day, but untill I learnd that It is about all the veterans that fout and are now alive or dead & I did not realalize that I am where I am because of all the people that risked their Life for us. From K****

9. Thank you Mr. C for serving are country and letting us be free. from R**

10. Dear mr. c Thank you for comeing and talk to u its was cool when we were talk about –>the wars thank you from E*****

11. Dear Soldier or Veteran, Thank you for serving our contry and for volontering for war.

Okay, hubs explained that part about the "blank check." He told the students when you signed up for the military during the wars that you were signing a "blank check" giving your "ALL" including your life for the USA. At least that little child was listening to what he said!! LOL But the fronts of all the "thank you cards" had American flags drawn by the student except for a few. One had a puzzle or a maze with a message that said: clue: eyes. I'm not real sure about that but it was imaginative. ;-) And one had a soldier in his fatigues on the front. I love kids and the things they say!!

A Day in the Life of Me At Christmas Time

I have mentioned this before but I'll say it again: I schedule my posts in advance most of the time. This post was done on 12/18/08 and will appear in a few days or so. Just for your reference as to the time frame.
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Today there were quite a lot of things on my To Do list as you can see from my note that I would carry in my pocket as I went about them. My first stop was the bookstore and it started snowing while I was in there. Luckily it stopped soon after but I scurried around trying to get it done and be sitting in my nice warm home before the snow started seriously flying!

Baking cookies for Love Bunny to take to his people that he Home Teaches for our church was high on my list. Okay, all you feminists, just hold yer horses thar while I explain........or try to explain.

He loves to cook and bake but I had the house all neat and tidy and for him to bake would just be a bit frightful for me at this moment in time because he doesn't clean to my standards. Men even dribble their wet hands on the floor - among other things. So it's easier for me to do it while I'm home all day than for him to do it later at night. I try to help him but he really likes to tell the widows that he baked the cookies by himself. Okay, I'll lie and tell them he did the cookies, but it was less work for me to do it than for him to bake them AND clean up. There, you have one of my secrets!! ;-)

Fresh from the oven and cooling..........

Nothing says lovin' like somethin' from the oven............ Ummmm, can't you just smell them backing?!

Now, do you see all those packages of chicken breasts? Well, they had to be sealed in the vacuum bags but they had been purchased frozen. So I had to thaw them out just a bit to be able to separate them and to seal them in amounts we would eat for one meal. That was one of the other things on my list.

I needed a sugar fix to fortify me while baking and playing around with the chickens, so Wal Mart (for some forgotten rolls, couple cans of pink paint and a magazine) was a stop along the way! I also hit Walgreen's and Jack in the box for 2 gift cards for 2 youngest grandsons.

Last batch out of the oven. Looking and smelling wonderful, chicks..........

Now, while baking and vacuum sealing, the mail arrived and in it was this very unexpected scarf with her special roses embroidered on it from Gina in Wa. You could have knocked me over with a feather, I tell ya. But isn't it lovely?! Does that chickee know me or what, ladies?!?!?! She does indeed. A little scripture book marker accompanied it along with a sweet card from her.

Oh, and one of the TOP things on that list was to shave my legs!! Mission accomplished!

Random Thoughts Before Christmas

I've been thinking randomly today as I bake cookies and some thoughts come to my mind. Yeah, it's dangerous for me to be doing cooking. All sorts of things come to mind!! Hahhh.......
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An outstanding woman or man will take loss graciously; a truly great outstanding woman or man will take a WIN graciously. I've done both at times and smiled and actually meant it even through the hurt.
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Sometimes it pays to "whine" and sometimes it doesn't. The secret is to know which is which.
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Does it truly matter if the cookies you're giving to friends at holidays are baked from scratch or from the store bought dough? The love still is there when you give them to your loved ones and they can still "smell" the love.
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I think of our Savior much of the time during these holidays. I wonder if he's happy with us forgetting the real reason and how it must make Him sad for some of us to not know Him at all. What's wrong with telling your kids that Christmas will be a bit less this year because of the economy? My parents did it and hubs' parents did it and a lot of other parents have done it years ago. But today it isn't just "keeping up" with the Jones', it's trying to "pass" the Jones'. Let's live within our income and see how much happier we are. The only thing that goes in that box that takes us out of this world is our bodies. Everything else stays here except for our families. I'm just grateful they give me a set of clothes and don't bury me in the nude like I came into this world! Frightening thought, huh? ;-)
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There isn't an ex-football player alive that doesn't live on ibuprofen or some form of pain killers! I wonder if it was worth all the money they make to live the majority of their lives like that. It wouldn't be for me. I know a man who would give all he has to have his health back and he's very serious when he says that.
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I think the worst job would have to be secret service agent. They're prepared to "take a bullet" for someone they're perhaps not in awe of. That must be true love. But then I'd "take a bullet" for Love Bunny in a heartbeat. Oh, wait a minute, maybe there is one worst job - proctologist.
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Why don't they food companies list all the "spices" on the labels? It just says "spices" but there may be a "spice" that someone is allergic to. (Egads, another sentence ending in a preposition!)
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Airlines now ask the passengers on the plane if there is anyone allergic to peanuts. If one person out of 300 says yes then they don't pass out the snacks. Makes one wonder why they simply don't switch to pretzels or cheezits, which are a lot cheaper. And what happened to all those people who were allergic to peanuts before they started asking the question? Hmmmm??? Here the majority truly is the minority.
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And now for the "eye candy" if you'd care to even call it that!! Hahhh..... Pictures of me as a child.

My cousin and me on our "new" car in California in the early 40s. I'm sitting on the tire well.

I always seem to have the same scowl on my face in all my photos.

Okay, they caught me with a smile this time! ;-)

Back to the scowl. My baby sister and brother in Texas in the 50s.


That silly smile again in a school photo somewhere in the 40s.
At a very early age I detested having my picture taken. "Get that camera outta this face!!!"

Living in Hawaii in the 40s. Aren't those quonset huts just the "shabbiest" thing going?!?!?!
Hope you enjoyed the trip down "Nostalgia Lane" today........

The Pink Painted House

My greatest treasure is hubby. He gives me license to do as I darn well please. Whatever I want to do is just fine with him 99.9% of the time. Well, there is the occasional "I wish you wouldn't do that", but they are very few and very far between. When I said I wanted to paint the house pink, fine with him. So these are the first photos of the living room, kitchen and dining area for you to see.

I feel like I'm living in a confectionery store now. I absolutely love and adore it! How can a simple color make such a difference in a room and in a mood? Yesssss, it truly does. It just lifts my spirits up. As most of you know who've seen this blog before, I recently did my office/painting room and my sewing/craft room in a vibrant pink. This time for the main areas of the house I went a shade lighter. I did it this way.

A trip to Home Depot and looking at their samples got me thinking about a paler pink than the other two rooms simply because if I changed any furnishings in the living room it might be a tad hard to "coordinate" things with the wall color if it was too bright pink. So I picked a color I love, Behr's candy tuft, and had them make me up a quart with 1/2 the colorant in it. When I came home and painted it on several walls to test it, it seemed more lavender because the only colorant in it was magenta. Magenta has blueish tones to it. So I picked another color, Behr's cupid arrow. It had different colorants in it and after getting them to put in 1/2 the colorant again, that color seemed perfect after I came home and painted patches on different walls again and lived with it for a couple of days. The paint stores will do anything you want. You don't have to accept just their "colors." Then I bought 5 gallons to start the painting. It was definitely pink but not "in your face" pink, which I really like anyway, but wanted something softer in the main rooms and hallways.

Then there is the concern of getting the "pink" to show properly on different monitors. These past 3 weeks I've been on my laptop and notice huge differences between it and the desktop and huge monitor in my office. So I tried to pick settings that show it accurately. Impossible, chicks!! The closet I can describe it is "a tad more than light pink but definitely pink." I'm loving it.

I also decided that I had put too much stuff on the old beige-y walls to try and obliterate the color with the frou-frou, so this time I "scaled" down a bit - scaled down is a relative term here. I "reassigned" things to different places! ;-) Case in point - the living room. I brought the shutters I painted white from the dining area into the plant shelf in the living room. I like it much better here than in the dining area.

Notice the uncluttered look in that area now. Something here, just less "fluff" and the pink shows quite well. I brought in a picture that my brother and his wife gave me from the living room and put it on the right side of that entry.

I also brought the leather chair from the family room into the living room. It looks much better in there than in the shabby chic style family room. I prefer my living room a tad more formal than the family room.

The archway separating the living room and the dining area is only about 4" wide and being from California, I don't want anything up there that can kill me if it falls so I've had these little blocks of wood that I put little roses decals on and put the up there for a little bit of pizzazz.

Yesssssssss, the train limited edition prints still went up there to satisfy hubs but I put the pink suitcases back up there to "feminize" it a bit and only one suitcase did I leave in its original vintage state. But by the white door is probably the most accurate of the color of the walls I could get on THIS monitor. Yours will appear differently probably. That hallway on the left is still the beige-y color. The painter's wife went into labor and he had to leave! I'm soooo excited for them, but not sure when he'll be back to finish the hallways. You can see he prepped by putting up tape and can definitely see the color difference from the walls in the room to the wall on the other side of that archway.

Another view of the dining side of the archway and the wall to the right of that plant on the living room side is the wall in the hallway that still has the original color on it. See how much brighter and cleaner it looks. Squeeeeeeeeeal. I love it, chicks!!!

To be continued.................