Happy Holidays!

Christmas was alright. On the 24th we went to my nephew's. Most of my family was there and there was a huge crowd of people we didn't know. I'm not sure who they were. There was lots of food. We didn't stay long. The roads were bad on the way there. It was strange, it wasn't snowing at all up here but once we got near the city it was snowing and sleeting. So I talked to my dad a bit, Mr. Man ate, I had a couple of drinks, we exchanged gifts and we headed for home. Little R, her boyfriend and Uncle T were here waiting for us. They had baked cookies and made brownies. We hung out here for a while then Mr. Man drove the boyfriend home. Then Mr. Man had to do all his wrapping. Earlier in the day, Mr. Man got off work at noon, with his bonus, and he thought we were meeting at Walmart. He phoned, frantic, "where are you? Why aren't you here?" I didn't know I was supposed to meet him there. So he came and picked me up and we ran around like crazy buying last minute gifts and getting the groceries etc. Then we came home and got ready to go to my nephew's.

Christmas day I think I was the first one up. It didn't snow but I think it flurried a bit. It took some coaxing to get the guys to open their stockings. We cut way back on the gifts this year, but it was still nice. It went quickly. We gave T a bottle of vodka and as soon as he opened it he was off in the kitchen making a drink. After the gift opening, it was time to get the turkey in the oven. It was so big we had to cut the wings off to fit it in the roasting pan. Mr. Man, with a little instruction from me and T chopping the onions, made the stuffing. I have to say, the drunker T got the more obnoxious he got and it really sucked the life out of the day. I don't really remember what we did all day other than try to keep T out of the kitchen and argue with him over silly little crap. Then it was finally dinner time. Little R's boyfriend joined us for dinner. Everything turned out really good. For once the turkey wasn't dry. After dinner we played some euchre. Andrew didn't like it. I even got all the dishes done before the day was over.

On Boxing day Mr. Man and I went to Walmart and I got next years cards for $2. We got a couple of little things, nothing major. We also went to Canadian Tire and got some stuff to put around the dart board. Mr. Man hung the dart board finally. The rest is a blur. Watching movies, and playing darts. We've been staying sober and it has been painful. One day I went out with D and we went back to Walmart. She bought a tree for half price.

The truth is, I've had enough, I want T to go home now. Yesterday we had quite the little snow storm so Mr. Man didn't want to take him home because the truck needs tires. Today we have doctor appointments and I'm hoping he'll take him home after that. It just isn't the warm and fuzzy experience I expected. I would like to salvage the last week of holidays. I've been trying to get T a computer from Freecycle. I've had a couple of people offer but after I email them and say ok thanks I can pick it up today they don't get back to me. I imagine we'll get him one eventually.

So looking forward to some family time and peace and quiet. Having houseguests can get stressful. He's been here a week now, that's long enough. It was a little different at the house because he had his own room. Now he has to sleep on the couch. If there is a God, Mr. Man will be taking him home today.

I don't have many pictures this year. I might post a few later. Meanwhile, have a great day and Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas!

Here it is Christmas Eve. I woke up at 3:30 a.m and couldn't get back to sleep. I knew Mr. Man was getting up at 4:30 so I figured I'd just stay up and make his coffee. T made his way to Mr. Man's work on Tuesday and came home with him that night. Surprise! He is an industrious little fellow so we spent all day Wednesday cleaning and organizing. I finally got my books unpacked! The place is ready for Christmas. Just have a couple of loads of laundry left to do, but I have a feeling that won't happen until Boxing Day.

Mr. Man got his annual turkey from work yesterday. The thing is HUGE. It's like 28 pounds! Way more than we need, but whatever, we'll have lots of leftovers. The buggers still haven't given him his cash bonus however. Usually he gets that about 2 weeks before Christmas, but not this year. He will get it today, nothing like waiting til the last minute. He gets off work at noon today. That gives us a few hours before the stores close early to get the last minute shopping done and get some groceries and booze. We're going to be rushing around like maniacs this afternoon.

This evening we're going to my nephew's, but Little R has opted to stay home with her Uncle T and her boyfriend. I think they're going to bake cookies lol. I'm actually feeling a little excited. Even though we cut way back on the gifts this year, I'm really looking forward to all the festivities. And Mr. Man will have a nice long, much needed vacation from work. I'm not sure how long T will be staying with us, but for sure until sometime next week. Originally I was thinking until after New Years, but I don't think we could handle him that long. I'm really looking forward to our New Years plans too, more about that later.

Well I'm off to do some wrapping before anyone gets up. Merry Christmas!

Crazy Christmas Chaos

Good morning. It's snowing again, another surprise. They're not calling for snow until Christmas. Really it's just flurries but it is coming down pretty good. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.

So the other day I was unpacking the tree ornaments and I was looking for one particular ornament. It is a plush pig wearing a Santa hat, a scarf and a leather jacket. It says Harley Davidson on the hat, scarf and jacket. I bought it last year on Ebay for a great price and put it in Mr. Man's stocking. I was so proud of myself for winning the auction on Ebay and getting it for such a good price. Anything that says Harley Davidson on it is ridiculously expensive. Anyways, I had gone through all the boxes and I didn't see it. So I went through all the boxes again and still didn't find it. As I said yesterday, I've been an emotional wreck. Well I had a meltdown. I was crying, I got an instant migraine, I was furious. When we moved, I Freecycled 2 gigantic boxes of Christmas stuff, I thought for sure I had given it away by accident. I ended up taking a Lorazepam to calm down. Then I thought, let me dump out one of the smaller boxes full of plastic ornaments and see if it's in there. Sure enough, there it was! Boy did I feel stupid. I had even briefly, with my eyes, accused Little R of taking it. She takes all my Harley shirts, so I jumped to conclusions. Man I felt bad once I found it. This is a perfect example of what an emotional mess I am these days. I think I'm just getting too old for all the pressure of Christmas.

Speaking of pressure, then there's Christmas Eve. We've been invited to an open house at one of my nephew's places. We were thrilled to go. My whole family will be there. It's not Christmas without seeing your family. So of course we're going to go. We still aren't sure if T is coming here or not. He's being a bit of a dick about it. First he said he might have to work. Now he's saying he doesn't have any money. That's more believable than the work story. So he won't give Mr. Man a definate yes or no, he's hemming and hawing. Well we'd like to know so we can prepare. We really just assumed he would come spend the holidays with us. He has no one else. But it's starting to sound like he'd be just as happy to sit home alone drinking his face off. Anyways, we were planning to bring him with us to my nephews place. Didn't think anything of it. After all it's an open house, and he is family. Then Little R decided she wanted to bring her boyfriend too. She asked my nephews wife if that would be ok. That's when I found out they don't want us to bring any extra people. Well I was just pissed. What is their problem? What ever happened to "the more the merrier"? I couldn't imagine leaving T sitting at our place alone on Christmas Eve while we go to visit my family. A similar situation arose last year and we ended up not going. So I was upset and just didn't know what to do, so I called my sister. Ah the calm voice of reason. She made me see that my nephew and his wife had their reasons for not wanting extra people and I had no choice but to accept that and respect their wishes. She made me realize that yes I do really want to see my family at Christmas and it would be ok to leave T here for a couple of hours, he's a big boy and can fend for himself for a couple of hours. She made me see that not going wasn't really an option for me. After talking to her I calmed right down, my decision was made and it would all be fine. But again my first reaction was purely emotional.

It doesn't help that I'm menopausal. It doesn't help that it's that time of the month for both me and Little R. Thankfully that will be over with before the actual holidays get here. It doesn't help that T is being a dick. It doesn't help that the apartment is in chaos. But I have faith. We will survive. This time of year always gets crazy. But really, I'm old enough to just kick back, go with the flow and actually enjoy myself. And that's my plan. I'm going to sit back with my coffee and watch it snow. Have a great day.

5 Days Til Christmas

Greetings. Wow only 5 days until Christmas. I'm still not done shopping. We went out yesterday and did the majority of shopping and it was a madhouse out there. There wasn't much left to choose from either. At this point we're still not sure if T will be spending the holidays with us or not. I have never been this unprepared for Christmas before in my life. After shopping all day we hauled all the boxes up from our locker and got the tree put up. We'll finish decorating it today. We've never put it up this late before. It's snowing today, that was an unexpected surprise.

Friday night we went to the local theater and saw A Christmas Story live. We went with S & D. It was pretty good. It wasn't as good as last years A Christmas Carol so I was a little disappointed, but the others really enjoyed it. We're thinking of making it a tradition with the 4 of us going to the theater to see a Christmas play. Our theater is in the same building as the Municipal offices, it's the town hall, there's a courtyard out front and they put up the biggest, most beautiful tree. We took pictures of each other standing in front of the tree. After the play we went to a pub and had a bite to eat and a couple of drinks. It was a lovely night out with awesome people.

I don't know what it is, well, in my case it's that time of the month, but all three of us are emotional wrecks. I've been bursting into tears at the drop of a hat, Mr. Man is crusty as hell and today Little R had a hissy fit and stormed off to her room and fell asleep. Yesterday I saw something in a store that reminded me of Bear and I burst into tears in the middle of the store. Mr. Man has been raising his voice to both of us over stupid little things and of course I start bawling right away. In fact that's what sent Little R to her room in tears today. He's been quite the grouchy bear. I've been just trying to keep everyone calm and happy, not an easy task.

My friend who lives at Lake Erie was going to come here New Years Eve but she had to cancel because she got a new job and will be working that day and it's just too long of a drive after working. Congratulations on the job C. The other night D mentioned having us over there for New Years and I was thrilled about that. I love going to their place! Just hoping she doesn't change her mind. I really like to go out for New Years.

So I'm off to finish decorating the tree and hopefully get started on the gift wrapping. Have a great Sunday.

Karma Is A Wonderful Thing

A very good thing happened last week. This guy at Mr. Mans work was stealing money out of Mr. Mans jacket. It was a regular thing. Sometimes it was a $20 bill other times it was a couple of bucks in change. At first Mr. Man thought he lost it or was just being careless. Eventually he figured it out. So the bosses installed cameras. They caught him doing it the very first day the cameras were up. Two weeks before Christmas, two days before the company party, they fired him. He owed them money, so much in fact, that he left penniless, and still owing them money. He lost a good job with excellent benefits and probably ruined his Christmas all over stealing $3 that day. It's a really good case of Karma. Everyone was glad to see him go. People were talking about not going to the party if he was going to be there. He was not well liked in the company. They have a replacement for him starting after the holidays. Mr. Man is very happy, therefore so am I.

The party was good. We had the same limo driver as last year. We ate, we drank, Mr. Man and I were the only ones who danced. I think everyone got pretty smashed. The place was cram packed full. The band was very good, but they were playing for all the old people who were there. I got them to play one AC/DC song lol. I ordered champagne and they didn't have any. We all had a good time. Looking forward to next year.

I was planning a little get together at home next weekend. It was going to be us and two other couples. We've all known about this for weeks. Been looking forward to it. I do enjoy having people over. Well at the last minute, this morning, one couple cancelled. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say, it sounds like a big fat excuse to me. I do understand, but I also know there's ways around it. They could come if they really wanted to. So once again I'm faced with the dilemma do I go ahead anyways or just call it off? I am so disappointed and finding out who my friends really are.

I just now got to finally meet Little R's boyfriend. She brought him in to meet me. He seems ok. It could be worse that's for sure. Now if we can just win Mr. Man over lol.

It's been snowing a lot, but then it rains a bit, then more snow. I went shopping with D today and the roads were a mess. I am so grateful to have D driving me around shopping. Now I can say I have started Christmas shopping! Finally. Still got plenty to do though. Next week is going to be busy.

Well I'm off, got tons to do. Have a great day.

Life Is Full Of Lemons

Hey, look at that, I'm back again and so soon. Two days in a row, wow. After seeing my family I got to thinking. It's always bittersweet at this time of year. Whenever I see my relatives I remember the ones we've lost. It was only a year ago that I lost my second sister. I was grieving at the company party. A niece and a brother-in-law both died on Christmas Eve. It's hard not to think of them when Christmas rolls around. I always miss my mom, especially this time of year. She loved Christmas. She was the matriarch of my family. It's never been the same for me since 1984.


I've lost my mom, 2 of 3 sisters, 2 of only 3 nieces, my parents-in-law, 3 brothers-in-law and a sister-in-law. Not to mention the grandparents I never really knew and various aunts and uncles. I think I have two aunts left and that's it. I'm not even sure about one of them, I may only have one aunt left for all I know. My father, bless him, is outliving a lot of people. I can't even remember a lot of my cousins names, I haven't seen them since I was a kid. I tried looking a couple of them up on Facebook with no luck.


I know I should really be counting my blessings. It's just so damn hard. I don't feel very blessed at this point in life.

I really didn't talk to anyone on the weekend. I spent half the night outside smoking, the rest of the time thinking what do I say to these people? I have nothing to contribute to a conversation, how sad. I see them once or twice a year. Mr. Man talks to them more than I do and they're my relatives.


I'm ready for grandbabies. Hint hint Big R. She hates me calling her that too lol. To her it implies that she is large, which, let me clarify, she is NOT. I just don't like to use names on here, because you never know who is reading. I can expose myself but not other people. I miss her too, now that she lives in a different province. Even if she does have babies, I won't see them unless I go there. And really, my ex-husband and my current husband meeting? Not something I'm looking forward to! I've always known it's likely to happen eventually, say when Big R gets married, but I've always dreaded it. We really like her current boyfriend and hope she does settle down with him. They're too busy working and riding and travelling to settle down and have kids any time soon. Sigh.


From this day on I am going to try real hard to count my blessings. It could be so much worse. Just because life isn't going my way right now, oh well, you can't always get what you want. I'm spoiled. I want what I want when I want it. One thing I want is a happy Christmas. I think we can make that happen, assuming no one dies on us this year. They say time heals all wounds, and that may be true, but you never forget people you've known all your life or people you are close to. I'm not very good at making lemonade when life hands me lemons, but maybe that's something I need to change about myself.

I actually wrote this post yesterday. I began counting my blessings. I immediately felt better and happier. I even laughed. We were sitting here watching a movie and Mr. Man suddenly told me I looked good. I hadn't even brushed my hair all day! He said I looked happy and glowing. Amazing. There really is something to thinking positive. Yeah it sucks that so many people have died, but I have to appreciate the living, life does go on. I really do have plenty to be thankful for. I just need to remember that every day. I'm sure I've said this here before too. I tend to get so involved in my depression I forget about thinking positive.

So that's it. Update on the company party, S and D couldn't get reservations, the place is booked solid, so they won't be crashing the party. That's a drag. I'm glad we have other plans to see them before Christmas. We're expecting snow tonight. I'm happy about that though Mr. Man is not. I don't have to go out in it but he does. K, I'm done. Have a great day.

Family Photos

Here are some photos from the family get toether. The first one is what's left of my immediate family. My dad, my sister, my brother and me.

Next is my brother's wife, her daughter holding the chihuahua and one of my nephew's girlfriends.

One of my nephews, my sister's middle son of 3, and his girlfriend.



Our hosts, my sister's youngest son and his girlfriend.

My sister's oldest son and his girlfriend.

My sister and her 3 sons.

My late sister Gail's oldest son.

My late sister Gail's younger son and his wife, the blog readers lol. Sadly there were no posed shots of you two.

One great-niece. Look at those eyelashes!

Her brother, my great-nephew.

Another great-niece. Cute AND smart.

Little R and her second cousin. I'm pretty sure these two were up to no good at one point.

Mr. Man in all his redneck glory.

My step-niece and her boyfriend, my Farmville nieghbours.

I think that's everyone, I certainly hope I didn't miss anyone. Well this only took me 2 hours, Blogger does NOT make it easy. There are a lot more pictures but I just don't have the time. See you next week.

A Family Gathering

Greetings. Yeah, yeah, it's been a while. A funny thing happened. I checked my stats for the first time in many months and I discovered that one of my nephews (and his wife) have been reading my blog. We went to a family gathering on Saturday at another nephews place. Mr. Man asked me before we went if I was going to "confront" my nephew about reading my blog. I told him no, I'm not even going to mention it. So we pull up to my other nephews place and there is the blog reading nephew out on the porch having a smoke. The first thing he says to me is, hey, you need to post something new on your blog! LOL Jeez, I don't know about this. I guess I don't mind, I mean I do put it out there, and I don't know why, but people do read it, I know this. But I never imagined that these guys would be reading it. Oh well, it's weird, but cool at the same time. So, this one's for you Mike and Tam.

As I mentioned we went to a family gathering at one of my nephews places on Saturday. When my sister invited us I jumped at the chance to see my family. (Also got invited to my nephew Mike, the blog reader's place, on Christmas Eve). My family are not party animals, at least not with each other. We didn't even bring any booze, figuring there wouldn't be any drinking going on. I've gotten buzzed in front of my family before and really wasn't up for the disapproving looks etc. Well we were wrong, the booze was flowing. Some folks were visibly tipsy. It's always strange being the sober one lol. So anyways, it was good. It was a potluck dinner so there was lots of different food. Five of my nine nephews were there, my dad, my sister, my brother and his family, and some great nieces and great nephew. Is it great or grand? I don't know. I mooched a drink from my nephew Mike. It did not go down well. It was a bottled Cesar, but the spicy kind. It was too spicy for my taste. So my nephew and his girlfriend just bought this place this year. The house and everything in it was brand new. Mr. Man and I played a game of pool on the brand spanking new pool table. The cues, the balls, the chalk, everything was brand new. I've never seen new pool chalk before. Of course, he kicked my ass. I think I sank 2 balls. It always feels like we spend half the night outside smoking. My family doesn't smoke either, except my nephew Mike. I took a few pictures, but they're not very good. My brother got some posed shots, which he posted on Facebook, so I snagged them. I think I'll post them in a seperate entry because Blogger is just a pain for uploading photos. Mr. Man was there yapping away to my father and I kept telling him to speak up, but he continued to mumble. I could tell my father was just being polite, smiling and nodding, but couldn't hear a damn word he was saying. My dad is losing his hearing and his sight. My brother's step-daughter is blind and her boyfriend is almost blind also. I'm not sure how much sight he has. They just moved in together this year. I just don't get it. I don't know how 2 blind people can function in the world on their own. But I'm very happy for them. They play games with me on Facebook, like Farmville and stuff. I look terrible in most of the pictures. I just can't smile naturally with these stupid, ill fitting teeth and I need a haircut badly. Mr. Man needs a haircut too. We look like the hicks that we are. My nephew and his girlfriend have a chihuahua. I held it. It's not as spazzy as most chihuahuas, but I did end up putting her down because she was climbing all over me and giving me little chihuahua kisses like mad. Man I still miss the dog so bad. Mr. Man has a habit of leaving his t shirts on the couch, and whenever I see them out of the corner of my eye I think it's the dog laying on the couch. Then it hits me. So anyways, it was great to see my family. I really look forward to Christmas Eve, most of them will be there too and I plan on having a few drinks this time. If nothing else, at least I'll be more relaxed for photos lol.

We enjoyed the drive home, it was lightly snowing and there was tons of Christmas lights to look at. I still can't stand those LED lights, they just don't look right, not Christmassy. We got home and threw White Christmas into the VCR. It was around 1:30 a.m, I was sitting on the toilet, too much information I know, and I heard a female screaming outside. There was no doubt in my mind that she was being attacked. I called out to Mr. Man and told him to go out on the balcony. By the time he went out it had stopped. I kept asking him to call the cops and he wouldn't, he doesn't do 911. I was so freaked out, after a few minutes, I called 911. He stayed out on the balcony for quite a while and didn't see or hear anything more. We saw the cops driving around, but we didn't hear anything from them, so I guess they didn't find anything. That's the kind of thing you expect in the city, but not here. It took me a while to get to sleep after that, and I'm still a little creeped out by the whole thing.

I feel bad, Saturday was also D's birthday. She invited us over and I told her we would head up if we got back early enough. But it was around 11 p,m when we got home, too late. After her hosting my birthday party I feel like a heel, but in my defense I did send her a card via snail mail. D and S are going to crash the company Christmas party next weekend lol. They happen to like the bar the party is at. This should be interesting. Poor Mr. Man. His co-worker, the little fucker who's supposed to be his helper but just makes his job twice as hard on him, has been stealing money out of his jacket pockets! Now he's supposed to go party with the guy? Not bloody likely. We're hoping he gets fired this week, before the party. But we've been waiting for him to get fired for months. Mr. Man is somewhat dreading the party because of this. He's pissed. I don't blame him, that's so low. I am just praying if he doesn't get fired it doesn't come to blows. And if that does happen, hopefully Mr. Man still knows how to kick ass lol. Seriously, if things get heated, Mr. Man can just go sit with S. It's the same place we went last year, same thing, limo ride there and back, dinner and the biggest bar tab the waitress has ever seen LOL. What a bunch of hounds.

So that's it. I got some more unpacking done last week. It's almost done! We're having a couple of people over on the 19th, so I have 2 weeks to whip this place into shape. I got one bookcase from Freecycle, still need another one, but one will help. I can at least unpack a couple of boxes of books. It's still in the back of the truck and will likely remain there until next weekend. It's getting down to the wire, it's the same thing every weekend, come on Mister help me, I need REST, it's the only time I get to REST. There won't be much time for resting between now and Christmas. I'm in a panic now, haven't bought a single gift yet. I hate last minute shopping! But what can I do, the bills come first. I asked my sister what I should get for my dad and thankfully she had an idea. I pretty much know what I need to get, fortunately.

It's been flurrying just about every day, but not enough to accumulate. I'm pretty sure we got more snow in the country than we do in town. Despite the unusual lack of snow, I'm pretty confident we'll have a white Christmas. It's snowing right now as a matter of fact. K, I'm outta here. Have a great week. I'll be back after the company Christmas party.