Kate Warren

As I sit here typing on the eve of my birthday, ready to bid my twenties farewell, I feel an urge to review my life thus far and make plans for what the next chapter will hold.  Unfortunately I am in no condition to do either of those things as I have a cold and antihistamines rob me of the ability to think very deeply about anything.

We are in the midst of the Winter break for school, which means the boys are all home and tripping over each other all day long.  I think they will be relieved when school starts up again in January.  So the house has more daytime noise than usual.  The Christmas tree is, remarkably, still up.  In previous years it had to be taken down right away due to the younger kids' inability to leave it alone.  We have tinsel and ornaments hung in the livingroom and kitchen this year.  I think we'll keep that tradition.  It's nice to look up and see something other than the ceiling.

No writing has been done since the first week of the month.  Not even Christmas cards. Hoping January will see things settle a bit.  In the mean time I will get those cards out before Easter, and I've got a few new story ideas that I am nobly refusing to start while my work-in-progress is in progress.

I wish everyone a happy new year with success and joy brimming over.  See you in 2012.

Kate

It's getting close now.  There are only two days left of school this year.  Christmas Eve is Saturday.  Christmas Day (also my oldest son's birthday) is Sunday.  I've got my holiday YouTube playlist nearly ready to go--test running in the background as I type.  No presents wrapped as yet.  No cookies made.

The ugly plastic tree is going up tonight.  I console myself with the fact that it will look ok from way back in the kitchen and that my husband let me buy new decorations.  He also bought me books.  He's getting into it this year.

So far only one child has requested cookies for a school party.  The same one who is praying for snow because he doesn't want a green/brown Christmas (which I have pointed out to him was what we had the year he was born). 

The kids are all helping set up the tree.  This should be interesting.  One asked if it's supposed to be a fake pine or spruce.  I don't know.  Soon begins the vigil of keeping the youngest two and the puppy from knocking it over or chewing on the lower branches and ornaments.  Admittedly, the puppy is more likely to try eating the tree.

My next post will be post-Christmas so I'm going to wish you all a wonderful holiday, whether you celebrate it or not.  Enjoy the time off, and have some fun.

Kate

'Tis the season for making things sparkle.  I look forward to hanging the garland on the stair railing, the colored lights, the different ornaments.  But there's one part I don't much care for: our tree.

You see we have an artificial tree.  It looked really good when we first bought it, five years ago.  Now it looks like...an artificial tree.  No pine-y smell.  No piece of the outdoors indoors.  No hanging ornaments deep in the branches because there's only wire back there.  The reason we have an artificial tree is that my husband can't stand the smell of real Christmas trees.  It's a shame.  I really miss that.

Of course not all Christmas trees are pine.  Some are spruce.  Or fir.  Or...some other such evergreen.  Apparently they all smell too strong though.

There are benefits to artificial trees though.  No needles stuck in the carpet.  No worrying about watering the tree.  Don't have to buy one every single year.  And you don't have to worry about disposal because you just put it back in its box for another 11 months and three weeks.  They are also much less flammable.

Given that every year I ask if we can get a real tree and every year the opposition wins out, I'd like to ask my readers:

Do you prefer real trees or fake ones?

I'm really interested in public opinion on this one. 

Kate

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I find myself a little sad.  The boards are becoming more desolate, the frantic energy that kept me writing has disappeared, and the weather has turned cold.  Normally the weather would have already been cold.  It's been an odd fall.

I still have the novel to finish.  52,000 odd words wasn't the whole story.  But I'm exhausted.  Things have been nuts at my house.  We have a puppy, who is adorable, but takes plenty of supervision to assure he does not chew the house down.  The kids have various projects coming up for school.  The holidays are coming up.

We don't have a lot of traditions.  There have been some I've tried to start that didn't work out--more about that later.  We have our fake tree (not my first choice, I can tell you) and some decorations we put up around the house.  We have ornaments that hang from the light fixtures in our kitchen year round actually.  I like to bake a few different kinds of cookies and treats to share.  I give a plate to our mail lady, and to the kids' bus drivers. 

We also have a birthday on Christmas Day so we used to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve but our son who has that birthday has requested that we merge the two.  There are a few movies we watch leading up to the big day.

A question for my readers...what are your favorite holiday traditions?  Do you put up a tree?  Light the menorah?  Watch special films or read certain stories?  Do you put up stockings or leave cookies and milk out for a certain man in a red suit?  Is there a particular ornament or song that means a lot to you?  Please share your stories.

Kate