Several years ago I had surgery in mid-December and I recall how helpless and useless I was.  This Christmas is sort of rivaling that.  My left shoulder has been getting steadily worse since at least early October, but after starting physical therapy it has gotten quickly worse and, as of yesterday, it is FAR FAR worse than before I began treatment ( Read more... )

My mother-in-law (the one who I consider "dead to me"), gave me a gift for Christmas, somewhat to my surprise ( Read more... )

Some family Christmas letters are more entertaining than others.

http://www.kineda.com/man-successfully-sues-wife-over-ugly-children-and-judge-orders-wife-to-pay-120000/

Purlypuss, I wanted to show you this, but  I didn't want to link it to your Facebook page ( Read more... )

We went to the symphony last night. I hadn't expected to do that, but I was craving Christmas music and we had access to a babysitter, so we went. I don't dress up often and it was fun to mine my closet for my grandmother's alligator pumps and wear my best jewels. We got there early, both so we could shmooze and because we didn't have advance ( Read more... )

So I've been contemplating the death pains of a great empire, seeing how it cracks along its fissure lines under pressure.  I'm not enjoying this.  So time to do another Happy Things Post!

( Includes a picture of giraffes pretending to be camels! )

I feel crabby and exhausted and I know exactly why.  I've skipped breakfast and didn't get lunch until after 2 PM and my feet hurt.

But that's because I got a metric assload of stuff done and used my body doing it.

The coolest thing we did was make a "Facebook" for my father-in-law with dementia.  ( Read more... )

I grew up in a world where you took a bow saw and a sled and went into the scrub to hunt down your Christmas tree.  Later, when we didn't have 40 acres of scrub anymore, we'd go to a Christmas tree farm and wander through the field listening for the right one to call us.  But now the kids are more grown up and less interested in the hunt so we go ( Read more... )

The Webkinz bunny was a big hit.  He didn't break out into song, but immediately thought to name it Anya.

It was a beautiful sunny day and we went for a walk in the park around noon.  As we walked, Small Boy, aged 9.5, mused, "I'm still not sure if Santa is real or if it's you.  Next year I think I'm going to look at your money before Christmas and ( Read more... )

Looking out the window, I just noticed a FEDEX truck out doing deliveries.

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to eat very simply and read from Luke 2:8-20.  It's a great passage about angels appearing to working joe shepherds in the field.  "Don't be afraid!  We're from the Government and We're Here to Help!"  And then they burst into a song and dance number, the shepherds abandon their flocks to go check out the gossip, and ( Read more... )