New Year's Eve

2008 is rapidly coming to a close. I have hung the Big Grid 2009 calendar and pitched 2008. Medical appointments for 2009 have been written in the planner. Less than 2 hours until 2009 and I am ready!

All the news programs have done their "Year in Review" programming and New Year's at Time Square is beginning the count down. I have tried to do my own "Year in Review", but haven't gotten very far. It is really hard to look backwards. I do better at looking forward. Each day I can only begin where I am. There is a lot that I look forward to in 2009.

In 2009, I will become eligible for Medicare!
In 2009, my son and his wife will celebrate their 15th anniversary - neither of my marriages lasted that long!
In 2009, my beautiful grand-daughter will turn 4. Time goes really fast.
In 2009, my daughter will make me a Grandma for the second time!
In 2009, I will celebrate 12 years of being cancer free.
In 2009, my old cat, Smokey, will turn 20 years old. I hope he makes it to his birthday. Since I have no idea when that actually is, I just add a year when he goes in for his shots. That will be in September.
In 2009, I will increase my savings a little. With the downturn of the economy and pending retirement within the next couple of years this is important. This is not a resolution, because I never keep resolutions!
In 2009, I will celebrate life!

2008 has been a good year. Friendships have deepened and new friendships are growing. Going to work is still an enjoyable experience and coming home from work is also good. I truly feel that I am in a good place in life. I find very little to complain about - at least not much that really matters.

Happy New Year to All. Make 2009 be all that it can be for you and yours!

Bah! Humbug!

I am ready. Ready for January 2nd, that is. From before Halloween, Christmas decorations and music can be found in stores. Thanksgiving - turkey and all the fixings, with too many people forgetting to remember all that they have to be thankful for. Christmas is breakfast with Santa and lots of presents under the tree. Maybe there is a manger scene on display somewhere in the home, but each year it seems that the deeper meaning of Christmas gets lost in the gift wrap.

With no little ones at home anymore, I don't decorate. I tried to pawn some of the old decorations off this past weekend, but they are all right where they were, either in the basement or in the storage closet upstairs. With cats in the house, no tree is safe. I got tired of setting it back up after three or four cats decided to climb the Christmas tree.

I am also rather lazy. I don't like going to all the fuss and then just having to take it all down and pack it away again. I can look out the window and see all the decorations I need to see.

New Year's Eve is amateur night. The safest place to be is at home. Resolutions that won't last until January 5th get tossed around. Mine don't usually last beyond January 5th, anyway.

I enjoy the Holidays. I really do. Seeing Grandbaby's (Angie - now age 3) eyes light up at seeing the tree and the presents, enjoying family visits, seeing a favorite seasonal movie for the umpteenth time, reading the Christmas Letter from people I truly care about and all the other things that make this time of year special. I am just glad to see the Holidays over with!

January 2nd, life gets back to normal. People at work stop taking vacation days. Even though winter just starts toward the end of December, there is something about January that says Spring is just around the corner. After all, there is February and by the end of March, it is Spring!

Ah, Spring - tulips and daffodils, the odor of lilacs in the air.