Silver bells, Silver Bells...soon it will be Christmas Day....
"Silver Bells" is one of my favorite Christmas songs. I can't sing a lick, but I do love to hear carolers and choirs singing, especially this time of year.
I'm just taking a moment to wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Mr. MoonCat and I had a nice quiet celebration with Dad (and ALL of the critters). It was lovely, except for the torrential rain..
I hope yours has been full of love and laughter as well. Merry Christmas.
If you have readers in your house, undoubtedly books or bookstore giftcards are always favored presents. I have always loved getting books that someone has specifically chosen for me based on my likes and interests or because they loved a story and wanted to share it with me.
I wasn't paid to gush, I am not trying to sell you anything or win a contest, I just flat out LOVED THIS BOOK! I know there are many horse lovers and parents of young horsepeople that follow this blog and I merely wanted to give all of you a hint for a fantastic gift:
I am not going to get into all of the details because a simple click HERE will take you to my wordy and drool-covered review at my book blog, One Book Shy of a Full Shelf. I almost never rate books a "5 out of 5", but this book could have gone 10 out of 5 for me very easily. It is extremely well written by a knowledgeable horseman and has already been compared to the Harry Potter series for the adventure and fantasy. It's one of those books that will pretty much appeal to everyone, whether they love horses or not. Let me know what you think..
I am so grateful for those lovely readers who have commented and emailed me regarding that last post/rant/scream. You are wonderful! It is amazing how much a simple "you're not alone in how you feel" or just plain "you're not alone" can mean to a person ~ to me. Thank you all so much for being there.
I'm actually feeling a tad bit better and poor Mr. MoonCat is like a little kid about sparkly decorations, so we're going to get with the program and try to cheer it up around here. He is of the opinion that I will feel even better if I have pretty things to look at.. (If you have seen Chevy Chase's movie "Christmas Vacation", you'll have an idea of what Mr. MoonCat's vision of decorating entails....Mine is closer to the Charlie Brown version.)
Of course, my agreement to go ahead and decorate has now spawned arguments about the tree. He wants a GIANT tree
while I would prefer a smaller, more manageable tree.
His theory is that we have a giant ceiling in the great room so we should have the GIANT tree. My counterpoint is that the big tree will cost 3 times that of the one I like and just because we have the space, doesn't mean we need to fill it!
Plus, I have a vision of the tree sitting in the lower-ceilinged corner with goodies all around it ~ off of the floor where lions and tigers roam. I have an old corner tv stand that we're not using similar to the one below:
I think it would be really cute to put the lighted Christmas village on the shelves behind the glass doors. (It will be much, much safer for the little villagers to be ensconced behind the glass ~ we have large monster kitties that roam freely in this home!) My stand isn't as nice as the one above, but I think it will do ~ for now... hint, Mr. MoonCat... I like the one above..
So what do you think? A 12ft-ish tree or a more modest, manageable, magnificent tree of about 4 or 5 feet sitting on a pretty stand with a village nestled below? Whichever way we go, you know it'll have to be made secure from the ferocious felines...
**Are you getting the impression that everything we do around here comes back to the critters? How will it affect them? What kind of destruction and havoc can they wreak? Gotta love 'em or else....
*This is a very negative post that I have a need to write. You can stop reading it at any time if you choose.
I usually enjoy the holiday season immensely. I love to bake and make things for my friends and loved ones, find the perfect presents, and just flat out enjoy myself decorating.
This year I'm finding it really hard to get into the spirit. We haven't decorated or even got a tree yet. While I embrace the "reason for the season", I just can't find it in myself to be jolly and happy. A large part of my heart is missing and I'm not sure if it'll ever heal.
Losing Mom, while expected, has been devastating to me. She always tried to make the holidays special for all of us and enjoyed them a lot. It is getting tougher for me as everyone is getting giddier (is that a word?) while I'm feeling more melancholy as the days go on. Many days I'd like to just stay in bed and pull the covers over my head.
I'm trying to not pull everyone else down in my funk with me, but I miss her and I won't apologize for that. It seems like people only want to give you a set amount of time to grieve and then you're supposed to "get on with and over it". She was my Mom and closest friend, you heartless *******. (Sorry, but I'm hoping that some of the individuals with this attitude will read this and get the message and let me feel what I need to feel.)
To add to this pain, about a month ago we also lost a much beloved lady who was like another mother to Mr. MoonCat and me. She was our brother-in-law Chris's mom and a really neat woman. Nea was wonderful to us and her unexpected death was another sucker punch to all of us. She and Mom have left major holes in my and Chris's lives, among others.
While at Nea's memorial, our truck decided to break down - 2 hours from home. Ford is refusing to honor the warranty and the service they performed on it - which didn't fix the problem. We have already had to shell out $1100 for the first failed attempt at repair with another $1400 (which we don't have) now being demanded before we can get it out of the shop. We've had to shell out almost $700 in rental car fees because we were stuck and had to get home as well as having no vehicle for our trip. I'm feeling a major hate for Ford Motor Company right now. (I already wrote in a previous post about the wreck that occurred while in the tiny little rental car - yet another BAD THING.)
Topping all of this off, we've lost 5 of our dear little chickens in the last two weeks. As far as we can determine, they contracted chicken pox. Yes, they get their own disease and the remaining flock has been vaccinated. So I'm missing my little friends as well as dealing with all of the other blows we've been smashed with lately.
This has been an excessively rough year around here and it doesn't seem to be letting up. I'm thankful for what and who I do have, but dang it universe - let up on me! I sure hope 2011 will be a better year for all of us.
Thank you for letting me rant and share, the good and the bad. I do wish you all very Happy Holidays and I promise to come back soon with some happier animal updates and some pix from our trip to Southern California and Nevada. We took a lot of photos and I'm slowly getting them sorted out.
I've been a very bad blogger lately. I had meant to keep you all updated with timely posts during our much needed and long anticipated vacation, but I have failed ~ yet again!
So I'm just taking a second to let you know that we're still kicking and having a lovely time. I'll be doing several posts next week to show you what we've been up to. (The chickens have much to report from the home front as well :) Here's a hint as to where we are, have been, and are going....
Til next time...
