The Twelve Days of Christmas

Hi My Lovelies...I am off to the Big Apple for shopping, shows, sightseeing and did I mention some shopping?!  Dear Husband will be keeping the home fires burning brightly until I return.

I thought I would share the cost of the Twelve Days of Christmas for those of you looking for gift ideas!
The full list of gift prices for 2010 are as follows:

•One Partridge in a Pear Tree: $161.99

•Two Turtle Doves: $100

•Three French Hens: $150

•Four Calling Birds: $599.96

•Five Gold Rings: $649.95

•Six Geese-a-Laying: $150

•Seven Swans-a-Swimming: $5,600

•Eight Maids-a-Milking: $58

•Nine Ladies Dancing: $6,294.03

•10 Lords-a-Leaping: $4,766.70

•11 Pipers Piping: $2,356.20

•12 Drummers Drumming: $2,552.55

If you were to give all of these gifts in exactly the way that the song describes (as a true love, no doubt, would), you would spend $96,824 for all 364 gifts, a 10.8% increase compared to last year.

Have a safe and wonderful weekend!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

~The Elf Code~

• Treat Everyday like Christmas
• There is Room for Everyone on the nice list
• The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear!

Once upon a time in the land of Princesses, Divas and Floozies there came a time of much prosperity and abundance.  An idea was hatched and a proclamation declared...hear ye hear ye...we shall share the spirit of giving with others...we have enough already!  Thus the Princesses, Divas and Floozies (who gather frequently throughout the year) charged the Princess of Quite A Lot with the task of shopping for a specially selected family.  Shopping is done, gifts are wrapped and a GOOD TIME was had by all.  And the Divas, Princesses and Floozies are attempting to live Happily Ever After. 

The true spirit of Christmas comes from a love of mankind and from gifts that cannot be purchased.  The Princesses, Divas and Floozies truly encourage those able to share their blessings and abundance to do so... many are in need.  A smile, a nod or a simple courtesy may change someone's day for the better!

Yours truly was happily photojournaling our story...AND wrapping a gift or two myself...Cheers to All!

A Grateful and Happy Heart

As we are flowing through the season of much giving, kindness and charity may we remember to always have that spirit throughout the year.  I am grateful and blessed in so many ways.  Trials and tribulations come and go...good friends and family are forever! 

I have been a busy albeit injured Santa's helper!  Apparently, yellow jackets have nests in the ground (who knew) and do not like it when you pull weeds and trim bushes around their nests...I'm just sayin...someone could win some money from the scene in my flower beds...flailing arms, tripping over light post, landing on rear end on sidewalk...numerous stings later...I am on antibiotics, steroids and anti don't scratch yourself to death medicine.  I don't know whether to lie down and go to sleep or run around the block ten times!

Sunday's dinner welcomed most of our children, grandchildren, adopted parents, my mom and of course, yours truly and the dearest husband!  We are not a Norman Rockwell depiction of any holiday.  I like to refer to our gatherings as organized chaos.  It works for us and we have a great time. 

I purchased some cutout boys and girls to keep the grandchildren occupied...imagine my surprise and delight watching the grown up children design and color "people" with as much  joy as the young children.  It was a glorious day, not without a tear or two or a frustration or two...we prevailed with loving and thankful hearts.

I am still on a pay it forward/random acts of kindness mission...there is ALWAYS someone that needs an uplift!  I like living a life that is filled with compassion, joy and giving with a dose of complaint free days (I am working on my part of living in a "Complaint Free World")  I have a purple bracelet to remind me!

Peace and Love Ya'll!

P.S.  someone is going to New York City with a group of gal pals...she is just a little bit giddy about it!
start spreading the news...I want to be a part of it...New York New York

My Brother's Keeper

Traveling in the 60's with Dad!  My younger brother James, always Jimmy to me.  We were an inseparable pair until I started school.

I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see. I sought my God, but my God eluded me. I sought my brother and I found all three. ~Author Unknown 

Hi Bro,

I just noticed that the trim on your socks don't match.  Ha Ha!  I think you got that from Dad.  I always wondered if he was color blind or if he wore some of those combinations just to annoy Mom.  I called Mom a few minutes ago because today is difficult for her.  We sure miss you.  I was talking to my grandson about you and realized you have been gone for seven years and he just turned six.  Maybe your spirits connected somewhere.  He is quite a character and some kind of cute!  The girls and I are going out for dinner tonight and we'll raise a toast to you and to everyone else we get to missing this time of year.  I am somewhat dismayed to mention that I have not made it to Mt. Ranier yet.  We plan a trip to the left coast, I mean West Coast next year.  (Carl's friend Rick lives in Cali and he always calls it the left coast)  I think some of your pals from the AT have already hiked the Pacific Coast area.  I realized that while I do love to hike...I am not the one who will go into the woods for months (or even days) at a time.  I will climb a portion of that mountain by proxy although I imagine you have a much better view of it than I do.  Say hi to Dad, Dot Dot and everyone else...I love you...til we meet again. 

Love, Your Big Sis

There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother. ~Astrid Alauda

Appalachian Trail - Springer Mountain, Georgia to Katahdin, Maine approximately 2179 miles.  How many can say they have hiked this great Eastern trail or done it more than once?

Trail name: PapaSquat

September 30, 1961 - November 17, 2003

A Special Veteran

Hi Dad,

Thinking of you today.  You always looked so handsome in your full dress uniform.  You were so proud to serve your country.  You sacrificed time with family and your health for many, many people that didn't even appreciate what you were sworn to do.  We appreciated you, always have, always will.  I miss you...I have my "conversations" with you and there are times I would give anything to sit across a table from you.  Sometimes (more often than not) a girl just needs her Dad!  Thanks for being an awesome human!  I know you have a great crowd to hang out with and I miss them as well.  Til we meet again...I love you!

(July 24, 1934 - December 24, 1982) 

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

This poem by Mary Oliver really speaks to me as it does to many, many other people!  I love what I love and have quit making apologies for who I am or who I am striving to be.  Impossible to believe that it is November, the year 2010 is winding down...it has been quite the rollercoaster ride for me.  I have been choosing a word of the year for several years now.  Boy, Howdy...did the word Release really stir up some interesting dirt.  I am tired albeit in a very good way...shifting through all the "stuff" that no longer works in my life is painful, exhausting yet exhilirating!  I am coming out the other end with a better knowlege of my loves, my purpose for me, my family and my world.  Currently pondering my word for 2011...a cautionary tale...be careful of your chosen word...it may put you to work in a BIG way! 

I am happy knowing I am a mass of contradictions, aren't we all.  What have you learned this year and are you totally grateful for having that experience?

The Road More Frequently Traveled

Often you get to blaze your own path...

Sometimes...

you follow the marked path!