Christmas Countdown - 2013

[xmas365]

Good morning. More rain this morning. Forecast to turn to snow after lunch. We should get around 8 inches of snow on top of the 12 inches of rain we've already had this week. Mudslides are happening all around us. Hwy 441 across the Great Smoky Mountain National Parkway is closed due to a major mudslide. I love the snow and cold but the flooding and mudslides are no fun.

Have a blessed day everyone. Hope we are eating snowcream for supper.

I miss snowcream so much. I am not a vanilla ice cream person (much prefer chocolate) but snowcream is another matter. LOVE it!!! Take care, my friend.

Captain Ignorant is back for the first time in Countdown 2013, what exactly is snowcream?

 

[Meceka]

Awwwww....I hope he has a home !!! xo

As long as he gets along with my other fur kids he can stay ~ so far he has been very good. cheesy

 

[xmas365]

I sort of got a little chuckle out of that little fact; at myself that is, with 300 days to the start of the Christmas season and I still have some Christmas lights lit on my front porch. Hee-Hee-Hee!

But, I have to admit, The inside decorations are now all down and put away and 85% of the outside decorations are now down/ off and are in the process of being put away.

All my outside decorations are down, but inside my doorways are still lined with lights and garland, a bunch of Santa's are still up and my window candles will be up until spring. Very slowly putting everything away.

 

[xmas365]

Good afternoon everyone!

Busy week. A co-worker is leaving the office next week and I am assuming a lot of her responsibilities. Even though I am not under contract as of mid-May. I'm still working on that though.

Ottawa has been enjoyable this week. I've been busy with the gym and hanging out with Kim. My knee continues to heal. I'm really hopeful for a mid-February recovery, but we shall see how it goes. Not a whole lot else is new.

Hard to believe we're 300 days until the Christmas Season already. Lots of 2013 remains to enjoy, however. It should be a great year! Speaking of good times, I'm excited for the weekend. A real good friend of mine is having his bachelor party this weekend in Mont Tremblant, Quebec. It should be lots of fun! Most of the group will be skiing. Unfortunately, I cannot partake in it due to my knee, but I don't mind... the NHL's opening day will provide me with plenty of entertainment. I can't wait to see the Kings raise their Stanley Cup banner. It will be a special moment! Of course, there should be plenty of other things planned too!

Well, have a great Thursday, everyone!

Enjoy your weekend, Go Bruins!!!

 

[Meceka]

Good evening, Christmas family

Well, my tree is "asleep." We took it down yesterday. But I am not all that sad. My sister has been giving me "pep" talks as well as all of you - I think maybe they are finally taking root.

My sister is supposed to visit this Saturday. I hope so. We haven't seen each other since Christmas Eve. It would be wonderful to be with her again.

I am kind of excited. I found one of our local high schools has a community education program where you can enroll in various classes for a four to six week period. They have a couple of writing classes and I am going to enroll in one !! I am not sure anything can really help my writing but I think it will be interesting. I was hoping though that I would be able to go to the school for the classes but they are online.
So I will still not be getting out of the house any more than now.

But that's okay.....I will hopefully be learning some helpful tips !!


Wish is sitting right by me snuggled up against me as I type this !!! He seems to be feeling SO good again. We have him on a soft food he gobbles up and I can tell the daily fluids help him feel much better. I know some folks probably would say he's "just a dog..." and would not go out of their way. As you all know, I am different. He is NOT just a dog just like everyone on this forum is NOT "just a human." Besides, it is no trouble now that I know how to administer the fluids....It is the least someone may have to do for me someday........and I would hope they would....I made a commitment to Wish just like all my furkids FOR LIFE....Not until things become inconvenient and expensive.....FOR LIFE....Okay.. Dont know what got me on a soapbox but done now....sorry.....

I think it is time for a polar bear signature again !!!

Have a very, very Merry Christmassy evening Christmas family and ((((HUGS)))) to all ESPECIALLY:

Ella, Harlowe, Snowball, Gomez, Ophelia, Sidney, Alex, Merlin, Snickers, Victor, Daisy, Diva, Mickey, Palmer, Mouse, Bo, Chico, Meca, Alvin, Charlie, Gary, Bailey, Jerrold, Irving, Martha, Uncle Julio, Missy, Scooby, Sasha, Jacob, Cracker, Bunny B, Penny, Pocket, LuLu, Bear-Bear, Stripey, Holly, Fate Puppy (London,) Buster, Missy, Baby, Santa's Polar Bears, Sangria, O'Malley, Beau, Taz, Zema, Rizzo, Bella, Happy, Sam, Guinness, Holly Noel, Larry SR, Mama, and all furkids everywhere xoxoo

A writing class ~ what fun! I know you will enjoy it, CM3! I'm so glad Wish is doing well ~ I hope he continues to do so! I also wanted to thank you again for keeping Bo's name in your shout out ~ I really miss him, but seeing his name makes me smile every time and it helps. {{{HUGS}}}

 

[Meceka]

Glad to be home from school. I had my Social Security phone interview today. It appears that I will get $617 the first month. Then my check will be offset by the "windfall" calculation. Yeah, right, my retirement is a windfall!!! Then I will receive $270 a month out of which they will deduct the $104 premium for Part B of Medicare. They will deduct more when I add Part F. So, at least the medical insurance will be paid for!

Good news that your medical insurance is paid for!

 

[Meceka]

Good Evening everyone! we have a new member to our family. We have decided to become foster parents to the local animal shelter..we just got a beautiful Burmese Mountain dog. Now this dog has to be on leash at all times even in the house. Our local dog pound does not put the animals to sleep as long as ppl will be foster parents until someone will adopt the animals.. we saw this dog and could not stand it being in a shelter..We have taken pictures of it outside playing and put it online and posted pics in the town to see if someone wants it..meanwhile snowball has someone to play with now and she is so sweet I think me and brandi could become attached and that will be okay too. I would not mind having another little furbaby!! So that is how my Monday has been..it's been a really good day... I hope everyone is doing good this mid January day.. We have a 3 day weekend coming up everyone! that is something to look forward to.

Aw, what a great thing you and Brandi are doing in fostering a dog!

 

[xmas365]

Good afternoon and Happy 300!


Been busy running around this morning, did a bit of grocery shopping. I did find a new decoration and bought it for $5. It is Mr. Christmas, it lights up and plays music. I had to get it.
Here it is:

Time to do some work around the house.

ttyl

 

[xmastidings]

I listen to Christmas whenever I want because many of the CDs I have aren't played by our local station. The specialness of it is that it is the local station that is playing the music, not just that it's Christmas music. Sometimes I just need a Christmas pick-me-up!

I would love a local station that plays Christmas music at this time of the year, especially. I wish there was a cable channel on TV that played Christmas music 24/7 365 days a year but Music Choice is definitely out of the running for that.....:-(

Here's an idea - I listen to the MMC Podcasts and such, but I have also found some pretty good Christmas music on-line thru Live 365, like "The Christmas Station". I sit here all day at my desk and switch back and forth to that and "Merry Christmas Radio" and other stations. All you have to do is sign up, It's free; you log in and listen to music all day. Of course the sites will ask you to become a VIP member, but you don't have to and some sites are VIP only, but there are soooo many free ones out there, that you don't need to sign up to pay to listen to music.

 

[xmastidings]

All my outside decorations are down, but inside my doorways are still lined with lights and garland, a bunch of Santa's are still up and my window candles will be up until spring. Very slowly putting everything away.

I'm with you, I'm doing the slow take down thing as well, well, at least until the wife starts cracking the whip on me to take the decorations completely down...lol

 

[Meceka]

we keep turning up our furnace because it is really cold here too! A real fireplace to sit in front of would be so nice!

I agree, a real fireplace woud be so nice! We are still using the little heater and only turn up the furnace when it gets below 60. It was 53 the other morning when I got out of bed ~ brrrrrr!

 

[Meceka]

hmmmm hot cocoa sounds good! I will have to make some marshmallows to go with it.

The pain is down to a 2 and I am feeling better. I got a tube of Voltarn Emulgel for joint pain and that is working for me.

Yay ~ so glad you are doing better!

 

[Christmas-A-Holic]

Good Morning MMC!!!!! Well it's winter so it's cold outside. It looks like we may get a slight warm up on Saturday though before the bottom falls out on Monday. Once again, I'm exhausted. I really need to stop staying up until 3 and 4 am. My sister in Seattle was freaking out last night though and kept calling. My BIL works for Boeing building the 787 and if you've watched the news lately, you'll know that they had some problems. So there boss told them yesterday that there were rumors that they may have to shut the whole line down and layoff 5000 of them while they do a redesign. So my sister is worried because they really can't afford to lose their insurance with my niece having to have the infusions. Hopefully they learn something more today to calm her nerves. Well I'm off to get some stuff done or maybe head back to bed. I hope everyone is having a GREAT DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

You're not only a good brother but a good friend to be there for your sister. I hope all works out for them!

Good morning. More rain this morning. Forecast to turn to snow after lunch. We should get around 8 inches of snow on top of the 12 inches of rain we've already had this week. Mudslides are happening all around us. Hwy 441 across the Great Smoky Mountain National Parkway is closed due to a major mudslide. I love the snow and cold but the flooding and mudslides are no fun.

Have a blessed day everyone. Hope we are eating snowcream for supper.

Be careful!!!

Here's a tip for you: Buy a shave-ice machine, and you can make snowcream anytime you like. I got one as a gift last summer. It comes with little round molds that you freeze ice in; then the ice goes into the machine, which "shaves" the ice into a mound of "snow." Traditionally you put flavored syrups on it, like a snow cone, but instead you can add sweetened condensed milk and vanilla flavoring to it. Tastes like licking the dasher of an old-fashioned ice-cream freezer!

I forgot but I have a shaved ice maker, not machine but has a hand crank. It's really easy to use. I need to find it and dust it off in time for summer. I bet it's stashed away with my cookie cutters!!!

 

[Christmas-A-Holic]

I went to my brother's shop and we painted the car frame, so we'll be ready to put the front end back on the car body this weekend. He took me for a ride in another car that has about the same engine as mine will have. Let's just say my brother enjoys fast cars more than I do...whew! We're going to have to tone it down a bit if Jacob is ever going to be allowed to drive it!

It looks like when you get that car ready you will be picking us up from the airport after Seawaters drops us off for breakfast. We should arrive quickly!!!

Headlines will read:

Mayor Bradmac Speeds Down Road with Car Full of MMC'ers

 

[Meceka]

Wow...this is a first....

No basketball duty this week....wow.

I haven't been home every night in a week since...August. Even during Christmas break, I had to go to ballgames. Nice.

However, my legs are killing me and my throat hurts....I dunno what's going on, but I'm going to bed to get some rest. See yall tomorrow!

I hope you are better now!

 

[xmastidings]

Hope you are feeling better, Momnan. The flu is supposed to be bad this year. Take care!

Your right, and it is... My wife works at 2 hospitals and she said that at one of them, there was a nine hour wait in the ER alone, and that every single bed was occupied in the hospital. Apparently, they set up a tent outside of the hospital just for flu patients and for the most part, they were telling people to go home, take asprin, drink fluids, etc... and that there was nothing they could do for them.

She said that there were so many samples on the ER lab station, that they were piled up 2 feet deep and that they could not keep up with them...

She told me that the positive flu test results are all over the map and that the flu shot does not protect against all of them and yet, there are a couple of nasty virus(s) going around to boot. She said the hospital ran out of flu test kits and had to get an emergency shipment of them in....

Wash your hands all the time, don't touch anything and pray that you don't catch it... I call it the "ick", and I hope we don't catch it!!!!

 

[Meceka]

Everybody is invited for a hot cocoa party here in front of our real fireplace next week....we will sing Christmas carols, eat cookies and watch Christmas movies and be together as a Christmas family !! AND we will stay cozy !!

What fun!

 

[Christmas-A-Holic]

Did I hear an invitation to breakfast in this post?

You are always invited to breakfast!

What are we having? Maybe I can stay awake long enough to eat.

I had breakfast tacos. I will make some more!

Did you watch Idol last night? I tried but just couldn't get into it.

I had decided that I am not going to watch this year but my neighbor told me maybe try to watch it and maybe it won't be that bad. I usually plan my night around AI but this time I didn't get in any hurry, turned it on 30 minutes into the show and it just didn't hold my interest. It has changed too much for me and I am not interested in watching these girls fight. I just want to see talent! My neighbor sent me an email this morning and said she could only stand 15 minutes of it and shut it off. She has been a long time fan as well and this will be her first year not to watch it.

Bring on Deadliest Catch!!! I can't wait for that to come back on!

 

[Meceka]

:lol:

 

[Christmas-A-Holic]

You are such a thoughtful co-worker, Star!

Christmasstar is always thoughtful! That is why she's a "Star"!

By the way, Christmasstar, I must have missed your original post but keep seeing others respond that they hope you feel better. Sorry I missed it but I hope you will be okay!!!