Everybody Needs A Little Romance

It never fails!  I look forward to the last day of the year every time, but it isn’t as exciting this time.  I am getting older!  It seems like yesterday I was only 20 years old.  Whew!  How the years fly when you grow into an adult!

Now, I am promised to marry a man and about to start my life with him soon!  Time flies by when you least expect it!  Me and one of my old childhood buddies were talking about this not too long ago.   My birthday falls on New Years Eve.  Funny, huh?  On a holiday!  My dad has bought tons of alcohol to celebrate.  Baileys Irish Creme, Egg Nog, and other types of wine.  LOL!  He goes all out on the holidays!

I would give anything for some gin and tonic and some Yellowtail Chardonnay that I had at the last writer’s conference with some writer friends of mine.  We had a blast!      And meeting with the editors and agents was even better!  They were interested in my work!

This year, my sweetie (George and I) will be spending it with me and my family.  They are popping fireworks and having dinner for us on the night of my birthday/New Years Eve which falls on New Years Eve.   And my George will be spending two days with me.  =)    My dad is going all out for our family.  I don’t look forward to the gifts but to the time being spent with them.  I love each of them SO very much and am SO very thankful for ALL of them.  I will also get to see my Papaw and Uncle Jack, and I love them SO very much!  Family is MOST important!

As far as my New Year’s Resolutions, I have always made unrealistic goals.  (This year, I am setting realistic goals.   I am going to  have more happy days than I am distressed, I am not going to have expectations,  I am going to finish my book and send it to my agent and editor in time, I am going to lose weight, and I am going to be okay regardless of what happens…)  Those are the goals I have for this upcoming year of 2010 and my birthday at the same time.  These are more realistic goals, and they are goals that CAN be made and SET. 

What are your goals for the upcoming year?

Going, going, gone!!  Well it’s almost gone.  I can’t believe how quick 2009 flew.  It seems like only yesterday I was going over my New Year’s resolution list of goals and promises.  Funny, I don’t even know where the heck that silly list is at this point and time. LOL

 So why do we make those crazy lists?  I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I’ve ever really stuck to a single list I’ve ever made.  Now I’ve gotten things done and moved forward in my writing career because I actually set some goals, but not in the time frame I’d given myself.  Maybe putting down the goals where I could see them helped me keep track of the direction I wanted to go.  Let’s face it, the older I get the harder this little task is becoming.  I have good intentions of sticking to the plan, but something always weasels its way in and changes everything.  It’s that not so little thing called life, a husband, three kids and all that goes with it.  I think.  And if I have to be honest, a little bit of procrastination on my part as well.

 I’m not complaining about where my life has taken me so far.  I love my family and would be lost without them.  It would be way too easy having all the time in the world to write without distraction.  And oh so boring I might add.  I look at it as an added challenge.   I love a good challenge and boy do they step up to the plate on this one with homework, after school activities, dinner and a monster we like to call laundry.

 Will my failure to complete or even find last year’s list stop me from making a list this New Year.  Not a chance. :)  I’ve learned over the years being flexible is an awesome part of goal making.  Being too hard on myself only causes me to come to a complete stop.  So as long as I’m moving forward and keeping the stress to a minimum, I feel like I’m on the right track.  I’m looking forward to sitting down to write my new goals.  There are so many things I hope to accomplish next year.  I can’t wait to get started! 

My top three: 

• 1. Get organized. 
• 2.  Stop wasting time. 
• 3.  Finish what I start.

What about you?  Do you make lists?  And if you do, how do they work for you?

When did it get here?

I must have had my back turned. But, jeez Louise, Christmas is here, breathing down our necks with curling ribbon and egg nog punch. I think I’d better slow down and try to enjoy it.

That’s the thing about Christmas and New Years. Before I can grab a glass of wine and contemplate the beauty of the twinkling lights, it’s over. So today, I’m really going to focus on trying to enjoy the holiday. Right after I wrap a few more presents and do some baking. See? Never done.

But today I am going to make myself sit and soak up some cheer. Put on some Christmas music, light some holiday candles and, heck, I might even put on a Christmas sweater before I miss the chance to wear it…if I can find it in my closet that needs a serious clean out. I don’t know about you, but there just aren’t enough days in the week for everything I have to do.

But today, I won’t worry about it. Does it really matter if there’s a bit of dust on the picture frames scattered around the house? Or that I didn’t make bows for all the presents? Or that there’s a random sock sitting in the corner of the family room? Only my mom will notice anyway.

So, here’s my wish for you. I wish you time to sit and put your feet up. Time to sit in front of a fire and sip hot chocolate. Time to laugh with your loved ones and share memories of Christmas past. Time to ignore the bits of leaf snagged in your carpet and the stubborn stain on your favorite armchair. Time to lick frosting from your fingertips and watch the snow falling onto the heavy boughs of the pine (or for those of us in the South – the dream of it)

Today I’m grabbing myself some Christmas cheer. How will you take your piece of the season?

I don’t know about everyone else, but this week is EXTREMELY busy for me!  Getting things ready, getting enough groceries, getting food prepared, getting my writing goals met, balancing out time with friends and boyfriend, getting the house cleaned, and to top it all off….getting sick!  Can you believe it?  My body is wearing out on me for Christmas!  Now is not the time!

My allergies are bothering me AND I have come down with a bad  bladder infection at the same time!  To avoid going to the doc, I have been drinking plenty of cranberry juice and water and taking two different kinds of Azo’s (or UTI medication).  It seems to be working pretty good.  The pain is gradually going away-thank goodness!  Maybe by the time Christmas gets here, I will be well.  Then, for my allergies, I am taking Claritin and Afrin nose spray.  That is also working quite well.   

I have got BIG plans for Christmas.   My BF is spending Christmas Eve and Christmas with me and my family, and we are having movie night with his mom on Christmas night.  We were going to see a 3D movie called Avatar on Thursday night.  I really look forward to seeing my Papaw and my Uncle Jack.  It never fails-they ALWAYS make me laugh when I see them.

I have to work this week as well, and I am very behind on my writing.  I have a large amount of catching up to do.  Then, I also plan to have a very good Christmas with the fam. 

What is going on this week for you?  I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas by the way! 

Four days to go!  Don’t know about you, but I’m excited.  I’ve got all my shopping done.  Finally.  I was worried there for a few minutes. LOL  There always seems to be that one perfect gift I come up with to get someone and then can’t find the darn thing anywhere.  What’s up with that anyway?   I have no idea how I manage to pick the one gift on everyone else’s Christmas lists, but I do it each year.  Now if I’d be smart and start my shopping earlier, say in October, I probably wouldn’t run into these little snags.

But I’ve enjoyed December this year despite the craziness.  It’s actually felt like Christmas here around Houston this year and added a little skip to my step.  Cooler weather than I remember us having in a long time, a tiny bit of snow and even the trees are more colorful.  I guess Mother Nature decided it was about time we experienced some seasonal changes and I’m loving it.  Being able to wear those pretty sweaters and boots they’ve been displaying in the stores for the past few months is so cool.  I’ve usually just admired them through the glass windows, wishing I had somewhere to wear them.

That’s weather in south Texas for you. We take it when we can get it.

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and Wonderful New year!  May all your dreams come true!

LIMECELLO! Congrats! You won the Snuggie! Send me an email to keriford @ hotmail. com (no spaces!).

I need your snail mail address and color choice from one of the items available in stock!

Congratulations!

It’s prize week on the blog! We’re talking about All Things Wintery. Leave a comment all week for a chance to win a Snuggie blanket! Perfect for keeping warm while reading a book on these cold days and nights.

FIRST UP—The winner of the anthology The Heart Of Christmas is…..Martha Lawson!!! Email me— keriford @ hotmail. com (no spaces) with your snail addy.

Keri: I’m in South Arkansas and we don’t have fun snow filled winters. The norm calls for cold and drizzly and miserable and just cold enough that we have to leave our water dripping at night. On occasion we get a nice dusting of sleet and ice that knocks out our power (YAY!). Just one night of it shuts the whole town down. One year it was so bad we were with out power for a solid 7 days. But once every ten or fifteen years, we’re blessed with actual, real snow so we can make ice cream! It’s just enough to throw a few snowballs or slide down a hill. What’s the winter like for you?

Vicki: OMG, ice cream made from snow. My grandmother used to do that when I was a little girl and we would go visit in the winter. It was sooo good! For us down in Sunny Florida we have a sort of winter. It’s not unusual for us to be in shorts and sandals during most of the winter with a few days sprinkled in here or there with cold weather. Case in point: It’s in the high 70’s today and in a couple of days it will be in the mid 40’s. Of course that won’t last long. But when it does we pull out the winter gear complete with jackets, gloves, hats, and boots. You gotta wear when you can. So what’s your favorite part? Decorating for the holiday? Shopping? Baking?

Keri: My dad lives in Florida, so I’ve spent a couple Christmas’s down there. Not quite warm enough for the beach though I love baking. Not so good for the diet, but I do enjoy it. The mixing, the creating, the actually cooking–the smells, omg, the smells. Next favorite is digging in my winter closet. After a full wardrobe of summer clothes, I’m ready for the long sleeves. That enthusiasm lasts about a week and I’m ready for my shorts again. When I was a little girl, and I do mean little (ages 1-3?) we lived in the Ozark Mountains and we got all that fluffy white snow. I was young, but I do remember playing in it. Where’s your grandma at that you visited? Do you ever make your way up north anymore?

Vicki: My grandmother lived in Alabama, outside of Huntsville. It was so cool to go visit there when I was young, but that’s another post all together. A couple of years ago Science Guy and I went to Buffalo, NY to visit his family for the holidays. We went sledding at Chestnut Ridge (the first I’d ever done that), built a snowman (that is really hard work), had snowball fights (I won, or he let me win), and I did snow angels. I loved every minute of it. Of course I wasn’t having to get ready for work so it was all fun. So when do you open presents at your house? Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

Keri: My dad took us cross-country skiing when I was a young teenager (wow—the work, but I enjoyed it!). It was probably the last time since I was a toddler that I made a snow angle. Okay—goal for next year’s Christmas, go somewhere wintery. Since I’m married and also belong to a divorced family where BOTH parents have remarried, holidays can sometimes get a little buck-wild. For the most part, we start Christmas Eve afternoon/evening and that runs until about midnight covering husband’s extended family, extended family on my step-dad’s side and also my immediate family with my mom. Next morning, we’re up and going to my grandma’s for a mid-morning breakfast. Somewhere in there we fit in seeing my husband’s immediate family. Two of them are on shift work, so it’s different every year. Also squeeze in some time to open our gifts at home. After it’s all said and done, that’s usually when we see my dad and step-mom. I haven’t made it up to my step-mom’s extended family in a long time, but I would to try and go. It’s just time! And this year son has strep and will be on antibiotics the whole time. Oh, the joy! What are you holidays like? 

Vicki:  I love everything about the holiday season and we pretty much start the day after Thanksgiving. This year in the new house it’s been a little different, trying to figure out where to put the tree and other decorations. And with the economy I haven’t spent as much money on presents this year either which is very odd for me. I love to shop for Christmas presents. We usually leave our lights up till January 5^th or whatever the date is the first weekend after New Years. By then I’m ready to get everything put away and it always amazes me at how clean and uncluttered my house feels once everything is down and the regular stuff is back in place.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and peace and joy flows through your lives. Merry Christmas!!

Keri: I second that wish! I’ve got a Snuggie to give away to one lucky commenter this week! Your choice of color (assuming they’re not out of stock!) so it’ll make a great gift or one to keep for yourself. I’ll announce a winner tomorrow morning, so check-in. If I can, I’ll try to have it to you by Christmas (no promises though!). For my international peeps, it looks like Target will not ship to you. But I can’t stand leaving folks out, so if you live out of the States, I’ll ship to you, but it is unlikey to be by Christmas.

Keri and Vicki

It’s prize week on the blog! We’re talking about All Things Wintery. Leave a comment all week for a chance to win some wintery fun! And I’ll let you know what that is when I figure it out!

Most of us who live in the snow belt spend a lot of time complaining about winter:  about winter roads, which are slippery and treacherous (although it gets better after the first snow when everybody gets used to what it’s like all over again), about shoveling the stuff, which can be invigorating when it’s light and fluffy and induce heart attacks when it’s heavy and wet, and how dirty it gets when it’s cold — which is to say it’s January or February — but it hasn’t snowed for a few days, and so there are piles of dingy grey snow by the sides of all the roads.

But having grown up in Hawaii — and we still have the old movies my father took of us frolicking in patches of snow when we were on vacation in the California mountains — I still love winter, even when I’m complaining about it.

I love the first serious snow of the year, when I can stand at the window and watch the snow beating down against us, whitening the grass and roads and hushing the sounds so that the world is quiet, enveloped in its winter white.  I love the leafless trees, with their shapes stark against the sky and all the nests that the busy birds built last year fully visible, tucked into the forks and branches of the trees.  Just as well:  I figured out a few years ago that we have leaves on the trees for only six months of the year.  So really, although we all think of trees as having leaves, the leafless stage is just as “normal.”  I even love the crystalline beauty following an ice storm, when all the branches are encased in glittering ice, and the loveliness takes your breath away.  Quite often also, as someone has pointed out, you’re likely to lose your heating and cooking potential since neither trees nor bushes are structurally engineered to support the weight of ice, and thus tend to collapse on wires carrying electricity or phone service or just about anything else.  But it is pretty to look at.

I like Christmas trees and roaring fires in the fireplace, and the crispness of cold, and the luxury of walking inside into the warmth.  I like gloves and coats (once I resign myself to having to wear them whenever I go outside) and I even like hats, I guess, although I always feel like a decorated walnut when wearing one.  But it is comfortable to have a warm head.  I like boots and tramping across an unbroken stretch of snow — even if I feel guilty afterwards, because it’s so much nicer to look at unbroken snow.  I like the luscious smell of winter baking, and the taste of hot apple cider, just past the stage where it burns your tongue, and hot enough still to warm you all the way down.

And oh boy, after four long months of winter, do I LOVE spring!  How many votes for winter out there?  How many for spring?