Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy(?) Kwanzaa, Feliz Navidad

The recent uproar from the "devout" Christians about the new fad to greet people with "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" is somewhat entertaining to me. Do they not think that we should respect other people's beliefs? Not every one in this country has the same beliefs and so the "Happy Holidays" greeting is supposed to be a positive. It is meant to not offend those of other faiths. I find it to be a huge improvement in mankind. Okay, maybe not huge, but a good step in the right direction. We all should think about this not only in the context of religion. People's cultures should be respected and honored. Just because "we" parent our children to be independent as early as possible, we should not expect that every culture believes this is the best for their children. The same goes for religious holidays. Just because the majority of the people in this country celebrate Christmas, does not mean that we should force it upon all.

At work, Hubby was asked to decorate the office Christmas tree and display other hideous(50 year old, gawdy plastic candles--to be placed in all the windows) decorations. He did not really want to do this, not because he doesn't celebrate at home, just didn't want to waste time doing this at work. He asked sort of snippishly, "What if I don't want to decorate?" The (stick shoved way up her a**) boss says, " What are you Jewish or something?" First of all, how derogatory is that towards people of Jewish decent? Second, if he(or anyone in the room) was Jewish, she has just announced that she is not accepting of other's beliefs, culture, etc. Third, hubby might be Jewish, he has no idea what decent he is(was adopted). So why is the majority of people in this country(especially here in Ohio) so unaccepting of anyone outside of their little bubble that they live in? Come on people, can't we just all get along?

Everyone join me in song please.....We are the World.....We are the Children.....We are the ones that make a brighter world so let's start giving......

I don't mean to sound cheesy, but I think that too many people have these feelings(maybe are able to hide them) and they occasionally make their appearance in little comments like "What are you Jewish or something" and most people overlook them. I never can. Unfortunately I usually don't come up with a good response to stop the ignorant person in their feet.

I truly hope that everyone has a joyous holiday(if you do celebrate) and enjoy spending time with family and friends. Appreciate all that you have and all that you can give of yourself to others.

Okay, I'm done being sappy now.

Anonymity

I have thought a lot about why I am so determined to remain anonymous on my blog. Why do I need to hide parts of my real self from the people who are supposed to know me the best(fam and friends)? Why does any of it matter?

We have created a yahoo photo page for our family and friends to view and keep updated. So I just may be ready to expose myself (not in that way) to the blog world. Only if you ask real nice.

Only 5 days til Christmas!

Yes, our Christmas calendar countdown has only 5 days left. We are celebrating our Christmas at home with hubby, I, and the kids before we go on our trip. They are excited to get to open their gifts a week early. Christmas Eve will be this Friday, with Christmas on Sat.

I just talked to my sis and bro-in-law in CA. We are going to be staying at their house while we're visiting, along with their seven screaming chillins. It should be entertaining to say the least. And now I just found out that my bro-in-law's mother will be there for Christmas also. And maybe his sister and their two kids. Let's just say they are not the in laws that I wish my sister would have ended up with. They constantly are telling her that she is a bad mother every time the kids act up(which is quite often). She is not only an excellent mother, but at times could be considered a saint. With all the crap that she has put up with from them(her mother and sister-in-law) I'm surprised that she even let's them into their house. So that should be a joyous couple of days if they decide to show up. And the sis-in-law is supposedly a Jehovah's witness yet she goes back and forth on birthdays and Christmas. Some years we're celebrating and some years we're not. Whatever. Wishy washy religious people confuse and irritate me.

I'm thinking that if they start up with the rude comments to my sis, that I'll either A) have to backslap somebody B) tell them what I really think of them and how they have treated my sis like crap or C) tell them to go F*&$ Off. If you know me, you already know that C is probably out of the question. Although I am due to go off on somebody now aren't I? Can you tell I'm filled with Christmas cheer? I actually am, I'm just feeling a bit chippy right now. Today I started the annual tradition of baking a ton of loaves of pumpkin bread. I usually bake a loaf for each of my daycare families and for each of my kid's teachers. Since I don't have any daycare families this year, I will give them to our closest neighbors. Our house always smells so yummy during the baking frenzy. I would send everyone a loaf except than I would have to ask for your address and then I could come stalk you. We wouldn't want that now would we? I think I better sign off since I'm sounding a bit weird. It must be all the cinnamon and nutmeg getting to me. Who knows.

I should have much to update on after our trip. I don't know if I will get a chance to update on my mom's computer or not while we're gone or even if I'll want to bother.

We're okay

Thank you to everyone showing concern. I have been so busy lately trying to get ready for our trip and doing our Christmas at home early, that I haven't had time to blog. Hubby and I are doing ok, maybe even fine. The stress has passed, we have talked, and we have been doing quite well. Both of us realize that we have many things to work on, including the ongoing need to communicate better. When you hear people in the middle of divorce say that they found themselves not communicating anymore, it is SOOO true. I can so relate now. I always used to think, "Why can you not just talk to each other?" It seems so simple. I find myself wanting to hold back and not talk about heavy, important stuff because I don't want to start him down that wrong path downwards. It always ends up doing the opposite. I try to hold things in, it builds up, and then I end up snipping at him over the stupidest things. He tells me over and over that I need to let him know when things are bothering me. I know I need to do this and I will try to improve. We talked about alot of issues that we really needed to. The tension has lifted and I'm so glad. I did not want to go on a trip and have things weird between us.

It turns out the day after the kids and I get back, hubby will be flying to the same direction that we just came from. He has to go for a deposition regarding a court case he was involved in before we moved. It is a paid trip for him, but he will only be there for one day and then fly back home. We will have to make good time of the one night we'll have before he leaves. We've already been making plans.

It's snowing here again! We are supposed to get 4-6 inches tonight. The kids are hoping for a snow day tomorrow. They went outside tonight at 9pm and were sledding down our hill right outside the house. Jesse comes running in the house saying that Bobby hurt his hip and needed help. Hubby and I run out and see what's up. We had to help him walk back to the house. Luckily nothing was broke. He might be sore in the morning, but at least we didn't end up in the hospital tonight. I was picturing us trying to manuever through Chicago O'Hare with him on crutches. Avoided that one at least. After we got him inside the house, I realized, hey they were out there sledding at 9pm on a school night. Everybody to bed NOW!

We adopted a family for Christmas. Hubby's office adopted a family through a local organization. His office has quite a few employees and so he figured that they would get more than enough donations of toys, gift certificates, and food. So we decided to adopt our own family. We included our kids in the shopping process. We figured it was a good learning experience for them. Instead of it all being me, me, me. And I had a lot of fun too. We ended up getting a family with a single mother and her 3 kids(14,13,and 6). It was not easy trying to choose clothes and gifts for the teens, but we included the gift receipt if they need it. It definitely feels better to give than to receive.

Good News! (and some bad)

I just purchased non-refundable plane tickets for me and the kids to go back and visit the fam in CA. Yay! After talking with hubby last night (part of the time me bawling), he said it would probably be best for all of us. I need a break from him, the kids really miss family and friends, and he wouldn't mind some time alone. I felt that his request was an effort to push me away/ red flag for downward spiral. He said that's not it. We just need some time to ourselves and reflect. I agree. And I am really excited as I now have an excuse to make more lists. In case none of you know, I am a list fanatic. And I have a new/slightly used electronic organizer that is just waiting for some new info. We will be gone for the whole two weeks that the kids are on break from school. The kids will be ecstatic when we tell them.

Last night, hubby informed me that he wrote me a long, painful, emotional email and that I needed to wait to read it until today (it was too late last night to get into anything). So this morning: get the kids off to school, go for my morning walk in the blustery snow, start a fire in the fireplace, get all settled in with warm, fuzzy blanket and laptop, can't get laptop to work, go into ice cold basement, try to open email attachment(it is 11k, computer illiterate me only knows that that is pretty big), click the paperclip, blank page(meaning there is no f*#$*@ing attachment button). At this point I am freakin' out because I waited all night (not getting to sleep very easily thinking about it) to read this stupid thing. Don't want to but call hubby on his cell phone at work to see if he can help me problem solve so I can read this freakishly long email. Get his voice mail. No call back all morning. Call him on his lunch hour. He nonchalantly says, "I must have done something wrong when I sent it. I guess that means we can put that off for a little while longer." Me, "Except now you have me wondering....". Hubby(not convincingly), "I'll try to see if I can fix it when I get back to work."

COMPUTERS F#$*ING SUCK. BIG TIME.

Now I must go make my lists.