Random Thoughts
I hate the cold. Hate the snow. Hate Illinois. I need to move somewhere warm and tropical. Now!
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OK, ladies...do you like lipstick? How many do you own? I counted the ones in my dressing table drawer and found 10. I have another in my purse. Another on my desk. Funny thing is, I buy it with great intentions of wearing it. But I hate reapplying it. Who has time for something like that? I never look at myself in the mirror once I'm done doing whatever in the morning. But I have found a lipstick that actually lasts! It's a small miracle for women, girls! It's Revlon ColorStay Overtime lipcolor. It lasts and lasts. Sometimes overnight after an evening out. It's amazing stuff. You gotta try it!
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Talking about makeup...now that I am over the line into my 40s, I've become a product a holic. It used to be just hair products...shampoo, conditioner, setting lotion, spiking gel, glossy gel. Hairspray if I needed it. But now it's moved into my skin. I wash, clarify, moisturize, retin-A the bad spots, use an under eye circle lightening gel, sometimes apply an eye gel. I ran out of lip plumper firmer. This is a lot of products to still look firmly in my 40s! lol I should be looking like Heidi Klum!
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Christmas...how do you really feel about it? I'm not a big Christmas person. I joked a few years ago in October that I should decorate right then because the closer it gets to Christmas, the worse I feel. In theory I want to give my kids a Martha Stewart Christmas every year. Complete with decked halls and homemade sweets.
I don't have great memories of Christmas past. To me, the best part was getting to go visiting people on Christmas Day. We'd go to Uncle Marv and Aunt Maxine's. Then to Uncle Meff and Aunt Cora's. Then to Aunt Niti and Uncle Virg's farm. Ultimately, everyone in the family would end up at Aunt Wilma and Uncle Virg's farm. When we were kids we'd play in the basement. Then as we got older we got to join the adults around the big table. Nibbling on food that has never tasted better. Teasing each other. Laughing and joking. That Uncle Virg was the first one to ever treat me like an adult and really listen to what I had to say.
If it weren't the memories of the extended family, my memories of Christmas would be really bad. At home mostly I remember drinking and yelling and fighting. That was by the adults in the house without a care for the two kids living there. Scary what parents to do their children. Thank God I had the extended family.
Now they are all far away and I struggle to make Christmas a nice time. Before Jim's dad died we did Christmas Eve at his parents' house. Lasagna, salad and garlic bread after Mass. The kids played in the basement, the adults sat around the big table nibbling on toffee and other baked goods. Christmas Day was spent at Jim's sister Mary's house with her husband's family.
This year it will be just the five of us. Christmas morning we'll have the traditional breakfast casserole that bakes while we open presents. We'll eat after that, the boys will play with their toys, Jim and I will play with our toys. Then we'll start making Christmas dinner. We've decided that we'll to the traditional turkey and fixin's, even though we all just like the fixin's! lol It'll be a quiet day but I hope the kids remember love in the house.
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Maybe I'm just melancholy because I haven't been able to make a bead in weeks. The cold weather has kept me out of the garage. Even in long underwear I'm too cold to torch. I still haven't suffered long enough to drag the hot head inside. But I'm getting closer to that...I have some portable MAPP gas containers...It's not looking so horrifying any more! Funny what some cold temperatures and bead withdrawal will do!
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I wish each and everyone of you who read this a Merry Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years. May it be the best so far, but not as good as those to come!
