This is the last full week of 2001. Where did the year go? Where did 2000 go? For that matter, where did the entire last decade go?!

We finally got snow here today. Not a heck of a lot, but enough to make the roads a little "greasy". Since its really the first snow of the season, that means everyone is still driving around as if there is no snow or they have amnesia about what snow on the road means! It's gotten darn COLD too. Brrrrr. Wretched wind blowing today, which made walking unpleasant. I have to figure out some warmer gloves too -- ones that I can still hang onto the dog leash with.

Anyway, it's supposed to snow a bit the next few days, so I guess we WILL have White Christmas!

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

Answers

We finally got snow too that looks like it might last (I wonder what will happen with the January Thaw?). Temperatures are headed into the single digits, and so far, we've got only a little over an inch, enough to hide the grass anyway, so at least it looks more seasonal -- tomorrow we're under a winter storm warning and they are predicting at least 3 more inches, up to 6.

I was truly wondering. In over a hundred years there has not been a christmas without snow here. I even put up lights outside to try and encourage the season on a bit. And have had to finally bang the ice out of water buckets at night for the last couple of days.

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

Well, just when I was sure that we would have a "brown" Christmas, we have snow. Just a small dusting so far, but it continues to fall in squalls and slowly the ground is looking white. It sure is cold!!! The wind blowing this morning about went right through me as I walked out to take care of the horse. Sassy has a nice shed in the "out- back" where the ground is higher and she can roam around on over half of the 40 acres at will. She is a mustang and I used to bring her down closer too the barn, but we found she wanted to "play" with the goats and cattle and it was better all around to just carry feed and water to the back for her. I came in from chores this morning and started grubbing around to find the warmer chore cloths. It has been so warm that until now I have not needed them.

We are having a very quiet Christmas eve and Christmas with just the two of us and our animals. Wednesday my daughter and her family will be here and Thursday Sherri and Keith. Today and tomorrow I will do some Christmas cooking and baking.

Today is the first day that I woke up feeling "well" after a fierce battle with some sort of flu bug. I think it is the sickest I have been since I had the malaria when I returned from Haiti several years ago. (it was the last time I went without taking prophalactic meds!!!) I feels good to feel good and I look at my mess and could get discouraged but chose not to.

I hope all of my "forum friends" have a nice Christmas and send hugs and blessings to all.

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

Sorry you've been feeling rotten, Diane. I'm coming down with a cold (courtesy of the other theater goers, I think), but I don't feel THAT bad! Good thing I don't have any plans for today and tomorrow, as I intend to dose myself well and baby myself as much as possible. Hope this cold goes away soon!

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

Diane and Joy, please get well soon!

To all my wonderful friends here at BTS, may you have a nice Holiday, no matter how you chose to observe/not observe *any* of them!!

For me, I have been enjoying having friends and kin over to celebrate. Yesterday we had an open house and had maybe 25-30 folks in and out (mostly in!) Last guests left at 1 a.m.....it was supposed to be from 2-6 p.m.! Oh well, it only comes around once a year. Too much food, wine, and cookies!!!

Got to go start cooking again. I figure since I finally got the house clean, I might as well do my best to mess it up *totally*.

Polly, I haven't read a lot of things posted. I sure hope you are doing well. I'm still thinking and praying for you!

Kirk, I think about you at holiday time. Hope you're warm and dry and cozy! Got kitties?

Renee, I hope everyone is faring adequately after that sad experience with your neighbor passing on.

To all of you (and you all know who you are...I don't need to mention every name! But I could if pressed!), I thank you for the blessings you have given me here at this Forum. I have sure learned a lot. What a great thing...having this free communication of ideas! You guys are all the very best!

Merry Christmas to you all!

(btw, it's been sunny and in the low 50s here! No flooding for a while!)

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

All dry warm and cozy here Sheepish!! Even been fishin for some holiday spirit listening to some Christmas music...happy Holidays...Kirk

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

BRRRRR!!! 16 degrees and spittin' snow right now, s'posed to get down to 12 tonight and the way that wind is whipping out of the west, I don't even want to go outside! Too bad, gotta go back in to work tonight - sniff, snivel, whine ;o) Pop was sweet enough to take my car when he went into town for coffee this morning and put gas in it for me - or maybe he just didn't want to scrape the windows on his, since mine was nice and warm from the drive home....Nah, I'll just keep thinking he was being sweet!

When I get off work tomorrow morning, I get to zip over to the Doc's and get my stitches out - picture me doing Snoopy's Happy Dance!! Then it's time to pull on the purple sweatshirt and head to Vandalia for the holiday basketball tournament - they don't seem to give these kids any time off to enjoy the winter vacation! Or, for me to enjoy their winter vacation. Sniff, sniff...and it was just a few short years ago that I thought winter vacation would never end and they would never go back to school! Since this is Jes's last year, I really don't want to miss anything; so I am run ragged too, especially since I don't have the energy of a 17 year old!

And speaking of energy; I was in the kitchen Christmas Eve doing the dervish thing and barking out orders, according to Hubs! He told Pop that the surgery must have worked, I was back to being obnoxious! Awwww, I always knew the man loved me for my personality ;oP

We had a really good holiday out here - we got to get to know Jessie's new beau, Cory, better and we think he's a really nice kid. Only problem with him so far is the kid SAYS he doesn't like tomatoes or broccoli! 'Course, he also said he didn't like carrots, but Jes got him to try one that I had glazed (boil, drain, add butter and brown sugar, toss, serve) and he ended up eating quite a few! We may get him straightened out yet! He is from a very urban area just N of St. Louie, so the farm is a bit of a culture shock for him - just wait 'til spring when Unc and I start hauling manure again!! I'm ready!

I think Unc's got manure fever too; Pop said he was down today while I was sleeping, out banging around on one of the tractors. Pop had the table covered with seed catalogs when I got up and was all in a lather because he couldn't find his favorite Tiger Baby matermelon seed in any of them! We started looking through seed packs to see if we had any left over from last year and he remembered it was in a gold seed pack from Parks, so we got on line and found them - $4.95 for a pack of watermelon seed! And he told me to order two!! Now who's spending too much money on the garden, I want to know!? Then I was looking through the Pinetree catalog and saying "Ooooh, I want to try this" and "Ohhh, this is neat" and "Look at this, Pop"; when Hubs got snotty and reminded me that we only have 21 acres of tillable ground. Hmmmp!! Y'all think it's too early to start sneaking the graph paper in to my bookbag that I carry to work?!

Well, as Joy said; here we are almost to the end of the year! Anybody made any New Year resolutions yet? I try to avoid 'em myself, but I may make me a couple for 2002, along with my annual TO- DO list. I'm going to be on the run slash working slash no time to breathe for the next week but if someone would get energy enough to start a thread on resolutions or plans for '02; I'd promise to join in with mine on New Year's Day!

Diane and Joy, hope you two are feeling better; and hope everyone else is warm and dry and well fed!

-- Anonymous, December 26, 2001

My cold is marginally better, thank you. I had a few scary episodes of coughing and being unable to get my breath. Too much phlegm in my lungs, I guess. I've been taking every remedy I can think of and seeing virtually no results, so I guess this will just have to run it's course, making me miserable for a few more days!

I'd like to whack the bozo who was sick and went to the theater anyway, so they could pass on this crud!

The dog is totally unfazed by the snow. I figured she'd been through winter at least once before, but I expected her to be at least surprised to come out and find snow instead of grass one day. Nope. She was so funny today. She took a big bite of snow (thirsty, maybe?), then stuck her head way out, down low, with her mouth open and her head weaving back and forth. Just like a kid -- "Chomp! Wow! OW! That stuff is cold!" LOL!

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

BENIGN!!

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Oh Polly.......answered prayers!!!!!!!!! (((((((((((((((((((0))))))))))))

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

We're back from visiting my family in Michigan. Four days is about my limit for dealing with my family, by Thursday morning I was ready to hit the road. The trip went pretty well, my 6-year old neice Jordan wore me out. I"m used to dealing with my friend's daughter Jessica who is more quiet and studious and happy to sit quietly and color or look at books. Jordan is very active, she's always up singing and dancing and wanting to DO something. My nephew Evan is 3 and his two favorite words are "cool" and "awesome". He was so cute opening his presents on Christmas morning, he was excited by every gift. He got a choo-choo that runs on a real track which made his mom very happy because he had been unrolling the toilet paper all over the house to use as train tracks. I told my grandmother about the charity crafting group I'm starting and she gave me 3 grocery bags full of yarn and fabric from her stash. Her eyesight is getting too poor to do crafts anymore so she was happy to give it to someone who could put it to use.

We did have one sad event during the week. The people who live 2 houses down from my parents had one of their 12-year old twin daughters pass away on the 24th. The girls did have some genetic problems so they weren't in the best of health, but Felicia's death was completely unexpected. So sad to lose a family member at this time of year, especially a child.

We got to visit with Diane for a couple of hours yesterday which was nice. We would have liked to stay longer but the roads were a little sloppy and we wanted to get home before dark. Now I have a ton of laundry to do. My dad smokes a pipe and all three of my siblings smoke cigarettes, so everything I took on the trip reeks of smoke.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Great news, Polly! :-D

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Hey there, everyone!! I've been kinda AWOL over the last few days. Holidays are fun...sometimes, but also a pain in the butt! Christmas was good, but could have been better, I guess. But there were no major problems and the kids had fun, and that's all that matters! The day after Christmas, the tree was GONE!! Just had to get my living room back to "normal"! Am I "strange" or what :-)!

We had about 4" of snow on the ground for Christmas...just enough for Santa's sleigh. I know what you mean, Joy, about the way people drive for the first snowfall!! With our garage business, all of a sudden everyone remembers that they should have snow tires on!! DUH!

Glad your stitches are out, Polly. Hey...I love carrots cooked exactly the way you described them! Sometimes I'll sprinkle on a little cinnamon and nutmeg, too.

Diane and Joy...sure hope you both are 100% soon!!

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. I plan on remedying (??) that soon!! I have some questions for EM, but I can't remember where I put them. CRS strikes again!!!

Happy Happy everyone!

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

That's great new, Polly!

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Polly!!!What a wonderful Christmas gift to you ..Benign...what a great word.One of my clients had a baby Monday morn at 9;14 after a very long labour.I left here late saturday night,and came home monday afternoon ,in enough time to finish wrapping.The tree never did get decorated ,but who cares ,I was home for christmas.We have a dumping of snow here,7 inches and the temperature is -8.Its great cuz the horses can't run away when we bring them in at night now,the snow is too deep(remember they are minis)The lake effect hits hard where we live,so 15 minutes away the roads are clear.The seed catalogues are in,Richters came in today.I hear some eggnog calling me,and need to put more wood on it's chlly in here ....the poor budgie!!!!!I wish you all health,contentment and the love of family for this next year ,we are certainly blessed aren't we....blessings teri

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Thanks, all! Gee golly, it sure is amazing how one little word can brighten up your day! Suddenly got a lot more energy, too. Too bad I still can't lift things...."Oh, Hubby dearest....."

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2001

OH, me too Polly; congratulations for your great news!

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2001

Hooray, Polly!!! What wonderful news!

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2001