The Holidays Are Upon Us

Played hooky from work last night. Wasn't feeling well most of yesterday and about 9:30 it all came to a head and I called in. Definitely not something I do, especially an hour and a half before my shift starts. But I got no angry calls from anyone, so that was a blessing. I won't go into the gory details, but this morning when I awoke, I'm feeling better in some places, worse in others. My back, for some reason, is not feeling well at all.

This morning dawned cloudless and bright and the wind is breezy, but not terribly so. My windows are all open and it's a nice 63 degrees here at my computer by the window. I really love this time of year, although it can be frustrating opening and shutting windows twice a day. I actually had to turn on the air conditioner yesterday, and will probably do the same later today. But the mornings and evenings are gorgeous and worth the two hours that I have to shut everything up for expensive cool air. I think we have a cold front that will be coming in this evening and here in the next day or so, the low is suppose to be in the 30's. Nice.

Thinking about Thanksgiving coming up and of course Christmas stuff is all in the stores now along with holiday commercials on TV. For the last 6 or seven years now, my family gathers at a designated Luby's on Thanksgiving and we eat, drink and be merry and someone else gets to clean up the mess. It's worked out well for all of us, and eliminates any stress as far as cooking to impress goes. We always have a good time, but that's something my family has always done anyway... have a good time. Lots and lots of memories of family get togethers, and they are all good. No drunk uncle wanting to fight anyone... no aunt wanting to gossip about other members of the family. No... when my family gets together, we do it right.

This year... I think I will not be putting up a Christmas Tree. Or not a big one, like I've done for the last 20 some odd years. I had such a hard time getting motivated to do it last year, and Libby was still just under a year old and the most we ever saw of her after the tree was up, was this:
But the fun actually started when the tree first went up. She saw the tree as a threat and tried to destroy it from the beginning... long before the decorations had been put on:
So I've been thinking... with her still young enough to tear the decorations off and run with them, and on top of that Cricket, who will not be a year for a while yet, I just don't think I have the energy to play that game this year. I might buy a really small tree to put on my coffee table... but I'll have to figure out a way to anchor it to the table. And I'm sure I'll still have my fair share of finding stolen decorations in the end.