Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Turkey Talk

Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Last week was a whirlwind. My son came down with strep throat right before the Thanksgiving holiday and my one and only female dog came into heat. I spent all day Tuesday de-germing my house before company arrived and I didn't have time to search for a single new recipe to help contribute to the family Thanksgiving meal. Despite all of this we had another amazing feast and my sister came through for me by finding a new and delicious way for me to fix and cook brussel sprouts. My little dog got over her silliness just in time for us to travel for the long weekend and I think all of us enjoyed being together at my parents' house.

None of us went out on what I guess people are calling brown Thursday now. One of my sisters is boycotting the practice of stores being open on Thanksgiving day. Something I did vehemently opposed last season when this was starting to take a foothold. I've been listening to reports this week about whether this practice is helping retailers or not, but I'm not really hearing anything conclusive about it. If you have an opinion or information about this please share it, I'd been interested to hear whether this trend is likely to continue. I will say that it has made black Friday a much less crazy shopping experience. Those of us who ventured out Friday morning (not in the wee hours,but at a much more reasonable 6:30 am) didn't have to wait in line to check out or be jostled for space in the store aisles. The parking lots were busy, but not full and all the people both shopping and helping to check people out were pleasant and calm. I don't know if this is because all the craziness happened the evening before, or if people are relying more on online deals and shopping and staying in with their families over the holiday weekend. Either way, between the little bit of shopping I did Friday and this week with cyber deals all week long, I've got a good start of finishing my Christmas shopping. That's a good feeling. While I do hope that retailers would stay closed on Thursday, I think they're really getting smart about spreading out their bargain pricing over the whole week of Thanksgiving instead of just one morning or day on Friday. Something which makes it easier on the consumer and makes everyone much calmer and saner.

Overall, November was a pretty good month. I did stick with it on my NaNoWriMo challenge and....

Banner courtesy of NaNoWriMo
Well let's just say that novel dragon was vanquished. Does that mean it is ready to go out into the world to be seen by others? Absolutely not! It is a mess. But the one good thing about NaNoWriMo is the discipline you develop over that month long period to write everyday or very close to it. That is something that gives a writer confidence and that my friends is a priceless commodity in this line of work. So hats off to anyone else out there who participated whether they reached 50K words or not.

As for December, well... I've been thinking about that the last few days. I still have a couple of resolutions to keep before the year ends and a new one begins. The first and most important that I plan to stick with this holiday season is the live in the present resolution. I'm going to try very hard this month not to get caught up in the stress and hyper-anxiety traps that lots of us succumb to this time of the year. I'm going to take this month to reward myself on my discipline from last month by reading a lot more and writing a little less. I want to take time with my stories this month and not worry so much about how much I accomplish but more on what I achieve quality wise. I also need to try and fulfill my other resolution and read Persuasion by Jane Austen. Though, if I don't get that done this year, there is always the first of next year during the long cold month of January. I'm looking forward to binging on Hallmark movies, one being Mr. Miracle which is based on Debbie Macomber's book that I'm reading right now. The other thing I really love about December is that it's the happiest mail month of the year. Well it is if you aren't a mail carrier, for them I suppose it isn't as happy because of all the extra packages. But not only do you get presents in the mail, you get cards! This is the only time of the year (besides my birthday) when I really get excited about the mail because you actually get cards in it and not just bills or junk. My son gets excited about this with me. So bring on the Christmas and holiday cards. I'm going out today to get my Rudolph stamps to help spread that holiday cheer into the world, as I drink my hot chocolate and watch Hallmark movies of course. :) Happy December everybody! May this month be filled with joy, good food, and happy mail.

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