Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwaanza

[heidiiiii]

Besides the commercials on tv and the displays in the store..It`s beginning to feel alot like...?

Has anyone started taking their decorations out? I havent but i am sooooo tempted. I went to put the Halloween decorations away today and right there next to where they go...my totes of Christmas stuff.

I have a problem this year...Monster Face. You have all seen his antics on pics so you can just imagine what he will do with a Christmas tree! EEK!

I have a table top tree but he might destroy that with one leap. I have a full size tree that he will turn into his napping place. I can see it now.. Everyone is fast asleep in their beds...CRASH! There goes the ornaments scurrying across the livingroom floor.

Oh well I will think of some way to rig it so he cant kill christmas all together.

So who has pulled out the decorations? Fess up..we wont judge.

[mommymakesstuff2]

Besides the commercials on tv and the displays in the store..It`s beginning to feel alot like...?

Has anyone started taking their decorations out? I havent but i am sooooo tempted. I went to put the Halloween decorations away today and right there next to where they go...my totes of Christmas stuff.

I have a problem this year...Monster Face. You have all seen his antics on pics so you can just imagine what he will do with a Christmas tree! EEK!

I have a table top tree but he might destroy that with one leap. I have a full size tree that he will turn into his napping place. I can see it now.. Everyone is fast asleep in their beds...CRASH! There goes the ornaments scurrying across the livingroom floor.

Oh well I will think of some way to rig it so he cant kill christmas all together.

So who has pulled out the decorations? Fess up..we wont judge.

I think I am going to put mine up this weekend I don't care they make me happy, especially since we are sooooo broke this year. I was teasing the girls about having a thanksgiving spam. We will be okay we were down to 60 bucks but...husband's uniform allowance came and he just bought a new one last month so we can spend it on food Yay!

[heidiiiii]

I love Spam!

Dh and the kids think it is the grossest thing on earth but I was brought up on it (parents were raised during the Depression).

I think alot of us on here are having to tighten our belts. Dh is getting a pto check on Friday along with his regular check. I am using most of it to fill the oil tank, put a lil aside for christmas presents, and stock the food cabinets..You can hear an echo in the freezer.

[mommymakesstuff2]

I love Spam!

Dh and the kids think it is the grossest thing on earth but I was brought up on it (parents were raised during the Depression).

I think alot of us on here are having to tighten our belts. Dh is getting a pto check on Friday along with his regular check. I am using most of it to fill the oil tank, put a lil aside for christmas presents, and stock the food cabinets..You can hear an echo in the freezer.

Yeah we have it alot with rice. But I was thinking about how you see the pictures of ham with those little black pepper spikes on it and I told the girls that's how I was going to do the spam! Hee. It is so popular in the islands. When my Lola, grandma, died we cleaned our garage and we found suitcases she had packed because she wanted to die there. they were packed with powdered milk and cans of spam. She would have been a hero if she would have took them.

They don't have dairy there, not our kind of dairy it is mostly goat or caibou milk blech! They gave me some chocolate milk one time when we were there and it was caribou milk...My mom couldn't stop laughing because it came spraying out of my mouth quicker than it went in!

[SallyG]

Hey...Spam is good. Personally I love it, but avoid it because of the calories. Actually, I'll have to check..it might not be that bad.

I got a nifty little Halloween pumpkin at the grocery store this year. He uses batteries and had these LED type colored lights in him. The lights keep changing color and it's so neat. I have yet to put it away and told my husband I was going to leave him out awhile longer because, after all, he IS a pumpkin and pumpkins are Thanksgiving decor. Maybe not a jack-o-lantern, but it's STILL a pumpkin.

I miss the days when I used to decorate a LOT when the kids were little. We even scaled down to a 3 foot tree last Christmas. However, grown children do pay off. My son and his fiancee invited us for Thanksgiving dinner this year...so minimal cooking on our part.

This Christmas we will be minus 2 of the boys! Son #2 is in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh getting his masters in Forestry and is taking the train down to Fareham in England to spend Christmas with his Aunt and 2 cousins. That should be a lot of fun for him..Christmas in England!

Son #3 is still in Iraq until April, so he'll be over there for Christmas. I hope they do something nice for the guys/girls at Christmas over there.

Christmas will be empty without them, but my niece and nephews are small and we get a kick out of getting them toys and seeing them enjoy Santa, and son #1 and his fiancee and son #4 will be around.

Ahh..the good old days when the kids made their lists and waited for Santa Clause! It goes by too fast!!

[Shakyshaky]

Well we are feeling the christmas pinch if that counts. $100 to spend on groceries for 6 for two weeks including Thanksgiving dinner. This year is turning out to be very stressfull. Thank goodness the kids are small enough I can make there presents. ( sons are getting teddy bears and my daughter is getting clothes for her baby. I did raid there prize box for a couple stocking stuffers. Still 65 and green here. Oh just found out the other day htat the heater does not work.( and no money to fix it) I think this will be the first year I am thankful to be in FL and it does not get so cold.

[Violet2Dawn]

Heidi wire your tree to the wall, window trim or door jam, (I don't know where you put it)

Spam is great!

No Holiday spirit yet, that hits after Thanksgiving for me! But I do like to keep the tree up unitl February if I can hehehehe

[Hallowell]

Last weekend I did move my ornaments in the attic to an easier location to get to in preperation for Christmas. We decided many years ago not to exchange gifts, we do that all year long as we are out and about. We compensate for the lack of gifts under the tree by using the empty decorated gift boxes that I use to store my decorations, it fools people and we never have to wrap. (But I do have to confess that I do love to wrap, I'm weird that way.)

[Monica_the_haunted]

I love SPAM too! Fried spam that is! It has way too much sodium so I have it just once a year (to make DH happy)...oaky to make me happy too .

It's just to soon for the holidays! My goodness, did'nt we just have halloween? The years go by so quickly anymore!

[MichelleG]

Spam.. blechkkk!!!!!!

And Yeah.. my halloween stuff just got put away, which is in the same big container as the Christmas decorations. They are sitting here waiting patiently for me to put them up.. I'll try to wait until the day after Thanksgiving. I'm going to have a real tree this yr. I just love the smell of pine. So just over 2 weeks for Thanksgiving and I think it's safe and all legal to start decorating for Christmas. Even if we don't have a million gifts under the tree, it's the spirit of giving and to remember the "reason for the season". I'll be doing lots of baking this year too. Cookies and cakes. Yummy fudge and candies. And my Grandmother's recipe for Christmas Biscotti. I make it every year only at Christmas time.

Oh I love the Holidays.

But no Spam!!!

Michelle

[Wolfie]

Greg you are so like me! For years we've had the same beautifully wrapped gifts under the tree and no one even looks to see if they are the same. I also keep most of my ornaments organized in those lovely beautiful popcorn tins! Easy to carry and they stack nicely, and they too look good under the tree! So far the spirit has not hit me - but I was at Wal-Mart yesterday looking in the Christmas department. We bought another new string of multicolored lights - because Doug loves multicolored lights. Me? I love plain white sparkling lights. We also got a new bulb tester. I've made a lot of new ornaments for the tree this year using extra doll parts..... I have some really cute dolls hanging there plus two angels in memory of two dearly departed doll maker friends.

Wolfie

[goodteach0]

Heidi, Maybe you can put the tree up high. I have done that when I've had very playful kitties.

[nuttiwebgal]

I finally got all the Halloween stuff out of my house and inot its storage area

but I have been thinking its time to get out the snowmen and the stuff I put on my wall

my swag and wreath. also time to move the Christmas house down for a cleaning and onto its place on the entertainment center.

last yr the only decorations I put on my tree was Mardi Gras neads and a photo of my son....the one serving in the Marines....I think this yr I will do the same.

I am looking forward to the holidays!

nutti

[aggiemae]

Hanukkah starts in about three weeks and since I am leaving I did do some shopping this weekend. But it is not elaborate like Christmas. When the kids where younger we decorated but now all I do is get out the baskets (we each have one). We have a book night, a charity giving night and one for sweets only. So four small gifts and one fancy one for the kids. Adults usually exchange only at gatherings. We have a major Menorah collection and we light some, all or just one, depending on the year and where we are. Last year home, the year before at Disneyland for all but the last two nights.

People have told me that many Jewish Americana's treat Hanukkah as an extend gift fest and I do know a few people like this, mainly on the east coast, but then again these are also people who also eat pork and lobster, so I do not identify with them. I think they are really missing out on a stress free holiday.

Since it is one in a whole series of festivals and a minor one at that, Hanukkah just flows into an entire cycle of yearly life events. I was watching something on TV about increased stress and poor eating habits during the "holiday season" and (in passing) considered it is a blessing not to have to deal with that part. I have to admit that my favorite time for Hanukkah is when it starts after Christmas is over, not because of the sales, though I have to admit that I do like being able to find a parking space downtown!

I do enjoy eggnog and pine or gingerbread scented plug-ins. I especially like decorated trees and have one for my (planned) mini apartment house. It's a 1960's aluminum wire tree, truly hideous, that I found on EBay a couple of years ago. The bidding was actually pretty fierce!

[glen]

Yes, spent all day making the Xmas tree in time for our guest tomorrow to celebrate Diwali. Indian new year. We light up the house inside and out with hundreds of candles. Little Kavita walked all through the house tonight with a gee candle performing a puja.

Very cool although I don't realy understand it all.

[heidiiiii]

Heidi, Maybe you can put the tree up high. I have done that when I've had very playful kitties.

I think he would consider this a challenge (look in the gallery under good pets acting bad).

Michelle What kind of biscotti do you make? I make chocolate walnut and anise with slivered almonds.

[havanaholly]

Since we rarely have anyone for Christmas anymore I have a small creche I set up until Epiphany.

One of our friends invited us to a Diwali celebration at the temple in Tallahassee one year (that one has since burned down & we don't know anyone who attends the temple in Quincy) and we enjoyed the dances and FOOD! The closest I came to getting to celebrate Hannukah was with one of my highshool friends, but her family was of the "pork & lobster" sort, not Kosher at all. Considering the majority population of our county is African-American, I don't know anyone personally who celebrates Kwanzaa (or Yule, for that matter, although one of our hiking buddies is a Pagan).

Whatever holidays y'all celebrate, I hope they are all wonderful, happy, and full of blessings for the coming year.

[aggiemae]

"Pagans, don't they celebrate the Winter Solstice?", she asks, as though this were a completely normal question. Being a vegetarian I seem to know a large number of people who dabble in the ancient stuff. Moden Pagens are not too into the human sacrifice stuff and also they drive cars...Just yesterday a woman in her mid 40's, that I have met a couple of time befor, informed me she was a witch. Yikes!

[heidiiiii]

Being a vegetarian I seem to know a large number of people who dabble in the ancient stuff.

We should swap some recipes!

There are alot of people here who are Pagans and witches. I think whatever you chose to believe is your right. Chelsea is/was a Catholic. Now she is reading up on Buddhism. She has been talking to people over the phone that are a part of the temple in our state.

She doesnt judge me for believing in God and I dont judge her for not believing.

That is why I didnt just mention Christmas. You never really know what someone celebrates and I dont want to exclude them..I just am not completely up to snuff on all the holidays that happen this time of year.

When the girls were young they wanted to Celebrate Hanukkah. They thought it was neat and just because. So I bought a Menorah and got them a Dredel game (please forgive my spelling) and had them LEARN about the holiday. You just cant celebrate if you dont know what you are doing it for.

[Annette]

We're going to have the same problem as you Heidi, except I have two monsters that love to run rampant through the house like their tails are on fire. I'm going to bring out a little two foot tree this weekend that Chris puts up in his room just to see how they react to it and go from there. I remember when we first moved into this house and got our first live tree it sat bare in the living room for a week because of Sniffer would go and try to climb it. After he knocked it over about four times he got tired of it and left it alone, so I'm hoping that these two do the same thing (even tho I don't know if we're getting a live tree or not this year).

I'll probably pull out all the decorations the weekend of Thanksgiving that way I'll have help in putting it all up (both the kids and DH have a 4 day weekend).

Already started my shopping, since the stores were having decent sales this past weekend. I was able to get the kids four things each, and that might be all they get unless DH gets a Christmas bonus but I try not to count on that. His company is so strange they have no idea what their doing most of the time. So the bonus to me is 'I'll believe we got it when it's in my hand' type of thing.

[havanaholly]

I thought cats treated Christmas trees like they do dollshouses, as their own personal playthings you so thoughtfully put out there for them to play with and possibly destroy.

[Violet2Dawn]

Pagans, don't they celebrate the Winter Solstice?",

Having the winter solstice as my birthday, I enjoy being born on such a unique day. My very best friend is born on summer solstice, we have been friends for over 30years now. Celebrating the sun, its fullness or wanting it to return, heck don't we all do that in our deisre for less rainy, gloomy days? Aren't we brighter when the sun is out shining on us? When it is Feb aren't we wishing for the spring or summer?

I say let people celebrate however they choose, just don't ask me to participate in all of them.

[Starfire]

A friend of mine who also has cats has one of those trees you hang from the ceiling and she hangs a lot of vintage bulbs ans such that she has collected for years. I guess you could create a simialer one out of grape vine (or chicken wire?) and fir roping wrapped around a central dowel and anchored to the ceiling.

[aggiemae]

She doesn't judge me for believing in God and I don't judge her for not believing.

Heidi, I hope you know I was mostly joking. To me there is lots of difference between studying Wicca and thinking one is actually a witch. Just like the difference between Madonna "studying Kabbalah" and actually being a Jew. Oregon is full of all sorts of "alternative" types. It is perfectly normal for people to explore other couture and even change religions. I used to find it all pretty amusing but at some point I began to find it very sad. Not the exploring or even the dabbling but the constant searching of some adults who never seem to find what they need to anchor them to the earth.

The are so many Jews into Buddhism that we even have a name for it, Jewboo. In Jewish prayer the word remain constant but in that last 30 years or so many new melodies have bee introduced because so many Israeli and American Jews when to Nepal to study Buddhism before that became Rabbi's.

[LPCullen]

No, I haven't been tempted to pull them out yet. I also have the problem of kitties wanting to tear things up but I think I'm still going to try and have a tree here in Maiden. I have a fake white one that I usually do up in red and silver. I'll have to put something around the bottom of it though to keep them from breaking the balls when they hit the floor, LOL!