Today I'm thankful for coffee....not just in the usual wake up, enjoy the aroma, and savor the liquid bliss of waking up to fresh-brewed coffee kind of thankfulness, but thankfulness in that there was ANY coffee to wake up to by enjoying the aroma and savoring any sort of semblance of liquid coffee bliss sort of way.
Yep. I was all set to start a pot of coffee this morning and discovered we had NO coffee in reserve. There was one tablespoon of high octane Starbucks coffee left in one bag, and a few more tablespoons of decaf in another, but we had NONE in reserve as we usually do. I looked in the pantry. I looked through the pantry overflow in the basement. None. Then I remembered the Dunkin' Donuts coffee I had bought a while back that I thought was "okay" but not as satisfying as the Starbucks I have found an affinity for....
I had to do some serious rooting through the freezer, but I found the bag of bold, dark, high octane coffee I had stashed there a few months ago. It didn't smell bad, but it didn't have that aromatic freshness that comes from a new bag of Starbucks. I made the coffee, then went to inform the hubster that I had good news and bad news. The good news was the fact that there was any coffee whatsoever to be had, and particularly of the high octane variety. The bad news was that I couldn't attest to the quality of said coffee. I am pleased to report that the coffee was acceptable, maybe even good, though not of the order we are accustomed to. The fact that it was acceptable to good, flavor-wise, is a bonus. Today, I'm just thankful for ANY coffee at all. It makes waking up any morning more pleasant, but especially so on a cold winter morning. Yes, today I'm thankful for coffee. Thank God for small favors.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
The Christmas Box
I'm STILL working on getting my Christmas decorating done. It has proven to be a much slower process than expected, and truly, than it really ought to be. In the process of decking the halls, I have found interruptions hampering the completion of the task at hand come from the usual daily aspects of life, errands, night shifts, and even, at times, lethargy. It is coming along though.
I think I have procrastinated some in getting the job done because I knew that, this year, I was going to retire a big old cardboard box that has stored ornaments and a couple of other random Christmas decorations over the years. I really hate to to retire it (READ: trash it), but I didn't realize the extent of my attachment to that old box until this evening as I was taking out the ornament boxes that have so neatly fit inside that box while waiting patiently to be opened up each year in anticipation of so many Christmas celebrations. I transferred the individual ornament boxes into new clear plastic containers that would keep the contents more protected, but that box...that box was more than just a storage container for out of season ornaments. It was (is, for the moment) also a repository for memories.
It holds memories of its past life hearkening back to the days when we were pretty broke, and our Christmas decorations could fit into a single box that also happened to be shared with random household goods from our linen closet, back when it was originally commissioned into service. In the course of time and many military moves, the box eventually came to be an "ornaments only" box, and it's contents safely traveled with us to new homes in new places that would be transformed into "home" for the Christmas holidays we spent there, anchoring our past with the present through the bits and pieces of our lives and happy memories of Christmases past that the ornaments in the box symbolized. It has symbolized the growing up of our children and the passing of pets who were loved and so much a part of our family too.
Emptying out that box in anticipation of its retirement proved to be a more emotionally difficult thing for me to do than I had expected. It was difficult enough that I had to stop and take photos and write about it before I could break it down. That task still awaits. Retiring the box - breaking it down, and hauling it out to the garage to await the next trash collection day isn't just about retiring an old, but in some ways, perhaps still serviceable box. No. For me, it is closing a chapter in my life. The Christmas box that followed us around for my husband's whole military career, and was with us for each Christmas as our children grew and as some have left home, has been a sort of friend and fixture who was always there, faithful, maybe taken for granted at times. I'm going to miss that box and the part of my life that will, in a sense, go away with the box. The memories, however... the memories I get to keep.
I think I have procrastinated some in getting the job done because I knew that, this year, I was going to retire a big old cardboard box that has stored ornaments and a couple of other random Christmas decorations over the years. I really hate to to retire it (READ: trash it), but I didn't realize the extent of my attachment to that old box until this evening as I was taking out the ornament boxes that have so neatly fit inside that box while waiting patiently to be opened up each year in anticipation of so many Christmas celebrations. I transferred the individual ornament boxes into new clear plastic containers that would keep the contents more protected, but that box...that box was more than just a storage container for out of season ornaments. It was (is, for the moment) also a repository for memories.
It holds memories of its past life hearkening back to the days when we were pretty broke, and our Christmas decorations could fit into a single box that also happened to be shared with random household goods from our linen closet, back when it was originally commissioned into service. In the course of time and many military moves, the box eventually came to be an "ornaments only" box, and it's contents safely traveled with us to new homes in new places that would be transformed into "home" for the Christmas holidays we spent there, anchoring our past with the present through the bits and pieces of our lives and happy memories of Christmases past that the ornaments in the box symbolized. It has symbolized the growing up of our children and the passing of pets who were loved and so much a part of our family too.
Emptying out that box in anticipation of its retirement proved to be a more emotionally difficult thing for me to do than I had expected. It was difficult enough that I had to stop and take photos and write about it before I could break it down. That task still awaits. Retiring the box - breaking it down, and hauling it out to the garage to await the next trash collection day isn't just about retiring an old, but in some ways, perhaps still serviceable box. No. For me, it is closing a chapter in my life. The Christmas box that followed us around for my husband's whole military career, and was with us for each Christmas as our children grew and as some have left home, has been a sort of friend and fixture who was always there, faithful, maybe taken for granted at times. I'm going to miss that box and the part of my life that will, in a sense, go away with the box. The memories, however... the memories I get to keep.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
By the Way....
The halls STILL have not been completely decked.
There is PROGRESS though.
PROGRESS is good.
There is PROGRESS though.
PROGRESS is good.
The Plight of the Snowman
GOODNESS it's COLD outside!!!! It's windy too! I had to go outside to try to resurrect our fallen snowman yard decoration, but to no avail. When I found him (the snowman), he had the appearance of one who had been shot in the back, execution-style, on my front lawn. It should not be!!! It is hard enough for snowmen to survive the hardships of their short existence without having to endure the indignity of being blown down and left cast down on the ground with the appearance of a suburban crime victim. Unable to put the snowman back together, his present state isn't much better. He is now laying on his side on my front porch. Tomorrow, I will once again attempt to given him life...at least for the Christmas season. He does not look nearly as charming laying on the front porch as he did standing and sparkling as he welcomed passersby and visitors from the front lawn. It IS most certainly an improvement to be laying on the porch than to look as if he were a crime victim sprawled out on the cold, frozen tundra though.
Monday, December 7, 2009
E-Fame
Today I removed the "Followers" widget from my blog. I realized that being reminded that I have no followers every time I look at my blog was sort of like being reminded of some social deficiency. Not that I am particularly concerned whether anyone else reads this blog, I'm doing it mostly for me. No one else I know knows that I write here. But seeing "You have no followers" along with the invitation for someone (anyone) to be the first to "follow" your blog could invite a certain degree of self-deprecation after a while, whether one feels this way or not. I think that after a while there might be an element of desperation that could ensue from continually seeing the fact that your blog exhorts someone, anyone to (please!) follow your blog. Not that I'm desperate or anything ...
I got to wondering if others who view a blog with the fact that there are no followers displayed and the prominent invitation to "be the first!," could also serve as a deterrent for some. It's like no one wants to be the first person to step out and associate themselves with the unknown quantity... It has a feel of being somewhere in between wondering, "Who is that masked man behind the electronic curtain?," and having to pick the person to be on your team that no one else really wants to pick. I have removed the stigma. Life is good. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
Oh, if anyone asks if I have any followers, tell them that these are my followers:
My Biggest Fans
HAH!
I got to wondering if others who view a blog with the fact that there are no followers displayed and the prominent invitation to "be the first!," could also serve as a deterrent for some. It's like no one wants to be the first person to step out and associate themselves with the unknown quantity... It has a feel of being somewhere in between wondering, "Who is that masked man behind the electronic curtain?," and having to pick the person to be on your team that no one else really wants to pick. I have removed the stigma. Life is good. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
Oh, if anyone asks if I have any followers, tell them that these are my followers:
HAH!
A Christmas Miracle?
At 5:15 pm last Friday, my son got a call from his retail employer that we missed. By the time I saw that his workplace had called it was a good hour later. Now had I taken the call, I probably would have awakened him. But since no message was left, and since he was asleep and I thought he probably needed to sleep before his shift that night, and the general consensus was that we should just let him sleep, we did not wake him up to call into work and see the reason for their earlier call.
When my son got to work last Friday night, he was informed that he was fired. He had the option of working his shift if he wanted, or he could go home immediately, but his 90-day temporary position, and that of others as well, was being cut - effective immediately, only about 60 days into the 90-day period everyone had expected. Aside from the fact that it was a surprise, in general, we were really shocked that people who worked the night shift would be called, when most were likely sleeping, and informed that they were to be cut loose, effective immediately, over the phone. That would be like a person working the day shift who normally gets up for work between 6 & 7 a.m. getting a call at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and being told they were fired - a bit shocking really.
Now I understand about the business end of the situation, but I'm not going to get into it here. That's not the focus of this post. No, the focus of this post is on the human aspect of this situation. We were really surprised our son was let go. Almost every morning upon his return home from work, he would inform us of something one of his managers had said to compliment him on his work. That Saturday morning when he returned with the news of his firing, he said that the managers were upset and that one had offered to write him letters of recommendation to the management at some of the other stores in the area. I truly believed that if they were as complimentary of him as he said they were and were that eager to write letters of recommendation, that they wouldn't want to let my son go. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had asked him to come back to work for them. I just didn't expect it to happen so soon!!!
This afternoon, he got a call from the retailer's HR department at the store he had been working at up until last Saturday morning. They have asked him to come back to work as a permanent part-time employee. This is not where he envisioned himself working after completing college, but it beats being unemployed, and it's nice to know you are wanted and appreciated. Hard work pays off. He starts again tomorrow night. I hope some of the other temporary employees were hired back too.
When my son got to work last Friday night, he was informed that he was fired. He had the option of working his shift if he wanted, or he could go home immediately, but his 90-day temporary position, and that of others as well, was being cut - effective immediately, only about 60 days into the 90-day period everyone had expected. Aside from the fact that it was a surprise, in general, we were really shocked that people who worked the night shift would be called, when most were likely sleeping, and informed that they were to be cut loose, effective immediately, over the phone. That would be like a person working the day shift who normally gets up for work between 6 & 7 a.m. getting a call at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and being told they were fired - a bit shocking really.
Now I understand about the business end of the situation, but I'm not going to get into it here. That's not the focus of this post. No, the focus of this post is on the human aspect of this situation. We were really surprised our son was let go. Almost every morning upon his return home from work, he would inform us of something one of his managers had said to compliment him on his work. That Saturday morning when he returned with the news of his firing, he said that the managers were upset and that one had offered to write him letters of recommendation to the management at some of the other stores in the area. I truly believed that if they were as complimentary of him as he said they were and were that eager to write letters of recommendation, that they wouldn't want to let my son go. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had asked him to come back to work for them. I just didn't expect it to happen so soon!!!
This afternoon, he got a call from the retailer's HR department at the store he had been working at up until last Saturday morning. They have asked him to come back to work as a permanent part-time employee. This is not where he envisioned himself working after completing college, but it beats being unemployed, and it's nice to know you are wanted and appreciated. Hard work pays off. He starts again tomorrow night. I hope some of the other temporary employees were hired back too.
On Decking the Halls
Since Thanksgiving weekend, I have been on a mission to deck my halls for the Christmas season which is now in full swing. I really would prefer to put up my Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving is a busy holiday unto itself, and as a purist, I don't like to let Christmas infringe on my Thanksgiving holiday. I really believe it is important to let Thanksgiving be Thanksgiving, and only Thanksgiving, because it is so important, to me, that the day of thankfulness and harvest blessings be honored on its own merits with the emphasis on expressions of thankfulness to our Creator, as well as in remembrance of the pilgrims who held the first Thanksgiving feast with the Indians who helped them survive that brutal first year, here, in the new land. I like the Christmas season too, but I don't like the commercial aspect of the Christmas holiday with it's encroachment on Thanksgiving nowadays.
I can remember when stores were closed on Thanksgiving, then the push for marketing Black Friday became the norm, and eventually some stores opted to be open on the Thanksgiving holiday, itself, with promises of fantastic deals to entice people away from their Thanksgiving celebrations in order to buy the perfect Christmas gifts at unheard of prices. Granted, merchants couldn't do this without the cooperation of the consumer, and in all reality, the diminished significance of the place for Thanksgiving in the hearts and homes of Americans, today, while the push to start the Christmas spending frenzy as soon as possible, really speaks to the values of the nation and shows what is important to its people. I can't help but think of the following scripture: "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." [Matthew 6:21] We give our attention to those things which are most important and valued by us.
But getting back to the matter of decking the halls in anticipation of the Christmas celebration, because of my conviction that Thanksgiving should be honored as a standalone holiday, I do not even begin to put away the harvest, autumn, and Thanksgiving decorations until after Thanksgiving. However, at the behest of my children, I do so immediately after Thanksgiving! They would have the tree up on Black Friday, if they had a choice, and we try, but it doesn't always work out. The Christmas tree is usually up Thanksgiving weekend though. Other decorations follow, in the process of decking the halls, in the remaining weeks leading up to Christmas. It is a challenge because in addition to all of the usual things I feel like I barely have time to do in a given day or week, I am embarking on a major temporary redecorating project that has to be squeezed into the schedule of routine things that must be done, and all of the chaos associated with hauling out decorations only adds to the routine upkeep of the home and inhibits the usual process, which I already mentioned I find difficult to keep up with in an ordinary day or week. I was thinking about this last night, and I came to the conclusion that there is a certain insanity to this. This year I've been seriously considering multiplying the insanity by putting up a second Christmas tree, however. We used to do this a few years back, but we haven't done so in about 4 years. I'm thinking I'd like to have the second tree this year though.
This year, for the first time in a number of years, we actually put colored lights on our main large Christmas tree. It just seemed like it was time. I really like the clear lights too, and they do such a nice job of illuminating your ornaments at night, but we missed the colored lights. I think we have a certain sense of nostalgia for the past when our kids were little, and we only used colored lights on our tree. I think our kids were feeling some of that same nostalgia for the paradise of their childhoods and the magic of Christmas. My oldest son has even been quite vocal about how Christmas is about colored lights. I made the mistake of asking what he thought about our Christmas trees over the last few years that were adorned with clear lights, and I was tersely informed that he essentially tolerated those Christmas trees, but they did not say, "Christmas," to him. Having put up a tree with colored lights though, I still found myself missing the clear lights on a Christmas tree. If all goes well, I will have a second tree with clear lights up by this afternoon. THEN I can see about getting all of the boxes of ornaments and tinsel that are occupying valuable real estate in my great room and dining room put back in the basement where they belong and focus on enjoying the rest of the Christmas season!
I can remember when stores were closed on Thanksgiving, then the push for marketing Black Friday became the norm, and eventually some stores opted to be open on the Thanksgiving holiday, itself, with promises of fantastic deals to entice people away from their Thanksgiving celebrations in order to buy the perfect Christmas gifts at unheard of prices. Granted, merchants couldn't do this without the cooperation of the consumer, and in all reality, the diminished significance of the place for Thanksgiving in the hearts and homes of Americans, today, while the push to start the Christmas spending frenzy as soon as possible, really speaks to the values of the nation and shows what is important to its people. I can't help but think of the following scripture: "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." [Matthew 6:21] We give our attention to those things which are most important and valued by us.
But getting back to the matter of decking the halls in anticipation of the Christmas celebration, because of my conviction that Thanksgiving should be honored as a standalone holiday, I do not even begin to put away the harvest, autumn, and Thanksgiving decorations until after Thanksgiving. However, at the behest of my children, I do so immediately after Thanksgiving! They would have the tree up on Black Friday, if they had a choice, and we try, but it doesn't always work out. The Christmas tree is usually up Thanksgiving weekend though. Other decorations follow, in the process of decking the halls, in the remaining weeks leading up to Christmas. It is a challenge because in addition to all of the usual things I feel like I barely have time to do in a given day or week, I am embarking on a major temporary redecorating project that has to be squeezed into the schedule of routine things that must be done, and all of the chaos associated with hauling out decorations only adds to the routine upkeep of the home and inhibits the usual process, which I already mentioned I find difficult to keep up with in an ordinary day or week. I was thinking about this last night, and I came to the conclusion that there is a certain insanity to this. This year I've been seriously considering multiplying the insanity by putting up a second Christmas tree, however. We used to do this a few years back, but we haven't done so in about 4 years. I'm thinking I'd like to have the second tree this year though.
This year, for the first time in a number of years, we actually put colored lights on our main large Christmas tree. It just seemed like it was time. I really like the clear lights too, and they do such a nice job of illuminating your ornaments at night, but we missed the colored lights. I think we have a certain sense of nostalgia for the past when our kids were little, and we only used colored lights on our tree. I think our kids were feeling some of that same nostalgia for the paradise of their childhoods and the magic of Christmas. My oldest son has even been quite vocal about how Christmas is about colored lights. I made the mistake of asking what he thought about our Christmas trees over the last few years that were adorned with clear lights, and I was tersely informed that he essentially tolerated those Christmas trees, but they did not say, "Christmas," to him. Having put up a tree with colored lights though, I still found myself missing the clear lights on a Christmas tree. If all goes well, I will have a second tree with clear lights up by this afternoon. THEN I can see about getting all of the boxes of ornaments and tinsel that are occupying valuable real estate in my great room and dining room put back in the basement where they belong and focus on enjoying the rest of the Christmas season!
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