Brown Christmas Is Perfect, Thank You.

I am pleased to say that this year in Minnesota we had a brown Christmas.  At least in my part of the state.  I do believe they have snow in Northern Minnesota.  Am I disappointed?  Hell no!

There is nothing enjoyable about scraping ice from windshields after going out to eat, shop or anything else you might need to venture out for.  I don't enjoy shoveling mounds of frozen white stuff off the drive and walks...and my husband doesn't either.

It gets tiresome slipping and sliding all over the streets...or seeing an inch of salt eating away at your car.  Neither cars nor people are made for ice.

Bah, humbug regarding ice skating, snowmobiling, skiing or ice fishing.  Sorry.  I don't enjoy freezing my ass off staring down a hole in the lake on the off chance that some poor fish might decide to strike.  That is what supermarkets are for.

Snowmobiling?  Seems to me the only reason people do that is to go from one bar to another and drink.  Dangerous and cold.  No thanks.  A bottle of cab in my warm house works better.  Especially considering I probably won't kill myself or others making my way from one room to another.  (Depending, of course, upon how many bottles are consumed.)

No, give me a pool and a frozen cocktail over a ice rink and hot chocolate any day.  Slipping into flip flops to leave the house is much nicer than putting on layers, a coat, a hat, gloves, boots...and then standing in melted snow in stocking feet when you take off the boots later.

Why do I stay?  I love a Minnesota man.  He wants to stay because family is here.  I stay because he gives so much to me that I need to let him claim victory in a few things.  This is one of them.  So far. 

So, brown Christmas?  I was sure hoping so.  My wish was granted.  We may not even have snow before New Year's!  That will make this frozen hell they call Minnesota much more endurable.  It really is a beautiful place to live most of the year. If you manage to shorten the four to five months of winter we usually get down to three you may even get me to say it is the best place to live in the country.

Just to celebrate I think I will go out and make a leaf angel. Or would that be tempting fate by rubbing it's nose in all things not winter?

Guest Post by 8 Year Old Kaylee-Future Author

I was very excited to hear from a nephews partner that her daughter loves to write and wants to be an author.  Perhaps like most new authors now, she will become an indie author! It is always nice to know that there will be people who love to do what I do.  Kaylee is 8 years old and is a charming little girl.  Please welcome Kaylee Rae Curtis!

Christmas Traditions 

By Kaylee Rae Curtis

Every year for Christmas we set up the tree and we always have a lot of ornaments! My favorite ornament is my princess ornament. She has a fancy dress and ribbon and a bow.

Another thing we do is cookies. We always make Christmas tree cookies. Last year we made about 100. We had so many that we had to throw them away! But they were still good!

Another thing we do is we always go shopping for people who are nice to other people. Once mom got me Pillow Pets. And we always go to parties. Like the one was the Rowland party. THE ROWLANDS ARE SO LOUD!!! We played a dice game and ate a lot of food. And my favorite food was the sloppy joes, rice krispy bars and the fruit punch.

And another thing we do is that we go to our Grammie & Bumpa's house. Grammie and Bumpa are our grandma and grandpa. Every year we go there and we see Santa, and we eat a Christmas dinner, and then we get presents and we play with our toys.

And another thing we do is we always get emails from Santa, he tells us how old we are, he tells us if we are on the nice list or the naughty list. And last but not least, we always open our presents in the morning.

******

Steven Ain't Believin'

By Kaylee Rae Curtis

Once upon a time there was a boy named Steven. He loved to play, but the person he did not like was Santa!

One day he was playing with his friends and his friends asked him, "Do you believe in Santa?"

He said,  "No. Your parents are Santa."

"Do you believe in the tooth fairy, Easter bunny, or anybody?"

He said, "NO!" 

So one day his friends were thinking of a plan for him to think that Santa is real. So they sent a letter to Santa saying...

"Dear Santa,

I know Steven has been a naughty little boy, but can you please come to his house cause he thinks your not real!"

Love, Tommy & Jake

So on Christmas night Steven was thirsty, so he went down tot get a bottle of water and when he came up he....saw Santa!

He pulled his beard - it did not come off.

He said, "I'm going outside." - and he saw Santa's reindeer! 

He said, "You're real, you're real!" 

So Steven gave Santa a big hug and went back to sleep.

***

What I Got For Christmas (Christmas Alone)

We are celebrating Christmas alone this year.  It is not the first time, nor will it be the last.  We did not decorate or put up a tree.  We have only exchanged gifts with each other three times in almost forty years.  We have always bought what we wanted during the year.  The times we bought gifts, most of them were exchanged for something else or put on a garage sale a few years later.

People want to feel sorry for us when they find out we "aren't doing anything" for Christmas.  They assume we must be depressed or Grinch's because we have not decorated (it has been a couple years since we have).

Not so. We are perfectly happy and we have Christmas spirit inside.  We just don't feel like getting out a bunch of "stuff" and then having to put that "stuff" away to get out the regular "stuff".  We are extremely busy and that is one chore we have eliminated that last couple of years.

Oh, we will decorate again.  Now that we have Gideon in our life we know the importance of making Christmas magical for him.  Once he is old enough he will want to see decorations when he comes over to Grandma and Grandpa Rowland's house and that is just fine.  Right know we just need a break.

As far as being alone, we treasure that time together.  We don't always want to be alone on Christmas. But, when we are, it is a time to just enjoy the person we love the most.  There is no pressure to be anywhere (most everything is closed).  We can stay up as late as we want, sleep as late as we want and don't have a long drive.  We don't have to clean like maniacs for company.  We can eat whatever we damn please.  We can even make love on the kitchen table if we want, because Santa ain't coming down our chimney! Yeah, people in their 50's (and later!) have sex.  Damn good sex.  Get over it. You can only hope you are that lucky when you are older.

Gifts?  I got mine early this year.  Gideon arrived next door on August 20th.  I have already blogged about our love for him.  We are now "grandparents" and I treasure every moment with him.  What better gift is there than new life that I am not responsible for 24 hours a day? We are childless by choice and grandparents by choice.  Those choices have proved perfect for us.

I also received the gift of "no cancer" in regard to the biopsy I had this fall.  When you have had cancer once that is an even bigger gift!

I got two books out this year, my first two.  It is quite a gift to hold a book in your hand that has your name as author.  The Gastien series is alive and well. I love being an indie author!

It looks like Christmas won't be white here and we both consider that a gift.  It makes the Minnesota winter a but shorter.

Lastly, I am going to be "making love to the color" (as Gastien called painting) from now until January 2nd.  No writing. Just a little promotion of my books and lots of paint and canvas.  Yeah baby!  Like Gastien, that is why I am here.  That and the writing.

I found out that my nephews 8 year old daughter wants to be an author.  She writes things and asks her mom to send them to publishers, so I am going to turn this blog over to her tomorrow.  You will be hearing from Kaylee tomorrow with some Christmas thoughts.  It would be nice if she got some comments to encourage her.

So, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year or just plain old have a great life...depending on your belief.  I am off to make love...to the color!