It ain't Christmas til the fat man comes home.

So. I have a few days to myself.
Actually I have had lots of days to myself lately. Six weeks is a long time to be without my best friend. Though, I think he has had a much harder time of it than me and our girl. At least Savana and I have each other and those two loyal hounds, Ollie and Toad.

Rick likes driving a truck but he misses his family. He missed Thanksgiving and he was told he'd make it home for Christmas.

They were right only in the respect that, for me, it's not Christmas Day until Ricky is home. The presents... the dinner... it can all wait.

                           I could not resist throwing this in.  Go Santa!! Go Santa!!



                                

I have had a sick little dog keeping me company while Ricky's keepin' the highways hot.
Don't tell daddy but he has been sleepin' in the bed.  We're just not "animals in the bed" types. So, believe me... for him to get in my bed, one of us would have to be bad sick. He was. Didn't eat for a good week. Hardly drank any water and it hurt him to be touched pretty much anywhere from the neck down. He is one tough little dog. Check out his blog entry!


http://allrecipes.com/cook/10620038/blogentry.aspx?postid=165691

I loved him back to health. I think.

I sat down to write this blog with the idea that I was going to reminisce on the past year. I am just not feeling it, though. Not right now anyways. When I think about the past year, I think, "Lord, did that (insert the 'drought', 'failed lawn care business', 'intense summer heat', 'wildfires everywhere', 'sending Ricky to truck driving school with zero dollars and living off my family') ever suck."  

Next year will surely get better. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                                 

I do have much to be thankful for.  We have it better than most.                                              

"The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you."                                                                             ~John E. Southard                                                                                      

Eat, drink and be merry!  If you can't be with the ones you love... love the ones you're with.

Don't drink and drive because the people I love are on the road, too. 

One of them is driving a big @ss semi truck and I want him home safe and sound.

Merry Christmas and may the new year bless you and your families.

A very special day, indeed.

Today was a very special day.

About three weeks ago, I had been thinking about an old friend. He is an old friend that I had only seen once since I was in my teens.
Back then he was a man in his mid 60's....he was what I thought old was when I was younger.

Three days ago, December 7th, my local news station did a story on my old friend.

December 7th was Pearl Harbor Day.

My old friend, Mr. Roland Nee is 89 years old and he is a Pearl Harbor survivor.  He drove me to church every Sunday after my family moved too far away from church for the church van to come get me.  I remember he and I always had a lot to say to each other.  He was one of the few good men in my life.

 I knew after watching the news Wednesday evening, why he had been on my mind just a few weeks prior.  I had to see him....I honestly thought he had probably passed away. It had been a long time after all.

So this afternoon, I get in my car and head north about 30 miles. Drove right to his house, I did!  His wife, JoAnne, invited me in after I introduced myself and she remembered me.  I came around the corner of living room and there was Mr. Nee, laying on the sofa. Covers up to his neck. He is thin....a wisp of a man, but his mind is all there.

I find out that back in September, he fell and broke his hip. He gets up and down pretty well but requires a walker to get around.  He can no longer drive, either, but is sure to tell me that he got a new car back in January and was driving up until he fell.

Eighty-nine and still driving!  Holy cow.

As our visit came to an end I get out my camera....wanting to remember this moment.  A very special day.

He held my hand through our entire visit...asked me all about my life and my family. I in turn, ask him about his.
He told me he loved me and had always consider me kind of like a daughter. His wife is almost totally deaf but she shared a lot with me, too.  She got my address and phone number and as she walked me out, this is what she said..."I wanted to wait and tell you when I knew he couldn't hear me...after Roland passes on, I will be living at the Whispering Wind Assisted Living Center. You'll come visit me, won't you?"

Absolutely. I will.
And with that, we hugged and I drove away...  Cried the whole way home, damn near.

Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change

I wished my first "Merry Christmas" yesterday.
Savana needs a pair of black pants for her Christmas program, or I would have never ventured out into shankville...I mean, Walmart.

It is a madhouse there on the weekends, even without all the Christmas shopping.

It turned out that I actually ended up at Walmart not once but twice...

The only suitable pants we could find for my horizontally challenged child were too big in the waist, so we left and went to a couple other stores.

Only to return to where it all began...and by it, I am referring to the headache I got from trying to shop for pants, talk on the phone to various family members and negotiate the junk food/potato chip isle...a nice lady talked my ear off about how she thinks she is coming down with that bug that's goin' around.

I hope she wasn't just handling the bag of tortilla chips I chose.

Have I mentioned that I am not much of a multi-tasker??
About the only thing I can do while doing something else is cook...and even then, if it weren't for my stove top timer the house would have burned down long ago.

So, where was I? Oh, yes....Christmas.
We made it to the express line at Walmart and as the cashier hands me my change I say "thank you and you have a Merry Christmas"...she smiled back and said "Merry Christmas to you too. " 

That felt good.

On a side note...a trip anywhere with my daughter would not be complete if someone didn't stop her and mention how they love her hairdo.  That happened on our first trip to Walmart yesterday.  A woman actually stopped us to tell Savana that she had seen her come into the store and noticed her hair, and felt compelled (when she then saw us as we were leaving) to let Savana know that her hair was really cute.

She will be looking just as stylish at her Christmas concert this week with her hair all fancy and those slacks that were too big, pinned together so they stay on her narrow ass.