My Christmas tree still looks the same! I’m not really in into it BEFORE Thanksgiving?! The good news is that Leia really doesn’t care! She likes the fact that with the tree up, she can put her face through the blinds in front of the house to see what’s going on! She does that every day!
It kind of makes me nervous to decorate the tree because I don’t think I can handle her messing with my tree no matter how much I love her!!!
I did get a package yesterday and it was from a friend’s Thirty-One party. The consultant helped me out with designing them but I think they look great! Even before putting lights on my tree or even opening up the branches, I put them on the tree to see how they will look.
They look beautiful! It’s 2020 in a nutshell. I was holed up in the house and therefore did not go to Sean’s abridged graduation ceremony and I got him Leia! At least I have beautiful ornaments to commemorate that time forever now!
I’m not sure where they will end up on the tree but they will look beautiful regardless of where they are!
A few years ago, my Mon used my oven to cook our family’s turkey because I live so close to her and her oven was being used to make the pies. My Mom makes the BEST apple and pumpkin pies!
Although they are a staple in our family’s holiday dinners, I cannot make them. With my diminishing abilities, it just is impossible. About a month ago, Sean asked me what we were going to do for Thanksgiving while he sat on our front porch and we talked through the door. I looked at him and said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m all set!“. We both laughed. I suggested it might be like a drive-through or something.
With the virus NOT letting up, At least it’s a drive-through to get my Mom’s pies! My Mom has five children, my four older brothers and me. She also is the guardianship over my two nephews. She has been making pies all day long!
I feel terrible that I cannot physically help her make them but I have been able to enjoy the smell of my Mom’s pies for this entire day! I have lived in my house for 11 1/2 years and I never thought it would smell like it does today! My brothers and I are celebrating Thanksgiving with our individual families but we all will have her pies!
I am reminded of my childhood with the each pie she makes that I smell! I am not sure how much pie I will eat, and if at all, but the smell has been divine!
Thanksgiving 2020 was extremely different from my family. Somehow, I liked it though. Because my Mom is staying with me at my house, each one of my brothers stopped by to pick up pies that my Mom made for each of their families. My Mom made two pies for each family. One apple and one pumpkin. My Mom has five children so it was a lot of baking!
Because she was doing so much baking, my brother came over to pick up our turkey to make in his house. Another brother brought over deviled eggs that my Mom doled out to the other brothers picking up their pies. My Mom said with each brother picking up the pies that she was grateful that our family was well. We are going to keep them well by celebrating separately.
It was different but the same. Another brother brought plates for my Mom and me because my oven was occupied with the pies. It was a family affair and I really dug it!
But I posted on Facebook at about 1 o’clock in the morning that night about it being time to listen to my FAVORITE Christmas jam!
I was still awake that early in the morning because Thanksgiving 2020 for me was the MOST, “MS-y” day for me to date! I was in so much pain that I reclined my wheelchair and tried to get through it. I was very grateful that I did not have any responsibilities in terms of mail preparation. I just laid in my living room groaning in pain!
That part was terrible so that made the plates we received from my brother even more fortuitous! And yes, I was able to get the most excellent green bean casserole! It was toward the evening where I started to feel a little bit better so I was able to enjoy the food. I thought that when I woke up the next morning, I would be able to post my all-time favorite Christmas jams. But,
If Thanksgiving was the most, “MS-y”day to date, The day after was a close second. I must’ve slept wrong or something because my back was killing me just above my left shoulder. My Mom says that it’s just stress but what do I have to be stressed about?! My life is a bowl of cherries!!! That is COMPLETE sarcasm because I spent Thanksgiving in so much pain but with my back hurting so much the day after Thanksgiving was also spent laying in my chair groaning and popping pain pills.
That’s where #MyGirlL comes in, as my Mom put her in Sean‘s room to go to sleep in her bed, she groaned just like I did. My Mom laughed when she told me about it and I told her that Leah has sympathy Groans!
Today was not much better but I hope to feel better soon because I need to post my Christmas faves and I need to start watching LoveActually into days!
Well, it’s the end of Thanksgiving weekend and even though I am still eating leftovers, my back is still hurting me. I guess it is stress! And even though I wrote that in my life it’s a bowl of cherries, it’s really not. Feel free to CashApp me $50! i’m kidding!
this morning as I tried to gather myself, I thought of it Gavin Degraw song. A song that I listen to when I was living in our second apartment in lot. It doesn’t really go with how I am feeling but there is a line that I am hearing over and over in my head. I no longer drive but I’ll post the entire verse here:
So that is what I am doing right now, I have to push on through the pain because I have a tree decoration to supervise! And I still have to post my All-Time Christmas Faves this year. So, I just need a minute to, “Grab my guts” and to put on through the pain!
here’s the whole song anyway even though it does not fit with how I’m feeling today:
I think it was a couple years ago when Sean commented on the fact that was a good idea that I have always gotten sentimental ornaments each year for our tree. It kind of felt cool to hear him saying that! I am a very sentimental person and I didn’t specifically for him to notice but I just didn’t think that he noticed for his entire life. I was just doing it because I wanted that great memory!
Over this past weekend, I was able to take advantage of the Black Friday specials in terms of ordering ornaments online. I picked out all of the ornaments that I wanted but the one that I wanted the most was only available in stores.
I called three local hallmark stores and by chance, the third store had one ornament available still! I told them that I will have my son come pick it up that day, yesterday. After I spoke with them, I called Sean to ask him to pick it up. He did but he had plans for the fight so he was not able to bring it yesterday so he dropped it off today.
When I called him yesterday, I told him about the ornament and how that was the special one for this year. And as I spoke with him, I sent him a picture of it:
I told him that that was us from so many years ago and we both laughed about my marshmallow falling into the fire! He now knows how important these ornament choices are for me and I appreciate that he went and picked it up from Woodhaven. My tree is still bare but I can’t wait to put it up on my tree! I have to find a spot for it because most of my ornaments have assigned seats.
So my tree has been up in my front room for a while now. We’re trying to get Leia used to it. She really doesn’t care about it though. That’s a good sign! Today, phase 1 was finally complete:
This year, I have made a slight change. My tree is pulled further away from the wall to allow Leo to peek her hand through the shades to see outside:
I have placed a couple of unopened Pampered Chef boxes to block the way for her walking to the other side close to the window.
Given that it’s December 1, I watched Love Actually for the first time this year today. I absolutely love that movie! My mom is putting the lights on the tree as I am writing this with The Holiday on TV. I love that movie too!
I took this picture last night at 12:37 am. Don’t judge! Seeing a complete last night, made me remember how much I love my tree! It took my breath away! Maybe because it was dark when I took it or maybe it’s because after 15 years, I needed new lights. Either way, I love it!:
Thursday, Leia was NOT my favorite! In the morning when my Mom got me out of bed, Leia got my new Christmas ornament and chewed it! Thankfully, my Mom got it from her and she just chewed the hanger part so my Mom was able to sew it back together. She chewed the blue one:
So, as my Mom was sewing it back together, she put Leia outside. I haven’t even put my ornaments on my tree yet! Thinking about it, I think my ornaments are too important to put on the tree this year. I am okay with just having lights because my tree is beautiful regardless!
So when my Mom opened the back door to let Leia in, she realized that Leia jumped the back fence and was in our neighbor around the block’s yard. As my mom went to go retrieve her, I texted Sean and told him:
Leia = BAD GIRL.
then, I explained what she did. I think I’m just going to put the star on my tree and call it a day for this year!
Yesterday, a group I belong to on Facebook posed the question of what our first concert was that we went to. I looked at the comments and people were commenting the songs as well as opening acts. I posted the following and have been living there since then. My first concert was Third Eye Blind and Vertical Horizon opened for them:
I was stuck in the summer before college since yesterday. I clearly remember dancing on the lawn at DTE.
But then my aunt and Facebook friend posted a video that reminded me of Sean‘s first haircut. I still have his hair clippings somewhere in an envelope. The woman who did it still cuts my hair and waxes my eyebrows! I can’t figure out how to post the video here from Facebook but I took a couple screenshots of this cute little boy and even though Sean does not have blue eyes, it reminded me of him. I think it’s the nose in relation to his eyes and the overalls he is wearing!:
I kissed Sean between his eyes all the time when he was that small! So even though these memories are a couple years apart me living in my (able-bodies) memories continues…
First of all, I am so beyond grateful and lucky that my son talks to me on the phone all of the time because he no longer lives in this house because me and my Mom are in a bubble and he went out into the world of the working. Today, he thanked me for his good eating habits. He told me that it is because of me that he eats so healthy. He mentioned spinach and I laughed and reminded him that in our second apartment, he would lay on the floor watching TV and I would put a bowl of raw spinach on the floor next to him to snack on.
I also remember a guy I used to know commenting on the fact that Sean was sitting at the table and eating peas with his fingers. He looked at him almost incredulously and said that Sean was eating the peas, “Like they are good!” I also laughed at that statement because I told him that they were good for Sean.
A random thing that I did not remember until he reminded me of it also made me laugh. He told me that he listens to XM radio all of the time when he is driving cars at Les Stanford. I bought myself an XM radio subscription for my car as a graduation present when I finished grad school and received the last overage check for my tuition. That purchase has proven to be sound because I have it for the life of my car and my car is currently eight years old.
He reminded me of some thing a DJ had said while we were on our way to Target on the hill. He told me that he’s been listening to this song a lot and that I liked it because I used to listen to it a lot. The DJ said, before it played that the original band name was, “Rainbow Bitt Monkeys.” He reminded me that he said that name and laughed about 20 times here for I told him that it was not THAT funny! He laughed well telling me the story because he said, “To say that name in front of an 11-year-old boy, how could it not be hilarious?!”
Well, I had almost forgotten the story and I thought it was pretty hilarious! The band name is Finger Eleven and here is the song but when Sean recounted the story to me, I remembered that and I laughed!:
