Happy Holidaze ...
Since 1999 I have been designing my own holiday cards on my various programs on the computer.
Every year I have to top myself with crazy graphics and clip art/photo fusions.
This year I came up with the loopiest bunch of scenes yet.
I need to get it all sent out before the end of this weekend or peeps won't get their slice of my whacked out sense of humor in time .
I both love and hate it, I crave the creativity and I use to just make a handful of them, but now I do a few more as I offered to do a few extra for my parents.
This year I was prepping for exams slowing me down.
Last year I got them out a bit earlier despite being in a class, but school ended earlier last year.
Rita left her mark on not only our psyches , and homes ( no damage thankfully ,stuff still hasn't found it's way out of several upstairs closets) , but extended our school semesters , and shortened what we learned by 2 weeks to boot .
I am actually angry when I realize how much I pay for the books and we get less than halfway through any textbook at this college.
I don't know if that 's normal.
This weekend we are putting the lights up outside.
Dad and I do that .
He loves the lights, but it takes two to untangle them ( no matter how hard you try to keep them in order) and set up the extension cords and whatnot.
Mom and Steff don't get involved .
Maybe we'll take pictures this year once they are up.
We like multicolored flashing bulbs the most around here.
I remember so vivdly how sad Christmas 2002 was.
It was so empty feeling.
My husband 's birthday was Dec 13th , and so the whole month we were dealing with him and Christmas for the previous 20 years.
My husband loved getting together with family ( mostly mine was who we saw) .
A huge feast was heaped on our best table with some roast ginormous hunk of carcass, multiple side dishes , gravies, and stuffing ( with giblets *blarg*).
I made some of the side dishes , and dessert then usually my Dad would bring the wine.
I took every holiday for granted , it all seemed so predictable .
The same players, pomp and circumstance, and the same drowsy faces filled to capacity ,fighting the dog for the best seats in the house in front of the boob tube.
Complacency had become my middle name.
I still have the table , and a few nights a week those of us left gather at it .
This is the 4th Christmas without him, and it gets both easier and harder every passing year .
I still look through crowds of people to see if I just lost him in there somewhere ...