Christmas Tradition

My niece, Sue, has of late become a very famous blogger. She has had as many as 76 comments on one post! I feel real special if I get more than two. To show her gratitude to her faithful readers and to openly steal Christmas traditions from them for her own personal use, she is running a contest. Even though she has admitted on her blog to have lied in the past, we are all assuming that she will actually determine a winner and send out the prizes. After all, her reputation is on the line here.

Here's my entry - (remember, Sue, I am your very favorite aunt and you are my most favorite niece).

This tradition came about more out of desperation and keeping my sanity. One Christmas Eve many years ago, I was feverishly wrapping a mountain of presents for my 5 children. Of course, it was after they had gone to bed, so the hour was late. While wrapping, attaching bows and gift tags, I thought there had to be a better way! So the next year and every year since, the first thing that I bought was wrapping paper. I spent time picking a particular paper for each child. My own personal guidelines were that the paper had to be primarily green or red and the theme of each roll had to relate in some way to each particular child. Since my children were all in school by this time, I would wrap each gift the same day I purchased it - well most of the time - without ribbons or gift tags. Then the wrapped packages would be stored in a closet or hopefully a secret hiding place. On Christmas Eve, Santa's job was greatly simplified since each child was paper coded. Occasionally, the kids would find the wrapped packages (they've admitted this). But all they could do was try to guess which wrapping paper was theirs.

The bonus was that since all the kids were beyond the age of believing in Santa, I could use the leftover paper the next year for gifts going to extended family and friends.

The plan saved my sanity and has made Christmas Eve less of a hassle. It's been fun to search for the ideal paper for each child. Now that the kids are grown and some with families of their own, I try to paper code each family.

A little gratitude, please

I had my 18 month old grandson here for a little while today. His mom had a couple of job interviews. He is a happy, sweet little boy and pretty easy to have around. I was happy to help out.

However, taking care of my grandson made me think back to the days many years ago when I relied on my own mother for a lot of child care. I worked six days a week from 7 AM until 3 PM. My mother took care of my son for 5 of those six days. I would drop my son of at 6:30 AM and not pick him up until 3:30 PM. She took care of him for a couple of years - 5 days a week. Looking back, I don't think I ever appreciated what she did for me. She was always fully dressed when I arrived at 6:30 AM, and when I came back, her home didn't look like a toddler had spent the day there. It never crossed my mind that she may have been exhausted, not feeling well or would just plain rather have done something else with her time.

Several years later as a single mother, I called my mother to take care of the same child when he had the chicken pox. I had to work and, of course, day care wouldn't take a kid with chicken pox. My mother lived about 40 miles away then. Without hesitation, she came and got my son and kept until at her house until he was pox free.

I think that most of us take a lot for granted in life. I just expected that my mother (and my father as well) would help me out when ever I called. I know that I never really expressed much gratitude to her. It's too late now since she passed away over 24 years ago.

Anyway, thanks Mom for all that you did for me. I understand now how hard it may have been at times. But you never complained.

Do You Want To Buy A Ticket?

These tickets may go fast and the money will go to a worthy cause.

Here's the deal...our HOA is having their semi-annual meeting next Tuesday night. It should be a doozy! Next year's budget will be presented. The HOA president told me that the fees will be nominal for 2008. However, another budget item for legal fees due to a mediation will also be presented. The fur will fly when owners demand to know who is suing the HOA (it's the Nimbys). Even though the majority of people in this neighborhood have plenty of money, they won't be too happy about an assessment for legal fees - especially over trees and views.

An additional agenda item is for an amendment to our Design Guidelines that is being proposed by the Nimbys. The Nimbys want all trees that are now over 24' or at sometime in the future will be over 24' tall removed. Specifically, they're proposing this amendment to give them a little ground to stand on in their claim about our trees blocking their views. But, any provision in the CCRs and Guidelines has to be applied to every homeowner, and therefore, every tree in every yard. You can imagine how people will react to that.

Anyway, this meeting should be a interesting to say the least. The HOA president suggested to me that people may want to buy tickets just to witness the Nimbys being ripped to shreds by the high powered Type A personalities that live in this neighborhood. I suggested that the proceeds from ticket sales be applied to legal fees. Call it creative fundraising!

So don't miss your chance as seating is limited.

Maybe not the bad guys!

I'm sure many of you can relate stories about battling with insurance companies to get them to pay claims. They are notorious for making life miserable for us premium paying peons.

Well, I guess not all insurance companies are tightwads. My daughter that had surgery last September just called me. Her insurance company paid ALL of her hospital bills...to the tune of $23,000.

We are kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. You know, a letter from the insurance company saying it was mistake and she owes a bazillion dollars!