Sunday, December 03, 2006

Is It Really December Already????

Man, this year is flying by. I mean seriously, wasn't it only a few weeks ago we were sweating like pigs, clearing out underbrush from the woods on our property? How can it suddenly be December?

The realization that Christmas is right around the corner and I haven't bought a single gift forced me to spend most of my Saturday frantically whipping up Christmas gifts like an insane woman. If you are on my Christmas gift list, you will either be getting a gift card, or a home made gift. We can't afford to give everyone a gift card, so don't get excited - I'm not giving you a choice. Some of you will get the short stick and be the recipient of a home made gift. I look at it this way - it's a GIFT for heaven's sake! Be happy I thought of you and please have the good grace to act appreciative. If not, I'll be happy to drop you from my gift list next year. Oh, and Merry Christmas.

So that's how I spent MOST of my Saturday on the Homestead. We got there Friday night and it was dark and in the 60's. By Saturday morning it was in the 30's and didn't get out of the 40's all day. So we woke up Saturday morning, bundled up, and headed out at 8AM to go to a couple's house were we took apart a portion of a patio that a couple told us they wanted to get rid of. So after about an hour and a half of work, we had almost 700 beautiful red brick paver bricks - free! This was a result of a Freecycle ad I put out asking for bricks. If you haven't signed up yet, you better hurry before we get all the good stuff!

After we unloaded all the pavers we got, we went inside and Bernie got a nice fire going. He spent the evening beside the fire watching really dumb SciFi movies, and I worked like a slave to get all the Christmas gifts made. I'm not sure why he never has to participate in the joyous activities involved with getting Christmas gifts, but he doesn't. I'm not really angry about that, but I am a little bitter. But his answer to "We need to get gifts" is "No, we don't", so I know if I insisted, we would be at logger heads. So I just do it, and he just watches TV.

But I did kind of get him back, without even trying. Today he walks into the room and informs me "You know, a gun rack is really just a gun rack. It's made with the intention that guns will be hung from it. It's not made to act as a clothes rack to dry delicate female clothing. It's a manly piece of furniture, and it's meant to do manly things. Like hang guns." Maybe next time he'll help me with Christmas gifts.

Next weekend we really are going to get our bees. Six hives of them. We're heading out to get them Saturday morning. We're pretty excited. We need to get them home and settled so we can have honey next year and I can make some candles. I need some new Christmas gift items.

Live Free,
Penny

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I find the insanity of "Christmas" disheartening. I'd have to agree with Bernie on this one ... WHY?

For my Dad, I found a book called "Why a Daughter Needs a Dad". On each page, I am pasting one of my Geeky pictures from grade school through high school, along with a personal comment. He will love it.

Then again, at age 75, he might have wanted a PlayStation 3.

But I'd have to disagree with Bernie on the gun rack. It's a great place to hang a bra.

GirlGeek

basicliving@backtobasicliving.com said...

I love the book idea for your dad. That's really sweet and I'm sure he'll appreciate it. You can get him a PlayStation 3 for his birthday.

Christmas has just become such a chore for me anymore. The joy of it is almost gone. I say "almost" because it does still exist through the eyes and laughter of my nephew and neices, but I only see them for a couple of days during the holidays. So the rest of it is annoying. It's just too commercial and as I try to get further away from that aspect of it, I'm certain I will appear nothing less than cheap.

And you and I are in complete agreement - a gun rack is the perfect drying rack for womens' delicates! I find men can be very narrow minded on these subjects.......

Penny

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