It's Christmas Eve...oh boy oh boy!!

Deep down inside, I am a little kid at Christmas. I love the music and play the "all Christmas music" radio station from the beginning. At one time, my husband said "they play the same things over and over again." I think that was his hint for me to change the channel. I didn't. I for sure need to listen to it when decorating the tree and doing some baking. And now, it is Christmas tomorrow. The gifts are all wrapped, the champagne is bought and chilling! I even get tempted to head to a mall just to soak up all the hustle and bustle of the season...Tempted..not crazy!
  Right now, we are having major subzero temperatures. -25C..brrr. This is the one time of year when I wish we had a fireplace to cozy up to. But, we chucked that out when doing up the renos of the house. The smart people in Television land, made a channel that shows a fireplace. Complete with the odd scene of a hand coming in to stir up the logs.  They say the temps are going to remain this cold for a few day ahead. Ugh! Lots of Coffee and Baileys and/or hot chocolate and baileys. Seeing a theme here?
    I have kept the presents from under the tree because I have a certain, nosey lab that would love nothing more then to open each and everyone one.  I guess her argument would be she was inspecting them making sure everything was OK. This is driving the kids crazy. We need to put them under the tree. The tree looks bare! So, after I make the gingerbread cookies, I will put them under the tree and then stand back as the kids go through them. No matter how old you are, it is always exciting to see a package with your name on it. The temptation to just have a peek is overwhelming. Maybe the gifts aren't under the tree to keep ME from being nosey! haha.. As per tradition, we open one small gift tonight then do the rest tomorrow. I shall have some champagne and orange juice  and prepare to watch the Queen's message!

 I would like to wish you all A wonderful Christmas season. Or Happy Holidays or whatever you call it. Seems to be quite the discussion around here as to what is socially acceptable.
 Enjoy your family time!!

how nice

  Here I sit on my laptop beside the tree. That's nice, you think to yourself. Across from me are my three kids. 18, 16 and 15. Again...that's good.  What is good about that is they are sitting together on the couch watching a scooby-doo movie on my daughter's laptop!  Hard to believe only a few short years ago, I thought they wouldn't get along..I mean EVER!!  Since there are 3 of them, there was always two that got along and the 3rd sort of left out in!  Secretly (guess not a secret any longer) I thought maybe we should have had 4 kids. More of an even playing (or fighting) field then. But, who is to say that maybe 3 wouldn't gang up on the 4th. I remember when they were a lot younger sitting in the livingroom listening to them fight over a piece of Lego. I listened to this for awhile and finally I just had to ask "How can you possibly tell this tiny, grey piece of lego is yours?" "We can just tell and I know it is mine..!"  at which time the fight began again. When they became teenagers, well just looking at one another "a certain" way would set them off.  Holy crap they would yell and fight.  But, today, I see them getting along and dare I say, they are finally friends!  It is very nice to see and I thought I would share it!!

No topic..just rambling as I do from time to time...

I have my tree up rather early this year. It could be because last year we were in the thick of things with renovating our kitchen.  I had a double mattress behind my couch  and a large tv in front of the window. Oh wait, that sounds like I have a bed usually in my kitchen. That takes breakfast in bed to a whole new meaning.  While we were doing our kitchen, why not knock a few walls down and work on a bedroom as well. THAT is how all this furniture got into my livingroom.  Anyway, there was barely enough room for anyone to walk around. Now, for me this was horrible, cause I love decorating with my Christmas things.  I decided to make the most of it by hanging stockings on the large TV and putting a quilt up to cover the mattress. Worked great until my husband decided to move the TV to the bedroom we were making. Oh, but  where will my stocking hang?  They made it to the mattress. The Quilt was used to cover a table that didn't belong.  In other words, my livingroom looks like a tornado went through it. It was not the "homes and garden" type decorated room. I made the best of it. BUT this year, nothing is out of place. OK, I do have some stuff that doesn't belong here, but that is pure laziness on my part. With the giddiness I get this time of year, I decorated like a mad women!!  Tree is up, everything has a proper home and no mattress needs hiding! Yipee!!  Tomorrow my daughter comes home from University!  So looking forward to carrying on with traditions  like baking our favourite Danish Pastries.  I have done some baking and have tortured the boys by putting half of it in the freezer.  My mother used to do this and I always told her I wanted to be a freezer when I grew up so I could get all the baked goodies.
    I have one decoration outside. We do not put up lights or buy big blow-up Santas to put on our front lawn. We live in the prairies and there is always a wind blowing. I have a small flag that goes on a metal pole in the garden. It is small and I have been lucky it hasn't been taken off it's pole and blown across the prairies!      I am even ready to wrap gifts and put them under the tree. I think I might hold that off for a bit. I don't want the dog to get bored and start eating the paper, as she does!

Visions of........running around my mind

Here I sit on my couch, feet up looking out the window at the snow lightly falling.  I am also lucky enough to have a view of the mountains, OK not right this moment..cause, its snowing. BUT when I can see them, they are beautiful. I have various "winter" decoration put up around the house. I don't call them Christmas decorations, because those won't be put up until officially December. That's my rule. I have gone shopping for gifts, hidden somewhere (just in case one or all of the kids read this).  I am well into the spirit of things, complete with music playing in the background. What thoughts are running around in my mind now? Bet you can't guess!  No, it isn't thoughts of sugar plums or anything like that. Sigh, what is going around in my mind that I desperately want to do is.....Go to Zurich and attend the Robbie Williams concert!!  I am such a fan! One summer, while in Scotland, I found out he was doing a concert in Glasgow..3 days after we left! Argg. 3 days!!!  I wanted to change my flight. Could I write to him and ask if he would mind doing it 3 days earlier then scheduled? That wouldn't be too pushy.  So, I now see he is doing a concert in Europe. I figure since I know people in Switzerland, why not kill two birds with one stone. Go visit my friends, and take part in his concert. I have even gone ahead and "clicked" the attend button on his facebook page. Like pressing that will result in tickets to Switzerland and his concert.  I do torment myself sometimes with stuff like that.  My other argument is he will never do a North American concert. They just don't really know who he is here. I mean his new CD came out and right off the bat is cost $12.-! A great deal for me, but not so much for his ego??  So, Robbie, if you happen to read this, how would you like a pure, crazy (not jail kind of crazy lol), will sing along to every song Canadian fan at your concert??
  In the meantime, I shall continue to listen to his music while sitting on the couch watch the snow fall.  Life is good!!

gray matter...

    I am thinking of letting my hair go gray! I have been colouring it for years and years. I am not even sure what my natural colour would be right now..oh wait, yes gray!  I have had such a battle with the colour of my hair over the years. My ideal colour would be a nice, mellow blonde. Not harsh because I have just about the whitest skin known!  But, for some reason, my hair turns a shade of red when I add a blonde shade to it. "just use an ash tone, that will get rid of the red", says loads of people over the years. That just didn't work. Eventually, the ole red would come out. So, what can a girl do, but colour her hair red!!  Yes, I did that just with the image of being sultry with my red locks. Colour set, rinsed, time for the big reveal. YIKES!! What had I done?  I hate red hair! (no insult to those born with red hair or that happened to love red hair). I just don't like it on me for some reason. So, next would be turning it dark to bring out my blue eyes. Did I mention the darker I go with my hair, the bluer my eyes look AND the paler my skin looks, so I seem to walk around like death warmed over! Sigh.. What is a person to do? Well, one can stop colouring her hair once and for all. That is where I am at today. I did what anyone would do, and that is to consult with the experts that live in google land.  They said to buy temporary colour and have it wash away gradually in 24 days. Eventually my natural colour will show through without anyone noticing. I am certainly not worried about anyone noticing my hair colour change. I have gone from red, to bright blonde to almost black in the same year! I think it is almost expected of me to change the colour of my hair every few months.
  Now the question remains, will I look much older than I am, if I turn gray. (side note...I debated to spell it "grey" but it looks too funny.) I am very young at heart. Almost immature, according to my kids. I know a lot of my friends have gone the gray way and look wonderful. I think I will do the lighter, temporary colour route and see what happens. Wish me luck! And to those that have gone gray, any tips? How did you go from colouring to natural gray? I shall keep you posted.

On your mark, get set, GO!!!!!!!.........

I was witness to a crazy sale yesterday! Huge line ups. There was a line at the door waiting for this store to open up at 8am. We were there just in time! You could feel the tension and anticipation as the doors were being opened. Was this the opening of a brand new designer purse store? Perhaps my fav, Fluevog shoes were opening up a new store..no, we were at a hardware store that was closing! Yes, the tension and giddiness was from all the men that were there. When the doors opened, I was instructed to head off to the right to look for the deck railings we had come for. "Mad dash" wouldn't even come close to describing it. Men and their wives/partners  were running all over the place. I have to admit, I did briefly stop to look at patio furniture. BUT, I soon refocused to the task on hand. Bingo! Found the railings!  Now, where was my husband? As I scaned through the railings I noticed they aren't in the colour we wanted. We wanted white. These were beige. Hmmmm. Oops excuse me, Taupe! Finally, my husband made it and saw the colour as well. We stood for a second and decided since they were 50% off, we were going to love the Taupe.  "You stay here and I will go grab a cart." I stood there and realized I was being circled by other men thinking maybe Taupe will be the colour choice. Now, do I throw myself on top of all these railings and do-dads that go with it? What is normal when men go to a sale? One man actually had his hands on one of the railings. Awkkk. How long does it take to get a cart? I see him and he is with a cart, but has taken a turn down another aisle to look at screws. I eyeballed him and said, with my eyes, get over here, we have competition for these railings. Hey, it worked! He came over and the two men started to casually grab things before the other one. The other man was asking my husband questions about what he might need. He came with a list, my husband came with a list. He was supposed to get white, but changed to Taupe, same with us! I thought this was going very well, until the man went to put his goodies in a pile nearby. My husband leaned over and said "I wish that man would just F*@# off". Oh, this is turning nasty! The other man returned with his list to grab more things. They were both looking for some attachment. They couldn't find it at all. We stood there looking for it and the man took his stuff away. I picked up something from the shelf and my husband grabbed it and said "Yes, Yes, this is what we are looking for. Quick, hide it on our cart so he won't see it." Then he made some sort of evil laugh noise. Good god! We got our things and went to stand in line..and stand in line...and stand in line. 1 hour and 1/2 later  we left the store. We piled all our railings and he went to get the truck to load it. While standing there guarding the pile, a women looked it over and said "oh new curtains for the house?" "No, railings for a new deck." Then she said "Nothing for you?". I told her "this is for everyone in the family".  Along came our truck. I noticed he was kind of blocking someone from getting out. I informed him of this and he said "I don't care, he can get out." Man this sale brings out the animal in men. Of course, I am sure I wouldn't be any better should I be at a shoe sale or purse sale. Mind you, I would have left the husband at home.  Anyway, we brought our goodies home, proud knowing we saved 50%! We unpacked the truck. Looked at all we had and made a list of the things we still had to get. Since this was a store closing, they didn't have everything. List was made. The next words out of his mouth, stunned me! "Let's go back to see if we missed getting anything." Seriously? Waited for the "ha ha I'm kidding" to come out..nope. We got back into the truck and went back to that sale. Thankfully, it was only a 25 minute drive there. We actually did find more things and the line up wasn't so big. Then we went to another hardware store to buy screws and order the remaining parts that are missing. In 2 weeks we should have all the railings up. We are putting off ordering the glass for now. Have to let our credit card calm down a bit!

What?!

Went to get my nails done today. It was a great day of spending it with my daughter. She is off to University at the end of the month..sniff sniff, and we decided to spend the day just the two of us. She is very much a tomboy and wasn't having any of that nail stuff. But, she was happy to sit beside me while I got mine done. We were standing at the counter to ask about getting them done,  when I noticed a lady seated, getting her nails done. She stared at me like she knew me from somewhere. I had never seen her before. We were told to come back in 45 minutes. So, we went shopping. Upon our return, the lady continued to stare at me. My inside voice was saying "what are you staring at?". Being the lady that I am...I hear that snicker from those that know me...I didn't say anything. I was getting my nails done and chatting when I asked my daughter if she noticed this women staring at me. It wasn't a hard core stare, just a glance from time to time. In order to glance at me, she had to swing her body around to do so. Strange. After mentioning it, my daughter did notice it. She leaned over and said "maybe she is jealous of your nails!". Hmm that's not it. She is getting the same thing done. (Here would be a good place to mention I get the ole fake nails put on)  " I know, she is admiring your shirt and is probably wondering where you got it?"  I pondered that thought, then came up with another one. "Oh god, I bet she donated this top to the second hand store that I got it from and keeps thinking it looks familiar!" THAT, my friends, would probably be the reason I was being stared at!! Wouldn't that be funny?  I never did find out, but that lady's staring soon got replaced with 3 workers standing around my little table talking with the women that was doing my nails. They were not speaking English and I got a bit paranoid that this was her first time doing it. In the end, it all turned out lovely. I now have nice "natural" looking nails.