Well, after a busy but wonderful Christms, I am relaxing for a bit. The little ones loved their gifts. I made each of them a cowboy outfit. Logan got chaps and a fringed vest. The girls got skirts and fringed vests. The big kids seemed to really like their gifts. I spent today cleaning. It was a nice change - stress free go at my own pace. My next project is back to the sewing machine. This time I will be quilting. I love quilting. It is relaxing and yet alows me to be creative. When I retire, that is what I will spend a lot of time doing. Quilting and gardening. I have spent a lot of time thinking about retirement lately. I don 't want to wish time away, but I do have a plan. A 5 year plan! In 5 years the house will be paid off, Leon will be old enough for social security and Medicare and I will be old enough to get social security. I will not be old enough for Medicare yet, so that may be the bad part. I will have to check out some sort of insurance to Cary me over. Well, back to cleaning!

Earlier this past week I was feeling a little frazzled. It has been crazy busy at work and I was not near ready for Christmas. I had lots of gifts yet to buy and wrap, Christmas Cards/letters to get out, groceries to buy, meals to plan and a couple of outfits to make for the grandchildren. I was overwhelmed to the point that I was not sleeping at night. I am happy to say that the gifts have been purchased and wrapped. Leon and I went to Sious Falls and got most of what we had on our list. Sioux Falls was hectic as we expected, but we managed to find nearly everything. The Christmas cards are finished and in the mail. Most of the meals have been planned. I will get groceries after work tomorrow. so, now all is well with the world. I am feeling much calmer right now. A good glass of wine helps with that as well. And now it is time to enjoy Christmas. Think about the true spirit of Christmas - the reason for the season. I want to find things I can do to help others - kind of a "pay it forward" thing. That is my goal tonight. To figure out what I can do for others to help in some way. I already have done a few things - i gave a bag of food to the food shelf, bought lots of toys for the local Christmas Project (they give toys to the people in the are who have children and can't afford to buy them Christmas gifts. I also have made contributions to Salvation Army and other worthy charities. That isn't exactly what I am trying to do though. I want to do something meaningful for someone else. Something they can't do for themself. And they can't know that it was me who helped them out. I will think of something. My hope for everyone is to slow down and enjoy Christmas. Enjoy time with family and friends. It doesn't have to involve gifts. Just being together and enjoy the season. Blessings to everyone!!!!!

Well, I am officially at the end of my vacation time. I got a lot done on those days off. Almost everything on my list was completed. I also had a lot of time to think. Amazingly I had an epiphany! It did not happen because of church or anything like that. It was because of an episode of "The Doctors" and a Halmark Christmas movie. The episode of "the Doctors" was all about menopause. While I always knew what menopause could do to a woman's body, it never occured to me that what was going on with me had that much to do with menopause. The almost bi-polar mood swings, the desire to cry without reason, the weight gain, the inability to deal with some things and all the rest. All of a sudden it became clear. It has everything to do with my hysterectomy! Okay, now that I know the issue, I can deal with this. So what does the Halmark Christmas move have to do with this? It was about a situation that I thought I knew how I would react to. As the movie went on, I started to question myself. It became clear that I have a long way to go to become the person that I want to be. It also gave me the path to follow to become that person. All is well with the world. On another note, we were able to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family and my husband's family. Both occations were very nice and I am thankful that we all had this time together. We all enjoy each other's company and had a great time. I had a whole different perspective this year. Loved it. And now - back to work tomorrow. I am thankful to have a job, but not too excited to go back at this point. I just enoyed my vacation too much.