115 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-19-15”

  2. Donna, I don’t know nothing at all about hanging drapes.
    But I read about your Great Tribulation WRT Home Depot and your drapes. It reminded me that there is an advertisement on Rush’s program about specially made draperies. It is one of those “stupid husband” commercials where the brilliant wife explains to her dumbkoff how she has the perfect fit. Guaranteed.
    It sounds like something you could use.

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  5. I think Chas means the ads for blinds.com. They guarantee the blinds will fit even if you give them the wrong measurements.

    Speaking of Donna’s window problems, last night 6 Arrows said, “Donna, I feel your pain.” I think she should have said, I feel your pane.

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  6. My yearly post of Judy’s poem:. It’s becoming a Christmas ritual with me. You can scroll past it if it’s too much.

    It used to be that when we went to a gathering of some sort, on our return, I would tell Elvera, “You were the prettiest one there.” (I still tell her she’s the best looking one in Adult IV.)
    Once we went to an affair that involved her colleagues at Jefferson High School, in Alexandria, Va. where they worked. After the affair, I told her that she was the second best looking one there. She said, “Who was first?” I said, “Judy”.
    WELL! it wasn’t fair. Judy was over 20 years younger than the others. And youth is beautiful.
    Well, it’s much later now, Elvera is older and Judy is a grown woman and a school teacher. Her mother, Elvera’s friend, has Alzheimer’s (has since died). Judy sent us a card and a nice note. The first paragraph of the note kinda grabbed me. Since some of you are teachers, I thought, with her permission, that I would share it with you.

    “Dear Friends,
    Here I sit. It’s early morning and all is quiet. The day has not unfolded and I relish the peace. Soon I will be surrounded by the world of 7th graders…the high-octane mixture of hormones, insecurities and the need to impress peers. Although the students are required to unplug earphones and park all electronics in their lockers, you can tell that the beat goes on in their heads and hearts throughout the day. More than ever, as I teach, it is necessary to repeatedly seize their attention away from the thoughts and visual images that seem to be playing in their minds, blocking them from new input. Bless their hearts. So many among our population have such challenged home lives. Many are without anchor to something good, true and hope-filled. Our prayers for our youth are so needed.”

    There’s more of course; I thought that would interest some of you. She also wrote a poem:

    .
    Bethlehem – dark, cold and finally quiet,
    where most slept bubbled in their own existence
    unaware that in their town, that very night,
    Love had departed His heavenly throne to move in with humanity.
    In a stable was heard
    a baby’s gutsy wail
    the Word’s first sound.

    The town slept on
    But not the shepherds out in the fields.
    Blanketed under starlit night
    gentle stillness exploded into heart-stopping fear,
    brilliance swallowed the stars and
    the quiet was shattered by a thunderous announcement.
    Angels proclaimed that the world’s Savior had just been born in their town!

    No sleep for these shepherds.
    As they ran to search for this baby in a manger
    the Light led, unrestrained by the heavy dark of night,
    and just as the angels had said
    they found Him!

    A boy-King wrapped in rags, lay in a feeding trough.
    unimaginable Glory …
    wondrous mystery…
    In that stable they knelt … they worshipped
    the One
    the Only
    Son of God.
    But the town
    slept on.

    JL Stokes

    Merry Christmas

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  8. I appreciate the poem. It is quite lovely and I remember you posting it before.
    It is cold here as well. Today is Black Family Christmas AT THE BEACH!!!! Most of my aunts and uncles either have or have had a home at the beach over the years. Not my parents. My mother didn’t want to be sweeping up all that sand that people would be tracking in and out, in and out all day and night.

    Also in Donna’s defense, I have to say that I have quite the handy husband but I still had to pay someone to change the bulb in my tail light.
    I am sure the blinds in this house came from either Lowe’s or Home Depot. They are the wide slatted ones. I know the Roman shades over the front door windows came from Lowe’s because I have seen them there.

    Guy I Work With humor. He called me yesterday and told me that if I was trying to make him hate me it was working. He had to go to the post office himself, buy the stamps, put them on the cards and mail them—all because the post office was closing at 4:30.
    Never mind that I had bought the Christmas Cards LAST Thursday as in NINE days ago and dropped them off at his house..I had searched through all his sales and his emails to find addresses for people, I had put all of it in an Excel spreadsheet because he wanted to print the labels rather than have me write out the addresses (even though I told him hand written was more meaningful than printed on a computer). He finally called me Thursday to tell me it was all at the office and for me to go by and put the labels on the envelopes. Misunderstanding. The cards, envelopes, and labels were at the office. I had to get someone to print them for me. I put the labels on the envelopes, but he had not signed the cards yet…..
    BUT it was MY fault he had to rush to the post office on two wheels yesterday to get them mailed. 😉
    His wife doesn’t know how much I thank God for her every day. 🙂

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  9. Musical Advent Calendar – Day 19: This well-loved traditional spiritual was compiled by the African-American music collector, scholar, and songwriter, John Wesley Work, Jr. (1871-1925) in his second songbook, ‘New Jubilee Songs and Folk Songs of the American Negro’ (1907).

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  10. The problem with these old spirituals is that I grew up singing them and the arrangements are all wrong for the way I want to hear them. She comes close though.
    Thank you for doing this for us.

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  11. Good morning. 11° here this morning (well, at the moment — it may have been colder earlier this morning; I didn’t check until now).

    Peter, LOL, always the punster. 🙂 May I assume Donna won’t be singing any paeans to the window panes? 😉

    I stood in line yesterday at the post office, waiting to buy some Christmas stamps. A little girl of about two, cute as can be, with dark brown curls, was sitting on the counter while her grandmother was being waited on. Little girl chattered and sang the whole time. Frosty the Snowman; a snow song I’m trying to recall right now — maybe Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow; and London Bridge. 🙂

    When she and her grandma left, she said “Bye!” to everyone. Lots of smiles all around. 🙂

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  12. My husband told me he would have to tear the car apart to replace a bulb that burned out. He was not happy. He figured he’d have to bring the car in. I found a tutorial online. He watched it and still thought he might have to just bring it in. He called to talk to a service man at the dealership, but the man had to return the call. By the time he called back my husband decided to just try removing the panel himself. He found it really was not difficult and replaced both bulbs himself. Lousy service sometimes can save you money.😀

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  13. The most difficulty I experienced in changing a bulb in a car was in the Mercury. It took me abut five minutes to reason that I needed to go through the trunk to get to the screws that hold the covers.

    Makes sense.

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  14. It was 29 degrees here in Atlanta earlier.

    My brother knows how to change out lights in vehicles. He is pretty mechanically oriented. My husband gives my brother advice on his taxes which my brother does for himself.

    If I have good instructions and proper tools I can do some mechanical repairs. It is easier to call my brother if he is available.

    We are still dealing with the catheter bag which does not inspire going out anywhere. Looks like we may be rid of it by Tues., but who knows?

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  18. OK, it’s a new day with new blinds and new (“heavy cream,” not “eggshell”) sheers. It will have to do. I did all of this pretty much on the fly, I was not interested in paying anyone anything or in having to install new hardware to do it. I’d replaced the blinds in the past, easy enough it seemed, but the sizes of available blinds have changed … or something.

    Anyway, all’s well. New blinds (which the cat already is batting at as it’s destroyed her favorite view out the side windows. I’ll have to deal with that ….

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  19. The funniest part (in retrospect) was going ’round and ’round with the 2 guys at Home Depot on the differences between bright white & eggshell sheers. They really didn’t get it, they had bright white in stock, why couldn’t I just buy those? What’s the difference, really?

    NOooooooo

    I’m sure I was beginning to glare. So they gave me a 15% discount on my second choice, “heavy cream.” They only had a couple of the longer panels in that, but it was enough to tide me over until sometime next year when I can give more thought what to dress my windows with. Until then, I can work with a limited number of “heavy cream” panels.

    (BUT the website SAID they had eggshell in stock. 😦 The guys tried telling me they thought it was just probably the same as “Bright White.” Ha. No way. I wasn’t buying that. But it really did make sense to them, they were perplexed by my high anxiety. 🙂 )

    It’s Christmas!

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  21. Sometimes it’s not “just” the bulb. 😉

    But my nice neighbor did get my porch light working again last night — I’d put in a new bulb, but 0. He said some things need to be tightened (later for that), but in the meantime I have a porch light again.

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  23. I will miss my upscale shopping at the Hilton Head Goodwill. But we have plenty of thrift stores within a five mile radius here. 🙂 I found three t-shirts for a quarter each this past week. One is a Geist shirt with the gecko, the pig, and the camel that I got for Art since he especially enjoys the little piggy ad.

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  30. You know, Donna, the only thing worse than dealing with men who think that bright white and eggshell are the same is having a husband who is an artist and will rattle on about how this blue is warmer than that one, and this blue is cool . . . and I’m sitting there and thinking, “I’m the woman. I’m supposed to be the color expert. You’re supposed to be the one saying ‘It’s blue, isn’t it?’ and grabbing the turquoise.”

    He’ll also tell me what pigment color the car in front of us is, because apparently the same basic foundational materials are used in everything from the stripes on the road to car paint to watercolor paint. So he’ll tell me “That’s quinacridone gold, pigment 49, and it isn’t made anymore” and I’ll say, “Ah” as though I’ll be sure to remember it for the test.

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  33. When when off-white was off-white and green was green? Now it’s egg shell and kelly or forest.

    And I am glad that Donna is now no longer blinded by the panes. Just blinded by the white.

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  37. Karen O- Most cars are difficult to see in the early morning or late afternoon if they don’t have lights on. I drive into the sun both ways and often find it hard to see if anyone is coming with the sun directly in my eyes. I’m glad some cars have automatic driving lights so I can see them.

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  38. Peter, meanwhile I detest driving lights because my eyes are light sensitive, and I avoid night driving. I don’t need to encounter lights in my rear mirror in daytime hours!

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  39. The lights on my Merc come automatically when the light gets dim or I turn on windshield wipers. This car is more responsive than my previous car. It took a coupled of seconds to respond. so that .I had to turn them on in a tunnel. These come on and off immediately.

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  40. Janice, I somewhat understand your issue with the cath bag. I have a really good friend whose husband fell in the attic, straddling a beam. He severed his urethra and had to have a cath for 6 months. Until he could hear enough to have the surgery to repair it. What he found helpful was to have some sort of cloth bag that he could put over his shoulder or carry with the bag in it.

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  41. Santa has come in handy around here today. Youngest Son is bringing a woman home for Christmas dinner. She has to small children and Grampy Pa bought them presents. We don’t know their names so “Santa” has left presents for a Special Girl and a Special Boy. It would be awkward to my mind for them to be made to thank us when they don’t know us and who knows if it is serious enough that we will see them again. This way Santa left them something here, so they would have presents to open.

    Janice, Mr. P solved part of the Christmas dinner dilemma. While I was at Family Christmas today he bought a ham and the makings of Mac and Cheese and Green Bean Casserole. It’s good because I don’t know a child that doesn’t like mac and cheese. BG requested it too. Everyone likes ham. I will come up with something else to go with it and an appetizer and dessert and call it good.

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  48. I did not get a tree this year or put up any decorations. It occurred to me that I was the one needing to do it, I was the one who would enjoy it, and I was the one who would be cleaning it up and I have too many other basic things to do. So I didn’t. Nobody seems to have noticed though one child did come in today, a week after I got out an artificial tree and put it away, and said, “wasn’t there a tree there?”

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  49. I wore one of my new tops today that I bought for $1.00 yesterday at the consignment shop in town. Fourth Arrow, my quiet 14-year-old daughter, remarked, “I like your shirt, Mom.”

    A teenager complimenting my clothes — I don’t hear that too often — I must just be getting to be one hip mom these days. 🙂

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  51. Yay…Kare’s tree thawed out enough so it could be decorated…and it is truly lovely!! I put white rice lights on our tree, but husband and daughter really wish that I would go back to multi colored lights….I try to alternated every other year…but, the multi colored strands would not light up when plugged in this year….I pitched them and grabbed the white 🙂

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  52. Nancy Jill, I don’t like the white ones, either, or artificial trees, or women angels used as toppers. I’d rather not have a tree at all than have that particular combination.

    I’ve put up with all three since we’ve been married. This year I figured that we’ve been married long enough that I could say something about the topper without being the stepmom who comes in and immediately changes everything, so we got a new topper (a star). Though so far the tree has the topper, some lights, and two of the three ornaments I keep in my closet rather than in the garage with the other ornaments. (I think the third one must have gotten put away with the other ornaments, and we’ll find it when we go through the boxes to decorate on Monday.)

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  53. This has (so far) been a pretty non-decorating year for me, for sure. Now it’s late enough that I figure anything I put up now will just have to be taken down within a week or two. Worth it? Maybe not.

    I have some greenery & holly berry branches on the table and a Christmas wreath on the front door, but that’s about it.

    But I do have new blinds & sheers, have I mentioned that?

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  54. Had a good day with my friend, we toured the 1880s lighthouse on the cliffs — lots of narrow, winding wooden stairs going all the way to the top. It was a cloudy, rainy day at the ocean so that actually led to the ambiance. Seagull photos sent to AJ, sorry for so many, I was too tired to pick so you get to! Don’t you love us?

    One of the things I learned: The source of “Sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

    When people slept on rope beds, it was important to tighten them — and because mattresses were stuffed with whatever was available, from hay to ??, bugs were common once eggs hatched in whatever natural material was used. If I’d heard the source of that saying before, I’d forgotten it.

    We also walked the newly remodeled mall (deciding, I think, that as fancy as they can be these days, malls have generally lost their luster for us) & spent hours (as usual) just talking late into the night. Tess was so good, she’s usually very pestering — but tonight she just laid curled up next to my friend on the sofa, staying quiet and undemanding. Good since my friend isn’t really a “dog” person.

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  56. Wow, Cheryl, you dissed my tree in one sentence. 😉
    It it is artificial, it had white lights, and there is an angel on top. But, as I always say that’s why they make vanilla, and chocolate, and strawberry ice cream—because we all like different things.

    I wrapped more presents last night and I was just looking under my tree at all the presents. It made me happy. Not the materialism of there being lots of presents but because each wrapped box represents love. Even the four presents for two children I don’t know who may or may not become a part of our lives.

    Since I have been awake since 4 chances are good that I will make it to 8 o’clock church.

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  57. Musical Advent Calendar – Day 20: I could not find a translation or title for this Assyrian song of the Nativity, but the word ‘Isho’ in the song means Jesus in the Aramaic language. Aramaic is the ancient linguistic cousin of the Hebrew and Arabic languages. Most likely Christ spoke Aramaic as a child – it is the language He cried out in on the cross, “Eli, eli, lama sabacthani!” (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me). The Assyrian and Chaldean Churches of Syria, Iraq, and Iran still use Aramaic (Syriac) as their liturgical language and some Assyrian communities speak Aramaic dialects as their mother tongue.

    This post is in memory of the three Assyrian Christians murdered by ISIS in Syria on September 23, 2015.

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  58. Janice (6:44), then Annie played her role well, emerging wide-eyed & being seen only fleetingly as she ducked for cover. She’s shy around other people. My one neighbor has been trying to cultivate her for years, she gives Annie treats when she wanders over to their yard or porch to visit, but she still won’t let her touch or pet her.

    Tess is typically all over people (often too much so), she’s quite needy. If she gets too annoying, I put both dogs in the kitchen and shut the door. But she was quite good last night.

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  59. Our household was old school when it came to Christmas trees, they had to be fresh and real and fragrant — and we always had a female angel on top. One year we strung cranberries and popcorn garlands.

    My mom was horrified the year my aunt and uncle got one of those white/silver aluminum trees that had a multi-color light wheel that turned the tree pink, yellow, red and blue by turns. Sacrilegious.

    But I will say that artificial trees now have pretty effectively captured the “real” tree look, I have a couple small table-top models of those that I’ve bought over the years. The big ones go on sale after Christmas every year, but I’ve also heard they’re a bear to “put together.”

    I’m still a real-tree fan.

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  60. We sang this at the end of church today. The Priest rambled, but tied it all together reminding me of Chas’ poem above. The Son of Man was born to the Blessed Mary (he said their was a difference between blessed and happy and if you had a Bible that used Happy instead of Blessed in the Beatitudes to throw it away) to join our present to eternity. He is a happy grandpa who is flying to London on Tuesday to be with all of his family for his granddaughter’s first Christmas and will be allowed to Christen her next week.

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  61. I enjoy a fresh tree, but we stopped using them after son developed asthma at an early age. They can be a source for bringing in mold and other allergens. I do appreciate their fragrance.

    I made some lightly sweetened banana bread this morning. Art asked me to get something sweet again for today. I can’t do so many sweets with the prediabetes, but when he has not felt like eating much, it is hard to refuse. If it is here then I do indulge.

    Today my Pastor’s family has their annual open house where they serve lots of treats as a Christmas present to all in the congregation. Does anyone else have an annual tradition like that? It’s the first church I have been in where the Pastor’s family does that.

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  62. Donna, the full-size artificial tree we bought 10 or 15 years ago has held up pretty well through the years. It still looks good. It takes me about two hours to put it together if I have to do it myself. Usually the “kids” (full-grown now) help me with shaping the branches.

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  63. I have always enjoyed the white lights on the tree because I heard it was like seeing the starlit night sky when Jesus was born. You look up through the branches and see glints from little stars and then there is the big star at the tree top.

    We had the big all colors lights when I was a child. I felt for that reason that the colored lights were more for children and the white lights were for sophisticated adults. Now it does seem that the colored lights are what is in style. My barberry bush/tree has no lights, just ornaments and bows. I love to put popcorn strings on trees and miss doing that with the kids in Sunday School. They don’t do messy crafts like that anymore. When my crafty co-ed Cher friend left I no longer had an adult with me who liked crafts. 😦

    I can use my creativity in the church media center when I get back when Art is better. 🙂

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  64. Our church has a well-attended Christmas party/dinner every year — used to be in our meeting space but since the remodel they rented a separate venue for it. People dress up, the kids perform, a professional photographer is available to take family studio-type photos.

    Having some plain Greek yogurt with frozen blueberries for breakfast. Tasty.

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  66. I like both the white-only and multicolored lights on trees, they make for a very different look.

    The white lights are reminiscent of the candles people once used on Christmas trees (!) and provide a very traditional, classic (and more formal) look.

    The multicolored light strings, to me, are more informal/homey/casual (and that’s what I grew up with — my mom actually remembered the candles from her childhood).

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  68. Yes, it has been my birthday all year in the secret room. I liked that.
    Off to see the Maryland State Boy Choir present the Traditional Festival of Lessons and Carols in a few minutes. It is my to-die-for Christmas event.

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  70. Our pastor and his wife host an open house the first Sunday of December. They get lots of help from others and my husband (the church president) shakes his head because it always ends up on the same day as the 4th Voter’s Meeting. We manage.

    Lovely rainy Sunday here. I’ve got an interesting book I’d like to finish, H for Hawk, and would love to just nestle in until tomorrow.

    BUT! Christmas concert tonight. Our call time is 5:50. I haven’t decided if I’ll bake cookies for it or not. We’re Lutherans. There’s always tons of food.

    And at church I got another meal assignment plus necessary gifts. I wonder if they would like this Lego Bible I didn’t need to buy for my grandson? 🙂

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  71. Kim, white lights can look classy with the right decorations (lots of gold or red); they just aren’t my thing. Chicago has mile after mile of white Christmas lights (or at least they did when I lived there), and I always thought if all they can do is white, why bother?

    To me a Christmas tree is optional. And if all that’s available is an artificial one, I’d just as soon pass. Girl angels are an issue because no angel in the Bible is ever represented as female–they’re warriors, and the first thing they tell people is “fear not.” I have the same problem with them as with cutesy decorations that show two cardinals . . . two male cardinals, as though the designer thought cardinals only come in one variety, and somehow never realized that two birds at a nest won’t both be bright red. Personally I would prefer not to have angel decorations at all, but if we must, at least them them be as close to a biblical portrayal as we can get, which is not female blonde angels with feathered pink wings!

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  72. One of my bosses in Chicago hosted an annual Christmas party, plus I had a couple of parties at work. In Nashville my church had a church dinner that was also a party, and a party for the women and girls.

    I don’t have any Christmas parties now, except just the family Christmas events. I’m a little sad about it, but that’s what it is, and someday I’ll probably have some again.

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  73. We have the multi-colored lights on our (small artificial) tree, but I also think all-white lights on a tree are very pretty, & classy-looking. If I ever had room for a couple trees, I’d like to have one with multi-colored lights in the living room, & one with white lights in the dining room.

    Question for you all, but for Kim in particular:

    Is silver garland on a tree considered white trashy or rednecky?

    If so, I guess I’m low-class when it comes to decorating, because I like silver garland on my tree (instead of tinsel). Emily, who has good taste in matters of decor, does not like the silver garland. I told her that if she wants to remove it & put tinsel on, she is more than welcome to do that. (I don’t like dealing with tinsel, although I like the way it looks when done properly.)

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  78. Hey ya’ll….it is snowing….it was not predicted to do so today….it’s a nice cozy, stay inside for the rest of the day kind of day! Getting the new furnace tomorrow! 🙂
    I have a lot of gold ornaments on my tree…and clear ones that appear to be “bubbles” so say my grandchildren….I have primitive style snowmen and lots of clip on birds of all types…finches, cardinals, sparrows, waxwings, goldfinches…no angels though….on top I have a rusty brass and mirrored glass multifaceted star…it reflects the white lights so prettily…. 🙂

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  79. Karen, I prefer to use ribbon rather than silver garland or tinsel because I can control the ribbon and every time I have tried to use tinsel or garland on a tree it has looked terrible. I have seen it on other’s trees and have liked it. I really do think it is a matter of taste and what you like. I have had multi-colored trees in the past because they evoke childhood to me and I wanted BG to have them while she was a child. I prefer the white lights because I think the multi colored lights take away from the ornaments but if you go look on my FB page you can see my tree from 2010 that was multi colored lights.
    I decorate with what makes ME happy and I think that is what anyone should do. Decorate the way that makes YOU happy and if someone thinks it is white trashy or redneck….well that says more about them than it does about you.

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  81. All-white (outdoor) lights became all the rage I think maybe in the 1990s? Before that, lights were multi.

    Now it’s back to multi again. I still like all white lights, but prefer more color for outdoors. And the new LED lights are so bright, I love walking or driving through my neighborhood during the Christmas season. 🙂

    We’ll have a Christmas dinner at work but back in the day — when we had a whole lot more people — it was a real production, complete with strolling carolers (until one of our Jewish reporters became grumpy one year & complained, then it became generic musicians), department gift exchanges and (or so I’ve heard) alcohol served up in the photo dark room.

    This year’s catered lunch/dinner is sometime this next week, not sure which day. But the whole Secret Santa and gift exchange extras were nixed a few years ago as we shrunk to such small numbers. 😦 And there’s no longer a dark room, of course.

    Advertising is much more festive and party-spirited than editorial, in general.

    But there are decorations throughout the office, lights & little village scenes on top of the file cabinets.

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  82. Crate & Barrel has a very pretty plaid ribbon garland for sale this year. I’ve just seen it popping up in ads online. If I had a tree, I might go buy it. 🙂

    We also had birds in our tress growing up — and an actual bird’s that was nest salvaged from the backyard by my mom and preserved through the years. It was a particular favorite of hers.

    I like simple stars as tree toppers, but will always feel warm toward angels because that’s what I grew up with.

    Is angel hair the same as tinsel?

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  84. I used to use some red (and other colored) wooden-bead garland strings in my trees in the past, it’s a simple look, not very glitzy, but sweet, kind of old-fashioned.

    Interesting how even our own decorating tastes evolve and change through the years, though.

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  85. “Advertising is much more festive and party-spirited than editorial, in general.”

    Yep.

    And when a book is published, authors often think to send Christmas packages to marketing, but virtually never to editorial. Ten years in house and I got one . . . with a note to “share it with everyone else,” so I claimed one item from it and put it on the table with a note. (I also have gotten one package from an author since I’ve been freelance.)

    We also once got a package sent to editorial, editorial in general and not a specific editor, full of chocolate chip cookies, but it was a complete mystery who they were from. Let’s just make up two names, since I don’t remember what they were. “Merry Christmas from Richard and Trudy!” We double-checked the label and it clearly said it was going to the editorial department. But who are Richard and Trudy? Did you edit anyone by either of those names in the last few months? No, did you? Nope. How about agents? Anyone know agents by those names? No, that didn’t ring a bell either.

    In desperation, we went to our fiction editor. Maybe some author got clever and sent us a package from two of her characters. No, that was a dead end too. (I don’t remember whether we’d started eating the cookies by now. I do remember the mystery went on for more than one day, with none of us sure who to thank for the cookies.)

    Finally, we called the company that sent us the cookies. “We have tried and tried, and we just cannot think of anyone by those names. Could you check your records and tell us the givers’ last name, please? And give us a way to contact the people to tell them thank you, if you are allowed to do that?” They checked their records and came back with “Oh, we’re so sorry. That package was from Charles and Nadine Smith. Another package was supposed to be sent to Richard and Trudy, and their names got put on your package by mistake!”

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  86. Donna, angel hair is fiberglass. Very itchy, dangerous to breathe in, and it gets everywhere. I’ve never used it in home decorating, but I think we used it in a classroom once when I was little. I suspect they don’t sell it for that use anymore. The idea of cotton candy made out of glass is somehow just not all that attractive.

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  91. Tuesday my husband and I will be married for 50 months.

    I know, for those of you married for 30, 40, 50 or more years, that might not sound like much, and it isn’t. But he and I aren’t going to get those milestones, so I appreciate the ones we can reach.

    When we got married, I had dreams of finally doing a scrapbook photo album–of our wedding. I looked through hundreds of photos, sorted them by topic, and ordered photos in sizes appropriate for each page (a couple hundred dollars worth of prints from a quality company). I chose background papers and some other elements, put each set together . . . and then worked on the first spread, one focusing on the wedding dress itself (with the page highlighted with some of the actual lace used to make the dress).

    I realized that I had too many spreads for a single book, but figured I’d deal with that problem once I had put the pages together.

    I still haven’t done another thing with the book.

    Now I have a coupon for a lay-flat photo book from a company I like. It won’t be as good as the scrapbook, but I can do it and at least have a wedding album. And then once the kids are gone, maybe I’ll have space to lay out the book and keep it out, and time to work on it a bit at a time and get it done. Realistically each page won’t take that long–it’s the book itself that’s daunting, the totality of the project.

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  106. Our main tree does not even have a topper – we kind of like it that way, although I wouldn’t mind a special star. Husband insists that our main tree must have coloured lights – I’m okay with that 🙂

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  114. Anyway, I came by to say I’ve missed you all! I’m glad several of you are FB friends too. AJ or anyone who knows how to do it, I have pictures of my home in The Gambia on my FB page. It was suggested that I send them to AJ for posting here too. Two problems with that. Very slow internet and limited data. So if someone wants to get them and post them here for me, go right ahead. I’ll try to come by more often.

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