CHRISTMAS EVE DAY 2009

[Nasoosie]

GOOD MORNING TO US ALL!!

It's 15 ABOVE zero this morning----a perfect December temperature! We have about 4 inches of fluffy new snow over the snow of old, and it's picture perfect for Santa night and Silent night.

My daughter and her guy will come for my traditional Christmas Eve supper tonight, which is cheese rarebit over Ritz crackers, or Ritz crackers dipped in the rarebit.....served on paper plates to burn for the Yule Fire. We may have a fire on the deck in my firepit, if the temps stay as they are this morning. Meanwhile, I have to get my butt in gear and go grocery shopping, as I didn't do that yesterday. I will also call the DMV to see if, by some weird chance, they might be open so I can renew my driver's license this morning. If not, it will have to wait for early in January.

I hope Pete made it safely to his grandkids yesterday....I imagine that house is all abustle today and tonight! I miss having kids for Christmas---very much. I hope all the rest of you are going to celebrate just the way you want to, no matter where you are or what you are planning. I will be thinking of you all around my fire this evening.

I am enclosing my Christmas poem I wrote many years ago when I lived alone in the little cabin on the other side of the mountain. It was 40 degrees below zero F. that night I wrote it! I know I posted it last Christmas Eve also, so if you recognize it, that's why. You can see that it was written when I was just a tad younger! Reading this every year brings back all those memories of my being totally on my own on a magically cold, sparkly night, and in charge of my survival in that little cabin. It was one of my fondest Christmas Eves of my life, despite my being alone. As at this 'new' house, it had lilac bushes right outside the door.

CHRISTMAS EVE 1967

How cold it is outside tonight…
How crunchy, crispy cold.
A snow has fallen, soft and light,
Upon the fall of old.

The haloed moon above the pine
Gives snowy shapes below
A glist'ning, sparkly, silv’ry shine…
The very air’s a-glow.

The trees and shrubs are cased in rime…
The stately balsams proud;
The earth’s asleep this wintry time,
And stillness rings out loud.

What is it now for what I yearn
Alone this Christmas Eve,
As to the snow and ice I turn
From warmth of cabin eave?

As on my cabin porch I pause
To listen in the cold,
I ask the sky about the cause
Of wars--of hate--of getting old.

I ask the sky--I wonder why?
For what? No god I know…
Yet maybe out there secrets lie
That tell why life is so.

Perhaps an omen from the skies?
A sign this Christmas season?
Yet, here, before my eyes, it lies…
Defying depths of reason.

The rime-cased bush is deadly cold
A sprig of buds I borrow;
The swollen shells their promise hold---
The lilacs of tomorrow.

Susan Martineau--December 24, 1967

[Liz]

That's a beautiful poem, Soos. I'm praying that one day you'll know the answers to those yearning questions.

I'm leaving in a few minutes to drive to GA to youngest dd's family for Christmas. Waiting for oldest dd & family to arrive from Tampa area and we will caravan together. Just a short visit, will return home Saturday. Roe's going with me, but Bandit (doesn't know it yet) will stay home alone. I'm giving him some outside time on the pool deck, as he will have to stay inside while I'm gone.

Wishing all of you the happiest of Christmases.

[Cedar518]

Good morning Soosie and Sisters,

Thanks for posting your poem again. I have loved that since the first reading several years ago. So descriptive! Nice piece of writing!

Standing temp here is 20° with no breeze. Jennifer is curled up at my elbow here on the computer table. Today will be a cozy day at home. We had lots of excitement here last night with my three kids, DiL, SiL, and four grands as well as Kathy. Wonderful buffet of baked ham, French Canadian meat pie, potato salad, rolls, deviled eggs, pickles, shrimp, crackers and cheese, soda, beer, wine and for dessert my daughter's famous Christmas cake and my platter of cookies.

After dinner we exchanged gifts and even the new camper got a present from my older son! An insulated bag full of things like batteries, fire lighter, mosquito repellant, and on and on,... The bag will be great to carry to the stage area at bluegrass events. I believe Kath has a present for the camper too. I will be buying her new towels also. She can't have all "hand me downs" from LG2!

So now it's settle in for a peaceful vacation,... tomorrow I'll stop by the grandchildren's to see their gifts, the youngest ones are so excited. Plenty of left overs so won't have to worry about meals for a few days, either!

Ahhhh,.... love the holidays! Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season.

[avalen]

a beautiful poem Soos, and wishing you a Merry Christmas , and to everyone, a Merry Christmas!
We have frost on the porch this morning so its definately cold outside but it'll get better
when the sun comes up. Had to put my 5 gal "emergency" propane tank on yesterday,
with all this cold weather we've had lately, the furnace is running more. Hopefully it will
last until my paycheck shows up in the mail.
Not doing much today, or tomorrow, daughter has to work both days and we agreed
not to get each other gifts cause we both have a tight budget.
Put in the last 3 days
with extra work getting the yearly inspections started on the buses. They fed us too!
All the buses have to be done by the end of January but usually we get it done by the
second week. The state only has a couple officers qualified to do the inspections and
that is for all the school districts, so they are two really busy officers! Glad we are
able to get a head start on it.
Time for a coffee refill and a hot steamy bowl of oatmeal w/banana will hit the spot.
Have a great day and be merry

[AlmostThere]

Morning!

Around 32 here and foggy, but no snow or rain so I"m doing the happy dance!

Today is a laid back day for me. Catching up on some much needed R&R as Monday I had the 2 g'daugthers (7 and 9). Tues. they returned and spent the night and went home yesterday late AM. An hour later I met up with my new friend from the other forum. She needed a haircut so we went to do that and the girl cutting her hair seemed like she'd never had a day of class in her life!! She even had to call the other stylist over to help with a simple cut!! Needless to say afterward Kerry and I came back here and together we finished the cut. Had a great time and laughed allot. Afterward I fixed sloppy joes and we ate fudge. It was too soon she had to get back to her DDs in Portland.

Around 8 last night my son called. He's military and just returned home from a tour of duty last Sunday. He sounded great and was happy to be home. He also told me he's signed up for another 4 yrs!! I was hoping he'd retire this summer but he'll get a better retirement if he retires as a Major so needs to add more time. Also with the economy like it is he's better off staying military until things settle.

Tomorrow at first light I'll head up I-5 to my DD/family to spend Christmas day. Can't wait. The GDs won't be little much longer, nor still believe in Santa. They kept re-inviting me to make sure I'll be there! lol Ahhh, it's nice to be wanted.

Enjoy your day, everyone. Please be safe if you have to be traveling or living where the winter storms are.

[Echo]

GOOD MORNING SISTAHS!

Thank you Soos! That was absolutely beautiful! I don't remember reading that last year and this morning it was a perfect wake up. After only 5 1/2hrs of sleep I woke up crying from a terrible dream about my oldest brother. For the past ? 2yrs he has hardly spoken to me and I have no idea what so ever why he hasn't? I've went to his house, he knowing I was on my way, had left. I've called and spoken to his partner but not him. I've sent emails and cards. But hardly a word from him. I sent pictures to him and his partner of David's baby. I did get a return email saying thank you and Merry Christmas. Not even 2 lines worth. I guess it's gonna go down as a mystery as to why he has simply quit talking to me. But as miserable as my mood was this morning I found joy in your poem. Thank you for posting it.

Kids have a 'new' to them fridge. The old one just up and quit blowing cold air. We noticed the freezer first as everything in there defrosted. Not that there really was much meat in there to begin with. Dang thing was full of stuff, but empty of much in the way of food type stuff. What was in there David cooked up last night. A steak, some ribs and a few turkey legs. Oh and he threw out my two pounds of hamburger??? They picked up a used fridge that looks like a monster compared to the old one as this 'new' one is a lot bigger. Kelly and I cleaned out the old fridge when we got home. I had to run back to Walmart to get some 'star' screw bits for Davids drill as the doors on the new one had to be taken off to fit thru the doorways and into the house. Finally at midnight we got it in the house and the doors put back on cause we had to wait for the battery on David's drill to recharge. Jenny got home just as David was finishing up putting the doors back on. Took one look at all the stuff out of the old fridge and said, "Oh it's a disaster in here, I don't even want to look at it". She then went to bed. I ended up wiping out the new fridge then Kelly and I put all the shelves back in and reloading all the stuff in it. Now to buy some groceries and fill the freezer.

We are done with shopping for Christmas!!! WooHoo! Could not find the food storage container set that Jenny wanted any where. So Kelly is gonna order it online for her. The other presents we have bought for the kids are very practical ones. Nothing frivolous, only things that they need and can really use. One gift is a new vacuum cleaner. Nothing fancy just a small one just like the one we have and use. We used our old one to death at the Lodge. We both liked that little vacuum so much we bought another one just like it. Kelly and I have not gotten each other nothing for right now. We will later. Only thing I want is an electric fry pan. Only thing I can think of that Kelly would like is an external hard drive for her laptop. Oh yeah, she does want to wipe everything off this laptop and reload a new copy of Vista. Now that we can't afford right now. So it will have to wait.

Ok, time to get off here and maybe get busy doing some quiet housework. It needs to be cleaned up around here but I'm the only one up so have to work quietly. Do up the dishes, sweep and mop for now will be a good start.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas Eve. Be careful in your travels to visit family and friends.

Love to all

[Redetotry]

Rain rain go away! We had almost 5 inches over night & it is still coming down, we are supposed to get 1-2 more inches of rain today and a turn to a wintry mix tonight with hopefully snow not ice tomorrow. The dogs do not want to go out but figure they will let me know when they are ready to get wet! The temp is to get up to 50 today.
Safe journeys to all on the roads.

[AlmostThere]

Echo, MS just came out with Windows 7. Pretty much replacing Vista which was a bust! So I'd think twice about putting Vista on as your OS. JMHO

[retiredhappy]

Echo, look at Windows 7. I just bought a new Toshiba with Windows 7 and I love it. Its almost as good as XP.

Soos, thank you so much for the poem. I could really see it all through your eyes. Its cloudy, cold (40's) and very windy here. I was up at midnight last night taking my awning down in the wind which snuck up on me. Luckily a couple of guys were driving by and stopped to help as I was having a hard time with the awning flapping so hard in the wind. I use motorcycle tiedowns on my awning and am usually good to around 25 mph but last night it was apparently gusting much higher and pulled the deflappers loose.

Everyone stay safe in your travels and have a happy holiday.

[BarbaraRose]

Woke up to about 5 new inches of snow this morning. Another 6 or more on the way for today, 6 more tomorrow and even more on Saturday. Strangely, I haven't heard a snowplow go by all night or morning, so not sure what they are waiting for.

The ferrets are in rare form this morning, running around wrestling and chasing each other all over, very cute and entertaining! They usually aren't that active in the mornings. They must know something is up (Santa?). Now I need to wrap gifts and bake some apple crisp for tonight. We aren't giving personal gifts, but we play the dice game and trade (steal) little gifts back and forth.

My SO's sister died on Tuesday (complications from a kidney transplant) so naturaly, he is in a very down mood, so we haven't talked much about RV's for awhile. Plenty of time for that later on. The funeral is next Tuesday. Tough time of year to lose a loved one. She was only 45.

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend, with lots of good company, laughs, gifts and food!

Barbie

[OutandAbout]

Good morning all. Not much going on here. It's raining now, but will turn to snow this afternoon. We are expecting between 3-5" of the stuff. (I know, not much compared to you easterners.) It will provide a white Christmas for us though, and the kids will be able to use their new winter toys.

Doing some laundry and light cleaning, such boring chores which must be done.

Everyone traveling, stay safe and to all have a Merry Christmas . Linda

[BarbaraRose]

Am watching the Travel channel and they just showed a campground and RV's all decorated up for Christmas. Even a big lit-up pink flamingo! Maybe a relative of Belle? It was all very beautiful! Does anyone here decorate their RV's/trailers with Christmas lights and decorations?

Barbie

[Getupngo]

Soos ... that was a beautiful poem. I see that it was written by a much younger woman. I trust the older, wiser you has learned to embrace the mystery.

The new snow is iridescent in a much longed-for sunny morning. Going to son's house tonight for the traditional wrapping-ripping ceremony. Tomorrow they drop the boys off at the airport for a trip to see their dad & grandparents in Denver. Then they'll come to my house for a steaming plate of lasagne. Life is good. Merry Christmas, everyone.

[Echo]

Well I have XP on my laptop but the one we are using right now is Kelly's and she loves VISTA. It's alright I guess? I have gotten use to it and managed to find my way around ok. He77 I still have trouble with XP! Had to asked Kelly last night how to do a new folder on my puters desktop I couldn't remember how. Sheesh! A geek I will never ever be. Maybe if she could get a look at and try out 7 she might like it but it's hard to tell with her.

Temp here now is in the low 50's. It is simply gorgeous outside!!! Of course it is killing the snow cover but ya just can't argue with temps like that. It's so nice to go outside without a jacket on and feel the sunshine.

[AlmostThere]

Hey, if Kelly has knowledge of Vista and is good with it, then yeh, I can see wanting it again. BUT with Windows 7 kinda taking it's place perhaps there won't be any upgrades coming out for it? Just throwing that out there.