Small Talk: The Prayer Closet

[GeeGolly]

Almost Halloween. This is too cute!

[Minivanessa]

It's interesting how many people are into Christmas decorating. Because - I'm so not. I have enjoyed going out during the Christmas season and photographing the lights and stuff that decorate public buildings and private homes, and I'm not a grinch who puts down other people for enjoying the holidays. OTOH, I swear, what brought me absolute JOY 15 years ago when I moved from a townhouse into this condo? Was getting rid of every last bit of Christmas decor that I owned. Not that I still had a lot of it, but it was a no-brainer in that downsize move to unload all that stuff. It still feels nice not to have any of it to mess with. I've been gifted some kind of tabletop Christmas tchotske now and then, and if they are still around here they are deep in a box in a cabinet or closet. 

And, let me repeat this to avoid misunderstandings: I am not criticizing anyone who enjoys decorating for the holidays. If it makes you happy, then DO IT! It's your home and your money, and you have fun with it however you like. Especially during 2020's challenges and tribulations! It's just that I may be the only person who observes Christmas (more or less) but doesn't enjoy it much.

I was thinking about it recently, and I can't remember a time, including my childhood, where I felt any special kind of personal joy on Christmas or about Christmas. [ETA: I posted below, that I enjoy seeing little kids all happy and excited by Christmas, and I like gathering with family.] It just seemed like a lot of fuss. If I ever believed in Santa Claus, I figured out it was a line of bullsh*t adults told kids by the time I was five. We lived in a small town, back in the 1950's long before Walmart set up shop on the outskirts of town and killed the businesses around the town square. The drugstore on the square had "Santa Claus" there one Saturday giving out candy and I suppose my parents took us down there. I walked up to this person in a Santa suit and beard, and "Santa" silently reached out and handed me some candy. With a bare hand. A female hand with nice red nail polish on it. Heh. I was a little kid and so my eye level was right above "Santa's" midsection, so I got a good look at those hands. By then I had learned to keep my thoughts and opinions to myself so I don't think I ever mentioned it to anyone, but as you can see I didn't forget it either.

Aaanndd - I can imagine the thought bubbles as people read this post and think, "Huh, she seems to have un-learned that bit about keeping her thoughts and opinions to herself. Maybe she should revisit that little lesson."

Fair point. I hope today is good for everyone, or as good as possible under the circumstances. And @GeeGolly, that kid is adorbs!

Edited October 29, 2020 by Jeeves

[Scarlett45]

9 hours ago, Happyfatchick said:

I sort of am assuming you mean “crown”.  (Or seriously, dont crowd?)  So don’t pull the stem???  Really.  Huh.  Mushrooms have a texture that screams bloody murder at my texture rebel.  But I loooooove the taste of sautéed shrooms.  I throw them in and chew real fast.  Also, if I have a potato or chicken or something to slide in with it, it masks the slippery slope a little.  
 

@Scarlett45.... alllllllllllll this time when you talked about your cousin and your aunt, in my head your cousin had a mental challenge.  I am now reprocessing everything I remember you saying in the past.  I am team @Absolom on this one.  You were crazy about that aunt, yes?    
 

@Happyfatchick I grew up and care for a perpetual toddler. Mental disablities I can handle. I was a caregiver to my grandfather with dementia- I can handle being a caregiver to someone with dementia. I lived through a “toddler” going through puberty- THAT SHIT I know. 
 

HELL NO my cousin isn’t mentally disabled! (Sorry I’m not mad at you just the situation) She’s lazy and entitled and seriously depressed, took her 500 thousand years to get out of medical school and hasn’t worked a day in her life but she isn’t “disabled”. An idiot but not disabled. 
 

If my cousin were “like my sister” id have power of attorney over my aunt’s finances at the very least. 

 

 

No. No. This is a situation where someone is competent to make decisions but fucked up and making THE WRONG decisions. 
 

Let me get my Mom up and walking and stable and I will have to make next steps. My aunt is clean and warm and being fed, I am making sure of that. If that wasn’t the case I’d dress her and drag her here and call from the car. 

 

Edited to add- oh and "dont crowd" the mushrooms means dont put too many in the pan at once, they need room to breathe to brown.

[GeeGolly]

24 minutes ago, Jeeves said:

It's interesting how many people are into Christmas decorating. Because - I'm so not. I have enjoyed going out during the Christmas season and photographing the lights and stuff that decorate public buildings and private homes, and I'm not a grinch who puts down other people for enjoying the holidays. OTOH, I swear, what brought me absolute JOY 15 years ago when I moved from a townhouse into this condo? Was getting rid of every last bit of Christmas decor that I owned. Not that I still had a lot of it, but it was a no-brainer in that downsize move to unload all that stuff. It still feels nice not to have any of it to mess with. I've been gifted some kind of tabletop Christmas tchotske now and then, and if they are still around here they are deep in a box in a cabinet or closet. 

And, let me repeat this to avoid misunderstandings: I am not criticizing anyone who enjoys decorating for the holidays. If it makes you happy, then DO IT! It's your home and your money, and you have fun with it however you like. Especially during 2020's challenges and tribulations! It's just that I may be the only person who observes Christmas (more or less) but doesn't enjoy it much.

I was thinking about it recently, and I can't remember a time, including my childhood, where I felt any special kind of joy on Christmas or about Christmas. It just seemed like a lot of fuss. If I ever believed in Santa Claus, I figured out it was a line of bullsh*t adults told kids by the time I was five. We lived in a small town, back in the 1950's long before Walmart set up shop on the outskirts of town and killed the businesses around the town square. The drugstore on the square had "Santa Claus" there one Saturday giving out candy and I suppose my parents took us down there. I walked up to this person in a Santa suit and beard, and "Santa" silently reached out and handed me some candy. With a bare hand. A female hand with nice red nail polish on it. Heh. I was a little kid and so my eye level was right above "Santa's" midsection, so I got a good look at those hands. By then I had learned to keep my thoughts and opinions to myself so I don't think I ever mentioned it to anyone, but as you can see I didn't forget it either.

Aaanndd - I can imagine the thought bubbles as people read this post and think, "Huh, she seems to have un-learned that bit about keeping her thoughts and opinions to herself. Maybe she should revisit that little lesson."

Fair point. I hope today is good for everyone, or as good as possible under the circumstances. And @GeeGolly, that kid is adorbs!

Oh my. I am so on the same page as you, although I arrived here through a different path.

I loved Christmas as a child. I loved Christmas as a young adult with a handful of young nieces and nephews. And I loved, loved, loved Christmas when my kids were young. I loved finding or making gifts that made their entire beings light up with joy.

Then... one year, when my youngest must have been around 15 or 16, I was pissing and moaning about not getting enough help decorating. Then a few weeks later I found myself doing the same about undecorating. So I gave the kids on option, pitch in more or I'm scaling back. They half-assed pitched in more the following year. The year following that year I scaled back. I bought a quirky fake Charlie Brown type tree and we continued to hang stockings. Fast forward about 10 years and our house was wiped out by a severe weather event.

Our stockings were one of the few items that survived. We continue to hang stockings, but nothing else. I gradually figured out that I loved the magic of Christmas. The magic as seen through those big-as-saucers eyes of little kids.

I'm by no means a scrooge now, but Christmas is really just another day to look forward to, having us all available at the same time, to spend time together as a family. I cherish those days, whether or not they fall on a holiday.

[Scarlett45]

10 hours ago, CalicoKitty said:

Today was the BIG MOVE.  I was able to catch both cars before they knew what was coming.  Almost a 4 hour drive.  Toothless cat didn't think much of the move and cried a lot of the way.  She would fall asleep, and then cry when she was awake.  But she survived just fine.  The big girl slept the entire trip.  When I arrived at the house, I was not allowed in until some inspector signed a piece of paper.  He came within the hour, and I brought the carriers in and put them in my (huge) master closet.  They are still not eating much, but they are out this evening and exploring.  I am sitting in my one chair, and I hope the blow-up mattress will be ok.  Not sure where my clothes are, but I did find my toothbrush and clean underwear.  My furniture will be packed up Saturday and will arrive Sunday.  Then I won't have to worry about quarantine because I will be inside unpacking boxes until Spring.  But I am excited about the move.  I am now a homeowner in Nevada!!!

YAY- I am so glad the move went well for you and your cats.

 

9 hours ago, Zella said:

I'm not usually picky about texture or taste, but mushrooms are one of my breaking points. Particularly if they look  . . . slimy. I blame my time at COFO's cafeteria in which I worked the salad bar. Every week I had to put out all the items on the salad bar, including the nastiest looking mushrooms on God's whole earth. They had some sort of gravy (?) that just looked like oozing slime. I liked mushrooms before that. My dad is good at finding morel mushrooms, and he's a good cook. But every time I see mushrooms now, I just think about those abominations on the salad bar that looked like the bowel movements of Satan. I can't even type this without gagging. 

I used to not care for mushrooms, besides shiitake mushrooms in sushi. I am better with them now. The texture doesnt bother me, but I wasn't a huge fan of most flavors. HOWEVER I will never understand why they constantly want to give portabello mushrooms to vegetarians. Pet peeve of my life- vegetarians dont want to eat portabello mushrooms all the time! Most of us dont care about "mimicking the texture of meat", texture of meat doesnt mean anything to us.

[Minivanessa]

@GeeGolly, it's also true for me, that the fun part of Christmas seeing little kids enjoying it so much. And I like getting together with my local family (all cousins). I even sometimes send out Christmas cards. Come to think of it, this might be a good year for that since it looks like I'll continue to spend plenty of time here at home. 

[rue721]

I'm with those who think Christmas is a lot of fuss. My mom loves Christmas, and when I asked her to scale things back 7 years ago, she literally started crying and gave me the silent treatment. It's really frustrating because the level of pressure that she puts on Christmas and on holidays in general makes me hate and dread them, but of course I have to hide that completely because of that same pressure. The whole day ends up feeling like torture.

So I dunno, I have mixed feelings about not being able to have a normal Christmas this year. It'll be weird and lonely. But I'll also still have to "perform" because my mom will probably want to do it on Zoom somehow, so it's not like I can skip the parts I don't like. And even I do want to celebrate *a bit* -- when I was living thousands of miles away and couldn't celebrate with my mom, I tried doing Christmas completely on my own one year and found it depressing.

But I wish we could have a string of lights around the window, some tasty food, maybe two or three presents, and then put the TV on and chill. I don't like the extravaganza and it's kind of ruined the whole thing for me.

[Scarlett45]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas. All things about Christmas. Now Halloween is my favorite holiday but Christmas is a close second. I do admit that Christmas does take work (the decorating, the shopping, the planning etc), but I think that because 1. the family that I celebrate with is so small, I actually enjoy buying things for them, and they buy things for me, (expenses wise it isn't a loss) 2. I only do things I really love doing for Christmas and it makes me so happy. So many happy memories around Christmas and all the beautiful things we did growing up, the clothes, the events, going to see the Christmas Carol, all the lights etc.

 

This year I will have TWO trees- one Disney tree and one regular tree since we will be at home, no tea at the Drake, no plays or anything. My sister absolutely loves all things Christmas, her gifts have already been purchased and are in my guest bedroom to be wrapped for the big day.

Now my Mom leaves all of the Christmas making to me, I do mornings with her and my sister and then dinner/presents at my BFF's house with her family. I don't mind that my Mom leaves all the Christmas making to me, she is pretty easy to please and again I enjoy all of this it makes me happy. And with my sister's bday being in early January, she gets so much new stuff she is super chill from December-March lol.

 

Next December we want to go back to Walt Disney World for the 50th anniversary (already made our reservation), the first week of December because getting away on the actual holiday is impossible with care for my sister. We did that in 2017 and it was wonderful.

[Absolom]

2 hours ago, GeeGolly said:

Then... one year, when my youngest must have been around 15 or 16, I was pissing and moaning about not getting enough help decorating. Then a few weeks later I found myself doing the same about undecorating. So I gave the kids on option, pitch in more or I'm scaling back. They half-assed pitched in more the following year. The year following that year I scaled back. I bought a quirky fake Charlie Brown type tree and we continued to hang stockings.

That's me.  It just got to be too much work.  I now live alone and merrily do no decorating.  I normally visit my family and let them take it all on.  

[Minivanessa]

58 minutes ago, rue721 said:

I'm with those who think Christmas is a lot of fuss. My mom loves Christmas, and when I asked her to scale things back 7 years ago, she literally started crying and gave me the silent treatment. It's really frustrating because the level of pressure that she puts on Christmas and on holidays in general makes me hate and dread them, but of course I have to hide that completely because of that same pressure. The whole day ends up feeling like torture.

I hear ya. Actually that was kind of my situation from my mid-20's to about my 40's. A couple of family members were SO into giving multiple gifts, and I knew damned well if I didn't match their (IMO reckless) levels of expenditure in gifting them, there would be hell to pay. The worst was a sibling who I think meant well but her head just wasn't on straight about it. We ended up being somewhat estranged for awhile and as we got older we eventually had a civil conversation about it, and the whacko overdone Christmas thing is well past us. But while it lasted it really ruined the holiday for me. Fortunately my local family is pretty level-headed about the gifting etc. and they are the ones I spend (well except for this year) the holiday with.

I'm so sorry you're in such a bind over Christmas, and I hope you manage to get through it this year without too much grief and pressure. It is quite a quandary to be in. 

[Scarlett45]

@Happyfatchick OMG I am still laughing at your post. It reminds me of all the times back in the day my Mom would be having conversations with acquaintances and they would be talking about their kids that didnt work, weren't in school, didnt have jobs, living in their basement and she would go 

"Your child is the r word, (which wasn't a slur then)???? Mine is too!!! Where did they go to school? where did you find your caregiver? are they verbal? Are they toilet trained? How did you deal with puberty" and she would go on and on trying to make friends and ummmm no....not the situation at all. It was about the year 2000 when she finally stopped doing that.

I am laughing because its so dang sad I could cry.

[SunnyBeBe]

I likely got my Christmas spirit, decorating, gifting (which I have drastically, reduced) card sending, music listening from my mother. Growing up, there were issues in the family, mainly due to fundie church, but, one thing I knew is that I got anything I wanted for Christmas. (Except no pony.  I didn't understand why we couldn't keep the pony on the carport. lol)  My brothers and I made a list every year.  Usually a big item, a couple of medium items, and several small items.  And, my mom would add surprises too.  Since, she said Santa liked for us to get surprised. Santa came to see me until I was 18 years old. Not kidding.  lol  I wised up, but, kept my mouth shut. We also went all out with big tree, lights, wreaths on the windows, doors, spotlights, etc. Then, the whole family gathered and had lots of wonderful food, took photos, laughed, etc. 

When I create a beautiful Christmas tree, candles, table setting,, etc with Christmas decor, it does something to me. It brings me a sense of peace and makes me feel joyous. Every time, I look at the winter trees with bright lights, I just feel cozy inside.  It's difficult to describe. I guess it hearkens back to my childhood, though, I no longer go big with gifts for everyone anymore. Too many of us now. Just gifts for the little kids, money for those in college and something nice for my parents. I now do the decorating for my mom decorate, because she's not physically able. I do think we need to cut back a little this year, but, I know she won't like it. I'm putting up one tree at my house and she wants 7 up at hers. lol  I think 4 is plenty.  

Edited October 29, 2020 by SunnyBeBe

[Marshmallow Mollie]

3 hours ago, Scarlett45 said:

HOWEVER I will never understand why they constantly want to give portabello mushrooms to vegetarians. Pet peeve of my life- vegetarians dont want to eat portabello mushrooms all the time! Most of us dont care about "mimicking the texture of meat", texture of meat doesnt mean anything to us.

Preach!!!! Get all the meat substitutes away from me!

I do not like mushrooms. In recent months I can “de-gill” a portobello, marinate it, and eat it in fajitas without picking too many of them out.

We are all about Christmas! Decorating Nov 1 this year.

[iwantcookies]

I had my first Duggar dream. I went on a road trip with Joy, Austin and their kids. We had a good time. Lol

Edited October 29, 2020 by iwantcookies

[emma675]

I enjoy decorating for Christmas, even though it's just me at my house. I only have one tree, a wreath for the front door, and a little holiday village that I inherited from my grandmother, so I don't go too crazy. My mom has scaled back to one small, 4 foot tree that is pre-lit and she doesn't take the decorations off of it. My dad can basically pull it out of the attic, take the cover off, and plug it in, lol. 

I have quite a few neighbors in my hood that go crazy nuts with the lights and yard decorations. Our HOA is voluntary so anyone can decorate any way they want. I'll try to take a pic of my neighbor's house across the street this year, if he does the same insane decorations he did last year. It was like Christmas Vacation-levels of lights, inflatable things, a full size sleigh and reindeer he carved himself in his wood shop, and more. I'm very glad my bedroom is at the back of the house, it was that bright. 

[SunnyBeBe]

The wind here is incredible. It's supposed to last all day. I've lost my internet twice today.  Power company says, if power goes out, it's too dangerous for repairman to go up to fix lines, so, they'll stay out until the wind dies:(   I have a feeling that'll happen.   

[marypat57]

16 hours ago, iwantcookies said:

 

There is no Walmart near me I have never been to one. But I prefer them to Amazon.

 

 

@iwantcookies:  if I remember correctly, you live in Brooklyn.  The nearest Walmart to Brooklyn is in the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream on the Nassau/Queens border. 

[DangerousMinds]

5 hours ago, Scarlett45 said:

@Happyfatchick I grew up and care for a perpetual toddler. Mental disablities I can handle. I was a caregiver to my grandfather with dementia- I can handle being a caregiver to someone with dementia. I lived through a “toddler” going through puberty- THAT SHIT I know. 
 

HELL NO my cousin isn’t mentally disabled! (Sorry I’m not mad at you just the situation) She’s lazy and entitled and seriously depressed, took her 500 thousand years to get out of medical school and hasn’t worked a day in her life but she isn’t “disabled”. An idiot but not disabled. 
 

If my cousin were “like my sister” id have power of attorney over my aunt’s finances at the very least. 

 

 

No. No. This is a situation where someone is competent to make decisions but fucked up and making THE WRONG decisions. 
 

Let me get my Mom up and walking and stable and I will have to make next steps. My aunt is clean and warm and being fed, I am making sure of that. If that wasn’t the case I’d dress her and drag her here and call from the car. 

 

Edited to add- oh and "dont crowd" the mushrooms means dont put too many in the pan at once, they need room to breathe to brown.

Clinics depression CAN be a major disability. That said, I don’t know your cousin. 

[DangerousMinds]

3 hours ago, rue721 said:

I'm with those who think Christmas is a lot of fuss. My mom loves Christmas, and when I asked her to scale things back 7 years ago, she literally started crying and gave me the silent treatment. It's really frustrating because the level of pressure that she puts on Christmas and on holidays in general makes me hate and dread them, but of course I have to hide that completely because of that same pressure. The whole day ends up feeling like torture.

So I dunno, I have mixed feelings about not being able to have a normal Christmas this year. It'll be weird and lonely. But I'll also still have to "perform" because my mom will probably want to do it on Zoom somehow, so it's not like I can skip the parts I don't like. And even I do want to celebrate *a bit* -- when I was living thousands of miles away and couldn't celebrate with my mom, I tried doing Christmas completely on my own one year and found it depressing.

But I wish we could have a string of lights around the window, some tasty food, maybe two or three presents, and then put the TV on and chill. I don't like the extravaganza and it's kind of ruined the whole thing for me.

You just describes the perfect Christmas for me, too. Just a few lights and a couple gifts and some tasty food. That’s it.

[Turquoise]

 I love Christmas. One of my favorite things to do it turn off all the lights except the tree, make herbal tea, and watch a Christmas movie. I decorated even when I lived by myself. Thankfully Mr Turquoise is into it, and wants to know when this year is going up. I told him he had to get past Halloween first. LOL

There's a drive-thru Christmas light display with petting zoo about 30 miles from where my grandchildren live, and it's become one of the things we did with my grandson. He started asking in early July if it was time to go yet. I'm hoping it goes on this year, but I've already warned him the petting zoo may not be a thing. This would be baby sister's first year, I think she would enjoy all the lights.

[lilwhitelion]

I've become less and less enthusiastic about decorating for Christmas.  My adult daughter loves to do it, so she has taken my tree and decorations to her house to continue the tradition.  It includes a lovely set of Simpich carolers that my mother bought in Colorado Springs in the 90's when we lived there.  My mother passed a couple years ago, and I inherited the set.  They are the only Christmas decorations I really love (so I may take them back from my daughter!)

With adult children, I've scaled back on gift-giving too.  The only thing I go overboard on is stockings.  I love to shop at thrift stores, so throughout the year, I find cute/odd/whimsical things there (usually new) that I can put in stockings.  I even put them together for a few of my kids' adult friends who join us on Christmas Day.  (I buy the stockings at thrift stores, too.). I still put a tangerine and walnuts in the stocking, because that's what my mom would do to help fill it out.  And you always have to put a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and gum in them!

[SunnyBeBe]

11 minutes ago, lilwhitelion said:

I've become less and less enthusiastic about decorating for Christmas.  My adult daughter loves to do it, so she has taken my tree and decorations to her house to continue the tradition.  It includes a lovely set of Simpich carolers that my mother bought in Colorado Springs in the 90's when we lived there.  My mother passed a couple years ago, and I inherited the set.  They are the only Christmas decorations I really love (so I may take them back from my daughter!)

With adult children, I've scaled back on gift-giving too.  The only thing I go overboard on is stockings.  I love to shop at thrift stores, so throughout the year, I find cute/odd/whimsical things there (usually new) that I can put in stockings.  I even put them together for a few of my kids' adult friends who join us on Christmas Day.  (I buy the stockings at thrift stores, too.). I still put a tangerine and walnuts in the stocking, because that's what my mom would do to help fill it out.  And you always have to put a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and gum in them!

That's a good idea.  I might do that for a few isolated seniors that I know won't get much in the way of Christmas cheer this year. I could just take them to their porch.  

My thing for those that I want to just give a little something, is a nice holiday kitchen towel. I get them on sale.   I might add a mitt with it and a little thing of homemade fudge (my mother loves to make it, but, maybe not able this year) and an ornament.  I found some awesome ornaments this year for a dollar each!  In a small gift bag, it's a nice little something. Except for the fudge, it's a cute little gift for a very low cost. 

[Marshmallow Mollie]

48 minutes ago, SunnyBeBe said:

The wind here is incredible. It's supposed to last all day. I've lost my internet twice today.  Power company says, if power goes out, it's too dangerous for repairman to go up to fix lines, so, they'll stay out until the wind dies:(   I have a feeling that'll happen.   

I’m to the west of you and lost power this morning. The power company has said they won’t begin repairs until it is safe to do so. Fortunately we went camping last weekend and still have a lot of food that doesn’t require refrigeration or cooking. I live on a heavily wooded lot, so it has been a tense morning. One tree snapped took out some of the fence, but that will be easily repaired. 

[SunnyBeBe]

6 minutes ago, Marshmallow Mollie said:

I’m to the west of you and lost power this morning. The power company has said they won’t begin repairs until it is safe to do so. Fortunately we went camping last weekend and still have a lot of food that doesn’t require refrigeration or cooking. I live on a heavily wooded lot, so it has been a tense morning. One tree snapped took out some of the fence, but that will be easily repaired. 

Oh no.....I’m tense too. Trees can topple easily, if ground is wet...Sorry you’re out of power. These are the times I wish I had a generator. Are you set on batteries, lanterns, etc.?

Edited October 29, 2020 by SunnyBeBe

[CherryMalotte]

Odd but my husband probably enjoys decorating more than I do.  I enjoy the tree and lights and all the X-mas knick knacks around, though I most enjoy the day for having no work.  I like having gifts to open, even if it's small ones, and gift cards are fine by me, I have more fun ordering stuff online than anything.  I make my husband a list and occasionally include pictures so he knows exactly what to get me.  Mini Malotte will probably spend most of her time with her girlfriend's family as they are REALLY into the holidays and that's cool.  We may go out ourselves to do something she likes, like the local chinese food place.  We'll see. 

[iwantcookies]

Every time I see this thread marked as hot I hope

A member announced she is pregnant!!!

Edited October 29, 2020 by iwantcookies

[Scarlett45]

1 hour ago, DangerousMinds said:

Clinics depression CAN be a major disability. That said, I don’t know your cousin. 

Yes it absolutely can- I am not making light of people that struggle with depression and are debilitated by it. I was referring to a mental disability where one is not cognitively capable of living independently. I 100% believe my cousin is depressed, but she isn't incapacitated by it (at least not yet). 

 

Day 11 of my workout challenge- a noon workout again. I am hungry yo!

[Suzn]

This is not to criticize early Christmas decorators - Do what makes you happy!😊

For me personally though, I don't want to see decorations until after Thanksgiving.  For one thing, I think Thanksgiving is given short shrift and it's a lovely holiday that is inclusive of everyone; the other reason is that it seems to me to that the pleasure and excitement of the Christmas season is diluted when it goes on very long.

I don't shop on Black Friday, but I decorate that day except for a tree.  I get a real tree about two weeks before Christmas (I need the smell of a real tree) and we put on our individually selected ornaments collected over the years.  I have run the gamut of what I do for Christmas.  There was a time I did everything to excess and put a lot of pressure on myself.  That was followed by a few Scrooge years because I was sick of it all.  I've hit a middle ground finally.  My entire family consists of my daughter and me and we enjoy our low key Christmas with some gifts to open and some special things to eat.  Some things we enjoy won't happen this year, such as shopping (mostly window shopping) at one of the ritzy areas of the city.

[DangerousMinds]

41 minutes ago, iwantcookies said:

Every time I see this thread marked as hot I hope

A member announced she is pregnant!!!

That’s actually very rare around here. I’ll let the Duggars take care of that!

[SunnyBeBe]

I’m struggling to keep the brakes on....lol. I’m waiting until the day after Halloween to do my decorations. But, not many will see them. Just close family. My friends aren’t even coming into my house, due to covid. I’ll post photos here later on. I’ll keep my fall wreath on the door until after Thanksgiving, though.  Most of my shopping will be done online. I did find a place nearby that transfers VHS to digital.  I’m getting that done for my brothers’ birthdays. Both in Dec. Stuff from the 90’s!

My brother had his new 9 ft Christmas tree delivered here today!  He has the gene too. Lol

Edited October 29, 2020 by SunnyBeBe

[Scarlett45]

48 minutes ago, Suzn said:

For me personally though, I don't want to see decorations until after Thanksgiving.  For one thing, I think Thanksgiving is given short shrift and it's a lovely holiday that is inclusive of everyone; the other reason is that it seems to me to that the pleasure and excitement of the Christmas season is diluted when it goes on very long.

Slow clap. YES I agree with you. No decorating until after thanksgiving. I am fine with buying gifts and decorations before then (great sales) and putting them in the closet, but no Christmas music, decorations or apparel until Black Friday!

[GeeGolly]

When you all are talking about multiple trees, where are you putting them? My living room had to bend and stretch a bit to fit one and that's the biggest room in the house.

[Scarlett45]

Just now, GeeGolly said:

When you all are talking about multiple trees, where are you putting them? My living room had to bend and stretch a bit to fit one and that's the biggest room in the house.

One in the dining room, and one in the living room. 

My sister only has one tree (living room), but I just got so sick of her having a prettier tree than me, with Covid I said "HELL NO! I deserve a grand tree as well". The first thing I noticed when I walked through this building was how big the living rooms were, and I thought "so much room for a Christmas tree."

[frenchtoast]

I like to decorate for Christmas but I don't do it until December. We have had artificial trees so I could do it earlier but I prefer to enjoy November and Thanksgiving before Christmas. My daughter's birthday is Dec 21, so I also would carve out some special time for her, too. I like the lights of Christmas--the spinning angel candles, the tree lights, lighted garlands. It's such a literal dark time of year to have the house cozily lit with warm lighting is something I look forward to. I do a lot of stuff decorating and cooking but I like to do it and it puts me in good cheer so it's not something I resent. I really do it for myself and enjoy it for the 3 weeks that it's up.

Mr. Toast is Jewish, though not really practicing and we're more atheists as it is anyway. But, he likes Christmas because he can put his huge-ass model trains around the tree. That and the prime rib and the home made chocolate truffles and rainbow cookies. But the trains need a lot of space to turn and it was always a challenge to fit it in the living room and some years we did without. One of them he got a few years ago that is replica of the Canadian Pacific lighted train. Our living room doesn't really have room and we can't really rearrange. We do have a narrow tree that we should be able to fit  in the living room but we are probably going to get another taller perhaps fuller tree and put it in the dining room. The dining room is HUGE in the new house and there is definitely a place where it will fit without having to move anything but a dog bed. And there will be plenty of room still for the table and chairs.

*Side note: Mr. Toast has so many trains to store that we asked for some extra flooring in the "attic" above the garage in the home that we chose so he could store his trains. The floorplan we chose had a choice of laundry up or down and we chose down and the builder added shelves to the space where the upstairs laundry would be which was a huge help but he still took up most of the "attic" storage space. It's a lot of trains.

[jcbrown]

8 hours ago, Scarlett45 said:

I used to not care for mushrooms, besides shiitake mushrooms in sushi. I am better with them now. The texture doesnt bother me, but I wasn't a huge fan of most flavors. HOWEVER I will never understand why they constantly want to give portabello mushrooms to vegetarians. Pet peeve of my life- vegetarians dont want to eat portabello mushrooms all the time! Most of us dont care about "mimicking the texture of meat", texture of meat doesnt mean anything to us.

Preach! I was vegetarian for more than twenty years so that's twenty years of people pretending a mushroom cap on a bun should be received as a burger. To this day I still only like veggie burgers but don't give me a mushroom sandwich and call it a burger!

1 hour ago, Scarlett45 said:

Slow clap. YES I agree with you. No decorating until after thanksgiving. I am fine with buying gifts and decorations before then (great sales) and putting them in the closet, but no Christmas music, decorations or apparel until Black Friday!

Same here. I actually Christmas shop all year and get decorations after Christmas if I need them but I do not want decorations or music in my house until after Thanksgiving. I don't do Black Friday at all. I do decorate the inside of our house within an inch of its life. The cats know not to stand still too long on the main floor or they might get lights on them!

Edited October 29, 2020 by jcbrown

[Jenniferbug]

My husband is more into decorating for Christmas than I am. We usually wait to decorate till Thanksgiving, but he said this year he wants to decorate after Halloween so we can enjoy it longer. We have a tree in our living room and then a cheap sparsely decorated one for our sun porch, mostly because it looks nice lit up in the windows.

We don't go too overboard with the celebrating. We bake cookies at some point. We make a big meal Christmas Day. My kids usually get 7 presents, give or take. I get the girls matching pjs every year to wear which they love. They're 5 and 7 so everything about Christmas is super exciting to them. We generally spend the day letting them play with new stuff.

Typically we celebrate with my family Christmas Eve and his side some time around Christmas so it's nice to have the actual day to ourselves in our own home. 

[Catlyn]

21 hours ago, Suzn said:

 

My kitties love this one from Amazon and it's not very expensive.

 

 

If that is still too much for you, I found out my cats like drinking out of a cheap desk fountain I got at CVS last Christmas It's small and battery operated, and my cats loved it even though that was not the reason I originally bought it! It was about $6. It's small so you would have to keep an eye on it, but as I said, my cats loved it.

 

[GeeGolly]

@crazycatlady58, I haven't had a cat since childhood, but I remember our cats loving the 'juice' from the tuna can. Could you mix a little of that with water and keep it in the fridge for refills? 

[Minivanessa]

I'm enjoying hearing about all the different outlooks and experiences about Christmas. As I said, I'm not big into Christmas but reading the posts from those who are, about how they observe and celebrate and decorate and cook? Somehow makes me vicariously happy. Go figure. Thanks for sharing! 

[GeeGolly]

19 minutes ago, Jeeves said:

I'm enjoying hearing about all the different outlooks and experiences about Christmas. As I said, I'm not big into Christmas but reading the posts from those who are, about how they observe and celebrate and decorate and cook? Somehow makes me vicariously happy. Go figure. Thanks for sharing! 

So, an hour ago, after reading these posts, I walked into the other room and said to my husband, maybe we should get a small tree this year. lol

[zoomama]

On 10/27/2020 at 3:15 PM, Happyfatchick said:

@zoomama how are you?

thanks for asking!  i am hanging in. neck and ear are still numb. healing nicely.  but its been a challenge on the daily here. cant remember what i have updated you all on lately so ...in short...in the same week, husband was diagnosed with possible kidney cancer AND my ct scan that started al the chaos shows changes in my lungs so i too am being monitored for cancer. we both have CT's due in january to see if there has been any changes.   that has really messed with my mind for sure.  both of my parents died with lung cancer.

planning a trip to see the grands for thanksgiving. got a smoking deal on a ticket a few months ago and flights are still restricted as to headcount so i am probably going to go. trying to get motivated to use my new sewing machine on a more regular basis...its been hard to find myself with all the health crisis's we have had the last handful of months. 

trying to stay on weight watchers but have lost my umphhh to be strict with myself. oh and started christmas shopping this morning. most will get cash but the littles need something to open besides that. 

[SunnyBeBe]

3 hours ago, GeeGolly said:

When you all are talking about multiple trees, where are you putting them? My living room had to bend and stretch a bit to fit one and that's the biggest room in the house.

My parent’s house has many trees. It looks good, but is too much work, imo. Most of the main rooms have a different themed tree. Family room has big tree with theme of snowmen, reindeer, Santa, gingerbread, etc. and a ceramic lit tree; Living room has a snow flocked tree with ice covered red holly berries; Dining room has mom’s bird tree that has birds, owls, etc. as well as a small, solid silver tree that serves as a centerpiece, main bath has a small white tree with white lights; office has small green tree with multi colored lights; two green trees with white lights flank the front porch And we just bought 2 skinny snow flocked trees to put on each end of the fireplace. I’m going to try to cut this down by at least half.  Lol
 

One tree for my house. And it’s only 5 feet tall. 

[crazycatlady58]

23 hours ago, Suzn said:

 

My kitties love this one from Amazon and it's not very expensive.

 

 

I looked them up found they were less expensive than I remembered. I probably will get her one the only thing I am not sure about is will it filter out the medicine?  Someone mentioned mixing it with a little tuna juice which is a good idea. Even if I don't put tge drops in if it makes her want to drink more water that is a good  thing. Thanks for all the suggestions. 

[crazycatlady58]

Now about Christmas, that is my favorite holiday. First for the religious reason but I enjoy the decorating, cooking and shopping for presents also. I live alone now and I still put up a tree and put my decorations out. I make a special meal usually steak and a baked potato.  I miss having people around but I enjoy the day. I used to share a house with my brother and his girlfriend plus other assorted people. I enjoyed making a big meal, I never understood what the fuss was about for me it was easy. Of course we had Christmas dinner about 6 pm so we had all day to cook. One thing that helped is we cooked the turkey in a counter top roaster. We started it at 11 am and by 5 it was done. I just put it in the oven to brown and we were good.  The only complaint had was my brother would say he could not cut it, the meat just fell off the bone. After we where finished I put the bones in the slow cooker and simmered them all night and we had wonderful broth for soup.

[Jynnan tonnix]

We have two trees here...the main one, in the living room, is artificial, and gets crammed to the gills with ornaments we have collected over the past 35 years, including a lot from the different places we were stationed, with a few ornaments inherited from MrJyn's parents' tree, and even some from his grandparents, plus some from my mom, since my parents sized down to a very small tree over time. So it's a glorious mish-mash of styles and colors. The other tree goes in the porch, which is technically a 3- season room, but has a gas fireplace, and is really the only room in the house  really big enough to take a lot of decorating (other than the dining room, I guess, which is oversized with high ceilings, and was meant as a family room, but for various reasons, we have always needed a large dining room, and this house is the kind of Cape Cod style which doesn't even have a formal dining room aside from the dinette off the kitchen - but I digress)...Anyway, the porch is a nice, big room with a ceiling that slopes up to 11 feet, and we usually get a real tree that's about 6' tall, and put it on a small table in the corner, so it almost reaches all the way up. It doesn't have a theme, per se, but I decorate it chiefly with gold, silver and red ornaments, as I do with the rest of the porch in general. It's a room which really lends itself to Christmas decorating. I love it because there's a bit of stone veneer partway up a couple of the walls, which, with the fireplace, really gives it a sort of ski-lodge vibe in the winter. In the summer, though, I have most of my plants out there, and just by switching up a couple of colors in accessories, it becomes very tropical feeling. 

I don't know whether I'll be able to do as much in the porch this year as usual, as Mr Jyn finally got around to putting a TV up over the mantel...It was always planned, and there was even a cubby incorporated for the components, since we added the porch before smart TVs were really a thing. I always kind of balked at having it there because the room seemed so serene I felt as though it would spoil it, but since I never got around to doing a big painting to take up that space over the mantel and cover the cubbyhole, I lost that battle. It doesn't actually look too bad, but leaves no space for decorations on the mantel, which was always kind of a focal point.

 

[MargeGunderson]

1 hour ago, crazycatlady58 said:

I looked them up found they were less expensive than I remembered. I probably will get her one the only thing I am not sure about is will it filter out the medicine?  Someone mentioned mixing it with a little tuna juice which is a good idea. Even if I don't put tge drops in if it makes her want to drink more water that is a good  thing. Thanks for all the suggestions. 

I think you can use it without the filter, at least the one I had I could (sorry I can’t remember what kind I had).

[iwantcookies]

@zoomama hope it’s good news for you and your husband for the results.

[SunnyBeBe]

I just love reading about all the different traditions. This year will bring us some new ones for sure.  We normally have the entire extended family meet on Christmas Eve, but that can’t happen this year.  Thanksgiving will be different too. 

[crazycatlady58]

8 minutes ago, SunnyBeBe said:

I just love reading about all the different traditions. This year will bring us some new ones for sure.  We normally have the entire extended family meet on Christmas Eve, but that can’t happen this year.  Thanksgiving will be different too. 

I tell my self quite often, Different is not bad, its just different. 

[CalicoKitty]

I want to thank all of you who reacted to my post about my move.  I really appreciate the support I receive from this group.  I sent out an email to "friends" to tell them about the move and my new address.  I received 3 responses.  I guess I now know who cares about me.

My cats have settled in surprisingly fast.  They both slept under the covers on the bed all day while I did errands, so I'm hoping they let me sleep tonight.  Under covers, out of covers, all night last night, and it is just an air mattress bed until Saturday when I find out if the guys who packed my furniture destroyed my Sleep Number mattress.  I'm not holding out hope.  The cats have to be alone tomorrow night while I go check in with the movers, so it will be interesting to see how they do.  Not sure what I will do when they have to go to the vet.  I may have to buy new carriers, because I'm sure the old ones have memories of a long car ride.

Stay safe, everyone!