I heard about this from someone I know . . . how does Santa really know who is naughty and who is nice?  An elf tells Santa, and the elf leaves little things or signs that the children can see that the elf is real.  So you have to be good All year round.

It’s evidently a big craze with the younger children started by a mom with her children.  I actually remember the style of elf that used to be on my parents and my grandparent’s tree when I was younger, and I remembered it not being my favourite ornament.  Partially because they never sat easily -haha

So if you don’t know about it, here is the website:  http://www.elfontheshelf.com/

I meant to blog this earlier, but this website is neat.  Santa is in the US, so all children should be in bed by now 🙂
Click on the photo below to see where Santa is now!

Christmas means a lot of things to a lot of people.  Even people that do not celebrate Christmas for the birth of Christ can partake of the festivies of the month.

So I would like to ask everyone that reads this post to post a comment on what you think of or what Christmas means to you.  The pros and the cons.  I know a lot of people read my blog but don’t comment, but I LOVE comments and I will comment back if I can.

So here are some things that make me think of Christmas and December!

• getting together with friends
• sending out end of the year updates and cards!
• spending time with our families
• fresh baked cookies
• my birthday in December!
• (a new tradition) going to the beach to celebrate with Gary’s parents
• parties!
• seeing friends in church choirs
• driving around seeing all the lights and decorations
• shopping
• and last minute shopping
• those funny cartoons about Christmas time that are in e-mails fwd: fwd: fwd:
• breaking out the winter sweaters
• freezing my fingers off because I don’t really like wearing gloves
• hot looking boots!
• fuzzy slippers
• the thick warm blanket on the bed (which will in turn not make me want to get up in the mornings into the frigid cold)
• scraping the car windows in the morning
• candy canes
• gingerbread men or houses (which we have yet to make)
• the heater in the car taking a while to work mostly on those very cold days and 2 seconds is too long!
• hot cocoa with marshmallows
• gary’s familys tradition of shrimp at christmas
• decorating s few trees with lights and ornaments
• making snowflakes out of tissue paper or plain white paper
• donating food to a food bank
• watching Christmas movies (my faves, the grinch cartoon version, and a white christmas)
• seeing all the real poinsettias and hoping we don’t get one
• cold toilet seats and not wanting to shower (but I do anyway and then don’t want to get out again)  😛
• thinking of all the places we want to go next year

Ok, so there is the start of my list . . . feel free to share what Christmas or December means to you in a comment to this post

For some of us, it will be back in the 70’s again and some of you, it will still be snowing, so let the memories last while they can 😀

am SO excited about 2009!  I have met so many wonderful people this year, made so many new friends.  I have been inspired by people and places, and my brain has so many lovely thoughts of the possibilities of a new year.

It is so amazing how we grow and learn.  We don’t know what we will do, who we will be, what we will accomplish, or how our lives may touch or change those around us.

To be inspired, to be creative, to help one another.

I don’t want to get too philisophical, and while we can’t have amazing, happy days all the time, when we do, isn’t it amazing how you feel?  You feel like you can acomplish anything, and can help change the world!

That is how I feel this very moment.

Gary and I love having a Christmas Tree . . . I grew up with fake, he grew up with real.  Our first Christmas together, we got a real one for his apartment.  The first year in our house we got a real one.  The past two years, we haven’t done either, partially because of the way our furniture is arranged with the “over-sized for our house/livingroom” couch and also because we spend time with Gary’s parents at the beach for a few days.  Oh, and we have cats, and we’re not sure how they’ll take the tree (“ooh, something even HIGHER to climb on!”  or “eh, I see those when I look out the window, what’s the big deal?“).  So we need to be home to monitor a “test” tree.

So anyway, we enjoy the decorations around us, and when we decorate, we will be able to have a real, and a fake tree, plus all the trimmings 🙂

While I was at the Triangle Town Center Mall last night for the Barnes and Noble, they were just lighting the large tree for the night.  I took this with my point and shoot, the tree is much taller than I could show (no wide angle feature), but . . . so lovely!

Have you ever gone through your address book thinking, “who in the world is this?? ” Or . . . “so where is the rest of this person’s contact info? ”

Well, it’s that time of year for me to clean out my address book of all the people I don’t remember because I only met them in passing once, or somehow we crossed paths but don’t really keep in touch.  The time to find out where all of our friends who are still in school or moving are (hopefully) before you send them a Christmas card, to find it returned to you sometime several weeks after the new year has passed.

Our Christmas cards arrived neatly packaged, ready for addressing and signing today, and go out with my mailing and shipping assistant tomorrow morning-ish.  Well, as I write this at 2:23am, today later-earlier-morning-ish 🙂

Either way, we are very proud we are getting them out on schedule . . . well, on our schedule, so hopefully our fabulous recipients will receive them Before the 25th.

Thank you postal and shipping employees, your job is much appreciated!

Yes, I think almost every year Gary and I exchange or at least give our gifts to each other early.  Gary got his from me about a month ago . . . a PS3 plus the new Grand Theft Auto IV game.  Well, he’s been working hard, and he can play with it more now instead of the day he gets it, and we will be at the beach 🙂

I got mine from Gary a couple of days ago (my birthday gift from him at the beginning of the month -haha).  Anyway, Gary has always been good about giving me themed gifts that are around a larger gift.  For example, the first birthday/chrimstmas together, he gave me a book, The Taming of the Shrew.  While I thought it was a nice-ish gift I was wondering if at some point I had mentioned that I liked that particular book because it was kind of an odd gift, but I smiled and said thanks with as much enthusiasm and with as little confusion as possible.  Almost about to put the book down, I see a slip of paper peeking out . . . opening to the first couple of pages are two tickets to see the play The Taming of the Shrew with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. We stayed at ‘Dupont at the Cirlcle‘ Bed and Breakfast in the Plum Suite 🙂  Definitly go sometime if you are looking for a nice bed and breakfast in the DC area.

ANYway, that was longer than I was expecting 😛

So for this Christmas Gary had two bags.  In the first was the movie ‘Sex and the City‘ in the second bag was an opera on CD.  Both themed around New York.  So the gift was actually for when we go up north next year to see Gary’s family . . . we are going to swing by New York for a day and see an Opera of my choice (dependent on what is playing when we go)!

Next year is already starting off fabulously!

Thanks everyone that thought of me and share the love on facebook, all the people that sent me e-cards, and all the lovely people that sent me cards in the mail!

Also, thanks in advance to Amanda and Katharine for taking me to lunch on Saturday to celebrate, my parents on Sunday, and thanks again to Gary’s parents for dinner and to see Broadway Series South’s presentation of Annie a couple of months back 😀

While I don’t usually voice my thoughts on a lot of issues, whether political or news related here on my blog, I would like to ask you to at least be aware of issues directly and indirectly related to the health and welfare of humans and animals alike.

Many people do not think about how their food was treated before coming to the table for food.  Partially by the way we are conditioned about food, and how meat is such a main ingredient in many dishes.

My husband knows how I feel about animals and while listening to NPR this morning heard about the possible new standards for organic milk.  Allowing cows to graze outside more instead of being secluded and confined to concrete feed lots.

Please read the article below:

And while milk is only a small part of the overall picture, it’s a start.

You can send in your thoughts and comments for or against the issue (at regulations.gov), but the deadline is December 23rd

Any thoughts and comments would be good, doesn’t have to be anything long and fancy, just speak from your heart 🙂

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=SubmitComment&o=0900006480776e33