Well Hello and It's December!

You'll be glad to know - or possibly not even care - that I completed NaBloPoMo on my other blog.  It was fun, though there were days when I would remember suddenly in the evening that I hadn't done a post for that day, and then I'd have to hustle to be coherent.

But now it's December, which is one of the best months, and it's also SEVENTEEN DAYS from Christmas Day!  I love Christmastime, so I am a happy camper.  I love giving gifts, making cookies, decorating, listening to music, and just about any other aspect I can conjure up.  This year, I actually knitted a fair number of the gifts I'm giving, so now it's just a matter of wrapping them and mailing them to the recipients.  Now don't get me wrong - I didn't knit a gift for everyone, just those I know actually enjoy and appreciate hand knit things.  The others are getting purchased items that were chosen for them.

Yesterday, The Tim got us a lovely little tree.  Which, on current count, has been knocked down three times by Jack the kitten.  The others are appalled!  Particularly Pip, who is the family narc.  This morning when I came downstairs, Jack ran past me to the living room where the tree is.  Pip was laying underneath it, and hissed at Jack, big time!  Hilarious.  I thanked Pip for his service, and told him he was a Tree Patriot.  I swear to God he puffed up his chest with pride. ;-)

Hopefully today will be better.  The Tim has the day off, and hopefully Jack got it all out of his system yesterday so we can put the light and ornaments on the tree over the next few days.  On the plus side, it didn't get knocked down overnight, so that's something.  (And proof that Pip Patrol is effective, I guess.)

I know that the above event, as well as Christmastime in general, can be stressful for a lot of people.  I saw this article yesterday, and though it seems very simple, I thought it might actually be helpful for some people to read and consider.

What about you?  Are you enjoying Christmastime/the holiday season? I certainly hope so.  Even if you don't like everything about it, I hope you'll find something to make you smile.

Whoops!

Yikes, I didn't realize that it had been nearly a month since you heard from me - I certainly didn't intend that to happen.

Well, first of all, Happy New Year!  I hope that 2015 will be a good year for all of us.

Christmastime was busy, fun, and a happy time at our house, as usual.  We ate too much, drank too much, opened gifts, gave gifts, and generally lazed around when we could.  A good holiday to be sure.

I am in the process of deciding what I want to do this year - you know, as far as goals, projects, and those kinds of things.  I need to just sit  myself down and think it out.  I've been so busy returning to the non-holiday routine and fighting off a cold, I just have not stopped to do that.  And for me, if you are going to set goals and such for yourself, it's worth thinking about.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this picture of Dug the Doodle Dog with one of his gifts from Santa.  See you soon!

From Me to Myself

Next week at this time, we'll all be waiting for Santa to visit, and the ultimate day of anticipation will be nearly over.  I love Christmas Eve, as much as I love Christmas Day, to be honest.

Over the years, I've asked for some cosmetics or perfumes for Christmas, but I am pretty sure that The Tim doesn't think they are good gifts, since I can buy them for myself.  I finally decided that if I want anything like that, I'll just save up and buy it for myself and not think it can only be at Christmastime.

This year, I have decided I will treat myself to a NARS Audacious Lipstick.  I love lipstick, but seldom do I buy any expensive ones.  As a matter of fact, most that I have are gift-with-purchase ones, or samples that came with some other promotion.  But I've seen a few magazine articles in the last few months, and have read some beauty blogs where they have talked about the  Audacious Lipsticks, and I have really wanted to try them out.

I am trying to decide what shade to try, though.  I like Audrey:

but also Brigitte:

and even Fanny:

Of course, by the time I have saved enough to treat myself, I may have just changed my mind altogether!

What about you?  Do you ever received cosmetic gifts, or do you buy them for yourself?

A Little Bit of Beauty for Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas Day, and to be honest, we are still enjoying Christmastime.  It's always nice to have a day to just be together, and enjoy the feeling of the holidays.  In our house, that usually includes a fire in the fireplace, which makes it just seem that much  more cozy.

Many lovely gifts were given and received as well.  The Tim and I were somewhat more restrained than usual in our gifts to each other, as we decided that the major part of our gifts would be new chairs for our living room.  (We have identified the chairs we like, now we just want them to go on sale ...)

My sister Nancy who lives in California has had issues over the past few years sending packages through the USPS.  For whatever reason, the packages never arrive, or arrive damaged, etc.  So this year she decided that she was sending our gifts directly from Nordstrom.  As it turns out, hers were the only beauty-related gifts I received and they are wonderful as far as I'm concerned.  My box contained two small bottles:

This nail polish, called Piece of My Heart.  I've heard of Deborah Lippmann nail polishes and products, but have never tried them, so I am excited to both receive and try this.  (Though not right away, since I currently am wearing OPI A Ruby for Rudolph, since it's Christmastime.)

She also sent this:

It's a topcoat, called Addicted to Speed, which is supposed to be a quick-drying, setting coat for your manicure.  Nancy and I agreed that neither of us would be likely to buy this for ourselves, due to the cost, but that it was great to receive as a gift.  She knew about it after receiving a bottle from a friend for her birthday.

My hands and nails are not particularly great-looking, but I try to take care of them, and I love nail polish.  I have even found a system that keeps the polish on and - most of the time - not chipping for as long as 5 days, so I try to polish my nails somewhat regularly.

The fact that my sister even bothers to send gifts is gift enough, as she has kids of her own, and grandkids to buy for.  Getting something fun like this is just an extra treat.

I'll let you know once I use the polish how I feel about it.  But it's looking like even if the rest of me doesn't look much different in the new year, my hands will!

Decorations and Ornaments

With a week until Christmas Day itself, I thought I'd share some of our decorations and ornaments.

I hope you enjoy your special Christmastime things as much as we do ours!

In Which I Make a Liar Out of Myself

If you read the post previous to this one, you know that I talked about how we seldom do anything Christmas-y together anymore, due to The Tim's schedule.

So only a week or so after writing about that, what did we do?  Well, you can read all about it here.

Only 10 days left until Christmas Day - I hope you are enjoying Christmastime as much as I am!

Hooray, Christmastime Has Arrived!

Oh how I love Christmastime!  Ever since I was a little kid, and even now when I am often surrounded by holiday curmudgeons.

I was thinking about it the other day, and realized that I love reading and/or hearing about Christmas or holiday parties.  The special foods, clothes, decorations, all sound so festive and fun.

And then I realized - I never really go anywhere during Christmastime anymore.  When both of us had regular, Monday through Friday, 9-5 jobs, we always made it a point to do at least one "Christmas" thing every year - i.e., a concert, a tour.  It was fun, and really added to the celebration.  We also used to go to midnight Mass, which seemed so magical.  Occasionally, we would actually be invited to a party, or a dinner, and once or twice even hosted one ourselves.

Then The Tim got laid off from his "regular" job, and ended up working in retail.  Which was great, since we both need to work, and as it turns out, he's really good at it.  But it means our Christmastime events calendar is greatly reduced.  Not just that he has to work evenings and weekends, but since he was promoted a few years ago, he has to work six shifts a week during the two weeks before Christmas.  So it's hard to do anything extra, because even if our schedules can be worked out, he is just so tired.  Which is 100% understandable.  And we don't go to midnight Mass anymore, because no place around here does it anymore.  Plus, he works on Christmas Eve, usually getting home around 8:00 p.m., and we would rather have a nice Christmas Eve dinner and relaxing evening.

I'm not complaining, though I do miss a lot of it.  But the thing that is weird, is that I still love the idea of buying a new lipstick, or pair of shoes, or something that is special to wear for Christmas - which of course, is funny, because I don't have any place special to wear those things!

As a matter of fact, today I was reading a magazine, and saw a blazer-type jacket with just a few sparkles here and there (I don't know if it was sequined, of if they were something else), and I thought, "Oh wouldn't that be fun to have!"  And it probably would, but *where* would I wear it????!!!

So for now, I will enjoy my Christmastime social events vicariously, and save myself some money at the same time.  Not really a bad deal, and since I am lazy, it's actually kind of win-win ... ;-)

Guess what?  Only 19 days left!!!

To Resolve Or Not to Resolve ...

Every year at this time, I start debating with myself whether or not to organize some New Year's Resolutions.  For a long time, I would decide on two or three things, and without fail, fail to meet any of them!  Eventually, I admitted to myself that a large part of the reason was because they were unrealistic.  At the first indication that they were not going to "work," I'd get all depressed and chuck the whole idea.

Realizing the truth about my resolutions, I decided to skip any formal declarations of things I wanted/hoped to do in any given year.  But I always felt like I was taking the easy way out.

Last year, I decided that I would try something slightly different, and rather than calling them "resolutions," I would tell myself they were reachable goals.  They included things like eating better, exercising more, trying to do better at work - you get the picture.  And the good news is, that I was able to keep them in mind all year, and even if I didn't accomplish exactly what I'd hoped, I felt like I'd been trying, and that was definitely a good thing.

I also tried the One Little Word challenge, choosing "kindness" for my word of the year.  It seemed like this would be an excellent thing along the way to trying to bring myself into the more positive aspects of things.  I'm happy to say that for the most part, it worked.  I may still not be the kindest person you'll ever meet, but I'm a lot better than I used to be, and a lot more conscious of trying harder to be kind.

Thinking of this, I have decided that for me at least, this approach to things works a lot better.  I have a tendency to be really hard on myself if I have specific expectations set in stone and I fail to meet them 100%.  Whether or not they are realistic doesn't  matter - I get frustrated and angry with myself and figuratively, take about 10 steps backward.

So in 2013, I'm going to work on my "personal goals" as opposed to my New Year's Resolutions.  Some will be relatively mundane, but all of them will be things that will make me *want* to accomplish them.  At the moment, I'm still floating things in , my brain, deciding what will be the main focuses (foci?), but to be perfectly honest, I think the fact that I'm giving it all some serious thought is a step in the right direction, and I'm pretty happy about that.

In the meantime, there's still plenty of Christmastime to enjoy, and I plan to do just that!

From Our House to Yours

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Time!

I just realized it's been too long since I've posted here.  But I didn't want to pass up the chance to post on 12-12-12, the last symmetrical date we will ever see in our lifetimes!  And it's happening right in the thick of holiday time, with Hanukkah underway, Christmas very close, and the end of the year within sight as well.

I absolutely love Christmastime.  And though I haven't been as diligent about my exercising as I would like, at least I have not abandoned it altogether.  If I can even go to the gym once a week between now and the end of Christmastime (in our house, January 6 is the last day of Christmastime), I'll consider it a success.  Though I haven't really lost any weight since we got back from Ireland in early November, I also haven't gained any - I'll take that, thank you very much.

I know for a lot of people, the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day is when they lose their motivation, time, and desire to remember to stay healthy.  It's so easy to do, since even if you don't go crazy with parties and celebrations, there's usually something on your calendar that keeps you running around.  I'm doing better this year than I have for quite a few years, and it's actually making me more thoughtful about eating and exercising.  I grab some steps whenever I can at work, and on days when the weather cooperates, I try to walk around the block at least during lunchtime, or take the slightly longer route walking home.  I haven't made myself give up any goodies, but I try to not eat as much and/or have a smaller meal next time.  I enjoy this time of year too much to become a martyr.

And tomorrow, I have my annual mammogram.  I don't look forward to it, but I know it's necessary, and have been fortunate to have been able to avoid even more drastic measures down the road since my cancer was caught early.  Every year, I think my luck is gonna be up again, but so far I've had a good report each time.  Hopefully tomorrow will be the same result.

In the meantime, I'll be right here, enjoying myself.  Why don't you do the same???