Oh, no.. I think I'd just keep it decorated for Christmas haha. Because.. yeah, it's a CHRISTMAS tree. I've seen school and Easter trees and whatnot, but.. meh. Not for me.

But I don't mind seeing other peoples :P

Yea. It is really neat to see what people come up with. But no, Christmas ornaments for a Christmas tree, at Christmas time for me :) But hey, if it makes you happy and no one else cares, no reason NOT to have it up longer or even year-round.

By the time mid January at the latest comes around, I'm ready to have my shelves or my house back LOL. So I just take it down when I'm tired of it.

Which works for me!

Some people do it on the 1st, the 26th.. my Autn always had hers down on the 25th, before dinner was over LOL.

It used to be by Jan 1 for me (or maybe the 2nd-ish) but then hubby started wanting it down sooner, so then it was like the 26th-27th...and then the 25th-26th. I think that's too early (Christmas day!) I don't mind leaving it up til after. I have absolutely no idea when I will take it down this year. I think a lot of it was I'd keep the unwrapped gifts under the tree, after everyone opened them, until the kids dragged it all off to their rooms, and as they got older, that happened faster, so with nothing under the tree, it was like, take it down ???? lol Its funny to think in the old days (and even some other places) nothing even gets put UP until like Christmas Eve, so thats why it stays up until after Jan :)

We always kept ours up until Epiphany, so the 6th. And we put it up Black Friday, after shopping haha.

Now.. I just go with my heart. No fast and held rules or timing traditions. Just.. whatever is going to bring me joy. Because I think we need all the joy we can get in the world, even if we're making it ourselves!

Yea. :) Thats the way to go. Whatever makes you happy. For a long time I didn't decorate for Christmas until after I had Shane's birthday party (whenever we did it, before his birthday, on, or after). His bday is Dec 7th. But once he grew up and flew the coop, well, we started decorating earlier, and it edged up to Black Friday LOL I don't decorate any earlier than that, tho who knows, maybe one day I will - at least with winterized items if not exactly Christmas things - because I have LOTS of snowman stuff lol

Finished all my quests except battle now....handed in 100 pumpkins to charity too already, plus whatever random cheap foods I got along the way. Bonfire'd things a few times too, but need to do it again lol

That seems fair to me! :P

What are you having for dinner tonight?

There's a turkey stock on the stove right now, we're going to make turkey and biscuits (like chicken and biscuits), but instead of biscuits, we're using leftover stuffing muffins. And there's also going to be leftover corn tossed in there because.. uh.. we have it :P

So it'll use up the turkey carcass, most of the leftover turkey (saving some for spinach artichoke mac and cheese tomorrow), the corn, the stuffing. I'm looking forward to it, even though I kind of.. loathe.. turkey.

Oh - I pulled out some pork ribs. I am more than tired of ham already. I didn't do any turkey, since we always have waaaay too much left-over ham anyway and I'm the only one who eats turkey (I only get the breast when I do do one). I am shocked that my freezer still has so much meat. But then again, we've been naughty and ate out a bit more than I should the last two weeks, and then there was Thanksgiving plus the leftover ham for several days so..... yea. I do not need any meat for at least 2 weeks! - It is a repeat of the same stuff because I buy family packs and separate it, its cheaper that way most of the time. So I have pork ribs (several), pork chops (several), a pork roast, a pot roast, steaks (several), and uuuhh something else? I forget. Hamburger meat maybe? For spaghetti probably. I sometimes want to mix chicken into that, but I have chicken sooooo often at school for lunch - i swear its on the menu at least 3x a week. Chicken sandwich, chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, fried chicken, mini chicken sliders (that one isn't too frequent, but we do get it), popcorn chicken....

Ooooh, ribs sound good!

What are we having this week. Uhhh. Turkey and biscuits. Tomorrow is spinach artichoke mac and cheese. We're havinggggg.. kielbasa with potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts. Elly is making pork chops and garlic green beans. Beef stew.. oh, and hamburger steaks!

I don't know what we'll do Wednesday, sometimes I cook, sometimes I eat out and Nathan has a pizza (thats English class night). And Fridays are Chick-fil-A nights after therapy.... I at least try to alternate pork and beef :P

Stew sounds good. I need to add stews and such into my rotation of dinners. Especially if its something I can toss in the crockpot and forget about. The problem is we don't need a LOT so I want to use the SMALL crockpot, and it doesn't seem to take as long to cook things as the bigger one did (of course, more food was in the bigger one) - for instance, we do pot roast in the crockpot with soy sauce (YUM!) - and since its just me and Nathan I've started using the smaller crockpot (got them, a 2pk on sale last Black Friday as Christmas gifts for me and Katie, we both got a 2pk). and cutting a regular size pot roast from the store (3-4lb) in half. And it seems cooked long before dinnertime when I start it before I go to work (so I put it on keep warm). But like to cook a stew or something else that say, only takes 4-6hrs, when I'm at work and gone for about 9hrs, I don't want it OVERcooked, you know? So trying to figure that out.

Oh boy, 3 pages already. Ok I'm going to be lazy and skip most of the back reading, for now. Just wanted to drop a few lines in. Got up my window lights and Christmas tree over the weekend. There's another wall I decorate that I was going to do today but I took my time and did my nails today (day off from work). They're all christmas-y too. :P

How was everyone's turkey day? My brother actually bought all our stuff which wasn't overly expensive to be honest and I made cranberry sauce for the first time, since we could never find the canned version. I really like it and I've had it before from Bob Evan's but I know it's more tart than the canned so he wasn't used to it and didn't like it as much.

It was SUCH a beautiful day that day. Warm at 62, sunny and it made being grateful for what you have quite easy. When I wasn't prepping, cooking or basting, I was enjoying the weather outside.

Can't believe it's almost December already.

[edit] Woohoo! You got a forum point while making a post! Check out the shop here!

Umm haha yea me and mieke got a little chatty ;) with a lil assistance from others.

So glad to hear you had a beautiful good thanksgiving! And that your brother paid for the food!! Good on him stepping up for that. I'm not a tart fan, I prefer sweet things. My Thanksgiving was nice enough as you'll see whenever (if-ever) you backread lol

Ooh hey I got a forum points too! Yay for both of us!

I'm about to do some back reading but it will be on my phone so I probably won't make another post after this one.

I did forget to mention that I love the new HA's everyone has. Looking forward to your winter/festive ones. ;)

It's another warm day (61) but we're supposed to get some crazy storms in overnight. Looking forward to it although I don't think it will be a cool spring/summer type of storm with all the thunder and lightning. Getting some pretty good gusts of wind already so I think that's an indicator of what tonight is going to be like.

Got to 70 today. but its supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow and get to nearly freezing again tomorrow night. Sigh. Crazy weather.

5pm Also, its crazy. I know the house is warm, its set at 68. The temp outside is like 65. And I AM COLD!!! I am about to go put on fuzzy socks and a long sleeve shirt. BRRR for some reason :P

[edit] Nov 30, 815pm Phew. What a day. Teacher forgot to tell me it was her planning day again, so I had a sub. No big deal but would have been nice to know in advance hahah! She said she thought she'd mentioned it last week?? umm so you mean BEFORE we had a break and my brain went to mush? Yea ok. Well. Anyway lol I pulled a poor child's hair today on accident (she was being stubborn again and laying on the floor covered in her blanket. I went over, pulled the blanket off of her, and went to stand her up, but apparently I'd stepped on her hair! ouchies!! poor baby I gave her lots of love after that and of course, reminded her AGAIN, that we are not supposed to lay on the floor, we are not supposed to get our blanket except at naptime, and she needs to be involved with the rest of the class learning). sheesh. And of course it stormed all night and half the morning, so the playground was drenched so we had indoor recess. We watched a short video (maybe 12min?) and then I had them do several dancing/songs, I lead them in a follow the leader type listening game ALLLLLLL around the freaking room and sweated my butt off :P

Then I go to my english class tonite, and the teacher runs thru all the rest of the stuff he wants us to know for the MLA paper. Then he jumps quickly to review mine & the others who submitted it for guidance, and verbally tells me what to add, so I've probably forgotten half of what he said, but the good thing is I took notes during class on what he wanted added to the papers, so that should pretty much cover it anyway :P I have a week to finish writing an introduction paragraph, insert some citation sources information and make a citations page. Oh and he cancelled class for next week and said just submit the paper by then. So no more classes. [edit] Dec 1 745pm

HAPPY LUMINAIRE!!!!

I have added info from sources, and added the works cited page to my paper and emailed it to the teacher. Hopefully it is correct enough to be submitted and I can be done with English. I am debating back and forth on if I should take Exam 4 (its only over 2 chapters) - I have to get a 90 or higher for it to improve my grade. I got a 92, an 89 and an 88 on my exams 1-3 so far.. sooo.....a bit of dropping, but exam 2 and 3 were over MULITPLE (3-5) chapters, not just 2 chapters. Finished my final assignment in that, as well as in my lab. So now its just the exams - Exam 4 if I choose to take it, Final Exam, and Lab Exam .

Ok, I did the back reading and then just had more work to do than usual as it was crunch time for certain STUPID crap needed for work - like assigned e-courses that literally have nothing to do with my department except the standard "active assailant" type of courses we've had for the past few years. It's not only one class now, it's 3! Since a large majority of us still work from home, it should only go to those required to go into the office. I deal with assailants on my own terms. ;)

Anywho... Kat, you have a white tree!!! So happy to see that and it's so pretty! I'm going to share mine again.

I have a new pink skirt to go with my pretty pink and gold tree!
The pink elephant is for my youngest daughter, who loves elephants, and the large butterfly is for my oldest daughter who loves the luna moth (which is quite big).

I can't wait to have Christmas with my youngest when she returns from TX on January 3rd, I think. Think that's when her contract is over and she might be a couple days after that in her return. I'll admit that I'd rather be alone than to have my brother still lingering around when Christmas comes. It's not that he's awful to have around and we get along great but I can't have the "when are you leaving" conversations with him b/c he's so defensive. (So is my older brother, for that matter. Characteristics of our messed up mother.)

I'm starting to slack off a LOT from cleaning and I know it's the frustration of not being able to have an honest conversation with my brother about shit. He has 2 cars of his own and they both need work and I KNOW he has the money for parts but I'm starting to think that they aren't fixable. One is my dads former car that has a cracked valve cover... oh hell I don't remember but it's one of the last years they made TA's so the part isn't going to be cheap in any way, shape or form. His actual car needs a new axle, which physically is no easy task but I believe it's much more affordable. Soooooo I need to talk to him and I feel like I'm stepping on eggshells when I bring stuff up, which just allows it all to build up inside of me and make me anxious.
The part that makes it worse is that I don't want HIM to feel awkward, either. I can't imagine being his age and depending on someone else as much as he does - mainly for my car - and then worrying about how they feel everytime you use that car. I've already complained about it b/c I hate waiting until he gets back in the late evening to do anything and he understands but then we're still at the same point. The dude he was getting a ride with no longer works for that company so he doesn't have that opportunity anymore but it's like... when are you going to do what you need to do yet finding a cheap car these days is nearly impossible.
I haven't even asked him to start paying for his own damn part of the phone bill that I pay for...............................

See, shit is building up and I'm going to explode and make us both miserable if I don't start talking. It's getting more intense thinking about how my daughter will feel if she comes back and he's still here. It's not that she doesn't like him but more of a female comfort level thing. We're very comfortable around each other and like to walk around however we choose in our own house but having a male around, you choose stuff that covers you more and it's that, plus his smoking, that really bothers her. I don't blame her one bit and I do hate that I allowed him to smoke inside my house but I would feel bad by changing my mind at this point.

Sorry.. that's my "happy lumi" post. -_-

We....have yet to have done any "active shooter" drills. We have done fire drills, tornado (bad weather) drills, and lockdown drills. Well I guess technically lock down drills would be active shooter/assailant? We get to hide in the corner and be quiet. Tho the last one we did was just a level one, not level three (three is hide). We only had to stay in the building and limit movement, although we COULD move - like if we had to go to the bathroom or to lunch we could. Just could NOT go outside. Of course, drills only last like 5min or less, so....haha. We wouldn't have gone anywhere anyway. We don't have a class for it for the teachers though, just the actual drills....

Your tree has, all PINK lights?? Very cool!! I love the elephant and butterfly too!! :) You are Pinkalicious heheheh (its a kids story book - little girl who LOVES everything pink).

Ugh on the confrontation. I hear you on that. I dislike it too. Sometimes you have to just do it (rip the band-aid off!!) But its so hard to do. Sometimes what helps me is to write a letter instead, to either read from or let the person read. But I have no clue if that would help in your situation. Sometimes just venting helps also, to get frustration out. Good luck with figuring out what you want done and doing it/getting it done. I don't know if you really wanted advice or to just vent, but some thoughts - maybe you can compromise? Like just ask him to leave for while she is visiting and if he needs to come back after that he can? That way you get your mom/daughter alone time. He can't really argue with that now could he? Since I am assuming while she is there you would be able to use her car if needed, maybe he could even take your car for that period, I dunno. Talking about the $ issue is even worse to me, like I'm doing that (AGAIN) with Shane and I swear it makes no difference what I say sometimes, he still is stupid about his $ and bills. One day he will figure it out, I hope. But I do believe your brother should be paying some bills/helping with groceries, something while he is staying there with you! (thats just my opinion and you know what they say, everyone has one of those, soooo..) :P BTW, if it was me, I would absolutely NEVER let him smoke inside the house. Outside, fine. That is how I am with Shane, and it still aggravates me that he still smells like smoke when he comes inside, but I try to not complain about that too much. - But I am/have been for a long time - sensitive to smoke. It doesn't really give me asthma, but it does give me similar symptoms, slightly tightening feeling in the chest and all. Maybe its just because I don't like the smell and try not to breathe? I don't know truly!! But as a teen my mom did take me to the DR for it and he said for me to avoid smoke as much as possible. Soooo I am a little sensitive on that specific subject.

Ugh especially on the cars. Sounds like he does just need to save up and get himself a reliable used one rather than trying to fix either of those. I know I wouldn't try to fix them, but I am not mechanically inclined. And you are right, it is HARD to find a cheap decent used one.

[edit] Sat 1pm HOLY CRAP that was the longest ever checkout at walmart. My walmart didn't have my dog food OR cat food, so I ran up to the other one, I knew it was a bit late in the day for going up there but usually by that time enough checkouts are open to move along quick. HECK NO.....ALL the lines were waaaaaay back into the clothing!! I waited almost an HOUR to check out! So glad I wasn't getting groceries/cold stuff! Sheeesh. I didn't get dog food tho! They were out too! Got cat food and a bunch more random christmas things lol Thats what you get when no one tells you what they want (or they don't care what they get) [edit] Sat 3pm Soooo I have decided I WANT to make cookies this year. So I am trying to decide what kind, besides frosted sugar cookies (I love decorating them). What is ya'lls favorites?

Evening…..

We went to ikea yesterday spent £660.: Ian today put up some of the storage we brought. However we were told to buy the long brackets… and guess what.. the long ones don’t fit, they’re too long and you can’t combine them. So we are having to order the smaller ones and get them delivered. So out of the ten we brought. Three have been mounted on the wall. He did however put up the new desk. I love it.

Only one large suitcase filled with things to go to the charity shop sometime next week.

We are away this weekend for a long weekend in Nottingham, drink, food, shopping and more drink. Photos will naturally be taken. So it’s only a four day week. Two in the office and two working from home. My friend Amanda is cat sitting Yoshi. Which I’m sure he will love 😂

The Christmas wreath and Christmas decorations are up. We are just waiting for our two Christmas hanging baskets to arrive which they should do sometime next week.

Evening !! You are possibly in bed by now hahah! Sounds like you are slowly getting back to normal-ish :)

I had Shane come home today, so I got him to help put up christmas lights and decorations my mom "doodled" (her words lol). Candycanes and snowmen. So now my porch is all pretty-fied and so is my driveway a bit lol I will show pix after dark when the porch will show up better.

You got a forum point while making a post! Check out the shop here! Yay!

- I just saw your "shopping bags" those are awesome!! LOL I feel like thats me right now. Between christmas shopping and grocery shopping, i have been carrying tons of bags of fun stuffs!

[edit] 635pm Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

pictures

Porch Close Up of Window Glowy Tree Snowmen! My advent Calendar

Ahhh dammit, I'll have to wait until I'm off the work VPN to see the pics.
Wanted to get back here sooner but I have too short a fuse to deal with the lag and 50x errors that have been plaguing the site.

Did my hair on Saturday. Bleach the roots, then toner then a hair treatment and now it feels amazing. We walked up to a small tree lighting thing on Friday and missed the lighting by a few minutes but it was still nice to get out and be around joyous people instead of the assholes that infest the stores this time of year. Got 2 hot ciders with a shot of fireball in them and they were YUM!! Took the dog up there, too. He needs to socialize on occasion, lol. That and I need to keep him trained and that provides excellent opportunity to do so. They didn't have much for food so that was a bust and then it started raining which just made it dreary and since my brother has been fighting a head cold for the past week, I knew we had to get back to the house. My coat was good but he only had a sweatshirt which we all know isn't waterproof.

Sunday I drank a lot and cleaned the kitchen. I was pretty aggravated while doing it but half a dozen drinks later I wasn't so salty. :P At least it's clean now, even though I still need to organize things that are just sitting on the table that's never used in there.

My tree also has a strand of warm white lights that go well with the gold but aren't as noticeable as the pink lights. ;) I'd like to find a long strand of light up ornaments but those specialty stores are WAY too expensive!

Enjoy your time, !! Sounds like fun! I've never been to IKEA but I'd like to, just to see what kind of kitchen gadgets I could find. I know that I'd have to go in the morning when I still have a lot of energy to walk around for over an hour.

I agree with everything you said, Kat. I'm not fond of letting him take my car for the time that my daughter is here b/c he doesn't even have a license, let alone any insurance and if s/thing happened to my car while he's driving, I'd be SOL and so angry I probably wouldn't ever talk to him again. I can't even think about how much that worries me. That's another BIG reason why I want my car back, before the major snows start to hit. He does help with the groceries, so that's nice but I get the feeling he expects me to cook and clean all the time since I work from home and that shit gets on my last nerve.
I'm thinking about getting this candle but it'd be lit everyday.

Oh no, you definitely need to talk to him Taarna. I know it's awful and dreadful and such but.. you need to talk to him. Just explain it all like you did to us.

hey guys. Been.. busy :P But now I'll be sitting at home during the day most of this week, since the van is acting up. There is lots of stuff going on every night though so.. there's that :P

We spent the weekend vlunteering at the Christmas market, and it was a good time! Friday night we went and dropped the stuff off for the class of 2026 booth (Lily is treasurer), and then we walked around and watched Santa come on the firetruck and light the tree, and listened to some live music.

Saturday El and I sold cookies at the cookie walk for the library, and Lily worked in the class of 2026 booth, carolled with the choir, and then worked at a friends booth, selling his books.

Yesterday El sold cookies for the music boosters, Iz and I worked at the womens civic club booth selling raffle tickets for baskets, and Lily worked at the Class of 2026 booth, spent some time at the friends booth so he could shop, and then she walked around and sold the music boosters ornaments. I'll say.. we made $612! That's the biggest event we've done in two years, aside from the spaghetti dinner. Like.. incredible!

The library made a ton of money too, and so did the civics club.. and so did ALL the vendors. I think basically everyone was about sold out by Sunday, there wasn't much for people to pack up :P

Damn it Subeta.