More naughty than nice, a surprise, and plotting revenge on my nemesis....

Christmas is around the corner... and finally I'm able to enjoy the billions of little things that make it so special. First I had to get WORK behind me. A large order (so nice to come by) was placed by a client two days ago and I've been hustling to get the mountain of paperwork DONE. (Paperwork is not fun for me, and this order alone required about 20 purchase orders, with incredible detail on each line. One mistake can cost me big bucks!) Working from home is something I really enjoy most of the time, but the down side is that it's always there... a room away, a few feet away, the stack of things to be done. But now, I'm officially CLOSED for the REST OF THE YEAR! Yes, it must be true, because the greeting on my answering machine says so! It's the best feeling, a kind of freedom that frees all my energies for things most important.

Growing up we had a "Christmas house"... all the decorations and lights outside, lots of special baking, loads of presents and a great big tree inside, and seven stockings up the staircase. It might sound very "Norman Rockwell", but it wasn't! It was chaotic, loud, crazy, messy and wild, but so much fun. My mother LOVED Christmas, loved to shop all year for presents for us... always with coupons, S&H stamps or sales of course. We were naughty more than nice. (Oh, all right, since Santa is watching I better not stretch the truth... I was naughty more than nice. My siblings were angels of course, ha ha ha ha... ) I recall fondly all the memories of my youth, but have kept my own decorating modest.

Surpise... !

Taking pictures of the tree, I caught myself reflected in the balls!

It feels good to make things special for my family. The pretty things I was working on, jewelry and bookmarks, are all finished. I still have the "Grinch gift" to make for my brother-in-law, Jeff.

Jeff - My Nemesis

Jeff and I have had an ongoing battle between us for 25 years and give each other the nastiest, most disgusting, distasteful, crudest gag gifts you ever saw. We will poke fun at every conceivable body part and body funtion, worse than school children. We pick on each other mercilessly. Every 4th of July he puts at least three ice cubes down my back when I'm not watching and threatens to drip hamburger juices on my veggie burger when he's grilling. He is HORRIBLE! I'm not sure how this started. My sister, Kathy, is the sweetest, most gentle person. She did nothing to instigate this ugly scenario, she washes her hands of it each year. It's out of control now, each Christmas the gag gifts get worse than the year before. I'm going to make (out of styrofoam, paint and mixed media) two pruney looking, crusty, hairy balls, stick them on a barbeque fork and attach a note... "Jeff's nuts roasting on an open fire..." Oh my... how rotten, how deliciously MEAN!

I'm naughty, wicked to the core, my heart shrinking a few sizes each year... but I can't help myself, ha ha ha ha.... this will be GOOD!

Wearing my jammies all day, surrounded by beads, baubles and Neil....

The hardest part of the holidays for me would be the shopping. I must be missing the female gene that runs rampant in most women. I don't care for shopping and don't like malls one bit! When I do shop, I prefer smaller stores, the local smaller groceries or health food stores, the smaller boutiques and the mom and pop operations. It does mean I pay a little bit more, but I feel quite good about what I'm getting for my money. You see, it's so much more than a product. It's the personal service, the support of local businesses which make this community what it is, and the belief in free enterprise. Sure, now and then I need the big box stores. But I need the touch stone of the heartland more.

And so... I struggle at Christmas. All year long I pick up things here and there when I see something for someone. More than likely, I will not have been able to wait until Christmas and will have given them the gift ahead of time! Some are silly personal things, things relating to a private joke and warm memoryies. I love giving presents and always feel a tinge of sadness when someone says "you shouldn't have"... but it doesn't stop me.

This Christmas, like last year, I'm making many of my gifts. I'd rather sit home a few hours and make something than face that traffic and long lines at the stores! Besides, it gives me enormous satisfaction.

Most of the females in my life will get jewelry. I have a bead obsession and have quite a collection, many of them vintage beads I've salvaged from old jewelry. I am always on the hunt for something spectacular and rare and unusual. My favorite finds to date are some carved coral beads with the most exquisite patina imaginable, and some crystal beads in unusual shapes and brilliance. I design jewelry around the beads, and seldom search for beads to make a particular design I have in mind.

People suggest I sell my jewelry all the time. I probably could sell it, if I had the time! These are my creations, really each one unique and special. If I made them for money would it change the results? I don't know.

Anyway... the necklace pictured here is one I made for myself. In the event anyone on my list should look at my blog, I don't want them to see their Christmas gift ahead of time! No peeking!
These beads are printed wood. And the focal bead is carved bone. Being a vegetarian I had to get past the "bone" idea... but it's so beautiful!

And so, I wore my jammies all day long and sat cross legged with my boxes of beads surrounding me as my creative juices flowed freely.

I listened to the new Neil Diamond album, since Rhapsody recommended it when I signed on today. Neil Diamond... he was popular when I was young, it had been years since I listened to his music. I was intriqued, what was he up to these days? I sat listening to his lyrics and noticed that he, like many song writers who have been writing songs a lifetime, has changed (and mellowed) over the years. His message these days is about love, enjoying life, and sticking by those you love.... and his faith in God.

Some might say artists like Neil Diamond have lost a creative edge. But see, I've grown up right alongside these artists (I'm thinking of Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Don Henley and others of my era) and I have changed right along with them. Life has lesons to teach us with each year that goes by, and it makes us oddly more humble of heart and prone to introspection... and ever so much more grateful. I'm ready to hear his messages, for the themes echo those of my own heart. And his melodies, as ever, are so pleasing to the ear, easy to be with., the kind that stay with you.

I have a memory of playing Neil Diamond's album, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, (one of the few that Steve didn't seem to mind) and twirling my girls, one at a time, in the living room as they giggled. The song was "Song Bird"....:::smile::::...

It's what I love about music.... the memories they stir....

Christmas party, cussing, and a plan....

Last Tuesday night our monthly book club met, for a wonderful Christmas celebration in Christine's home. Of all the holiday celebrations and activities scheduled this month, the promise of this one excited me most. We are seven women who came together to share an interest in reading, and found much, much more. We call each other "bookworms", "wormies" or "worms".... terms of endearment of course. We've become a sisterhood, a mingling of estrogen and brain pumping ions, as salty as a bunch of tattoo-covered sailors one moment and as ruthless as Murphy Brown in a room of cheer leaders the next. A quilting circle we are not. But perhaps we are more like quilters than you'd think... just a different kind of needling!

We "needle" with surgical precision, dissecting plot lines, analyzing characters, nothing is spared our scrutiny. And when we disagree (which is often) we only love each other more! We truly respect each other, and feel completely safe in saying anything at all when we are together.

I'm not quite as "wordly" as most in our group, never was one to speak out without being sensitive to the feelings of others. Each of us holds the spark of divine love inside us, and I consider that when asserting my own thoughts. But I'm learning that kindness, generousity and love have many faces. You'll not find a finer bunch than these women in my bookclub.

Among us are:

Christine, a divorced mother of grown children, an interior designer working at a mart showroom... she's bright, upbeat, spiritual and confident.

Kellie (above), a married mother of two little ones, working at Children's Memorial Hospital as a pediatric surgical nurse.... she's funny, smart, practical and blunt, a bit quiet, free thinker... a good mother.


Karen, former corporate woman, now a business owner of a bead store... she is intense, enthusiastic, passionate and bright.



Beth (left), divorced artist/rehabber/retail manager at a local home improvement store... she's free spirited, insightful, thoughtful, trusting, optimistic, quick to laugh.

Lauren (right), a specialist in new home sales in a new town house development... she's hard working, focused, obsessive, neat, direct, funny, impatient, intelligent and independent. ~~~~>



Kelly, a divorced mother to Kellie, and interior designer at a retail store... she's witty, brutally direct at times, particular, opinionated, politically minded, non-religious, shrewd, loyal, honest, hardnosed and endearing, a devoted grandmother and terrifed of spiders.


And this is me, enjoying the "worms" as we chatted around the table last night!

One thing it's taken me awhile to get used to ....is the fact that these are women who are very comfortable cussing... eff this, eff that... and it isn't at all unpleasant for me to be around! As a matter of fact, it seems refreshingly open and appropriate given the easy candor and ability to say anything and everything in each other's presence.

Here is something I just read... from next month's novel, "Saving Fish from Drowning".... I think it describes another viewpoint...

"Can we discuss this more rationally?" Vera said. My dear friend despised hearing people use sexual expletives for emphasis. Invoke religion instead, she'd say to those in her organization - use the "damn" and "God almighty" that show strength of conviction. Use the f-word for what it was intended, the deep down gutteral of sex. Don't bring it into arguments where hearts and heads should prevail."

The "f-word" has fans and foes. It's not a word I use. Perhaps one day it will be... who knows. I don't hate the f-word. I do think of it as a word with a literal sexual meaning, and as such, find it odd used in moments of road rage or a stubbed toe. It amuses me to hear it fly back and forth at my book club. It amuses me when someone flips me the bird as they mouth "f-you" and zoom past me on the highway. (I was only doing 80 after all.) Most swearing amuses me, rather than riles me.

(How I do ramble...)

And last but not least, our book club has a plan! In 2008 we will go on a cruise together! We will start saving now and make it a trip to remember. We have two years to plan it. It will be glorious!

I add it to my wish list, of dreams that WILL come to be....

*Dinosaur digging in Montana is on the list.

*Mooning Amtrak in California is on the list.

*And now.... a cruise with my book club is high on the list.

Life is sweet!