Don't let "christmas" ruin your "Christmas".

That right. I said it.  Commercial christmas is ruining Christmas for many of us and we don't even know it.  I won't even say that I am not going to "fall into the trap" of a commercialized christmas.  It's not a trap.  It's a way of life!!
How many frantic days do you spend in December?  I found myself right in the middle of the chaos this weekend.  I HAD to get the house cleaned up.  I HAD to decorate.  I worried cause I got both my sisters two items but one sister's items cost more than the other sister's items so do I need to go buy one more thing to make the money even or do I stay with two items each so one doesn't get more than the other?  What about my great nieces.  I love them dearly and want to get them something cause they are the only children in the family but do I really need to get them one more toy that their mother will have to pick up?  (Course I will get them something cause children are the very best to buy for but it is totally for selfish reasons.  I want to!!) Anyway, I was NOT having fun.  All these tasks and decisions and money worries were stressing me out.  What happens is you spend all this stressful time preparing for a MOMENT just for the MOMENT to pass and then you feel let down cause it is over so quickly. So I decided to STOP.

I know this is not a new idea, but this year I am going to treat the holidays as it should be treated.  As is everything in life, Christmas is a journey, not a destination. 

This year I pledge NOT to frantically fight the crowds for "just the right gift" that people that I barely know don't need or even want. I WILL NOT be devastated if my house is not spit polish clean and decorated like a Macy's window.  I WILL NOT spend every waking minute worrying that I might be forgetting something or someone.  I WILL NOT go  into debt so I can spend half the year paying for half an hour of opening gifts that, as I said earlier, people probably don't want or need.  I WILL NOT spend half the day on the 25th in the kitchen slaving over the stove to make sure we have every food group known to man represented on the table just to spend the other half of the day cleaning up the mess. 

What I WILL do is buy that special item that I come across that I know a loved one would appreciate and cherish.  I WILL straighten up my house while listening to Christmas Carols and sipping Christmas Tea. I WILL put lights and ornaments on the Weeping Fig tree that lives in my living room.  I WILL spend what I can comfortably afford to give to the special people in my life that I care about.  I WILL spend Christmas Day in the kitchen with my daughter laughing and putting something together for Christmas dinner be it turkey, steaks, ham and eggs or sandwiches. 

See, I don't want to see Christmas as an EVENT. I want it to be a special celebration of Jesus birth that lives within our hearts and treating it as such will fill your soul with happiness and peace.  Christmas is a time to rejoice with family and friends and be thankful for what God has given us. 

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.  Today, in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
Book of Luke


Merry Christmas to all!!!  May you all have a joyful, relaxing, and happy holiday. 

Note to self

Put money in your 401k.  You just can't depend on dying before you retire!!!

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause

 Course, I have no idea who Virginia is.  Just one of those saying from an old movie (I guess) that keeps on going on.  It really should say, Yes Leslie, There is a God. 

See, for the first time in a VERY long time, (longer than I can remember) I am thinking about the future. Not in a philisophical way.  I mean the REAL future.  The "what am I going to be doing in 10 years, how can I afford retirement" future.  See I have not been planning for any future cause on January 23, 1995, my future was taken away. 

It was on that date that I was diagnosed with Hepatitis C and told that they (the all knowing doctors) could not guarantee that I would survive ten years.  I was 37 years old with a nine year old son and a 6 year old daughter and didn't expect to live long enough to see one or both out of high school.  That was 16 years ago and here I am. Six years past my expiration date.  My son is now 27 years old and my daughter 24.  I lived to see them both graduate high school, go on to college, fall in love, fall out of love, move more times than I wanted to help them with, bury their father and grow into wonderful, loving, self sufficient (sort of) adults. 

I will go into more detail in later posts, but to explain my statement, I need to tell you that I will be starting treatment for my Hepatitis in May of 2011.  There is a 25% chance that the treatment will rid my body of the virus in which case I have the opportunity (God willing) to go on to live a long normal life if I don't do anything stupid like step out in front of a bus. (Which brings up the subject, why does everyone use this as the example of their unexpected demise.  Are there that many buses out there running down seemingly innocent people???)

Anyway,
That I may live past the next holiday or next season has not been in the front of my mind for years.  Not that I went around all gloom and doom like I had a sword over my head.  I just chose not to think about it.  I don't live life day to day but more like summer to summer ( I am very cold natured).

Now I have to plan.  Takes some getting used to. 

More later.

Holiday Shopping at Amazon.con

You can access Amazon directly from this site.  All Amazon has to offer is just a click away. 

Southern by the Grace of God

Hello world.  Sorry I have been neglectful.  Still working on the children's book. 
In the meantime, I have a short essay I wrote severall years ago that I would like to share.  Being an honest to God good ol Southern Girl, I came up with this trying to explain the phrase "Bless his/her heart".  Obviously I wandered.  Hope you enjoy.

Southern by the Grace of God

By Leslie Revels Andrews

I am sure you have all seen the bumper sticker, usually spotted in season on the back of a truck (gun rack optional) or on the occasional rusting El Camino, which states “American by Birth, Southern by the Grace of God”.  Even though I personally would not choose to proclaim this to the world from the rear of my Buick, I do indeed feel blessed to have been born and raised a Southern Woman.

Although the stereotypical “Southern Belle” as seen through Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois is as mythical as the “Eat all the Ice Cream and Chocolate you want” diet, the real Southern Lady is alive and well.

As with all things, the face of this Lady has changed over the years.  No longer are hats and white gloves required attire.  Nor are we expected to blush at the slightest hint of a compliment.   When 5:30 rolls around, there is a good chance that the Southern Lady is not taking hot homemade biscuits out of the oven.  We are even allowed to leave the house when we are obviously “in the family way”.

No, things have changed here south of the Mason-Dixon.  Today, the Southern Lady works for a living.  At 5:30 you have a better chance finding the lady either making a quick stop at the grocery store or pulling through a fast food drive through than home making biscuits.  You see, we have to get the kids to soccer, ballet, gymnastics, or whatever by 6.00.

Yes things have changed.  Today the Southern Lady is busy.  She goes dancing, bowling, surfing and stir crazy.  She plays tennis, pool, poker and hard to get.  She washes the car, the dog, the dishes and men from her hair.  She fixes dinner, hurt knees, broken hearts and her single friends up on dates.

In so many ways, the Southern Lady of today is like so many millions of women throughout this country.

But, there are differences to being a woman born and raised in the South.

A true Southern woman, no matter what her occupation, income, marital status or age still likes to be a lady.  (Here, I need to add a qualifier.  As is true in all things there are exceptions.  Even in Scarlett’s day there was the occasional Belle Whatling).

In the South, it is not only acceptable for a gentleman to open the door for a lady, but expected. 

It is still an honor to be a Cheerleader.  It is still the custom to take a pie over to the new people next door, and of course a Southern Lady always, always sends Thank You notes.  In the South, the term Darlin’  is a generic form of address for everyone from the bag boy at “The Pig”, to a grandmotherly matron, to the clerk at the local liquor store. (Yes, the Southern Lady has been known to partake of spirits on occasion). I have found only one exception.  Highway Patrolmen frown on being called Darlin’.  Imagine that.

In essence the Southern Lady is kind, hardworking and realistic.  She may be a working mom, an Executive business woman or a stay at home lady of leisure and she may not be baking biscuits, but the Southern Lady knows how to cook up breakfast, light up a room and heat up the night.

And some people say the South lost?  I guess it depends on how you look at it.

Super Saturday

Hello again.
Still here.  Stayed in all day just vegging so avoided any catastrophe that may have been lurking outside.

Instead, I started a childrens storybook combining my digital art and my writing.  Here are the first four pages.  Hope you enjoy.  

To be continued........................

Hello World - Is there anybody out there?

Well, here it goes.  I have been thinking of what I would say in the event that I ever actually started a blog and I have had a quite interesting dialoque going on in my head all day of the content of this soon to be esteemed piece of literature. Now I got nothing.  So I am just going to jump in. 

I am female, 51, have two grown children (which by the way are the only kind to have), three dogs, 5 cats, a colony of 4 feral cats, a roommate I can't seem to get rid of, a convertable and a condo..  I write, paint, recently taken up photography both traditional and digitally enhanced. (The pink background above  is one of my pieces, cool huh?) work in the corporate world cause I like to eat more days than not and generally just live. 

(Why do I feel that this should be followed by "I am loyal, thrifty, brave, reverent, (can't spell) like long walks on the beach, love sunsets, flowers, butterflies, and my greatest wish is for world peace".)

Wow, this blog thing may be harder than I thought..  Anyway, the bottom line is this:  Things happen to me. 
Not thrilling, exciting, lifechanging, amazing things.  Little bizarre, annoying, not quite catestrophic things that don't really happen to everyone else.  At least all of them to one person.  This blog should accomplish one of two things. Either you will be entertained (who doesn't like the misery of others) or the strange and inconvienient (spelling again) willl stop which would be fine with me.  Either way, somebody wins. 

Of course there is the option that stuff (one of my favorite words btw) will keep happening to me, no one will care and I'll just be writing this to embarrass my kids. 

OK, that works too.