I think the song Christmas Shoes should be banned.

I was just hit with the fact that I have a son that will be turning 34 in a few days.  Smacked me right across the face.  Still reeling from the blow.

I broke down and bought a new Christmas tree.  We bought our first artificial tree 25 years ago when I was expecting our last child.  Up to that time we had always had real trees.  It was pretty amazing, after we got the artificial tree nobody got sick at Christmas anymore!  Usually my husband and one of my kids would be sick with respiratory related issues through the Christmas season.  Poor Cora always had a runny nose and twice ended up with pneumonia.  The doctor had told us that it was due to her allergy to the trees, which triggered her asthma, which would aggravate respiratory distress.... pneumonia the end of the game.  She was so much happier when we got rid of the real trees.

That first tree lasted us about 13 years.  It finally became a bit needle bare and we bought a new one when we moved to the Houston area.  I never quite liked the second tree as much as the first.  We have a lot of hanging ornaments and the new tree just didn't have enough room for them to dangle.  And call me silly but I don't like when ornaments lie on the outside of a tightly packed tree.  If they are to hang by golly they should hang!

Last year the whole family worked out a tree trade.  My son had picked up a 12 ft. tree on Craig's List for free.  For some odd reason he thought his house had 12 foot ceilings...... WHY he thought this I'm not sure but he did.  The tree was "pre-lit" but only one of the strands actually lit up.  He talked me into trading my unlit tree for his non-working pre-lit tree because my house does have high ceilings.  13 foot ceilings in the living room.  He then gave his old tree to Hannah who wanted a taller tree.  Hannah quickly discovered why Aaron wanted a new tree as her new one took hours to set up.  You had to insert each branch individually in it's special slot.  She complained and Aaron laughed.  It wasn't all Aaron was laughing about.  I set about to cut off the non-working lights on my new tree.  Oh my.  Some poor Chinese worker must have worked thousands of hours to tightly wrap these lights on the tree.  I almost gave up and said I'd just drape my own lights over the tree and ignore the unlit ones but I persevered and along with Hannah's help we cut off 2500 lights.  It took us two days.

Maybe the days with wire cutters tainted the tree but I really didn't like it.  It was too tall, too skinny, and just not what I was looking for.  Maybe it was the LED lights I bought to put on it.  I REALLY disliked the lights.  Bright spots of light without any gentle glow.  That soft glowing tree in the corner had turned into a huge bundle of bright laser lights.

So this year I bought a new tree.  I bought a 9 ft. tree which gives my angel enough room at the top to rest comfortably without scraping the ceiling.  It reminds me a lot of my first tree.  So I suppose that is good.  And I didn't have to cut any lights off.

I see a garage sale in the 12 footer's future.  I'm thinking next October it will pay me back.

And I'm not giving Aaron the money.  I earned it.   

Hannah bought a new tree this year.  I think Aaron is the one who came out smelling like a rose in this whole deal.  I'm re-thinking the whole favorite son thing.....

This past weekend I helped put on a wedding for my niece.  Actually I got to New Mexico and discovered *I* was the wedding coordinator.  I organized decorations getting it done and then handled the reception.  The venue was F.I.L.T.H.Y.  You walked in and it smelled like cat pee and a cat wandered around the venue freely.  We were assured that he never jumped on things (only climbed the owner said) and he would *NOT* be locked up, it was his home.  Oooooookay.... so we tried to sweep up the loose cat hair and pretty much made things worse.  The bathrooms were pretty disgusting and we got some cousins of the bride to clean them and lit candles in them to drive out some of the bad smell.  Setting up and decorating was interesting as we had to work around the art work in the room.  The venue was an old Elks Lodge that was converted to an art gallery.  A failing one from what I understand.  Can't figure out why it would fail looking at the art available..... (insert sarcasm)

I was trying to describe it to my sister and just can't do it justice.  So for her I took photos and here is what we had surrounding us.

To set the tone you entered under two of these gargoyles.

There was a nine foot alien outside the door and a smaller three foot alien inside the door.  It just got better from there.  There were about 30 statues or sculptures and around 50 paintings in the room.  Here are a few for your viewing pleasure.  Now remember, this is a wedding... a fall themed wedding...

One of my personal "favorites".  This guy sat at the end of the food serving line.  Why yes, I would like a serving of severed head with bloody brain stem attached thank you.

And I suppose this sculpture would have been a good place to put the napkins now that I think about it.

The only real normal piece of art in the room was a replica of the statue of David.  It provided a bit of entertainment for us when my two five year old granddaughters and the 6 1/2 yr old grandson had a discussion about the statue's anatomy.  One girl informed the other it was not called a wee-wee, it was a penis.  And then our grandson announced it was a rather small one, which made all the bridesmaids giggle.

The wedding went off well and like I said I was the coordinator.  I kept things moving and on schedule.  Got the food served, took care of getting special plates for our two gluten free vegans, got the champagne poured on time and distributed and then the cake cutting ceremony done.  Timed the starting of the dance and tried to keep it all moving so nobody left out of boredom.  As soon as the dance started we stayed about four songs and I declared my job done.  My sister-in-law (the mother of the bride) was basically oblivious to everything.  She said... "wow, things just kept getting done and I didn't know that so much needed to be timed.  I figured that it would "just happen."  The only two people aware of the time and things needing to be organized was another sister-in-law (on the other side of the family) and myself and so we just kind of took charge.  Not that it wasn't appreciated, in fact everyone complimented me and thanked me and said I made it worry free for them.  I guess marrying off four kids made me the expert.  The other sister-in-law asked me to be available when one of her kids decided to get married.  I told her to give them the money to go to Vegas (they go there all the time anyway).  lol

My sister will understand when I say "I was the Gene Tate of the wedding."  I think I understand the position a whole lot more now.  It's actually easier to organize and keep things on track when it isn't your kid. 

Other Wedding photos:

Aaron & Jill, Otto and Wren                               Cora, Daria and Savva         

Otto and Daria dancing.

The decorations and the cake, which was done to look like the trunk of an aspen tree.  The chipmunks on top and all the leaves were totally edible.

Mr. & Mrs. Tony Sosa and Aiden

I like to watch one reality TV show. Most of them I find annoying and mean spirited but I like the Amazing Race.  I like it because it is not so much about forming alliances and cheating your way to the win but truly doing challenges and overcoming obstacles like language barriers, travel barriers, culture etc.  I enjoy seeing the counties the people go to and perhaps even more seeing how the contestants respond to the poverty they see in some of these countries.  I'm sure it is an eye-opening experience for many of them.

So I thought perhaps it was time for a reality photo. 

*mwahahahaha*

but if I go to a store that has self check-out, self price check, and basically "do it all yourself" service I have no qualms about parking in the "Employee of the Month" parking spot.  I mean if I'm going to go in, get it down off the high shelf, manhandle it to the register, check myself out and then load said large item in my car by myself I think I deserve the title.

On the flip side I never park in the "expecting mother" parking spot or the "mothers with small children" spot so I'm not totally heartless.

following along a conversation I've been having....

What do you think Jesus would be most concerned about?  Social Justice?  or Truth?

Today I was eating with the girls in Subway and I got tickled by a group of men who came in. They were all wearing uniforms from the same work place (Christian Brothers Auto) with their names on them. First was Israel. Then came Jesus. Then expecting something like a Paul or Barnabas I was disappointed to see Bobby on the third guy. Alas, not all was lost, in walked Paul! Maybe Bobby didn't get the message about a trend in names for the workplace.

I haven't checked ' snopes.com ' to see if this actually works or not . . .
But they say,

If you ever get the sudden urge to run around naked,

You should sniff some Windex first.

It'll keep you from streaking.

So in the news today are articles speculating who would be running for president in 2016.  My reaction?

We had a discussion yesterday about why so many people chose not to vote in this election.  I told my husband I thought that election fatigue caused a good part of it.  You know how when you have a friend that has a "pet topic" and they talk and talk and talk about their favorite subject.   At first you are interested, you care.  Then that interest begins to wane and and start thinking..... come on, let's find something new to talk about.  We had non-stop campaigning for 18 months, maybe even two years.  That followed right on the heels of campaigning for the mid-term elections.  I think that many people, me included, got really tired of it.  It caused voter/election fatigue and so by the time the election came around there were some folks who just didn't care.  They'd heard it all and decided you couldn't believe 90% of it so why bother.  Just finish it and be done with it so we can move on.  I think the election cycle is much too long.  First we have six months of the contenders beating each other up in the primaries giving the opponents fodder for the cannon later on.  Then 18 - 24 months of the two major parties doing the whole British broadside method of warfare.... just pull up and fire all cannons.  Something is bound to hit and do damage.  Our political process seems to be nothing but a war of attrition.  My high and vaulted opinion is we need to shorten the process.  Of course that might only work if the media did their job and did true investigation of all candidates.  So having stated that..... maybe we need a longer process in order for truth to actually come out......  In any case right now.  I.  Don't.  Care.

Last year several times I undertook a "media fast".  I stopped reading any news sites, listening to any news programs, didn't turn on the radio to any news sites.  I read my little hometown paper that never has any politics in it and learned about the Germanfest celebration and St. Anne's Charity Auction instead.  I avoided clicking on any links on facebook that took me to news items.  I have to say my time without the news was a lot more peaceful.  I may have to undertake a new one.  I wonder how long a fast I could do?  Right now I'm thinking a four year news blackout might be advantageous to my mental health. 

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One site I go to at least three times a week is a blog by Gavin and Carrie Jones.  Gavin and Carrie are missionaries in Papua New Guinea.  They recently were blessed by Quintuplets.  The babies were born at 26 weeks gestation in Dallas and all five have survived.  Four are doing very well and one little boy is struggling with lung problems.  One is home right now, two more might be headed that direction and two are still looking at more hospital time.  With all the trauma of the election etc it has been nice to go and see pictures of the babies growing and developing, hear the joys of their taking a bottle, rejoicing with a 5 gram weight gain overnight.  It also has been a nice way to bring into perspective the important things of life.