Merry Christmas

I want to wish all of my friends, family and readers Happy Holidays. I managed to survive last minute Christmas shopping, a full day of gift wrapping and 3 days of cooking. And although on Thanksgiving I had looked at my budget and told my children we were going to have a lean Christmas, once again we were overly blessed. The fact that our idea of a lean Christmas is still abundant hit home when we invited one of my daughter's friends to share the day with us. I knew the young woman had said she couldn't afford to buy Christmas presents, but I didn't realize that her family would not be exchanging gifts or that they hadn't even put up a tree this year. Not only did we provide her with a few gifts, she shared our traditions. The breakfast quiche and coffee for breakfast. Waiting for the kids grandparents to get here before we could start unwrapping gifts. And the sharing as we each excitedly waited for our loved ones to open the gifts we had chosen for them. For us, it's most fun when we've managed to surprise them with the perfect gift.
My Mom and Dad spoiled us all, and it's because of them that our 'lean' Christmas was not lean at all. And then I set about to cooking Christmas dinner. Ham, potatoes, fresh green beans w/mushrooms and candied carrots followed by pumpkin cheesecake. Luckily our home has a Wii, and we were able to 'bowl' and play 'tennis' to work off that overstuffed feeling.
I hope that each and everyone of you have shared your own heartwarming version of my day. Merry Christmas everyone!

Rumors of my Demise

The princess is alive and well, contrary to whatever rumors you may or may not have heard. Life has a way of getting stuck in fast forward lately, and no matter what buttons I push, it won’t slow down. In some ways that’s good. Unfortunately, it doesn’t leave me much time to ‘get on my soapbox’ here. My small business has signed its first steady client. For future reference, taking on a huge new client just before Christmas is nothing short of CRAZY. As if that weren’t enough, winter decided to come early here in Maine. If you want a white Christmas, come to Maine. I’ll gladly let you take as much of the cold, wet, white stuff back home with you as you want. I still don’t have my Christmas shopping done (thank you retailers for extended hours this weekend) and for some ungodly reason I seem to have booked myself to attend not one, but two local band gigs in the next seven days. Hey. when I was asked to go it was November and December seemed to be the distant future. Life is never boring here in the castle.

Girlie Glimpse @ the Gridiron, Vol. VIII

I must apologize for my sporadic postings as of late. I'm finding it practically impossible to balance personal blogging with my business blogging. The spirit is willing, the writer is weak.
On the football front, the Pats struggled for two weeks with opponents that should have been a walk in the park. This week, against a team whose defense is considered premier, they dominated. The differences? One. The Patriots face every team knowing that there is a potential to lose the game. The Ravens are just as big of a threat as the Colts. That sort of thing. Two. The Eagles and Ravens didn't get them fired up by issuing stupid guarantees in the week building up to the game. As a coach, I think if one of my players had thrown such a blatant gauntlet out to the Pats three or four days before the match up I would have had that player for lunch. History has proven that when you challenge the Pats they meet it. Every time.
One the football fashion front, Mr. Bill Belichick has gone from fashion risk with his cut-off flash dance sweatshirt, to fashion emergency with his thick black headband. ( a male friend says it's a ski accessory, I say," Where are the ski poles then?") Although Bill's puffy deep blue coat was strangely reminiscent of the Stay puff Marshmallow Man, it was understandable given the temperatures in New England lately. But the headband? Coupled with the Motorola headset? Just not happenin' Bill. Leave it on the ski slopes and don a knit cap next time. Thank god his coaching abilities are not directly in correspondence with his fashion sense huh?