Love At Home

Easter this year brought a new form of Easter Egg Hunt Entertainment, in the form of Confetti Eggs. Basically, these are empty eggshells (white and yolk blown out), which were dyed, then filled with Fruity Pebbles and glitter. The rules were that you couldn't throw them; only smash them on your competitors' heads. As you will see, all the rules went out the window.

Now we can have Christmas

In spite of the retail world trying to force Christmas upon me prior to Thanksgiving - nay, prior to Halloween! - I have resisted any semblance of Christmas in the Later home until after Thanksgiving. I get a little angry, actually, at this mass onslaught of Christmas before we even start thinking about what to make for Thanksgiving dinner. It's almost as if Thanksgiving isn't important anymore. But, the rule is the same now as it has always been in our home. We do not do Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving. Period.

When the children were small, I would compromise and put up the Christmas tree on Thanskgiving night. But now that they're older I can hold off until the day after Thanksgiving. They're making progress.

So, now that the turkey is eaten and the leftovers are nearly gone we can have Christmas.

The tree is up, I'm experimenting with what kind of cookies will be suitable to give away to friends and neighbors, and the Christmas CD's are stacked by the CD player. This is a necessity since I can only take so much of KLCE's idea of Christmas music - Jewel singing "Silent Night" and let's hear "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" ONE MORE TIME!! As Joshua says, "That's not Christmas music! Where are my trumpets?"

While I also rebel against Black Friday - another conspiracy to try to make us believe that buying stuff (junk?) is the most important thing about the holiday, especially if we get it for a "deal" - I have been doing a little Christmas shopping. Online. In my pajamas. Sipping hot chocolate. My idea of a perfect shopping trip.

On that note, let me say that I am so impressed and amazed by people who have their Christmas shopping done by July. I tried it once and by the Christmas season had forgotten what I bought for everyone and ended up buying all over again, only to find post factum that I had already purchased gifts for that person. So, I wait until after Thanksgiving to start shopping. I'm more in the spirit of the thing and I work best under pressure.

So, while I still feel that I've entered a time warp (wasn't I just sitting on the Green Belt watching fireworks!?!?) I am completely ready for the season. I'm working on neighbor gifts and am, as always, getting a kick out of our cats who seem to think that the Christmas tree is there just for them. They love sleeping underneath it. We are hunkered inside in the warm, lit house while outside it's cold and, often, blustery. I'm savoring the wonderful smells of Christmas - cookies, cinnamon, cloves and the sweet sounds of Christmas - Christmas hymns at church and Handel's Messiah.

The only thing that would make it better would be to have everyone close by - Mama, Daddy, Rudy and family. So, here's my "Grown-Up Christmas List". I choose to believe in Santa Claus so, dream big right?

1. Perfect Christmas cookies to give away. No burnt edges, no soggy middles.
2. Snow on Christmas Eve.
3. Poinsettias all over the chapel the Sunday before Christmas.
4. An Aunt Kay hug.
5. A bag full of shelled pecans right out of the yard (thanks to Mom, this can be checked off the list!).
6. Quiet moments gazing at my Christmas tree lights. (One of my favorite Christmas memories in sitting on my Daddy's lap when I was really little, listening to Christmas music, and admiring the lights on our Christmas tree.)
7. Health and full recovery for Daddy.
8. Happy children.

Merry Christmas.

Valentine's Day

So, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. KSL and I have never been into Valentine's Day. I know....we're dull and boring. It's just that we have this aversion to feeling like we have to do something to prove our love to each other just because everybody else is doing it. So, normally we ignore the day and just go out on our regular date night. We try to show each other we love each other every day - not just February 14. Don't get me wrong. I think it's great that others make such a big deal out of it. It's just not our thing.

However, something got into KSL this year and he decided that we should at least try to commemorate the sentiment of love. After a little discussion, we decided to go eat sushi (Blue Hashi - the best) then check out a movie. Not very original, I know, but remember we haven't done this Valentine's Day thing very often so we're a little inexperienced.

At the sushi restaurant, who should be there but the salesman we met at Bedroom Expressions last weekend who talked non-stop for 30 minutes with Kent about the Super Bowl, then followed us around the store wanting to chat, chat, chat. Guess what? He still wanted to chat, chat, chat. Fortunately, he's funny and engaging so it wasn't as annoying as it could have been. It just wasn't very romantic, if you know what I mean.

We drove by the theaters, but nothing really sounded good. And at $8.50 a pop for tickets and another $15.00 for popcorn and a drink the movie has to at least sound good.

We sat in the parking lot of the theater for a moment. What to do? We could walk in the mall, stroll around Barnes and Noble, or.....go home. "I'm tired" KSL said. "Me too", I replied.

So, here we are - the two of us. He's watching Hannity and Colmes yell at each other about the Stimulus Package and I'm.....well you can see what I'm doing.

I guess we could always try again for a big romantic something tomorrow. But I'm not too confident that there'll be much difference in the outcome. So far, the day includes cleaning the church and going to Wal-Mart to buy groceries. We'll need to make a trip to the library (my books are a week overdue) and we'll probably get a hamburger at Dixie's Diner.

But actually, now that I think of it, that sounds pretty fun. As long as I get to do it with KSL it all sounds pretty romantic to me.

Happy Valentine's Day.