POMEGRANATE SEEDS: DECEMBER 23

DECEMBER 23: Today is the first day of Christmas Vacation! So why did I wake up again at 4AM when it was after midnight when I went to bed? Geesh!

Today felt like a Saturday!

Yesterday I got to work in my pajamas all day. Any day you have to work and can dress that way is not so bad!

I woke up at 4AM yesterday, wide awake, anxious to get my paperwork out of the way. This 4AM thing is not working all that well for me!

I got my billing invoices for this week filled out and faxed into the agency. Man, I was a cash cow for them this week/month! I hope that shows up on my annual review that is coming up in a couple of weeks.

That reminds me, I need to get my self-eval done and sent in to my Operations Director.

I got all my progress notes caught up but didn’t get my reports written amid all the e-mails . I had aimed for a 5:00 shutdown time but ended up working straight through from about 7:00AM yesterday to 10:00PM last night before I declared it ENOUGH and made myself shut off the computer, quit and leave the rest.

I went grocery shopping for the holiday weekend this morning thinking the grocery store would be less crowded. It wasn’t bad when I got there but by the time I got out of there it was horrendous.

I had a trunk full of groceries, and Tom wasn’t home to help me carry them in, so I got a workout!

We went Christmas Caroling this afternoon with some of the kids and their parents/grandparents from the church! Fun! I haven’t gone caroling in years! The weather was perfect caroling weather. The littlest kids had jingle bells they rang through al the carols. So sweet!

My friend Becky, Becca's grandma, and I pooped out and got the car for the last of the destinations. We went on to MaMa’s café to have coffee and snacks while we waited for the others to join us after they’d caroled at the grocery store, gas station, and Village Municipal bar. I came home and put on PJs and drank hot tea, it took me a long time to warm up again!

I’m liking the new Facebook Timeline thingy! For some reason photos show up so much more clearly there! I like the big box display of posts, easier for my old eyes to read and follow wall posts etc.

For tonight’s dinner, I made soup with a pumpkin (I had four small ones I need to use up) lentils, tofu, garbanzo beans, tomatoes with green chilis, onions, Smoked Celtic Sea Salt, red bell peppers, chicken broth, garlic, spices, and Bragg’s Liquid Aminos. It was delicious!

Both of the orders I was waiting on from Amazon, gifts for Tom, came yesterday! I wrapped them up and put them under the tree this morning. He’s getting a lot of gifts this year: A new Columbia jacket (He hasn’t had a new winter coat in years!), new black suede lined gloves (he lost his others), a book ELDEST, the sequel to Eragon, a year’s subscription to his fave journal PARABOLA, 2 movies (Cowboys and Aliens, Rise of Planet of the Apes) a new journal and a Parker fountain pen set with a bottle of ink and cartridges and adapter/re-filler. His stocking is also bulging with treats and small items he’ll love. I’m excited about the gifts I’m giving him.

I’m feeling optimistic about the return of the light now that Solstice has passed.

Every Winter Solstice I wish I had pagan friends locally with whom I could celebrate.

I had monkey brain all day, thoughts jumping all over the place about what I wanted to do today, what I needed to do. There is only so much energy and time in one day.

It’s been our tradition for as long as TBS has been doing it, to watch as much of the A Christmas Story marathon on Christmas Eve as we can. If I do so this year it will not be as much fun without the kids here. Not sure I’m going to watch it. But maybe…who knows?

Confession: This is the first year ever that I haven’t picked up or shaken a package for me under the tree. When did I learn such restraint?

Yesterday my friend Tina in Maryland delivered 100 pairs of warm socks to a women’s shelter where she lives. Each year she asks her friends around the country to donate warm soft socks and tuck a little note inside. It’s fun to choose the socks and send them off knowing they’re going to make someone smile! I remember when my sister worked at a women’s shelter, socks were given out not only for the feet but to wear like mittens on cold hands of homeless women.

I’m going to download Skype over the holiday. I’ve decided it’s time. I don’t know that John will get it, but I’d love to see Ashlyn via Skype once and a while. I’m not much for talking on the phone, but maybe I can make myself sit down once and a while to talk on Skype. Lots of friends have it, it might be nice to talk to them now and again. :-)

Sometime over the break I want to play with the Photo Shop Elements software I bought ages ago and learn now to do digital collage.

I’m glad it’s Christmas until Epiphany on January 6, I can never understand, and it irritates me that people put up lavish lights before Thanksgiving and then take them down the day after Christmas!

I found some adorable free candy bar wrappers that I downloaded and will whip up tomorrow for Becca and her siblings for Christmas Fun!

Tomorrow, laundry, cleaning, cooking church, the early Christmas Eve service. Becky and the little ones are planning to go to that one too so I may not have to sit alone. That would be nice. I love the later candlelight service at Bethany but just don’t feel up to that this year.

Soooo tired tonight! I'm off to bed hoping to be able to stay awake to read a bit.

Goodnight! Life is Good!