The holidays are over!! OMG I am so glad. I know I’ve got the unpopular opinion here - most people like holidays - but I don’t, and especially Christmas. I’m Grinchy. I’m a party-pooper. Sorry, that’s just the way it is. Holidays are life-interrupters, and I don’t like it, and Christmas is the worst. I think I was the worst with handling Christmas this year, too, although I don’t think I cried this time. I really don’t think I even felt the stress I usually feel this time because I kind of just felt like I didn’t care. I had little money for shopping, as always. Usually I’m stressing about what I’m going to get everyone cuz I don’t have much money, so how am I supposed to get anything good and decent and cool for anyone when I don’t have the money for it?? This year I was just like, “I’ll just go to Dollar General and Dollar Tree and get this or that and that will have to do.” And I did. And it did. And I don’t think my sister was too pleased with her gift cuz she always spends tons on everyone, so I come off as a cheapskate, but there you go. What she spent on my gift and what I spent on hers was very unequal. I got her a cookbook that you find at the registers. Hey, it was like $13.99!! I think she said something like her boyfriend could use it. And I got her a phone stand at Dollar Tree, so $1.25. And she was like, “What’s this??” Then trying to figure out how it stood up, then put it away and moved on to other things. She got me Bath and Body Works bag-full of goodies - lotion, body spray, body wash, and hand lotion. The whole bag was probably $100 or something. I would’ve been happy with some Jergen’s from Wal-Mart cuz I’m about out and it’s $7-something, and my cheapskate self hates to spend so much on it but I like it. It smells good. So - yeah, gifts. I don’t even bake cookies. I gave that up ages ago. One year I spent two whole days in the kitchen making cookies. Tiring. Easier to buy them. I didn’t even buy any this year lol!! And you have a time limit for all this. I hate time limits. I had about 8 cards I wanted to send out, and nope, I still had some here by the time Christmas came and went. There’s still one I didn’t get sent out. I decided to just send a message to her on facebook - and I still haven’t. Christmas tree… I sacked the large one a couple years ago. Got a smaller one you can set on a stand at the window. Last year I think I finally got it up and all decorated about a week before Christmas. I felt I was cutting it close, but I did it. This year I almost had it decorated. Found some other bulbs I thought I’d put on and fill in some space - but my 7-month-old kitty kept climbing up and knocking bulbs off and batting them around the ktchen and living room so I was always picking bulbs up and putting them back on. Finally she just knocked the whole tree off the stand, so I told my son to take all the bulbs off and put them back in the bag. It had lights, and I left the topper on. That would have to be good enough. She still kept climbing up and knocking the tree off into the window so I had to keep setting it back up. I usually leave the tree up a good while. Way past Christmas. I’m about to put it away and be done with it.
Then New Year’s. What’s everyone so excited about?? What’s there to celebrate?? New Year’s makes me sad. It feels strange. It’s like you’re leaving everything that happened, everyone that passed away, in the old year. A new year coming - you don’t know what scary something is going to happen. My dad will be 84 this new year. That makes me nervous. I don’t see anything to celebrate. Well geez, before New Year’s the stores already had Valentine’s Day stuff out. I don’t like Valentine’s Day, either. It’s pretty much just happy holidays year-round for the stores.
Now that the holidays are over we can dive right into winter. Supposed to be snow coming for a lot of people, but we’re just going to get rain. So far our winter has been mild with just a few flakes one afternoon. That was nice to watch. Sitting inside watching snow is kind of like watching a life-size snow globe. I like one or two snows, but then I’m done with it. Living out here in the country, snow makes life as usual difficult, especially when you have a hard enough time driving on dry roads not covered in ice, snow, or slush anyway. Once I was visiting my parents when it started to snow so thought I better head home before it got too bad. The roads were already getting covered by the time I left. I ended up careening down a hill and came to a stop at the bottom scared to death. I still had hills to go up and down before I even got home - I was just starting!! So I found a good spot to pull over and called the husband to come get me. That was when he had a truck, which he doesn’t have anymore, so now you’re just stuck or would have to walk I suppose. It’s best to just stay home. When my son was in school you never knew what was going on. You watched the news, but you couldn’t go on it. That 2-hour-delay would often end up being a call at 5 in the morning telling you it was completely cancelled. I won’t miss those calls, that’s for sure. I usually got up at 6, so that messed up my whole hour of sleep I had left. But I always think of mom when it snows now. She loved it. Lord knows why, but she did. And we have no choice but to get through it to get to spring at the other side. And then we get to summer, and then again to fall that I love. I wish it could just be fall year-round, but then we wouldn’t have it to look forward to if it was. I noticed the smell of leaves this last fall. I used to have fall leaf-scented incense. It was nice. Snow incense would be cool. I had rain, so why not snow?? Maybe I’ll try to revel in winter now that the holidays are over and you can relax and enjoy things again. This guy gets what it’s like when it’s winter here, especially these treacherous back roads. Watch and enjoy, and I’ll see you next time…
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