For Auld Lang Syne, my dear

Only a few hours left of 2012.

Normally a time to reflect, give thanks, contemplate life's changes.

2013 needs to be a new year in many ways.

I was watching House Hunters international today and a couple were looking at a Paris apartment.  Their budget was 3 million.  That is 3,000,000.  Then ended up paying 4.3 million for an apartment hat had to be renovated.

So Resolution One:  Become a millionaire during 2013.  That means write more articles. finish a book or two, sub more, spend less on coffee and wine, win the lottery.  Of all of those, winning the lottery seems to be the most realistic.

Which leads me to Resolution Two:  Be realistic.  I vow to stop dreaming that Hollywood will discover my in a community theater show and make me the next Wilford Brimley.  That will never happen.  And I won't be discovered doing improv comedy with Exit 99 and we all go on Leno or Letterman.  That won't happen.  I know I can't lose 25 pounds.  That won't happen.

Hence, (I love that word!!),

Resolution Three:  I will become more active physically.  No more playing spider solitaire for three hours on end.  Or reading endless Facebook postings about people having fun with family and friends.  In 2013 I vow to begin a non vigorous workout regimen involving a combination of walking, biking, and other cardio activity.

Resolution Four:  I vow to get back into my dresses.  Yes, you read that right.  Dresses.  When we did Tuna Christmas (or Christmas Tuna, that reversal problem again) I could wear a size 16.  Now I can't quite button it and it can't get any bigger.  Didi and all the others have to be ready in July.

Resolution Five:  I am boxing up my fears and sticking them back into the closet.  I will no longer think that every time someone gets sick I will get sick.  Every headache is not a stroke or  brain tumor.  Every pain in my chest is not a major heart attack.  My kidneys are not developing stones the size of grapefruits.  I will not get black lung disease because I never really worked in a mine and going into the coal mine at the Museum of Science and Industry when  I was 9 and having a freak out reaction because I thought the walls were closing in and the tunnel collapsing does not, in fact, qualify me as a miner.

So, there you have it.  Five resolutions.  From time to time I will write you all about them and how I am doing.  But do me a favor:  Don't Abandon Me!!  I can't accomplish all those by myself.  It takes a village.

So, walk with me....ride with me....buy lotto tickets for me....send me cash contributions...tell Hollywood I would make a wonderful Wilford.

Geez, if this was tomorrow I'd have already broken Resolution Two.

A first Christmas in the new house

It is nearly our first Christmas in the new house.  I think I have said that at least 3 other times in my life, but this will be the last!
We have decorated as best we can.  There is some garland on the outside porch, a live tree in the great room, odds and ends of Christmas on the mantle and throughout the house.
I have carefully assembled my German carousel, which I bought in Germany during one of our forays into Europe.  This has three levels....you light candles and the heat of the candles rises, spinning some fans that turn the three levels.  On one layer there are shepherds, another has Mary, Joseph and the babe and another level has dancing naked ladies.
Just kidding.
I don't have a blue spruce to trim this year,which means I have 19 strands of outdoor c-9 bulbs that I will probably end up selling next year.  The blue spruce at our old house was about 30 foot at the tip top, which made it hard to get lights up without using a pole and hook for help.
Anyway, it's about 6 p.m. Christmas Eve and I am sipping eggnog while thinking about Christmases past.
I always have a hard time "getting in the spirit."  I've read A Christmas Carol, have It's A Wonderful Life ready to go in the DVR.  All the presents are bought and not yet wrapped, but it is early.
Presents.
I always give something different.  Fire extinguishers to the girls.  A 4 pound rutabaga to a girl in high school...although she was Jewish and it wasn't technically a Christmas present, but  her birthday was pretty close to the date and it seemed like an a good present at the time.  Slippers that double as dust mops.
The first present I remember buying on my own with my own money was a hair dryer I got my mother.  I was probably 12 or 13.  I went to Wieboldts Department Store at Lincoln, Belmont and Ashland in Chicago and picked it out myself.  It must have been 1960...or 61.  I used the money I earned on my paper route to buy this blue thing that you could hold in your hand or stand on a wooden stick.  I thought it was the most amazing, modern, coolest device ever created.
My parents would take me downtown to Fields, Carson, The Fair....and I would revel in the wonder of the season.  The incense burning log cabins on sale at Woolworth's, the monorail that ran along the ceiling at The Fair.  The wonderful windows of Marshall Field's and Carson's.  The huge tree in the Walnut Room.
I didn't get downtown this year, and I don't think I made it last year  either.  I miss the windows, the German market, the bustle and the hustle of the season.
I miss the people who created the memories that formed, or malformed, me.
It's almost Christmas in the new house.
I (and Jackie) truly wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
May all your gifts be joyful, and your memories fond.
And now for some pictures.

My carousel...waiting to be lit

Can't believe I killed the plant.....but I still have not thrown it out!

This was a 12 foot tree in the field

A gas fireplace is actually pretty nice!

Fuzzy, but you get the idea

1 down, 192 to go

Wow.  We have been in the house one month!  If I live here until I am 80. that's only 192 months until I move into a smaller unit.
I have discovered a lot in the one month.
First off, you never have enough electrical outlets.  We have added one extra outlet in the yellow room and made a two plugger a four plugger in the bedroom.  We have a lot to plug in!
Second thing I have learned... we have a lot of Christmas stuff.  I had help lugging over  plastic tubs of trimmings and I believe I counted 22.  Not to mention the odds and ends that don't fit into tubs, and we have a lot of those too!
In some cases we didn't have enough.  Roping, for instance.  Someone decided the front porch would look nice draped in garland.  But the stuff we bought in '08 is no longer made, so the fine folks in China produced another, similar, mock pine that we bought and put up.  Imagine my surprise when I found out the male and female plugs were ON THE SAME ENDS!!  Who the freak makes something that you can't link together?
When you think of it, Chinese made Christmas decorations have to be strange.  China doesn't seem to share a Christian ethic, and I can see hundreds of these godless people painting smiles and dimples on the little lord Jesus prior to packing him in plastic and sending him to us, where we pay exorbitant prices for items made by people earning less than a Starbucks a day in some dingy, dark, dangerous warehouse.  Wonder what they are thinking when they assemble the burping Santas, farting reindeer, singing wisemen and other holiday have to haves.  But I digress.
Decorations.
In some cases we had too many.  We had lots of door knob hangers.  We now have levers.
We usually have two trees.  This year we only have a live (that's a misnomer for sure) tree.  Emily and I cut it down at a local tree farm.  It was 12 feet tall, but we only cut the top 9 feet because that looked best.  Then I cut it down to 6 feet when we got home, because the ceilings are 8 footers and I did not want to green mark the ceiling the first year.
The tree has a double stem.  Did not notice that.  There's a big hole on the left side.  Did not notice that.
It's crooked.  Did not notice that either.
But with lights and ornaments, it looks great.
Third bit of knowledge:  dark wood floors show every bit of dust and every footprint.  We dust the floor at least twice a day, more often if she cooks.
Fourth bit:  You can't just hang a cuckoo clock.  It needs its own place.  Still looking.  I miss that hourly reminder that I am getting older fast.
Fifth:  You can't build a house and add as many extra things as I did and not have to take out a mortgage.  We are ok as long as Illinois keeps its pension payments coming.  Or at least next February.
Sixth:  Ikea stuff is a lot easier to assemble than stuff from Home Depot.  I swear, I am never buying a product from China again.
JCP, which is what JC Penney is calling itself these days, has a towel series called Home.  Some of them are made in the US!!  However, its America line is made in ...... well, not China but Pakistan or India.  Go figure.
I will be taking pictures of the final ... ok, semi final, product and share them in my next post.
If I can find the camera.