Traditions

Today is a better busy day.  For me it was a "traditions" day.    Cranberry Splash in my glass;  Christmas Vacation on the TV, and wrapping presents.   Most of mine get sent out of town, so they have to be ready and wrapped early on.  After 15 Holiday Seasons as a retail worker, I've come to understand that's just how it is.  I've spent 2 of the last 15 holidays with my family.  Ten years ago I flew home to see my parents because my Dad had been ill.  And last year when my Dad died.  That's not many holidays with family, but that means I've had to create my own traditions.

Because retail stores are closed Christmas Day, (at least they are for now) it's usually the day I spend on me.  In years past when I had a perm, that was the day I gave myself a perm, loaded up DVD after DVD and just chilled out.  Many times alone, because my kids would spend the holiday with their own dad.  Acceptance comes when you have no choice in the matter.  And in the long run, it's all ok.

When my kids were little, they would usually return for New Years.   New Years Eve was usually crammed full of traditions.  We would have an early afternoon supper, then open Christmas gifts.  That night it would be rounds of Bingo (with prizes, of course!) and "make your own sundaes" with every known topping (and boy could the kids make messy sundaes!)  And then it would be midnight, a brand new year, and the holiday season behind us.

When you're not a traditional family, you find ways to make things work.  You create traditions that can be carried out on any day, not only on the exact holiday.  It's my biggest hope that my kids remember these traditions fondly.  I know I sure do!

Weird Days

I don't know if you do this or not, but I'm the type who likes to have a plan for the day.  It may not always be specific, and is ALWAYS subject to change, but a plan to start the day helps.


Yesterday was our "one trip shopping" discount at my BigBox store:  25% off one entire purchase, and this year I went all out:  a new TV and entertainment center for the living room!  It's way past time for the 12 year old TV to take a hike. haha  After pulling two shopping carts through the store in order to get all the stuff I wanted - and needed - I had the task of loading it all into my car.  The hardest piece was the entertainment center.   Being too big for the back seat, it had to go in the trunk, with the lid tied down.  I tacked on this little Santa Hat as my "red flag" to other drivers. hehehehe


After getting it all in the house and unloaded, I moved furniture, emptied out the old entertainment center and figured that Saturday morning would be a perfect time to start Assembling.  But once the pieces were all laid out, I found out that I was short 8 compression dowels.   Ugh.  I called the company (as the instructions read to do) and found the company isn't open on weekends.  After pondering for all of 10 seconds, I hopped in the car and headed to Home Depot.  They had dowels, the right diameter, but an inch too short.  I headed for Lowes, right length, but too fat.  Looks like I will have all these parts scattered all over until I can get more dowels shipped to me.   Which means I didn't take out and inspect my new TV and give that a whirl either!

So much for Saturday's Plan A.   Turns out that my Plan B was to clean the garage out a bit.  My son hasn't been home in over 5 days, and frankly, all the "stuff" he has in there is slowly encroaching on what little space I use in the garage:  the washer and dryer!  I didn't move TOO many things (after all, if I move things, as a man, he will never find them again! hahahah), and I got the floor swept and the corners vacuumed out.  At least I was productive in that area!

After all that, I decided that Sadie needed another walk, and I wasn't in the mood to walk the streets, so we headed to the local riparian preserve and circled around some of our favorite areas.  Lots of people out enjoying this beautiful day in the Valley of the Sun - and many of them dressed up for holiday photo shoots!   Always fun :)