BLAH! BLAH! BLAH!

So Monday night on the news they said that they had done a study and January 23rd (actually meaning the 4th Monday in January) is the most depressing day of the year. Why?? Because it’s a Monday for one thing, it’s the middle of winter, most everyone is facing huge Christmas debt (the bills are starting to come in) and by then most have failed on all their New Year’s resolutions. Hmmm – I wonder how much of my tax money they spent on a study like that?

Okay, so I start wondering, is that why I am feeling down and out of sorts or is it the overwhelming feeling of having a million and two things to get done this year and time is moving way tooooooooo quickly. So, I open up an excel spread sheet and start modifying my lists, changing expected completion dates and reprioritizing.

I’ve always loved making lists – pieces of paper everywhere with small lists – grocery items, things I need to pick up at Jo-ann’s, things to accomplish this week (just breathe). If I have a piece of paper in my hand, you can be sure I’ve jotted down two or three items for some good reason. But now with computers, I can make even bigger lists – excel is wonderful and I can make a worksheet for each thing I want to make a list for.

A different worksheet for each room in the house and things I want to do in that room – paint, flooring, change out the door knob. A worksheet for grocery items I need to buy to stock the pantry, another for grocery items needed for the week. A worksheet for the many quilting projects I’ve either started or want to start – right now, I have about 15 quilts in various stages of completion and fabric for another 20 or so (or course not all the fabric but some of it). It’s easy to make a column for an expected completion date, status, approximate cost and comments.

One of the items that has been on my list for a while was to reframe the southwestern embroidery that Mom had done for Dad. 1 huge pot with dried plants in and 2 smaller ones. I had them hanging in my house in Oracle and Ely but by the time we got them moved to Colorado, they were starting to fall apart from all the moving so I dismantled them and tossed the old frames. A couple of weeks ago, I got on one of my favorite web sites http://www.americanframe.com/ and ordered the frames. Last week, I spent a whopping two hours assembling the frames, mounting the embroidery on backing board and hanging the pictures. It’s nice to have something familiar back on the wall. (of course, the UPS lady wanted to know if I did framing in my spare time – she’s so funny.) So nice to be able to mark one of my tasks off my list and put a completion date on it.

So, working on one thing at a time and trying hard not to add too many more items, maybe I will get that list whittled down to 999,982 by the end of the 2006. Note to self: start a new worksheet for things to take to the reunion in June and don’t forget to add Salmon fishing in 2007.

Expecting the unexpected!!

So, just when I was thinking, okay have to get the dogs a bath and finish wrapping packages to head to Colorado and in four days the hectic activity of the holidays will be over, we get a phone call from John's brother that his mother had fallen and was in the hospital. By Thursday evening, things had gotten somewhat worse and John and I individually decided, he should fly to Arizona to be with the family and I should come to Colorado to spend Christmas with the kids and then we'd go from there. It is funny how after 36 years of marriage we can arrive at a decision of what needs to be done without evening talking to each other about the options.

So yesterday morning at 8:30, me and the dogs started the long drive to Johnstown getting here about 5:00/

After a trying day at the airport, John finally got to Tucson about 9:30 (3 1/2 hours later than expected). His mom broke something in her back so they have her in a hospice now totally on medication to ease her pain. Fortunately they have listened somewhat to the family and are not doing any heroic efforts to keep her going - no feeding tube. I would like to be with John to support him but sometimes, he is stronger around his family when I am not there so in my heart I know that we are each where we need to be at this time.

We are all praying that she will go swiftly now from this life. Meanwhile, I am in Colorado with the two 4-legged critters. First time I have spent Chrismas without John since the year Blaine was born. But we'll get through the day and God's greatest gift to the world - the birth of his son Jesus Christ our Savior will have more meaning to us this year than ever.

As we ponder the life of this wonderful woman who raised John as her own son. Who was a grandmother to my children and a terrific example to both of them and throughout their lives and to me for the past 36 years. Who even at Thanksgiving was thinking more about others than the pain she was suffering. She truly showed a Christ like love to everyone she came in contact with.

So, we'll live one moment at a time and decide what to do when the time comes to make a decision about whether I head back to Montana on Monday or stay here a while. Fortunately, I can go to the office and work here for a few days if needed. Or, I can take a couple of emergency vacation days and spend here - we'll just see how things progress.

Meanwhile, I'm so grateful for the sacrifice my Lord and Savior made on my behalf and on the behalf of all mankind. That we can all live again after we leave this frail existence and at that level, all pain and suffereing will end. Thank you Christ and happy happy birthday.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Well, it's the day before the day before Christmas Eve. Ready or not, we are heading full steam ahead to that magical day of the year when everything seems possible and everything feels so peaceful. I have an old Barbara Mandrell Christmas CD and my favorite song on that has these lyrics:

Once again the windows shine with pretty lights.
Once again our loved ones gather at our side.
Busy crowds of strangers greet each other with a smile.
There’s Christmas in the eyes of every child.

Once again the presents resting by the tree.
Once again we worship one who came for you and me.
I hear choirs of voices as they’re singing out his name.
Again we tell the story of how the Christ child came.

Once again around the world heads are bowed in prayer
Once again the promise of peace is in the air
But soon will come the morning and the feeling will be past
I can’t help but wonder why the feeling only lasts.

Chorus:
One night a year we believe in peace on earth
One night a year we praise our Savior’s birth
I wish every night the whole year through could be like Christmas Eve
When love’s pure light is shining everywhere – one night a year.

It is so nice this time of year when the majority of people you see are so friendly and although everyone is in a hurry, most seem more patient. I was in Michael's yesterday doing a little last minute shopping and when I was checking out, the clerk who was ringing up my purchase made a comment to the other clerk "oh, you are so politically correct". Then she took my money and said "MERRY CHRISTMAS". I wished her a merry christmas also and thanked her for saying Merry Christmas. She said, "well, it is Christmas darn it so Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas". It was great to hear rather than the sad little Happy Holiday that most clerk's have to say.

Now granted the word Holiday comes from Holy Day but it's not the same. So I wish to each and every one of you MERRY CHRISTMAS AND PEACE & GOODWILL TO ALL MEN UPON THE EARTH. And to my family, I say THANK YOU for being you and standing up for what you believe in and for putting up with this old aunt/mom/sister no matter what.

Christmas Memories

Saturday, we had a brunch at the church and a Christmas program. They called me several weeks ago and asked me to talk a little on Christmas traditions or memories or whatever.

When I start thinking of Christmas traditions, I always go back to memories of my childhood instead of what we are doing now. My first thought of Christmas is always of the wonderful Christmas Eve programs at the church – I miss those so much. It was so fun to go and watch the little children perform the story of Christmas and then to visit with Santa afterwards and get that infamous bag of peanuts, a couple of pieces of candy and an orange. It seems as a kid, we didn’t eat a lot of fruit – usually had tangerines around at Thanksgiving and an orange in our stocking (quite frequently, I’m sure that was the one that we had received the night before in our bag of candy from Santa).

We always went to the tree lot over near the Gann’s house to get our tree. That was always fun. I remember the old tree stand we had – it didn’t have anywhere to put water in, was more like a little wheel thing with spokes and dad would have to whittle down the trunk to fit into that little hole.

I think of the pillow cases that Mom made us. The pictures on it of a little boy and a little girl standing by a fireplace where the stockings hung. The words Twas the night before Christmas across the bottom. I remember how the first of December every year, she would put those on our pillows and we would get to sleep on them for the whole month. I was so glad when she had the lady make dolls out of pillowcases so I could get mine made into a doll to set out at Christmas. Since I’m probably a little old for a Christmas pillow case now but it is one thing I decided to make for my grand-daughters this year to pass that tradition along – not sure why I never made them for my own children.

I think of the brach's chocolate drops that dad would always buy - not sure if these are still around or not. The cherry and raspberry ones were the best. Course orange was good and lemon was okay. I remember us kids, scaping a piece of chocolate off the bottom to see what color was inside or sometimes taking a tiny bit out of the corner. When we got to the bottom of the bowl and almost out, the white ones seemed to improve in flavor. And Dad always had that can of hard candies around - some of them were so pretty with little flowers in the center that it seemed sad to eat them.

I remember Aunt Ora would always send Grandpa Carter (my grandpa that is) a box of See's chocolates at Christmas (that was back when you could only get them in California or big cities). We would go to his house and he would always let us choose just one piece - they were so delicious.

I remember when Grandpa Carter called us all excited because he had bought one of those new fangled artificial trees. We had to go up and see it. Oh my goodness – if any of you have never seen one of the first artificial trees, you really missed out. It looked like some kind of futuristic space tree – made of aluminum that looked like fringed tin foil. You didn’t put lights on this tree – no way, instead there was this light that sat on the floor and had a colored disk that turned in front of it. The disk was see through and was divided into 3 colors – kind of like cellophane so as this rotated, the tree would turn from red to green to yellow. Grandpa was pretty proud of that tree.

I think of Christmas dinners – turkey and ham. Mom always decorated the ham so pretty with pineapple slices and a cherry in the middle or sometimes she would cut criss crosses across the top of the ham and put a whole clove in the middle of each of them. Always her delicious raisin sauce – always Dad trying to sneak a piece of ham before it was time to eat. Always we had to eat right at 12:00.

We always got to open one present on Christmas eve which was a pair of pajamas or a new nightgown. That way, we looked presentable for those awful Christmas morning pictures – well, at least our clothes were decent.

So as I reminisce about Christmases long past and Christmases more recent I find that somethings have changed - like tamales for dinner instead of turkey means I don’t spend all Christmas day in the kitchen, artificial trees that look almost real can be put up extra early and left up to brighten new year’s eve, the family has grown and spread across 5 states so we can’t all gather at the farm as a family to celebrate the holidays. But one thing always stays the same for me - it’s a time to think of family and how blessed I have been in this life. And also to remember that first Christmas so long ago when our Savior humbled himself and came down to this earth to live and die for us that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father once again and be reunited with our dear Dad and others who have passed on before.

May you all have a wonderful Christmas and remember to include Christ in your celebration of his Birthday.

Almost Christmas

It's been a while - time is passing so quickly and there's no way I'm going to ever get the things done I need to get done in the next 8 days. Finally I got my packages and cards (at least most of them) mailed on Monday. Have to get the rest of them in the mail - i know they will be a few days late. Hope to get tamales made Saturday and have to finish a christmas stocking for the new baby.

John left today to go to Casper on business. He'll be back tomorrow evening and then Sunday he is flying to Canada for 4 days on more business. Hopefully the weather won't be so bad that he gets stuck up there. On the 23rd, we are heading to Colorado to spend Christmas with the granddaughters (and their parents of course). Quick trip as we have to be back by Tuesday morning to go to work. Hopefully the weather will cooperate to allow us to make the trip down there.

I love Christmas - even though we aren't going to be home, I had to put up both trees, lights everywhere and am listening to the christmas country channel on xm radio. It's so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle though and overlook the reason for the holiday. Time to pull out the Christmas books and spend some time reading all the good stories that I enjoy every year at this time to renew my Christmas spirit.

I am enjoying the peacefulness of winter. Every morning in this cold, I get to bundle up and go out to feed the horses. Like clockwork at 7:20 they are either waiting for me at the barn or just ambling down off the hill. On Tuesday, I had arranged for the ferrier to come and remove their shoes for the winter - he was going to be here at 8:30 - perfect timing. I would feed the horses, they could eat until 8:00 and then I would catch them up and tie them to the post so they would be waiting for him.

Well, of course, the horses decided to change their routine and by 8:15 they hadn't showed up at the barn yet. So, I went on a horse hunt - they like to sleep about as far away from the house as they can get so that is at the far northwest end of the property. The wind was blowing like crazy as I headed out to find them. Climbed up the ditch bank, crossed the bridge and headed over the hill, finally, they saw me and Dudley decided to come toward me. Badger was following, so I turned around and headed back toward the house with them practically on my heels.

Right before I got to the bridge, they stopped and decided to head back up the hill. I called to them, crossed the bridge and started on down. They headed east which wasn't the same way I was going but I figured they were just going to their normal place to cross the ditch. I got back to the barn and they were still up on the hill watching me. I grabbed the grain bucket and waved it at them and they started walking further east and down the hill.

I expected them to come around at any moment and after 5 minutes when they hadn't, I decided I was going to have to go back up the hill and entice them in with a few mouthsful of grain. Wasn't looking forward to that too much as I really do not like walking down an icy hill with two big animals at my heels wanting food. I headed up the least steep hill and expected to find them when I got to the top but instead, I saw nothing.

I turned back around to head a different direction and then saw that they had gone clear back around and were both at the barn eating nicely. I stopped at the house and picked up the halters and lead ropes and went out to catch them and tie them up. Just in time as 2 minutes later the ferrier showed up to do his job. So all turned out well, except for the fact that Molly and Remington took off for another one of their 9 hour runs.