I just cannot believe that 2008 is almost over!!! It seems like just yesterday when people were rushing about lamenting the end of the twentieth century and wondering if Y2K was going to be a huge internet fiasco, and that was almost nine years ago! (Not everyone was taking precautions against that huge internet hoax… thankfully!)

New Year’s Eve has never been a big holiday for my family, so we aren’t planning anything special—or should I say anything involving toasting at midnight. We usually go out for dinner during the “regular dinner hours”— before the “party-ers” come out to celebrate the New Year.  I have to admit that the “regular dinner hours” are getting earlier and earlier for my husband and me… something our 20-something year old children cannot understand. My husband and I used to chuckle at the “early bird” dinner times, but now we find these earlier dinner times a lot more enjoyable at restaurants… We hardly ever have to wait to be seated, and the service is usually better than when the restaurants are crowded!

Anyway…

Even though we don’t have any “wild and crazy” New Year’s Eve plans on our calendars… I can still send out holiday wishes to all of you! Here’s hoping that you all have terrific New Years… that 2009 brings each and every one of you better health and more happiness than 2008!

Here’s wishing you all a wonderful, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Kwanza!

All of us are happy and healthy, we have the scented “Fresh Cut Tree” candle simmering on the coffee mug heater, the cinnamon rolls and the cranberry muffins are out of the oven (with the help of Pillsbury!), the tree lights are on, AND Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Bing Crosby are crooning carols in the background. It doesn’t get much better than this!

I had the foresight to prepare my mashed potatoes and stuffing yesterday, so they are both ready to be heated in our oven. The turkey is easy… I bought an already-smoked turkey from the grocery store so it just has to be heated on the barbecue. I am ready to spend Christmas day with my loved ones.

Both my husband and I know that both of our children will soon move away, so we are savoring the present time we all have together. Growing up in a military family and now living so far from my family (Colorado) and my husband’s family (Ohio), we know that it is sometimes impossible to schedule holiday vacations with extended family members. 

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and wish you ALL a Happy, Healthy Holiday Season!

Our daughter is home for the holidays. What better way to spend the time than having her wisdom teeth extracted?!? We were hoping that she wouldn’t need to have this procedure done, but you know what they say about the best laid plans…

As I write this, she is taking a nap in the family room>>> still highly medicated from the morning’s earlier surgery. Our son had his wisdom teeth taken out when he was a little younger than she is, and we made several mistakes (that we learned from!) with his surgery.

For anyone looking at this process: consider the actual time of the surgery. I am so much happier with our daughter’s time of 8:30 AM. This way I can keep an eye on her all day long, making sure that everything is 100%  OK before bedtime. My son did his own scheduling (mid-afternoon) which meant that I worried throughout the night and kept checking on him while he was asleep (more like “passed out” from the anesthesia.)

The other difference between their wisdom teeth procedures. My husband insisted that our son was an adult (over 18) and that he could handle the pre-op decisions. What a mistake that was! His oral surgeon actually had an “assembly line” going!!! He would anesthetize one patient, go extract another patient’s teeth, go work on another patient, ETC. All in all he had FOUR dental chairs going at the same time! (That explained how this particular dentist was able to work such a short week!) I insisted on going to the oral surgeon”s office with my daughter, and although I let her do most of the talking, I had a few questions of my own!

Anyway, I don’t mean to add one more worry to the already-long list of parental concerns for those of you who are parents of younger children, but I really don’t see the wisdom of wisdom teeth. I mean, if man can walk on the moon, why haven’t we evolved enough to no longer have those pesky molars in our mouths!

I guess that it’s official! The December holidays are upon us.

I still haven’t done much about decorating the house, although I did manage to have my husband and son bring the big bins in from our garage. Unfortunately, that’s about as far as I have gotten… except that I did pull my Corelle Winter Holly holiday dishes out>>> I simply could not wait to use those doggone dishes!

And, today was the first day that I had my morning coffee in my “official” Christmas coffee cup. It’s a lot smaller than my regular mug, but that’s OK>>> I love it anyway.

My college roommate wrote and told me that they just got their first snowfall of the season today. We may not be blanketed in a snowy, white wonderland down here in San Antonio, but with holly leaves and berries on my coffee cup, I feel like the “winter season” has finally started.