December Decorating Dittys & Watermelon Does Not Go with Meat

I'm getting my decorating done a" little" at a time. By little I mean I still have a long way to go. I went to start pulling out my decorations from the garage and got sidetracked as I often do when I go to start a project. It was finally time to deal with our rat's nest of stuff in our garage. Since my dh was coming home early from work, due to a cold, I decided to take advantage and use this opportunity to fill the van with donations to the Salvation Arm. After loading the van and dropping off our donations I went my Big Lots and actually resisted the urge to buy anything. So at the end of that day all I managed to bring the boxes of decoations into the living room. I've also rearranged the furniture in my living room to allow the tree to be in front window. At this time I should mention I really want a prelit slim tree, however, my regular prelit tree is only 2 years old so I do not plan to replace it this year. It just bugs me that I can't just be content with my perfectly fine almost new tree. I'm sure that once it is up I'll love it again. I bought a new set of matching stockings for the whole family on sale after Christmas. Now I'm bummed that they all "match" (Are you noticing a trend here?). I'd love to get them monogramed but instead to personalize them I'm in search of little gold frames and I plan to place a photo of each family member on their stockings.

Watermelon Does Not Go with Meat
Yesterday I went to go pick up my vacuum. It was finally finished after 2 months. At least this time there was no charge. Yeah! It was still under warantee. Before going out I spent at least an hour in what I call pre-shopping cyber style. This is when I go online to the store's website and get my shopping list together. The kids have been bugging me to put up outdoor decorations. Of course there is also the peer pressure seeing most our neighbors having thier lights and decorations up already. So I went to Home Depot. I decided to go with all white. I found the cutest mini white spiral trees that come 6 in a set. These go along the front of our couryard wall. Then I bought white lights to wrap the trunks of our palm trees. And finally, 2 strings of twinkling snowflakes to go around our courtyard patio. I rushed home and built the little trees and wrapped the palms (Before and while making dinner). Now to get my dh to hang those snowflakes this weekend and we'll have our own mini winter wonderland. Oh, Matthew said the funnniest thing yesterday on the way home. He knew we were having macaroni and beef casserole (okay it's really hamburger helper) and Maverick wanted a piece of watermelon flavored gum. Matthew informs Maverick, "Be sure to take your gum out before you eat because watermelon does not go with meat." So how is that for a word of wisdom? LOL. I need to take some photos of my decorations to post. The other activity around my house these days is a zipline. It starts at the top of my stairs ends in our living room. What started as only GI Joe Sigma 6 characters has led to countless other items whizzing down the line. Oh joys of boys. (Photos to follow). Hope your December has already started with your own flurry of activities.

Random Thoughts

Just a week ago my dh and I hosted Thanksgiving in our home for the very first time. I had fun planning, setting up the tables, decorating, and cooking. One little hiccup. I used the self-cleaning mode on my overn the weekend before Thanksgiving. A few days later I went to use my oven and discovered it would not heat. I found a local repairman that was willing to come out the day before Thanksgiving. He came later in the day when it was starting to get dark. We found out the hard way that my whole house is connected to one circuit breaker. He had to install a new oven gauge with a flashlight. I even pulled out some candles and made a joke about having an old fashioned Thanksgiving by candlelight. Another funny story was my mom couldn't find her recipe for the cream in her fruit salad. I called my sister in Florida to ask her for our family recipe We also looked on the internet. We used the internet recipe and although it wasn't exactly our family recipe it was still yummy. My favorite memory was seeing and hearing my family as we lit a candle and shared our thanks.We need to do this next year before serving food. It was nice however that we all started eating at the same time and it gave everyone a chance to share. Later it was fun watching the boys dip their fingers in the liquid wax and make finger print molds. I loved doing this as kid so it was fun to see them have fun doing it too. I forgot to pass out the index cards I had planned on having everyone fill with their thoughts of gratitude and we never took a "group" shot. My mil has already asked me to host again next year. So as I reflect on last week I feel joy all over again. Thank you God for my family, my health, my home, my church, na dmy country. Remember: Thanksgiving is a holiday....Thanksliving is a way of life.
My son read this story today.
A quote from: Three Questions by Leo Tolsoi
"Remember then: there is only one time that is important-now!"