...and let the games begin...

All the little towns around here have put up their Christmas decorations this past week.  Lots of yards are decorated with grizzly ropes of lights and inflatable santas and reindeer and Disney characters. (All of which look particularly gruesome in the daytime when nothing is lit and the inflatables  become partially deflatables.) Today is the craziest shopping day of the year I understand, although I have never once in my 62 years on the planet taken part in it. Today will be no different.

I don't have to buy a lot of gifts anyway, so generally any shopping I do is around 2-3 days before the big day itself.  There might be a couple of things I buy online before that, but not much. I love to cook around the holidays (of course I do) and we usually host a big party at our house sometime in the middle of the month for all the misfits like me who are members of the same tribe. I should probably start planning that soon. God--I am the queen of the last minute planners...

I woke up to a rainy day here on the prairie. It was supposed to rain yesterday, but didn't. The cloud cover kept last night's temperatures warm and the furnace hasn't kicked on for quite a while.  I was gone about half the day yesterday (maybe not quite that much). Came home and laid around and read and then had supper with my son. It was nice and we watched a movie and I  was amazed at how much I enjoyed the solitude after he left. The Irishman is in Wisconsin visiting his father, so all the dogs and half the cats are sleeping with me at night.  The youngest dog, Bella, keeps sitting on the couch looking out the window waiting for him to come home from work. lol He'll be back on Sunday. He called yesterday and said he had just come back from a walk in the snow.  Most of his siblings didn't come for the dinner and he was a little saddened that he might not get the chance to see them too. Our Thanksgiving here was a little fractured and unusual as well. We didn't get together as a family. Sister-in-law too ill to tolerate a lot of noise and chaos, baby sister's kids both with their in-laws (they are having a family dinner today--I might stop by since I'll be down that way for PT this afternoon).  I spent the noon meal with a group of sober alcoholics at a club where they always put on a big Thanksgiving meal for the people who have nowhere to go. It was fun. I took a crockpot corn dish and a pumpkin crunch dessert. Stayed for the meeting afterwards and then came home and hit the couch and heating pad. My right shoulder/neck is hurting...not sure if I slept crooked or pulled something, but it's a bugger. I may just skip PT ... it is really hurting. Last night I put alternating ice and heat on it, used my TENS unit on it and even slathered it with Cryoderm (like Biofreeze). It still hurts this morning...maybe not quite as bad as last night. 

I do need some coffee.  I made the last pot of my Starbucks Sumatran beans this morning, but there is no way I am going to brave the rain and traffic to go to the college town 20 miles from here to get some. lol I'll have some leftover in the morning and drink it cold...and will go pick beans up tomorrow.  lol

I never put out my Christmas decorations until the second week of  December. And by decorations, I mean all the mish mash of stuff I have that does NOT include outside lights or inflatable Santas. I do have evergreens that hang on my front porch railings and a few pieces of outside wooden art that people have given me over the years. I do have a collection of porcelain  Santas,  shelf size and one big one. I have several pieces of  Odd other culture decorations ...I have my beloved Gifting Stags,,,lots of greenery and pinecones and bird nests and sea shells --you know--nature stuff.  Winter Solstice stuff.  One older Nativity set.   And of course, my little fiber optic tree that cats can't climb on and tear down and break ornaments. That reminds me of a lava lamp. lol

Just went out and loosed the chickens. They had 3 eggs for me. We have a heat lamp in the coop that is on a thermal cube, so that when the weather gets cold it comes on. It's too warm today (damp and chilly, but not heat lamp chilly). lol So it's really dark and gloomy out there. Especially inside the coop.  I have a leak in my front bathroom where the exhaust fan never was...there's a new leak in my bedroom closet, but it isn't too bad. We need a new roof but can't afford it, so we patch and re-patch and hope for the best. And keep small tubs and pails under the drips. Such is life...

 Alright ... I am going to a meeting at noon (unless I change my mind) and will spend some time with a friend later today then I'm home and into my snuggle fleece pants and sweatshirt to hunker down for the evening. I started re-reading A Yellow Raft on Blue Water by Micheal Dorris last night. He was such a talented man and wrote several pieces and a book on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. He was married to author  Louise Erdrich and they even co-wrote a couple of books. 

**Michael Dorris graduated from Georgetown University in 1967 and earned a Masters Degree in anthropology from Yale. His Native American ancestry (he was part Modoc Indian) led him to found a Native American Studies Program at Dartmouth College, where he began teaching in 1972. He also adopted three Native American children suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). He later married novelist Louise Erdrich and had three biological children. He published 14 books, including 'A Yellow Raft in Blue Water' (1987) and 'The Broken Cord' (1989). The latter book was an account of the family's struggles with FAS, and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Dorris won great respect for having adopted three FAS children; at that time, little was known about the condition, or what to expect when parenting a FAS child, and Dorris' work put FAS on the map. However, Dorris suffered from severe depression, and he and Erdrich separated in 1996. In 1997, he committed suicide.**

Off into the day I go...time for breakfast.

Namaste