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Okay I just got tagged, so I am going to answer it, six random things. (I just found an old friends blog today. Love that!, too fun. She named her most recent tag blog “Tagnabit”, so clever, I really wanted to copy it, I resisted, but still thought it should be shared.)

So Katie this is for you! (Sorry if you can’t get on, it’s a private blog).

1. My house is FINALLY clean! So- I have been sick for about a week plus. This means that the Christmas decorations were pulled out of the closet and left all over the living room floor- for days, and days, and days.

I went to the doctor and he gave me a prescription that seems to be helping, although yesterday that was not the case. My dear friend Emily decided to have mercy on me. She came over to my house yesterday and decorated BOTH of my Christmas trees and vacuumed. What a woman, what a friend! Here are the pictures, she did a Silver and Gold Tree that is downstairs and a red tree up stairs. The whole time, I just literally sat there and watched.

I love the little crystal stars, in the silver and gold tree those were my mothers parents.

I also have to explain the pine cone flowers. I love these my Great Grandparents made these. I have no idea how, but they are so charming and I love how sentimental they make me feel. There is just something so wonderful about the kinship I feel for my parents, grandparents and on and on. To know that my mother is like my grandmother, and that I am like my mother- what could be more wonderful than that? I hope that someday I am my mother! It gets me crying every time- in a good way. I love it!

2. I have been bullied into putting up Christmas lights. I didn’t want to be the neighborhood Scrooge, and in a ‘burb I seem to be feeling some PEER pressure, in a least a little sense. We did nothing for Halloween, I felt a little bad. A few tenacious little trick or treaters actually commented. So, I thought I would do something for Christmas, granted even it is WAY simplified, but so pretty and dignified! I love it- simple candles in the windows.

3. I just ate a bit-o-honey that I found in Justin’s drawer when I went to grab the camera. (it was from Halloween- he’s a candy hider, not a candy eater).

4. Soapbox- This may be old news, but is anyone else as disgusted as I am about what happened in that Walmart in Manhattan the day after Thanksgiving? If you haven’t heard a man was trampled to death when a mob broke through the door just to go shopping.

When Justin read the news to me, I started to cry, it was SO upsetting. Are we as a people so concerned about shopping that we would think it is okay to break into a store to get what we want? And then not notice the fact that a person is under your feet in your mad attempts to get the next techy gizmo for 5 dollars less?

I was so sick and saddened that I for one will promise to never join the throng the day after thanksgiving. I am just sad that this is what Christmas has turned into. I actually am planning to practice what my friend Katie told me in college (the same friend who tagged me) But her plans were and I hope still are to give three gifts for Christmas, like the wise men. One gift you need, one you want and something meaningful.

Hope that wasn’t too depressing! I will try not to depress you again
5. I love watching Martha Stewart. Yes, I admit it. The woman is a force. I realize that she doesn’t come up with half of it, but at least lately she has been giving more and more credit to others for their ideas lately. I think that prison was a good thing for her. I like it too when she jokes about it.

But anyway, I just love the ideas. I love the recipes. I like learning new techniques for cooking and I love the crafts. I just like looking for inspiration. and there is plenty to go around. I love the art of making a house a home and this is probably a good time to spread that vision. On that same subject, one of my favorite books is “Shelter for the Spirit” by Victoria Moran. If you want to read a good book check it out!