Today is Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas Eve...my son is home from Virginia...my husband is out shopping...we are going to Christmas Eve services tonight with our closest friends..and it snowed. There's only one thing missing. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL...God Bless Us Every One.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY

Well, it's been quite a while since I wrote anything, and so much has happened that I don't quite know where to begin, but I do have something that I want to share that is so important in these uncertain times.

Promises: what is the definition of a promise? I was listening to a radio interview a couple of days ago by an author who wrote a book by the name of "The Promises of God". She said that when she first decided to write this book she found an old Webster's Dictionary from the 1800s and here's what she found the definition of a promise to be: "a binding oath or contract". In this day and age when there are internet scams, terrorist threats, etc., etc., etc., one never knows whom one can believe anymore. I pray that when I tell my husband, for example, that I promise to love him in sickness and health, until death do us part that he can believe me. I want my solemn promise to be a binding contract with the person I am promising. After all, we are only as good as our word. Since that interview this week, I have thought long and hard about my core values and what it really means when a promise is broken. It literally means that a contract has been broken.

During this Christmas season we are reminded of the greatest promise of all: one that we can literally take with us for eternity. The baby born in a manger over 2000 years ago was born so that we might have life and have it to the fullest. Jesus promised us life; he didn't promise us a rose garden. He promised us his presence. The greatest gift of all was wrapped up in a manger in Bethlehem all those years ago.Glory to God in the Highest and on earth, peace and good will to all men.

The Vacation of a Lifetime

My husband and I just got back from our end-of-summer vacation. We had a blast! We are timeshare owners, having a great one in Breckenridge, Colorado. We opted to trade our week for another we had never been to before. We chose Lake Tahoe and we were NOT disappointed. We landed in San Francisco on Saturday, September 6 and immediately I began to take it all in. I reminded myself of Johnny Five in the movie "Short Circuit". He always said he needed more "input". Well, I got enough input to last me until at least next vacation. I had such a great time that I cried ontakeoff when we got in the air coming back to Colorado. But I am WAY ahead of myself.

Let me begin by saying I had never been to California before this vacation so I didn't know what all the fuss was about. We have a lot of California transplants here in Colorado who always talk about how wonderful it is "back home", etc., etc., etc. I had no idea that I was about to become the next spokesperson for vacationing in Northern California.

We picked up our rental car at Fox Rentals, which was, by the way, the most awesome experience I ever had at a rental car store IN MY LIFE. We even got an upgrade because of the length of time we were spending. (10 days total).

I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a mental checklist of things I needed to see and do while there. The first thing was to drive down that curvy little street you always see on television when people go on high speed chases in San Francisco, but we had not eaten since about 5 a.m. so our stomachs had other plans. We drove past Chinatown and into the Gaylord District and stopped at this little dive of a pizza shop. Never judge a book by its cover. This place had fantastic pizza (and it wasn't judge because we were starving and ready to pass out from low blood sugar) and the slices were so HUGE I couldn't even finish ONE.

After lunch we drove around and, yes....we drove down Lombard Street. How cool was that!?!?! We got in line behind several other cars because if you come to San Francisco you have to drive down that curvy little road. My life is complete! Well, maybe not totally complete, but it was on my to do list. Something must have been going on because everywhere we went there were huge crowds. Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square were so crowded we just couldn't get too close, but at least I got to do a drive by.

Second on my list was to go across the Golden Gate Bridge. I must be one of those embarrassing kind of tourists because I hang out the windows, yell and scream and get all excited at just the site of something I've waited my whole life to see. When we got close enough I started snapping pictures and didn't stop until we got completely across the bridge. Could it possibly have gotten any better than that?

Well, yes it could have because it did. We then went to Muir Woods, which is a fantastic state park with a wonderful walk through and lots of trails to hike. It is a awesomely beautiful and spiritual redwood forest. Now remember, I had never been to California before. I know there are people who see this stuff everyday and maybe they take it for granted, but I was awestruck at the beauty and complete majesty of the Redwoods. I don't believe I could ever get used to seeing those magnificent testaments to the majesty of God.

After that, we went to Highway 1 and drove to Stinson Beach and I put my feet in the Pacific Ocean and watched the sunset. (See picture) I spent a lot of my time in California crying because of the beauty and splendor of the scenery, the fresh fruits and vegetables unlike anything I had ever tasted and lots of water. Here in Colorado it is stupendously beautiful but we don't have much water to look at.

We stayed in Santa Rosa the first night and got up bright and early and drove over to Luther Burbank's Gardens and House. What an amazing thing he did for us! Horticulture is something that mystifies me and to think one man spent his entire life working with plants, flowers, foods, etc. and we get to reap the benefits.

Santa Rosa is also attributed as being the home of Charles Schultz (Charlie Brown). But did you know that he originally lived in Colorado Springs. Friends of his here say that when they used to get together and play cards or whatever he would always be doodling on a piece of paper making his characters. Anyway, there are statues all over downtown Santa Rosa of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy, etc. It was so much fun to see.

We got back on Highway 1 and headed up the coast and stopped at Bodega Bay. That's where the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" was filmed. It was kind of cold and dreary, but it was fun to see, to get to experience it all. Right on the pier between and fishery and a restaurant there was a huge old jawbone of a whale that someone found about 40 or 45 years ago. I've never seen such a thing! Gross!!!

And it seems that the seagulls love me. I was standing on a cliff a little further up the road feeding gulls some cheese crackers and before I knew it there were about 25 or 30 of them all gathered around. All at once I started hearing this hideous bird-like sound and this huge bird runs right up the middle of them all with his wings all spread out and stopped right at my feet just yelling at me. All the other birds were quiet and were watching that bird and me to see what would happen, I guess. I reached in my cracker box and dropped one in his mouth. He ate and left. Then the others proceeded to talk and push each other out of the way as my husband and I threw crackers up in the air for them to catch. When the box was almost empty, we started back to the car, because it was a little chilly and the wind was cold. Don looked back and said, "Honey, look." I turned around and all those birds were following me. When I stopped they stopped and sort of looked around like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. You know, "what? I didn't do anything." So I started back to the car again and they followed me again. They followed me almost all the way to the car. It was really funny. Something I will always remember.

Next we went to Fort Ross, a little further up the coast. It was an old Russian Fort back in the 1800s. It was awesome to see how well built the buildings were. We picked up some eucalyptus leaves off the ground and put them in our car. It smelled like Vicks Vap-O-Rub in our car for the rest of the trip. Oh, well..at least we didn't get stuffy noses.

After a bit, the fog lifted and the temperature climbed to the mid-seventies and we decided it was time to make our trek to Lake Tahoe. So we followed a road that went along the Russian River and saw beautiful country until it got dark outside. We arrived in Lake Tahoe about 10:30 that night and what a place it was. We stayed at the Olympic Valley International Lodge in Squaw Valley (site of 1960 XVIII Winter Olympics). What a great place. So pristene!

Like I said before, we traded out our timeshare for this lodge and it was the best. There wasn't a coffee shop or restaurant with it, but across the parking lot was the Olympic Village and that was good. We visited a local farmer's market and bought some fruits and veggies to get us through the week (we are vegetarian) and we had a little kitchen in the condo so I was able to cook. I was in heaven! The produce was outstanding.

The lodge, which shall herein be called OVI, because that's what the locals call it, had mountain bikes free of charge for the guests/owners to use. So one day we took bikes and rode the bike path along the Truckee River and had lunch at a local place. Great food. We met a young man at the restaurant who had moved out from Boston less than a year before. He had lost somewhere in the range of 60 pounds since moving there. He was in training for a long distance bike trip and apparently is quite a skier as well. Kudos to him for shaping up. He looked great! He was in love with Tahoe and Squaw Valley and I can certainly understand why.

Lake Tahoe....what can I say about Lake Tahoe? Well there isn't enough I can say about it. I've never seen such beautiful water. And such history! We learned all the history about the Washoe Indians who called it home in the summer way back when. We learned about settlers and early "cosmopolitan" tourists who frequented the area. We saw pictures of Model A vehicles that tried to trudge through 12 foot snow drifts. We learned about the Donner Party. (One night at the resort we had movie night: guess what the movie was! That's right...it was a documentary on the Donner Party! UGH!)
ANYWAY.......

The rest I'll show to you in pictures. We spent a glorious week in Tahoe right after the big summer season ended so it wasn't too crowded. The best vacation of my life.

And the Winner IS,..... Part Deux

Ok..just real quick like...I entered a cranberry-colored hand knit afghan in the Colorado State Fair and won first place in my category. SWEET! Pictures coming! (along with my much-awaited for commentary on the whole ordeal).

And the Winner IS...............

We made it back home. Take it from me: Las Vegas in August is NOT the where you want to be. It was hot! It was %*&@! hot!! And for those of us who live in higher elevations, the heat is PAINFUL! So here's how it went. We landed just before midnight and I was the typical tourist. I was holding up foot traffic in the airport trying to see everything. (And by everything, I mean advertisements of who was performing in Vegas now and who will be. I was the one you've always wanted to slap or push out of the way. Then we went outside and I was done! "Please tell me it won't be this hot the entire time we're here. I feel like I have died and gone to HELL!" My hubby said, "No tomorrow in the daylight will be much hotter!" I knew I was in for a treat. So from that moment until we stepped off our plane on our return trip to Colorado Springs I lived for one spritzing fan to the next and one air conditioned building to the next. I'm a quick learner. I loved the monorail. I could have just ridden the monorail for 4 days and been happy. Just get off once in a while and buy a bottle of water and get back on the rail.

The best thing was the Fremont Street Experience. But don't go in the daytime. Go at night and watch the tribute to Queen. It was amazing. And I won a bundle at the Golden Nugget. I sat myself right down at a slot machine, put in my big $5.00 bill and VOILA! I hit the 7s on all the rows and scored a big 1,376. That's pennies for all of you big time gamblers out there. That's right! $13.76 plus my $5 so I more than tripled my money. Yeah, that's right. I'm the last of the big time spenders. Then I sat down next to Don at a slot machine he was feeding and started playing one that was called "Menopause". Can you believe that? A slot machine all about the change of life. Instead of lucky 7s there was the sign for female. Instead of cherries or some other fruit, we got a picture of a guy, who when you got three in a row of his mug said, "I'm Dr. Love." (UGH!) Instead of the normal slot figures we had baseball bats (I wonder if that was for beating your husband), a bottle of aspirin and I women obviously in the state of distress. What I want to know is, where was the air conditioner, the box of chocolates, and the estrogen?!? It was.....no, it wasn't! And that's all I have to say about that. We then went back out into the heat until the next time we felt the need to sit for awhile in the air conditioning. (We only played slots whenever we needed to cool off, so we basically played slots in every casino on the strip and downtown Las Vegas. And we're the casinos favorite kind of gambler, too. We don't smoke or drink so there's nothing to distract us. You could see it in the cocktail waitresses faces: "Great! A nondrinker! They know when they're losing!"

There was a man playing saxophone on Fremont Street who was actually very good except for some of the notes he played..well, let's just say some of those were sounds only dogs should hear. Somewhere in the background I could hear the yowling of some lone coyote begging him to take the pitch down a notch.

On the way back to the hotel on the Deuce (the double decker city buses) Don asked me why I had a choke hold on my purse. He said, "Babe, really! It's leather. The cow's already dead!" "But, Honey, the bus driver said on the way here to watch out for pick pockets. Do you know what's in your wallet?"
When he thought I wasn't looking he checked out his wallet. (It'll just be our little secret that we've discussed this when he wasn't around.)

The first night we were there we walked down to Circus Circus and had dinner in their 24 hr cafe. GOOD FOOD! I mean, REALLY GOOD! And not so expensive. We are vegetarians so sometimes it's hard for us to eat out. The wait staff is always very quick to tell us we can have a salad or a baked potato. (Just between us, I have scratched off salad and baked potatoes from my list of favorite foods now.) I ordered a fruit plate that came with banana bread and my choice of either yogurt, cottage cheese or sherbet. Now, quite honestly, I expected it to be a small dish. So nothing really could have disappointed me except maybe if they dropped it on the floor. So when the waiter brought out this HUGE PLATTER (not plate...it was a platter) of fruit my mouth dropped and I said, "Is that all for me?" There was fresh grapes still on their stalk and they took up about a quarter of the platter, half of a fresh pineapple, watermelon, honeydew, and cantaloupe and a large unpeeled banana right on top of it all. Then he put down the cottage cheese in the bowl that was about the size of a cereal bowl. And the banana bread? Well, let's just say it was a muffin that took up the entire bread plate that it was on. I ate about 1/3 of the fruit and cottage cheese and wrapped up the bread and took it and the rest of the fruit back to our room and ate on it for about 2 days after that. It was amazing. Oh, and the price? $9.95. Yep, that's what I said! So the waiter brought me a big old grocery bag to carry it all back to the hotel. I looked like I had been to the market. Well, I guess I sort of had been. That was the best meal I had the entire time we were gone. No, I suppose that really isn't true. We ate at P.F. Chang's Sunday night and the vegetarian lettuce wraps were to DIE for!

Now, I read somewhere that one should NEVER, I repeat, NEVER take anything offered to you by anyone on the strip. Having said that, there were these guys all up and down the strip handing out what looked like business cards. Now, you don't have to be Einstein to figure out what it was! You could see the same business cards all over the sidewalk. SMUT! Naked ladies! Yeah! I don't need to draw a picture. So there was this elderly couple walking down the street and one of those guys hands him a card and we started to laugh. There were two ladies behind us and one of them said, "Ok, so she's going to knock the crap out of him when they get to their room." We all laughed and laughed. Honestly, though, these guys need to get a REAL job. On the other side of things, however, it isn't call Sin City for nothing!

I need to download my pictures so I'll check back in when that's done.

Las Vegas Here I Come!!!

I wanted to check in before I go to Las Vegas this week. My hubby and I will be going to Vegas for a meeting. We own a pack and ship and are going to a convention for shipping. (Yawn!) We'll see. I'm not much of a party girl and my husband doesn't go to see showgirls (because he wouldn't live to see tomorrow) (I almost said my husband doesn't "do" showgirls but that has another meaning altogether; it isn't like "doing lunch" and this IS a family blog, after all).

ANYWAY..........

I really would like to see Barry Manilow. Now, that says something about me, doesn't it? (I write the songs that make the whole world sing.....) All of you Barry fans (Manilow, not White)stand up and cheer! The rest of you take a time out! Manilow was a great 70s kind of guy, wasn't he? I mean, while the rest of the world was listening to music that made Garth and Wayne (Wayne's World) bob their heads, Manilow was putting out melodic, easy to listen to, and most importantly, MUSICAL tunes. (Yes, I know this officially makes me a nerd, but oh, well.) I mean, seriously, who else could have come up with that great American Bandstand lyric?!?...or the McDonald's "You Deserve a Break Today"?!?

On to Barry White, since I mentioned him earlier. But let's get the necessary out of the way first. Let's take a moment of silence in remembrance of the soulful Mr. White.............................................................................
..................................................................................
......................................................................Ok, that's long enough. Mr. White took the bedroom and moved it into the Top 40. Then, he took the bedroom and moved it to the disco floor (Baby..I Can't Get Enough of Your Love). But in all seriousness, Mr. White scared me. Not his music, but the man. You've seen him, right? Well, there you go. And having said that I now quote the famous words of Forrest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that"!

When we get back to Colorado, I'll fill you in on our trip.

Until next time and don't send me a quarter to play for you in Vegas (My hubby says we won't accept anything smaller than "a hundred bucks"),

Hazel

Observations...Life Experience or Personal Opinion?

When my husband and I first took over our pack and ship store there was a man who came in who shall herein be referred to as "Mr. Observation". My husband, who shall herein be referred to as "my husband", was repeatedly telling me about this man and his more than unwelcome comments about the changes we were making to the store in order to bring more business into it. Now, let me preface this by saying, our business was already a 20+- -year-old business, starting to fail, and never updated in appearance in all that time and no marketing tools or promotions were done to keep things moving in the black instead of the red. In other words, it was still painted wannabe-post office green. Ok. NOW we're up to speed.

Just after the first of the year a mommy comes in to ship something and brings her darling little boy, who shall herein be called Eddie Munster (if you catch my meaning). Mommy was not paying any attention to Eddie Munster and he began to "play" with one of our printers (we own a printing company as well and have large printers). While my husband is trying to weigh, get the dimensions of the items and determine the best shipping options for Mommy, Eddie breaks, (YES, BREAKS) the feeder off of one of our printers. She laughs and says, "oh, my. Honey, you shouldn't do that", in her sweetest "I am not going to pay for that" voice. Anyway, she DIDN'T pay for it either and the piece was irreplacable. Shortly after that a lady, who shall herein be called "I couldn't be bothered with my child" comes in and lets her little girl go WILD in the store. We have postal boxes and a large camera we take passport photos with and I caught her as she was just about to pick the camera up off the tripod and said, "Sweetie, you need to come back out here with your mom, ok?" She looked at me with sort of a devious look and marched herself right into the postal room (can you say privacy violation?). So I went and got her and brought her back out and explained to I-couldn't-be-bothered-with-my-child that HER child needed to stay with her so she "wouldn't get hurt with our equipment". (Instead of IT'S YOUR JOB UNTIL SHE'S 18.) I-couldn't-be-bothered needed to go to her car to get something and child stayed in the store and that's when I noticed she was barefoot. I told her she needed to put her shoes on and she said, "NO!!!!!!!!" I said, "you have to wear your shoes in here because there's no telling what's on the floor". (I mean seriously, can you imagine what's on the floor after people trample God knows what in on the bottom of their shoes!!) She never did put her shoes on. So I made a corporate decision: we would make a sign. A sign pertinent to all parents. The next decision would be how to say "watch your child" in a way that was humerus, yet got the point across. Here's what we got: PARENTS PLEASE DO NOT PLAY WITH OUR PRODUCTS. CHILDREN LEARN FROM OUR EXAMPLE.

This is where Mr. Observation comes in. Our first "encounter" with him was when he tried to convince me I needed to hire his son to do graphic designs for us. His son is 14! Uh....NO! Next he comes in one day after we painted the inside of the store. Now we went with a Colorado/territorial style. We painted the walls kind of a rusty red which looks awesome with the paintings, etc. that I picked out. He came in and he said, "Expletive.....this place looks like a whorehouse!" It took my husband back so much that he started keeping track of the positive comments.(Positive to date: 3 million, Negative: Mr. Observation.) I actually wanted to ask him if he knew this by experience or was it just a personal opinion. Next: he saw the sign about parents keeping their hands to themselves and he said, "do you know that there are three women who won't come in this store because of that sign"? I said, "Really? Well, now that sounds like a personal problem to me." Another time he came in and saw the pursehooks we are selling (which by the way have sold like hotcakes) and he said, "Expletive...I could go to KMart and buy these ten for a buck. I walk by, pass him, and roll my eyes.

Now, my husband says I sound a little angry with the guy. My office staff kills him with kindness and he still acts like we are something he pulls off the bottom of his shoe. There's something that keeps him coming back...it must be because he gets to vent in here. OK, so let him vent. Please understand we love our customers...we'd starve without them. We say all of this in jest and the names were "herein" changed to protect them and the innocent.

So my question is this: Observations: Are they from life experience, personal opinion or just observation?