Tag: christmas

My Train of Thought

~ JodiLea ~ 5 Comments

has derailed.

It’s December 16th (oops – it’s past my bedtime!),  17th. In the beginning of the month I started shopping & wrapping. I started sending cards. I started baking. Why am I not finished with any of these things?

It’s not like I’m too busy writing blog posts. I have several drafts staring at me when I log into my dashboard. They suck, so (count your blessings) you won’t see them anytime soon.

What have I been doing instead of these very important things?  Honestly? I keep getting distracted on the way to doing them.  I just  wanted to check my email, then work on the cards. After spending 10 minutes deleting the spam, and another 30 minutes reading my real mail, I made the mistake of catching up on my favorite blogs. 2 1/2 hours later… I am too tired to do any cards, baking, or whatever. Don’t get me wrong – I have a lot of fun and laughs reading the posts of these prolific and talented writers. Which causes the problem in the first place.

On the way to wrapping gifts I need to clear off the kitchen counter. I wrap there because it’s the perfect height for me to work on. This leads to putting this and that away, loading the dishwasher, and wiping down the stove. I never brought out the wrapping paper or ribbons, so I forget my original plan to wrap gifts and I make cookie dough.

Only God knows what I will accomplish tomorrow  today!

October is Christmas Awareness Month

~ JodiLea ~ 4 Comments

Only 69 days until Christmas. Oh dear. If I want to enjoy the holidays (which is the point, right?) then I need to get shopping, planning and making lists of all I want to get done with before Thanksgiving.

This year I am determined  not to get stressed out by Christmas. The difference this year is I’m on vacation this week so I can go shopping in the mornings while my brain is fairly active (in a good way). I did not take vacation to do Christmas shopping, but since I have an assistant this week (who loves to go shopping), I can use this to my advantage.

Miss PhoenixMy granddaughter, Phoenix, and I get to hang out together maybe once a year if I can take vacation during one of her school breaks. We missed the summer break this year and I thought our “week” would have to wait until Easter or next summer when I retired. Yes, I know I’m too young to retire, but that is another blog post…

I don’t remember having “Fall Break” when I was in second grade. A week off school in October? A couple days in November during Teacher Parent Conferences was all we got and we were excited about that, believe me. Anyway, Phoenix came home with us when we left my daughter’s yesterday afternoon. The back seat of hubby’s F-150 was filled with our weekend bags, a pink suitcase, a princess tote bag (full of dress-up clothes), homework papers stuffed in my knitting bag, etc. We had to use a crowbar to get Phoenix into her booster chair secured in the middle of all the “stuff”. I should have taken a picture, but who knew where the camera was?

So, back to today. The plan is to grocery shop because I am out of everything. First we should plan some meals so we know what to shop for. And cut out coupons for items we plan to buy.

After we return home and put the groceries away (many more than were on our list), we are off to the library because we are bored with the reading material around here. Now that Phoenix is a good reader, we will look for a chapter book to read together. I’m hoping to find the chapter book series that my dad used to read to me & my sister -“The Happy Hollisters”. I loved those books! If Phoenix doesn’t like them I may have to read them to myself.

After the library, we will have our lunch, watch some TV, and relax. Grandma may will definitely need a nap at this point because she is up early writing this post and coffee is not kicking in like I want it to.

So, when is this Christmas shopping going to happen? Oh, we will start today. I have many, many mail-order catalogs to shop in at our leisure. We usually find all kinds of things that we would love to have too. Good thing we can restrain ourselves.

Since it’s time to start preparing supper, we decide that we will begin our “live” shopping tomorrow. Or not. We might think of something else to do instead. You never know with us. 😉

A Gray Christmas

~ JodiLea

Girl looking out window at rain Seven days & nights of continuous rain. Heavy rain.  Often accompanied by   nasty blasting winds.

How dare Mother Nature. This is  Southern California for crying out loud! I have not been able to relax on my private porch. I have not needed sunglasses in over a week! If I wanted to live like this I would move to Seattle.

I woke up smiling this morning because there was light coming in the window. And, the best part, cloudless patches of gorgeous blue sky playing peek-a-boo with the lingering grayness. Now, two hours later, the grayness wins out and all is gloomy again. I check the weather websites for hopeful news. Tomorrow and Saturday cloudy. More rain on Sunday.

Scotty! Beam me up and deposit me in Maui. Or shoot me. Something.

Snow would be a different story. It is magical and peaceful. I love watching it fall, especially at night. That kind of weather this time of year would be lovely. Even if the skies were gray it would be a White Christmas. Alas, Mother Nature only finds it in her heart to snow in southern California once every 50 years, and this is not one of them. The only snow I will see is the stuff falling on my blog.

This sunless gray world is turning me into a curmudgeon. I feel depressed, grumpy and tired. The kind of  “leave-me-alone-don’t-bother-me-I-just-want-to-sleep” mood clings to me like the snails and worms on the porch seeking higher ground. YUCK!  The fact that the house is festively decorated for Christmas, barely registers any response from me. Unless you count “Bah Humbug!” .