Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays.... (White: homes, purchase, homeless)

[tpabes]

Merry Christmas!

[Jammie]

Debey, how cool of you to start this thread and I love your decor. I tried to reply several hours earlier, but my computer decided it needed to do some silly scan. I'm sorry that your children are having a few struggles right now. Guess many of us have been there and done that. I wish them all the best in the new year.

And I'm wishing all my South Dakota forum friends a VERY Merry Christmas and a Happy and prosperous New Year!

[debey]

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can and quickly. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an "eggnog-aholic" or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it!!!! Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand-alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple, pumpkin and mincemeat - have a slice of each. Or, if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Reread tips: Start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.

[Huckleberry3911948]

merry christmas

[RangerDuke08]

Happy holidays! I too feel the pinch of the holidays 2008, certainly a year to look back on. Had to cut back on expenses where I did not purchase any gifts though still feel way more fortunate than many, including the homeless in below freezing temperatures, let's not forget what we do have this holiday, such as family and friends.

[mi~mi]

I wish everyone on here a very, merry Holiday Season. It's not about all the junk you can buy. It's about a very special birth long ago and being with your family.

I'd add a little cute holiday picture, but I'm still working on figuring that out!!!!

[debey]

Originally Posted by mi~mi

I wish everyone on here a very, merry Holiday Season. It's not about all the junk you can buy. It's about a very special birth long ago and being with your family.

I'd add a little cute holiday picture, but I'm still working on figuring that out!!!!

Welcome to City Data, mi~mi!

[Jammie]

Hi Mimi and welcome!!!! If you need any help with posting pics, you can DM someone and we'll help you. Just click on the name and a box will fall down and you can send a message.

[no8fann]

I hadn't seen this one before, so I thought I would post it here...

SIMPLE WHITE ENVELOPE
Here is a heart warming story with a very important message. Maybe it will be a thought some of you already have had and maybe it will be an action that others will undertake. This is what Christmas should be.

It's just a small white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree.
No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of
our tree for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas --oh, not the true meaning
of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it -- the overspending, the frantic
running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder
for Grandma -- the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything
else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters,
ties, and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came
in an unusual way. Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior
level at the school he attended.

Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored
by an inner-city church.

These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the
only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their
spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began,
I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of
light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team
obviously could not afford.

Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of
their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado,
a kind of street pride that couldn't acknowledge defeat.

Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, 'I wish just one of them could have
won,' he said. 'They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart
right out of them.' Mike loved kids -- all kids -- and he knew them, having coached
little league football, baseball, and lacrosse.

That's when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting
goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent
them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope
on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift
from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition --one year sending a
group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before
Christmas, and on and on. The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It
was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning, and our children, ignoring
their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the
envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.

As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope
ne ver lost its allure. The story doesn't end there. You see, we lost Mike last year
due to cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I
barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning it was joined by three more. Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.

May we all remember Christ, who is the reason for the season, and the true Christmas spirit this year and always.

God Bless! -- pass this along to those friends and loved ones who you know are
the givers who understand the true meaning of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

[debey]

The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting®, held annually the second Sunday in December, this year December 14, unites family and friends around the globe as they light candles for one hour to honor and remember children who have died at any age from any cause. As candles are lit at 7 p.m. local time, creating a virtual wave of light, hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor the memories of children in a way that transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious, and political boundaries.

Now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the Worldwide Candle Lighting, a gift from TCF to the bereavement community, creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. Hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died, but will never be forgotten.

The Worldwide Candle Lighting started in the United States in 1997 as a small Internet observance but has since swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance.

more info, here......
http://www.compassionatefriends.org/..._Lighting.aspx


YouTube - Worldwide Candle Lighting Video