This is a Good Life Letter

Dear Blog Reader,

Yesterday I had lofty goals of getting many items crossed off the list as this early Sunday morning brings another round of travel.  Instead, I nursed a headache from book club Christmas party shenanigans while drinking coffee with Karen and Brittany for hours.  Then, because she realized I was getting in rougher shape (so responsible I am!), Karen proclaimed that lunch was necessary and the next thing I knew I was in her car in a this is what I look like straight out of bed mode.  She was spot on.  Food fixed all woes.  Next, we went to a craft show and then put mascara on in the same bathroom - we showered in different ones - to get ready to head out to the annual cookie exchange.  Book club Christmas party Friday night, where there are no rules about sparkles and selfies and group picture posing.  Coffee drinking Saturday morning with Christmas tree leggings and two forever friends.  Pretending like I'm a college student lunching on Saturday afternoon.  Cookie exchange partying on Saturday night with even more of my favorite people.  This is a good life.  The only thing I can actually say was productive about the weekend was I had a really great mascara rendevous last night and much needed quality time with the people I call my people.  

P.S.

Please tell me you understand what I mean when I say it was a great mascara day.  Sometimes it goes on just right and you feel like you just might be six years younger.  

P.P.S

The picture of Bobsy Twin and me is supposed to not be the same exact one side by side but I'm sitting at the airport and I can't do anything to fix it so seeing double is what you get.  

P.P.P.S

Karen came to my house at 4:15 this morning to take my garbage out and clean the coffee pot and bring my running late hiney to the airport.  She is the very best human. 

Sincerely,

Me 

Up Up Time

Today was back to work day and now that it's evening, I think I feel alright with it.  Well, I have to be in compliance since the money tree for the backyard hasn't been delivered yet.  That Amazon Prime two day shipping isn't all it's cracked up to be.  Anyways back to what I was saying, I tend to take the week and a half or so of Christmas break to really fall off the routine and structure bandwagon.  I do things like eat coffee ice cream after having cinnamon sugar toast and I sleep until seven and don't do any running or really much of any activity other than sitting cross legged with a crochet hook or lifting a coffee mug to my face while visiting.  

 

 

And I have decided I need those days of no rules with wearing leggings with fuzzy socks and nights of baths with wine and a book.  It actually makes me itch and want the structure.  The down time makes me want the up time back.  I was excited last night to set my alarm for 4:42 to hit the gym and I felt back in control while packing my lunch with real food like carrots.  The novelty will wear off again and then force of habit will take over but for now, I'm enjoying it all feeling like new resolve.   

It's up time again.  Go time.   

But that's not to take away from the magic that was Christmas break this year.        

  

I am fairly certain I could have really handled a few more days off but like I said previously, I think I'm alright with being back in the game.  Days of playing with helicopters and enjoying homemade tomato soup with ridiculous grilled cheese and never taking off glorified pajamas can't last forever.  Right?  Money tree where are you?     

We are Strong

As I sit here on this Saturday morning of Christmas break, with my 1980s sweatshirt quilt wrapped around me and a space heater humming at my feet, I feel like I want to write.  Probably because I just spent the last two hours reading.  Reading makes you want to write.  Or at least it does that magic for me.  Reading someone else's fantastically woven words inspires me to sit down and peck something out.  All full knowing, it won't be to the caliber of published works. 

 

But it's writing.  For me. 

 

And writing is a funny thing.  Sometimes I don't feel like I want to ever do that business again.  To sit here in this blue paisley chair and put any thoughts from my head down to this paper.  And then I go with that feeling and don't do it just for the sake of it.  But then it strikes again, the pull to make sense of an intangible train of thoughts.  And then I go with that feeling too and sit here with my space heater to say something. 

 

 

Which in this case is...

 

I love my book club. 

 

You want to talk about something that makes me feel inspired to read, write, and to live like I could jump off any risk at any moment?  Let's talk about book club then.

 

It's a sacred thing.  I don't toss that word around lightly either.  Sacred.  Sitting around a table or in a cluster of chairs or we could even sit on the floor, with that group of ladies...is magic. 

 

We had our annual Christmas party the Friday before all of the festivities started and this year proved to be as epic as all previous.  Complete with the Bison game on in the background playing to a vinyl records soundtrack of the old country of George Jones mixed in with the shatteringly beautiful Your Song by Elton John. 

This time of year is always bittersweet.  One celebration after another while the ever present nag of this the end of another year pulls at my heartstrings.  This party was the kick start to the nostalgic feeling of wrapping up the past 365 days.  All of us went around the table and reflected upon our favorite moments from 2013.  Our challenges and our triumphs and our misgivings came through, like they always do. 

 

It's a rare commodity, to be fully accepted and never judged and to put it almost unfairly simple, that is precisely what my book club is for me.  I often say things in book club or think things aloud in book club which I believed in my head would never see the light of day.  For I know those thoughts flying out of my mouth, have a safe spot to land.

 

It's a sacred thing.  Book Club.  At the end of every meeting, there is usually a mess of wine glasses and empty martinis and leftover bits of food and crumpled napkins but as we all put our coats on and shake our hair out of their collars, we are never a mess.  Quite the opposite, we are aligned and back to our core...ready to tackle the next month.  Because anytime we are given the full acceptance we all crave and so desperately need, everything else - all the little - quite frankly doesn't freaking matter.  

 

For we have been reminded we are strong.  Strong women who can and will do anything.    

Gifts and Gifts

At the start of this week, I wore green tights under my jeans in an effort to up my festive a notch more.  Today, I resembled a candy cane.  Once again upping the festive.  After a stop in to The Porch this evening and a long after work Monday shopping and all day Sunday uploading and an all day Saturday crocheting, I can officially say Christmas shopping is complete.  Green tights under jeans and resembling a candy cane makes things more fun.  Try it.     

Here's my nugget of truth for this Christmas season.  I dislike buying presents.  Let me rephrase that...I dislike purchasing presents which are not homemade or a product of some sort.  Yes, I have to buy books and prints of my pictures, but they are a reflection of something I created.  And yes, I have to buy yarn, but I love crocheting in and out to make something with a person in mind.

Buying presents at The Porch (locally owned) also fit my winner bill as everything is homemade or created by the three lovely ladies who opened the genius idea of a place which gardens, cans, sews, and crafts for you.  I hit the jackpot of little stocking stuffers there.  

 

However, buying presents at the mall or another chain store?  Strongly dislike.  We are such a society of stuff, and I'm just as guilty as the next person, that it makes me a tad disheartened to see more stuff flying off the shelves in order to fill a slot on a gift list.  

I am sure there are times when gift lists contain needs along with the wants but I truly believe it's becoming less and less than previous times in our culture.  Again, just as guilty of the want syndrome myself.  

Eventually, I would love to have an entirely homemade and created Christmas.  I'm not there yet but maybe someday.   

Wrapping presents is my least favorite task of the holiday season and last night as we watched swimming lessons, I almost had my friend Jessie convinced to wrap presents for me in exchange for making sugar cookies for her.  Almost.  I was just about to throw in giving her a pair of holiday leggings...but...I am tackling the job right now. 

 

 

Gold tape is helping the situation.  Shiny things always do.   

 

I hope everyone gets all their tape ready before wrapping.   

It's simply some good solid forward thinking.  And when I used to teach fourth grade chicken wings I always said, "Be a forward thinker...not a little stinker."   

The Keeper of a Tradition

The cookie exchange is my own personal kick off to the real deal holiday season, it's what sends the red and green flare signals to my brain.  The predecessor to the internal glitter throwing.  Danae hosts and therefore, she is the keeper of my every beginning of every Christmas.  (No pressure girl)

I have no doubt in my mind this tradition is in safe hands.  And let me tell you this, it's so good oh so good to sit around a table with hot coffee steaming and girlfriends.  

Eleven dozen cookie making is worth it to have those moments and memories.  If you are my sister-in-law, you make twenty-two dozen because in a homemade Oreo there are really two cookies.  That woman is absolutely a wonder.  

Lemon spritz was my cookie of making this year.  They are the squares with a diagonal line of dark chocolate, which was supposed to be more of a half dipped affair but that was too much fuss for me.  It is not too much fuss to align the edges of rugs over and over again but dipping cookies?  Not for me.  

So the cookie exchange happened.  The holiday season is in swing.  Full swing.  Crafts!  Crocheting!  Cooking!  List making!  Also I need to state here for the record, I won the door prize this year.  Thank you very much.  After a lovely little prank pulled by Danae and Sil, but still.  I won.