Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year~~~

Hey Folks I’m back,

Yeah and I know it’s been a long time blogging, but I’ve been having a LOT OF FUN!!! (She says snidely).

Well let’s see, my neighbor’s crazy son cut my phone lines, so I had to deal with the cops, the telephone repair people, the crazy kids’ parents (I told them if there is a bill they are getting it or I’ll take them to small claims court).

Then I had a kidney stone attack, My hunka, hunka burnin’ love rushed me to the ER where an admitting clerk sweetly asks me “and on a pain level of 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest where are you” and I said “20!! And if I don’t get some pain meds I’m gonna bite your arm off!!” They admitted me in a hurry.

I have to say it was my first kidney stone attack and I hope I don’t have any more, no fun, but the “happy juice” was fine—Wheeeee! Well long story short, I passed the little sucker, but it’s got relatives, so the doc wants to treat them before they get bigger, gotta do it but I ain’t looking forward to it.

Then the sink in the bathroom develops a leak, I go to the bathroom at 5 a.m. (in the dark ‘cause I don’t really want to wake up) and splat, splat, so I yell out to Hunka “Did the Dogs pee here in the bathroom?” Nope just a dag blasted leaky faucet.

Now this is all in one week, My Daddy use to say “God only gives you what you can handle” well that’s just fine, but did it have to be in the same week????

***Sigh*** so I’m balancing the check book, realize that I hadn’t put anything into the Xmas club account, so I’m figuring out how to rob peter to pay Paul, I tell Hunka “Sweets, don’t give me no Christmas present this year, as a matter of fact, I don’t need a birthday present, a mother’s day present, a valentines day present and I don’t need a present for next Christmas” and Hunka asks me why and I show him the budget and the hole we’re in, the repairs that need to be done (including the leaky faucet).

He looks at it and says “Well I guess the bad economy has hit us too. But what’s on the plus side?” Well we have an affordable mortgage, we can pay the bills that we have, we have an income but not much in “disposable income” and we have a couple of repairs that need to be done.

Well I have to say that my Man and I we put our heads together and we came up with a game plan, we were able to buy gift certificates to our favorite book store that everyone in the family likes to go to, we had enough money to buy the food we needed to take to the family dinner and we could pay for gas for the car.

So Hunka says “well I guess its rolling pennies for gas and Mac and Cheese for a while” and instead of watching T.V. we kicked ideas to raise more money to put in the “repair fund” And that’s our New Years Resolutions as well.

Can we do it? Of course we can, we’ve tightened the belt before, and we can do it again. We just have to be creative.

Christmas dinner turned out to be again at Typhoid Mary’s house (Why God? Why? I said to myself) but this time it wasn’t so bad, seems her daughter decided to take over and make sure things went well and can that girl organize, we did it pot luck style, with her planning the menu and asking each of the family members what we could bring, Well I said I could bring 3 kinds of veggies, with the appropriate sauces with them. So all they had to be was just heated at T.M. house.

And everyone else brought something, like stuffing, Manaconi and cheese, yams, pies (3 kinds), roasted red potatoes, herb rolls, butter, gravies for the ham and turkey, soft drinks, sparkling cider, sweet pickles, olives, cream and sugar for coffee, a small turkey, and a spiral cut ham, and they all arrived on the table nice and warm without being chilled or burning the mouth. There were hardly any leftovers and we told T.M.’s Daughter she can plan the next holiday party, she was pretty proud of herself and the house was warm, yee haa!

My Hunka, and my Bro and his wife (they’re doing the same as us) we took it as a sign that things are going to get better.

So after we left the house with full bellies and good wishes and tons of hugs and kisses (we are a loving group) Hunka and I got into our SUV, but I said wait a minute and I gave Hunka a card---It was the perfect card, it told Hunka how much I love the big mug, and he got all misty-eyed, then he said to me “We’re not going home right yet,” and instead we drove to “Christmas Tree Lane” and everyone’s house is all decorated with lights and figures, and playing music and everything, we weren’t the only ones, there were other people there too, taking photos and just being happy.

We hadn’t gone to “Christmas tree lane” in the last several years, because of the crowds but this time we went and all the other houses near by were all lit up too, it didn’t feel cold and gloomy anymore. We ran into friends we hadn’t seen in quiet a while and did a fast catch up, they told us what they were going through and had made financial plans like us and for some reason we all felt good about next year.

The radio was playing “Silent Night” and it felt right --- it felt right that next year will be better, we can do with less and by doing that we get more.

So belated Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy and Better New Years.


Mean Kitty snuggling up to her Hunka, Hunka Burnin’ Love and settling down for a nice warm nap.