December 31 2012, New Year's Eve on a Monday night.  Flo cooked up some steak and taters down at Dad's tonight.  The house smelled like Mother with all that garlic and taters baking.  So many New Year's Eves we spent down at Mom and Dad's eating and playing games.  Laughing and sitting around the table.  Mother and Daddy smoking like chimneys and we thought nothing of it.  When the boys were little we would come  home and they would shoot bottle rockets in the street with their daddy.  I know the neighbors loved that.  We had a dog that puked whenever he heard loud pops so needless to say, had that to clean up.  New Year's Eve is always depressing to me.  I guess I have a hard time letting go and moving forward.  Tomorrow I will be fine but  tonight I feel down in the mouth...I guess that means depressed....Mother used that term all the time. 

Tooter and his little friends came over tonight and it was loud and funny like old times when the boys were home.  Flo is spending the night and we are sitting in the living room looking like some old farts waiting for the ball to drop.  We do have a toddy to keep us cheered up and anticipating the coming year.  Hope everyone has a good one and makes it home tonight without acting to much like an idiot.  Happy Happy Happy New Year.

November 30...a warm sunny day today for this late in the fall.  Time to throw out the Thanksgiving decor and move on with the Christmas lights and tinsel.  Tinsel?  Never really knew what that word referred to but it sounds like a really good descriptive word for Christmas decoration.  I just started decorating for Thanksgiving in the last couple of years.  Christmas is my weakness when it comes to decorating, buying gifts, surprises, and even cooking.  My mother always made Christmas so special for us kids. We would have to eat supper before we could decorate the tree.  Daddy always had to string the lights cause he could place them "just right".  Then we got to hang the ornaments and throw the icicles on the limbs.  My brother and I could really get wild slinging those and usually Mother would have to rearrange them into some kind of order.  As the years went on Mother added more and more decorations.  Our front door was cool with a silvery shiny cover and a wreath.  One year she made a "Toothpick Tree" and an Umbrella Tree.  I thought it was the prettiest thing ever.  On Christmas Eve we would always have to eat supper (again) and then go into the living room and open presents from the family...the family being Mother and Daddy and grandparents, aunts and uncles.  I would have to play the piano and we would gather around the piano and sing Christmas songs.  The next morning we would get up for Santa Claus presents.  I would usually puke. The excitement was just to much for me.  But I would always recover in time for a huge Christmas dinner that Mother, and my grandmothers would cook.  It was such a let down after dinner that day knowing all the festivities were over.  Mother would leave up the tree until New Years but I always hated to see her taking it down.  We never seemed to be around for that chore but she never complained about that.  Wish I could go back for just one of those Christmas'.

Gracefully Growing Older

This is me. Do I look different? This is a span of about four years. Only thing I can see is hairdoo changes. Color looks about the same although I do change it every other month. And you can't tell by the pictures that my body is wearing out slowly but surely. Is that not the way it is supposed to be. We seem to think we are to live forever and act like we are 16 every day doing it. Why not accept the fact and grow old in grace. Try looking like your age. I always thought Kathryn Hepburn was cool because she never tried to look "younger" and acted the age she was. Growing older can be really neat if you can get past all the drama of aging. I don't particularly like that my face droops and my arms flap like a bird's wings. I also look like Frankenstein trying to walk on these arthritic knees. But what you can't see is that I have changed on the inside and for the better. I have never been more confident or at ease with myself. I don't desire to be someone else that is more beautiful or popular. Most all those beautiful popular folks are just like me now....wrinkled and old. I appreciate things of life more than ever. I enjoy the little things that I used to completely overlook. And I think most things are FUNNY. Don't you? Why wouldn't you? Look at your family and the idiots that are intertwined amongst everybody. Look at the news everyday and the idiots that grab the headlines. Look at politics and the idiots running the country thinking they have it all. You have to laugh or drive yourself nuts worrying about it. After all in the end everybody croaks and leaves behind all the idiots of the world still being idiots.

New Year

Brand new year 2012. Last year seemed to be jinxed to me. There were semi disasters that happened in our area. The water crisis started out the year with no water pressure for a couple of days. Then the tornadoes went through and caused considerable damage, not to mention leaving us without power for several days. Adam barely escaped harm when the storm ripped through the building where he worked. We had beloved pets to die and we mourned them as the loving members of our family they were. We had some family members to die and go through serious illness. I do hope this year will be a relief of sorrowful times from last year. We did have some good things that happened last year but tend to dwell on the bad. We had a good summer at the cabin and on the beach. Our holidays and birthdays were memory makers. Our general health has been good although we did survive a few trips to the emergency room. I acquired a new sweetheart, Newton. He was my rescued dog that has become my best friend along with Molly and Doodle. Tooter has had a good year in school and seems to be maturing in behavior. He is really a spoiled little turd. But the joy of our lives around here. He is so funny too. Mamaw Moon turned 90 years old this year. Such a special and inspirational mother to all of us. Daddy will be 82 this weekend. He seems to never age. Always cracking jokes and acting like an idiot. Me and Paul become closer friends as the years roll on. I can't imagine my life without him taking care of things. I hope I never have to. So roll on 2012 and let's make this year one of appreciation, joy and love for everyone and everything around us. I am so lucky and blessed to have my sons, daughters and family around me. I appreciate every one of you.