Monday Musings

I can hear you now, "She's been home nearly a week, and only one post! What's she doing?" And the answer would be, "I've been in a whirling dervish". I arrived home and suddenly realized that Christmas was just over three weeks away. I had no decorating done, no shopping even started, the Christmas Eve Program was mostly in my head, cookies needed to be baked.

Initially, I was paralyzed. I lay awake the first night home wondering if I could manage to get any of these things done. I must also confess, for some reason, I can't seem to muster up any Christmas spirit. I love this whole time of year. From pre-Thanksgiving until New Year's is just such a wonderfully festive time, and I usually jump in with a delightful fervor. Not so much this year. I think there might be a myriad of reasons, and I can't put my finger on just one.

BUT...I'm determined to plough ahead as if I were excited and hope for the best. SOOO, last Wednesday I was determined to hang my outdoor wreaths. Now, Jim is a almost perfect husband who does almost anything I ask him...other than do outdoor Christmas decorations. Neither of us knows why he feels so strongly about that subject, but nevertheless he does. So, because I want outdoor decorations, I do them.

Over the years, I have tried various methods of securing these pesky things on my windows here atop this very windy hill. This year I researched the subject on the Internet and thought I had the answer, fishing line and suction cups. Let me tell you, this was not an easy job, but finally just about dusk, I had them all done {and forgot to take a picture}. They look like this and adorn all the windows and door in the front of my house, plus one on the flag pole, the fence and the pole holding the bird house. I'd run out and take a picture of how beautiful they are except that it's dark and, oh yes, four of them blew down in the wind storm yesterday. So much for that method of affixing wreaths. Alas, it is supposed to be 40 degrees tomorrow, so I will try again.

I must admit from Wednesday, the week got better. I baked some cookies. Jim baked some cookies. Our freezer is looking very full. We decided on a design for our Christmas card and I finalized the details for the Christmas Eve service. Let me tell you briefly about the strange experience I had on the Internet. Before Thanksgiving, I found a site that had all the readings I wanted to use. I bookmarked the site, planning to go back to it after we returned home. When I went to the site www.beholdhim.org/advent last Wednesday, it had become an advertisement for holiday gifts for men. I kid you not!!! My Christian Advent site had disappeared. I emailed my daughter and asked her if she thought the Lord had a better plan for our church or was Satan messing with me. Whatever the case, I finally found another site and now have all the readings I need for Christmas Eve.

Friday was the Loser Housewives annual Christmas shopping trip. We have been doing this for close to twenty years. The participants change as time goes on, but Sandi, Linda and I have made it every year. That escapade did a lot to energize me and put me in a Christmas mood.

We meet for breakfast about 8:30, after which we go to the mall. There we separate until about 11:30 when we meet at the Starbucks kiosk for coffee. Then it's shopping until about 1:30, when we meet for lunch. After lunch, we finish our mall shopping and leave for Target, Borders, Michaels, etc. When we finish with those stores, we go to another Starbucks for a final coffee {and perhaps muffins}. Surprisingly, even with all those breaks, we manage to accomplish quite a bit of shopping.

Saturday was a very busy day which included a very fun surprise birthday party for our friend, Kathy. Of course, there was the Alabama/Florida game, which I won't even talk about here. Needless to say, I was disappointed with the end result. We did manage to get started with our decorating though and finished up after church on Sunday.

I really love this wreath. It looks so good in my dining room I'm tempted to leave it up all year.

This is really blah. I can't remember what I did last year, but it was prettier than this. I think I have an idea how to make it better thanks to Laura of the Horton Family.

So, now I'm back to Monday, the best day of all of this. I think I'm out of my funk, thanks to Jim and the really fun day we've had.

I received calls yesterday saying that my new glasses were in at the mall and my pictures were in at Wal-Mart. I asked Jim to go with me to pick these things up and we left right after breakfast. As most of you know, you can't just run in and out of the mall during the Christmas season. There are always things to pick up. Jim was such a good sport, following me all over and driving me to Borders and then to BJ's. Although I did treat him to a mocha at Starbucks, I though he deserved something spectacular. So, we went to my favorite crepe restaurant {which he had never experienced} and had a fab-o lunch, including dessert.

And so, I can feel that Christmas spirit moving in and making everything happy and bright.

~Hippo Hugs~