Ahhhh.. Christmas come and gone..

Well it seems we all made it.. The major holiday of the year is over - thankfully everyone is happy and it's paid for!

My little grandson, all of 4 years old, basically only asked for 2 things - a Hess truck and garbage truck. I got up at 2:30 Christmas morning and put the Hess truck out so he would see on top of all his wrapped gifts when he got up. Went back to bed and got up again at 7am and played some card games, did a little email and waited for the little guy to get up. I had already decided that I didn't care how late everyone stayed up the night before... when Logan got up, EVERYONE was going to get up!



About 7:45ish - I hear him.. and then hear.. "GRAMMY, I GOT A HESS TRUCK"!!! He didn't even notice the other gifts - just that he had a Hess truck :) I was happy.. He jumped up on my lap and was sooooooooooo happy!! I sat with him in the living room and got the batteries in and showed him all the buttons and lights (and he showed me the ones that I missed) and he was happy with that! I finally got him to get everyone else woken up and we proceeded with gift opening - making Logan "Santa" (he liked that :).

He wanted to be sure everyone had a present and another and another - didn't care about himself - he was having fun passing gifts out.. hell, he had his Hess truck! Finally, his auntie told him to open this particular package.. It was his garbage/recyling truck... To see this childs face was .. I can't explain it in words.. He got what he wanted, the garbage truck and and Hess truck. He was the happiest boy on the face of the plant :) (and I was the happiest grammie in the world!) .. He had many more gifts, but he got what he wanted and that's all that mattered to this little guy. I believe that we could have taken everything else, with his permission, and given it away and he would have handed it out himself :) He's a good boy :) Love him sooooooooo much!

My kids had a good Christmas also (I hope)! Got them what they wanted (no real surprises unfortunately) and also got them "Rock Band" ... the girls played for some time using the drums and guitar and also the microphone... They seemed to be having a blast!!! I took a couple pics and they were "intense" ... trying to learn the drums - I guess that's the hard part (as they both know the guitar from quitar hero).


So basically it was all about family.. friends... good conversation and good food! We had a great Christmas this year, and I know, the the little one contributed to this.. not sure how I would be without him around anymore!

Oh, both my girls seem to have finally hooked up with nice men!!! I'm hoping!!!! It's time for both of them! I'm ready for a couple weddings - been waiting actually!! :) (wish them luck!)

Sooo.. what are you?? This is me!

You Are Cider

Your holiday personality is cozy. The holidays are your favorite time to stay home, stay warm, and spend time with those you love. You don't need a lot to make you happy over the holidays. Seeing an old relative or favorite holiday film is enough to make your day.

http://www.blogthings.com/whatholidaydrinkareyouquiz/">What Holiday Drink Are You?

Gates open.. down the stretch to Christmas..

Christmas is coming sooooooooooooo fast!!! I'm trying to slow it down, but it won't stop. I took yesterday off (Friday the..hmmm.. 19th???) to spend the day by myself and wrap gifts, but the the ice storm and the snowstorm (double whammy) didn't leave me alone, so didn't get any wrapping done. I was happy to finish my shopping before Thanksgiving and always hope to get things "wrapped up" right after T-day.... but it's not working out. Oh well, I'll just put the boxes that the gifts came in under the tree and they can figure out who's is who's... heheheh

So, yes... we had a GOOD snowstorm that started yesterday afternoon and, well, it's still spitting snow out there. We got a foot of snow (EASY).. Easily more. It's nice and lite however. Another storm in the forecast for Sunday... I hope this isn't a picture of what's to come for the whole winter (storm after storm after storm).

My lease is up on my SUV February 1st and I'm having hard time deciding what to lease next. The Monte Carlo SS is gone and they aren't making it anymore... (bastards - I love that SS).. So I'm looking at the Dodge Charger (8 cyl) ... the State Police are using those up here now.... or the Chevy Avalanche.. I feel like we're going to have a real tough winter and I'm sooooo torn!!!!! Both nice vehicles... both fun vehicles... (both would have to be black to match my license plate... BLKICE )... what to do what to do!???

But tonight I'm just going to relax.. play some games, drink some drinks, have some fun... 2 day work week next week --- NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll be a happy camper! :)

One of the worse days in my lifetime..

On November 30th, 1980, my first daughter was born.. it was a great day!!! My mom wanted to come down and spend a week with me but my husband said he wanted to stay home and "care for us" that week... So I didn't want to push my husband away nor upset my mom, so I told my mom to spend the week at my oldest sisters as she hadn't seen her in a while, etc.. and after that week, she could come and spend the week with me and the baby.. She agreed. Let me say, that the hubby was no help as the day we got home from the hospital, there was an empty pizza box on the coffee table and a few empty beer bottles (or cans), dirty dishes in the sink.. To say the least I was not happy to bring our new baby home to a mess.. But he said he would clean up.. But FIRST he went rabbit hunting, so of course I cleaned up.. Oh well.. just turned out to be another day in the 16 years we lasted together..

My mom came during the second week that we were home and it was nice as she wasn't there to take care of the baby, but to help around the house and yes, give me a break to get some sleep. All was well until around 6pm on December 15 1980.. phone rang and it was my dad.. he sharply said "let me speak to your mother".. I asked.. "dad, what's wrong???" -- he replied with "your sister and her husband (I won't say names obviously) and my nephew were hit by a train" ...

I didn't know what to say or do, but had to get my mom to the phone. My mom saw that I was trying not to react and got on the phone only to hear my dad tell her that their oldest daughter and her husband had been killed and that their grandson was taken to the hospital and not sure if he was going to survive. (They .. my sister and husband.. had 2 children .. a girl and boy.. My nephew was 14 at the time and my niece 12)...

I was trying to hold my mom up as she had collapsed, and my husband was helping me.. and I was trying to tell my dad he had to come up to our house.. and we were having a terrible snowstorm.. and he came of course.. he was an hour plus away and I needed him to come.. The news came on and my mom saw the footage of the truck and the tragedy.. etc.. I still didn't know what to do, or say, or even really react... I needed my dad there..

My dad made it up through the storm and of course they stayed with us .. until morning. My neice wasn't with her parents as she didn't want to go shopping with her mom. My sister's schedule that evening was to drop her husband back off at work at he had paperwork to do, drop her son off at CCD class and get a little Christmas shopping done before picking them both back up..

They had just started a new commuter train running through Manchester NH and even though there was a set of tracks that they (and everyone else in their neighborhood) had to cross on a daily basis (more than twice a day for most) everyone basically knew the schedule (without the commuter train) - and there were no crossing lights or gates or anything.. one slowed down, looked both ways (like a *yield*) and commenced.. But that night the commuter train came through... going approximately 60-70mph, in a residential neighborhood (speed limit is like 30 in a residential for trains), never blew the whistle.. and they never saw it coming.. Apparently passengers were quite upset at the speed they were going and the fact that not one passenger heard the whistle blow before the crossing (or any other crossing for that matter)..

My neice heard the crash, as did many of the neighbors (and it was a very great neighborhood.. all friends, etc).. so everyone headed towards the noise. When they got there, they only saw her husband and son in the truck (most didn't know my sister was there) until my neice got there.. Her dad died on site, and her brother was rushed to the hospital.. But where was my sister? A neighbor was walking up the tracks to the accident and found her... about 150' from the wreck where she was thrown. The only way my dad could identify her was from her jewelry (a couple of special rings that were still "intact") ..

So that was 10 days before Christmas 28 years ago today. I'll never be over it, but I can deal with this whole scenario a lot better now. My nephew is still alive, but a parapalegic and has never attempted to speak since the accident.. even after he came out of the coma (which was LONG.. and I can't remember how long now) - he had speech therapy, etc and can say words, but he has never and will never say anything about that night... My neice has a couple kids with 2 different husbands and is actually finalizing her divorce today from her husband of a mere 7 years..

And life goes on................ I hope

Surprising Sunday

Christmas is upon us and I wasn't ready for the tree -- not a fan of Christmas anyway, but I'll tell you about that another day. I am sick of the "real" trees... they *shed*, they dry up (no matter how much you water them), and they are just a mess. I've been ready for an artificial tree for a long time but the girls insist on a real tree so I've let it happen (the real tree).. Gosh, one year I was so mad because the tree kept falling down (we lived on the second floor in an apartment building at the time) that after the 3rd "crashing" of the tree, I threw that 6' tree, decorations and stand included, over the back porch.. like a spear actually! It was pretty funny... but you'd have to be there or know the whole story to actually *LOL*..


So anyway.. I told the girls this year, that this was the LAST year for a real tree.. I'm buying a pre-lit artificial tree after the holidays (so I can get a good deal) ... and that's that. Plain and simple...


Today, my girls got my grandson to ask me "Grammie??? can we get a Xmas tree today?" .. I said yes.. and a week earlier than I normally let that damn tree go up but I can't refuse the grandson ... grrr.. So I gave the girls a small list of things I needed, like that cool wrapping paper cutter made by "SCOTCH" and the cool tape holder on your hand made by "SCOTCH" and some wrapping paper and a few other things - small stuff. I followed them via my bank account (as they had my debit/credit card) and saw a purchase of $49.22 and then another of $56 (and change) .. and I'm thinking - time to come home kids!!! lol

And sure enough.. here they came.. with bags and bags of "things" and .. I couldn't believe it.. a small (4.5') artificial, pre-lit xmas tree.. They *claim* that the trees they saw were not nice and overpriced (not that that ever bothered them before!) and decided to go with the fake one.. granted, smaller than I would have preferred but I said nothing.. I could see that it was bugging them when they put it together (2 pieces) and then decorated (can't fit many balls, etc on this one!).. but all worked out fine (I think).

I know my girls did this for me and I love them for it.. and they also benefit as the tree can stay up longer than usual (as I usually tear it down the day after Xmas)... Now this is Christmas :)

The SPOILED under 30 crowd!

I got this in an email at work and thought I'd share it..  

If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!! When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up... what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning .. Uphill... barefoot... BOTH ways Yadda, yadda, yadda  And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! 

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.  You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!  I hate to say it but you kids today don't know how good you've got it!  I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have *The Internet*.  If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!  There was no email!!  We had to actually write somebody a letter....with a pen!  Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or Napsters!  If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself!  Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and fuck it all up! 

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!  And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was!  It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent....you just didn't know!!!  You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!  

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics!  We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids'.  Your guy was a little square!  You actually had to use your imagination!!  And there were no multiple levels or screens....it was just one screen forever!  And you could never win...  the game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!   Just like LIFE! 

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what the hell was on!  You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your fat ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either!  You could  only get cartoons on Saturday morning.   Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons,  you spoiled little rat-bastards!  

And we didn't have microwaves... if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove ... Imagine that! 

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Regards,

The over 30 Crowd