TRADITIONS CHANGE, BUT TIS THE SEASON TO BE THANKFUL

Many people comment on the commerciality of Christmas these days.  I will be the first to admit that I love to shop.  And I especially love to shop at Christmas time.  I will tell Ray that I will buy just a few things this year for our daughter and family, but as the day approaches (and always so fast!), I buy a little bit more.  My shopping tradition doesn't seem to change from one year to the next.  I start early and buy things as the big day gets closer.  That's about it for my traditions staying the same this holiday season.  Looks like we will now be shopping for a car (read the last paragraph).  I have never bought a car in the winter before--another break in tradition.

It's been a different holiday season with Carly not living with us or coming home for four week breaks like she has for so many years.  For starters, this year I found myself making our traditional peanut butter balls alone.  Quite difficult to say the least, since she has such a great touch on "finishing" the product--meaning making sure the chocolate covers the cookie ball entirely, and each one has a smooth finish.  And I wrapped gifts alone.  Not that this isn't always the case (Ray wraps on occasion or he has had Carly wrap his gifts), but this year she reminded me that I usually ask her to put ribbons on the gifts haha.  I am so anal about making the ribbon perfect--it never is, but I try to make each present pretty.  I wrote and mailed out Christmas cards (which have nothing to do with Carly helping or not, but everything to do with the fact that I broke tradition and didn't include a letter in most plus I didn't send many cards out).  There was no gingerbread house this year, and I pretty much baked alone.  Yes, I will say Ray is a great sous chef.  He picked up and cleaned up along the way all around the mess I would make in the kitchen (I break it down and then clean it completely once the day is done).  And yes, Ray made cookies.  He made and brought those traditional cookies into the office, and some he did leave behind for Christmas Day.  Finally, last weekend I did meet up with my sister and Carly at my sister's house to decorate sugar cookies.  It was different in that we were decorating on a Saturday and not our annual Friday off.  But since Carly worked all day Friday, we synced our calendars and picked an even better day--my sister's 50th birthday.  We didn't bake the cookies this year though.  We asked that my sister have them ready for our arrival since decorating can be taxing and takes some time (this is where being anal retentive comes to play again!) After decorating, we went our separate ways until my sister's family birthday dinner that night which was unusual, too, since Carly traditionally comes back home with me.

But after this past Friday, when I learned that several of my friends are having difficulties in life with themselves or their children (physically and mentally), I realized that even though things are changing, Ray and I have so much to be thankful for.  I had just hung up the phone with a great friend that is having some troubling times with her family,  then left work the day before learning that a co-worker was also having difficult times with her family, and Ray and I both exclaimed that "we have been so lucky, but we aren't invincible". Then comes the John Deere Tractor incident.  What happened was we were behind cars that were behind the John Deere Tractor.  The cars in front of us passed him on his left side (I was chatting on phone with Carly) and crossing over the double yellow line.  Ray kept driving a minute or two and then the driver of the tractor put his hand out.  Ray never once thought he was letting him know he was turning left into his long driveway.  Ray thought he was waving him by so we wouldn’t be stuck behind him any longer.  The man behind us was getting ready to pass as well, because he thought the same thing.  So when Ray passed, the guy turned his tractor into our car.  The bucket of tractor scraped the side of car and took the door off with it.  The man that came to tow the car away said the car is probably totaled.  Ray was found guilty by the officer, but he told Ray he found the least damaging violation he could since it was an accident  caused by miscommunication and misunderstanding and not road rage.  A $30 ticket and one point on his perfect driving record.  But Ray being Ray will go to court to see if, like the officer said, the Judge will just wipe it out.  Then he won’t get the point.  But we are going to Panama so who cares lol  But again with a perfect driving record you hate to get that point and that ding against you!  Going to court will cost $66 if it gets cleared OR $96 if he still has to pay the ticket and court costs.  None of this matters though.  We are perfectly fine.  A little shoulder pain here for Ray where the seat belt caught him tight, and a little neck soreness for me (I truly think I slept wrong), but how thankful we are that we walked away.  We got right out of the car pretty quickly after impact.  I sat a little while longer since there was a lot of shattered glass around me.  The people that owned the farm, and the driver of the tractor were all wonderful to us offering us water, picking up the broken pieces of the car, sweeping the country road.  It was an accident.  The officer thanked us for our great attitudes.  My sister was close enough to where the accident occurred and she picked us up and took us home.  The annoyance is finding a car.  A used car since we are only going to be here for about seven more months driving it.  Once home, this is what Ray did to settle his mind.  I baked.  I embraced the new tradition of baking alone.  I made a mess in the kitchen, and then I cleaned it up.  All was normal and boring again.  And this we are extremely thankful for.

John Deere without a scratch

Pretty scratched up Nissan Juke 

Peanut butter M & M Pretzel cookies but still needed more to them (!) so I dipped them (the more chocolate, the better!)

Cookies (nine varieties?)  baked and decorated

Or will Santa prefer this instead?  Kinky Liqueur (Passion fruit, Blood Orange and Mango)--tropical to get us ready for Panama, Candy Cane Vodka (yummy in hot chocolate) or Apple Pie Moonshine (from Costco of all places!)