Last Week

This is my last week of work for the year!

Oh, the plant is working next week, but thanks to judicious scheduling of my vacation days, Thursday will be my last day.   I'd briefly considered switching the day I have scheduled for Friday to one of the shutdown days between Christmas and New Year's Day, but I decided against it. 

I got to thinking today and realized that I haven't watched nearly any of my Christmas movies.  So, with a break for NCIS tonight, and The Big Bang Theory Thursday, I will binge on Christmas movies for the next few days.   This means, don't expect much in the way of blogging, but I will still be posting my Christmas songs. 

Without further ado, here is your Christmas song for tonight: 

All Done!

With my Christmas shopping, that is.  I drove on up to Batesville this morning and got the last of it taken care of.  Now it's all wrapped and put under the tree.

A Christmas tree just doesn't look finished until there are gifts under it.

Speaking of driving, I mailed off my first car payment today.  Now I feel legitimate -- like the car is actually mine.  I suppose he needs a name...

We come from a long line of named cars, from way back when my dad had  Maverick named Betsy.  My first car was a Mercury Bobcat.  He caught on fire in the parking lot of Parkdale Mall in Beaumont, TX.  After that, I named him Dennis the Menace.  My second car was an Alfa Romeo Alfetta I bought when I was in Italy, which I named Calvin -- after Calvin and Hobbes -- because he had a mind of his own.

When I got out of the Navy and returned Stateside, I bought a blue Tempo which went by the uninspired name of Little Blue.  After he bit the dust, I drove a charcoal gray Taurus who was called Smoky -- when I bothered to call him anything.  And of course, you all know Jimmy. Thus, the Focus needs a name. 

More good news-- Beverly and James got a contract on their house!  Yay!  The bad news is, it's a cash sale, so they have to be out by the 30th.  I suppose that's not really bad news, but it's going to make the next couple of weeks pretty busy.  They were going to give me quite a bit of their old furniture, so now I've got to figure out where I'm going to put it all.  I've got an idea, it's just a matter of getting it all into place.  Well, we'll see.

Even though this is really more of an Epiphany song than a Christmas song, it's still one of my favorites. 

I Slept Good

I slept good last night.  I slept so good, I didn't wake up until nearly 9:00 AM.  I looked at the clock and said, "Whoa."  I must have needed that sleep. 

For my fellow grammar nazis, no I am not abandoning the fold.  I'm simply speaking in vernacular. 

OK?  Now, on with my post...

I suppose I could have rushed and made it to church, but then I thought to myself, "Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, so rest."  I put on my Christmas music playlist  and caught up on writing my verses for my December Christmas Challenge.  I'd missed a couple of days when it got so hectic at work, but now I'm all caught up. 

After I did that, I punished myself for skipping church by reconciling three bank accounts.  I hate doing it even once, but to do it three times...yeah, that's punishment.  The good new is, I have enough money to pay all the bills and finish my Christmas shopping, but I will be glad when overtime season starts back up.  Our Director of Operations told us to expect to work Saturdays straight out of the gate when we get back from Christmas.  But I digress...

Other than that, it's been a pretty quiet day.  I finished wrapping a few Christmas presents, and got my sister's family's gifts ready to mail.  I just need to find my address book, because for some reason, her mailing address isn't in my phone.  It's been so hot, but we have a cold front coming through.  I can't wait for it to get here. 

I know I'm rambling now, so I'll leave you with my second favorite Christmas hymn ever. 




My favorite one will be posted a little closer to Christmas. 

He Is Born

So....this happened.

We had those safety meetings today at work, starting at 6:00 AM.  Well, I kept waking up throughout the night and I couldn't remember what day it was.  I was afraid I had missed the meetings and blown my perfect attendance -- and the pay bonus that comes with it.  I was very relieved when the alarm went off to find that I had not, in fact, skipped Saturday and missed the meetings.

When we got there, the Director of Operations explained why we were having the meetings on Saturday, followed by a Monday off.  They had scheduled the meetings back several months ago, and had booked a very expensive out-of-town motivational speaker to teach one of the classes.  That one wasn't about safety.  It was about motivation.  Anyway...

At the time, business was booming and sales projections were so high that the company really couldn't afford to lose an entire day of production to hold safety meetings.  Said safety meetings are required by OSHA, so they had to happen.  Thus, the Saturday schedule.

But then, about 2 weeks ago, a customer called and cancelled some 10,000+ units, making a Saturday scheduling unnecessary.  However, having already booked and paid this very expensive out-of-town motivational speaker for Saturday, they really couldn't move these meetings.  So, they are giving us Monday off to make up for having to work Saturday.

I know, right, but things just happen sometimes.  The good news is, we were done in plenty of time for me to get home and watch Navy beat Army for the 14th year in a row.

Here's a bit of trivia for you.  The last time Army beat Navy, Facebook didn't exist, the iPhone hadn't been invented, and this man

was 8 years old and in the second grade.

Tonight, we celebrate.  Tomorrow, we go back to being One Team, One Fight. 

To top things off, here is a fun version of one of my favorite songs: 

There Is A Word

There is a word for what I am.  Tuckered, knackered, weary, worn out, rode hard and put up wet...no matter what you want to call it, it's what I'm feeling.  It all started at 3:30 AM.

As I was getting for work, I gazed longingly at the bed I'd just vacated and thought, "Oh, I want to crawl back into that bed so badly.  Why did I change my vacation day?  Why did I agree to come in early?  What was I thinking?  What is wrong with me?????"

And this after a nearly sleepless night the night before. 

I get to work, and I'm there working away.  The day is passing, albeit slowly. Finally, it's time to go...buuuut a certain former group leader ran up to me at the last minute and asked if I could stay late to help him do a prototype coil.  Sigh....It was only a few minutes, but it just made the day a little longer. 

Tomorrow, we have to go in at 6 for our annual safety training and stuff.  As if I weren't already tired...
..

Naturally...

Insomnia hit hard last night.  So hard, even my melatonin supplement went down in defeat.  It was well after midnight before I got to sleep, and then I woke up twice before time to get up.  Which is 5:15 AM.  You know, just in case you were wondering.  Then, at work, a certain former group leader of mine came and told me that one of his brazers will be out tomorrow and asked me if I could come in at 5 in the morning.  Naturally, I said, "Of course."  So this post will be short and sweet.

Some of you may recall a few weeks ago when I put out a plea for washable fingering/sock weight yarn for the blanket I'm knitting for my sister and her family.  I'd already received a couple of packages, and today I came home to find one more waiting for me.

These yarns are from Lisa, and I'm thinking some of it might not make it into the blanket.  That ball of blue and brown in the middle is just screaming "SCARF!!!" to me.  It's got me thinking it might be time to warp the old loom once again. 

Also, Lisa being the dear, sweet, generous, wonderful person she is, picked out a surprise just for me:

You probably can't tell from the picture, but it's a t-shirt.  I love it!  Thank you, Lisa!  Mwaaa!

Apropos of nothing, I think it's a sad commentary on the state of my social life when the first Christmas card I receive is from the car dealership.  Well, I can't really complain.  I haven't sent cards out in a couple of years myself.  I have good intentions.  I just never seem to get around to it.  Heck, I'm doing good to get gifts to my family before Easter. 

Since I have to get up in an hour that begins with the numeral 3, I'll bid you goodnight and leave you with this, your Christmas song for today.

Hallowed Ground

I love Christmas.  I always have.  When I was a child, I didn't understand why Christmas Day had to end.  I thought time should just stop and it should stay Christmas forever.

When I became an adult, and when I became a mom, I wanted Christmas to be just as special for my son.  I worked so hard to make everything just right.  Everything had to be just so.  The year Cody was 4, I stressed myself out so much trying to make things absolutely perfect.  After I put him to bed that Christmas night, I breathed a sigh of relief, and thought, "I'm so glad that's over."

I sat there in my living room, shocked at the thoughts I was having.  How did I get from wishing Christmas would never end to being glad it was over?  I swore I'd never feel that way again.  That was the year that I took a step back and stopped trying to make Christmas about the things.  I stopped stressing myself out so much and took a much more relaxed attitude towards the holiday.

If we only have three different kinds of cookies instead of 7, then three will be enough.  If I only make two kinds of candy instead of 6, then two will be enough.  If I don't get every inch of the house decorated, then a tree and a nativity will be enough.

That was the year Christmas became fun again.  That was the year the joy returned. 

I know people who hate Christmas.  They hate everything about it.  To them, it's a time of stress and societal pressure and unrealistic expectations.  It breaks my heart to hear people talking like this.  I pray that someday these people can break out of the trap that nearly ensnared me all those years go.

I pray that they can approach the manger, and remember -- as Linus told us -- what Christmas is all about. 

My New Hat

I've wanted this hat from the first time I saw it.  I finally broke down and ordered it.

It got here in time for the ArmyNavy game!

Speaking of this Saturday  -- which is when the ArmyNavy game is -- we have to go in to work for a half a day for safety training.  Then they are giving us Monday off.  I had vacation scheduled for Friday, so I moved it to Monday.  After turning in the paperwork and having it approved by Supervisor Ronnie, I thought, "with my luck, they'll shut down the plant Friday, too."  I hope they don't, but if they do, oh well.  I'm not moving my day again.

I'm thinking that I might head North that day and try to finish up my Christmas shopping.  I'm almost done.  Just a few people left to buy for.  Then I have to find boxes so I can mail all this stuff.

Here's a little trivia about this next song that some of you may not know.

For Bing Crosby's last Christmas special before he died, he and David Bowie were slated to sing The Little Drummer Boy as a duet.  There was just one problem.  David absolutely hated the song.  In the spirit of Christmas, he was willing to sing it anyway.  However, before they recorded the scene, Bing found out about David's disdain for this song, so he sat down and wrote the Peace on Earth descant -- so David wouldn't have to sing something he hated.

That right there shows a lot about the character of both these men. 



Here is a more modern version of this old favorite:




Here's a little family trivia about this song.  When Cody was 6 or 7, we were driving down the road when it came on the radio.  Cody hollered, "SHHHHH!!! It's the pum-pum song!" 

Ever since then, it's been The Pum-Pum song to us. 

December 7, 1941

We will never forget.

It is only fitting that your Christmas song for the day is based on a poem also written during war time. In this case, it was during the war that threatened to tear our country apart -- the Civil War. 




"Christmas Bells"
(The original poem, complete with all seven stanzas)

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


Then from each black accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"


Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!"

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Happy Hanukkah!!

Hanukkah starts tonight at sundown, so for all my Jewish friends out there, Happy Hanukkah!!

This is my favorite Hanukkah song.  They've made newer ones, but I keep coming back to this one.


I'll be singing this one all day at work tomorrow. 


For your Christmas song of the day, I bring you a newer version of an old childhood favorite:

Round One

Round one of my Christmas baking is done!

This isn't all of it, as I'd already packed what I'm sending to my sister when I took the picture.   The final tally is, 6 loaves of Pumpkin Bread, 9 loaves of Snickerdoodle bread (which is as delicious as it sounds), 4 loaves of Banana Nut Bread, and 4 loaves of Cherry Egg Nog bread.  The first two recipes can be found by clicking the above links.  The other two were taken from this book: 

Holiday Baking  available on Amazon.

In hindsight, I kind of wish I had gone back to the store and bought two more mini bread pans.  Not only would it have made things go faster, but it would have made it easier to divide the dough more evenly.  That way, I wouldn't have ended up with some loaves being much bigger than others.

Maybe I'll get some next time I go into town.

This is the other thing I did this weekend.  When I was trying to get my trailer house cleaned out so I could show it, I was stashing stuff here, there, and everywhere.  The other day, I was looking for a particular pair of earrings, and I couldn't find it anywhere.  I got frustrated, so I started going all over the house, rounding up all my jewelry.  That is what you see here:

It is all still a jumbled up mess, but at least it's all in the same place.  Next step will be untangling everything.  That will be a good project for one of these cold winter nights. 

This is another one of those songs I never liked as a kid.  Frankly, I didn't like it because I didn't get it.  Three ships?  Yeah, Yeah, I know.  The ships are representative of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, but why ships? What do ships have to do with Christmas, and how can ships sail into Bethlehem anyway?  It's landlocked.  The song just didn't make sense to me.  As an INTJ, I don't like things that don't make sense --until I heard this version.




OK, so it still doesn't make sense, but I like it anyway.

Busy Friday

I woke up way too early this morning.  I guess my body forgot I had a day off.  After laying in bed until 6ish, I realized that sleep wasn't going to return to me.  I got out of bed and started a little fire in my wood heater.  As I sat there with my coffee, waking up and warming up, I thought about all I needed to accomplish today and realized I needed music.  Lots of music. 

I remembered I'd had a really good Christmas playlist on my old Sony MP3 player.  Miracle of miracles, I actually found said Walkman.  I spent about half an hour trying to figure out how to upload my playlist from said Walkman to my computer, but never did get it to work.  I finally plugged my speakers into my MP3 player and just played my music from there. 

Back when I was a kid, I absolutely hated this song.  We sang it in church every year, and I groaned every year when we had to sing it.  That was before I heard this version:



This is still the only version I really like, but I no longer totally hate the normal Baptist Hymnal version, either. 

Once I got my music cranking, I put up the rest of my Christmas decorations.  Well, not all of them, but all that I'm going to put out this year.

I got some fake snow for my village on my mantle. 

I tried to put some boxes under the fake snow to make it look hilly, but the buildings just weren't setting right.  I took them back out, and left the village setting on flat land. 

I put out a few more doo dads.

But I think that's all I'm going to do this year.

I figure by next year, I'll have all my furniture in place and I'll be more settled in the house.  I'll know better where I want to put things.  I still want to do something to the front of my house, though, even if it's just stringing lights across the eaves. 

In the midst of all that decorating,  I started my baking.  Today I made cinnamon bread and banana bread.  At one point during the proceedings, I was really wishing I'd bought more than two mini loaf pans.  Not wishing hard enough to get dressed and go into town, mind you, but wishing nonetheless.  Still, I made do with the two I have.  It just took a little longer. 

All day long, it felt like a Saturday to me.  I don't know why, it just did.  Maybe it's because we got a half day off work yesterday.  I did two loads of laundry -- normally a Saturday chore -- and kept checking to see if the football games were on. 

I just hope I don't get up and go to church tomorrow.  I'll be the only one there. 

Early Day

So there I was at work, just a working away, when right after lunch I heard a commotion in the plant.  I didn't pay it much mind.  There's always some sort of commotion or other going on there.  I kept on working, but soon, the commotion became too commotional to ignore any more.  I quickly found out what was going on. 

They were passing out the paychecks.  They were sending us home.  I never found out why, but I didn't argue, either.    I lit out for home.  When I got there, I found a pleasant surprise waiting for me. 

My new Christmas ornaments are here!  A new one for this year, and one to replace the one I broke last week when putting up the tree.  You will notice that the box says Shatter-Proof.  Yeah, I need that.

 Somehow, this ended up in my shopping cart, too.  

It's to replace the one I broke last year -- over which I am still grieving.  Too bad it's not shatter proof, too.

Since I got an unexpected half day off of work, I decided to go ahead and do my shopping today, so I won't have to get out at all tomorrow if I don't want to.  I didn't really need much, but I got a few supplies to start my holiday baking, and I got a goodly sized chunk of my Christmas shopping done.  All the Alaska folks' gifts have been bought, and I might actually get it mailed early enough that it gets there by Christmas. 

I'm going to use those mini loaf pans I bought and make some banana bread and such to send with their gifts.  That's the project for the weekend -- making mini breads. 

Naturally, while I am baking, I'll be rocking the Christmas music on Pandora.  Or YouTube -- whichever.  Which segues nicely into our Christmas song for today:



The bad news is, the cat has found the tree skirt.  It's now safely tucked into the washing machine, to be washed first thing in the morning. 

Sigh...cat pee on the tree skirt, and bits of garland puked up onto the floor.  I'm so glad I have vinyl flooring now. 

So glad.  

Yesterday

Yesterday I was totally discombobulated.  I was so discombobulated that I went to work without turning off the lights in my house.  I had a difficult day at work, so by the time I got home, everything I had planned for the evening just went out the window.  I had actually intended to write a real post, but in the end, all I did was dump a song on you and leave.

 I'm very sorry about that.   

Anyway, I'd planned on doing a 25 Songs Of Christmas thing -- posting one of my favorite Christmas songs every day between December 1 and Christmas day.  I was going to try to come up with some sort of little devotional thought to go with each song.  Obviously, that didn't happen yesterday.

It's not looking good for today, either.  However, here is today's song. 



I hope you enjoy it.  I'll try to do better tomorrow.

25 Days Of Christmas Music