Coffee Break # 49 Happy Christmahanukwanzika!

Coming from here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1142810/

Crazy weather all over! Blizzard in the mid-west and tons of rain here.

Just reads that there were female gladiators - called gladiatrices. Needless to say, the thought 'inspires' me.

wow say that three times fast.... LOL

Victor I am with you... the words "I hate people" pass over my lips every time I get in the car

Especially WHILE driving!

DH has a window sighn on the truck that has a guy peeing on the words 'stupid people'. Some days it's very appropriate.

HumBug already people??

LOL!!

Has nothing to do with the holidays!

I don't hate people, but I sure can't love the ones that treat other people like they're just doormats to walk on. I always try and see the good in people. Unfortunately, I seem to run across more and more that give a bad name to the human race.

Karen

Most people are very nice, especially during the holiday season. Everyone is happy and smiling, going shopping at the stores with the kids which are also very happy and jumping around and stuff ... Yes the holidays brings out the good in people. (Snowstorms too, everybody is friendly and strangers stop and help each other talking to each other about snow).
It's a magical time of year!
(- drivers are another story though..)

Yippee! ☺

Wanted to get my tree on Friday but with my son home I could not go. Now it will be all muddy tomorrow. Gross.

We got our tree Friday because I knew we were having bad weather this weekend. DW wants me to take some pics when it's finished, (she says it's 2/3rds decorated now). In fact we're going out in a bit to pick the finishing touches. ☺

Has anyone noticed that there are no secular Christmas stamps this year? There are Madonna and child (very appropriate for our Christian friends), Menorahs (very appropriate for our Jewish friends) and Kwanzaa stamps (just perfect for our friends who celebrate Kwanzaa), but none for our friends who celebrate Christmas, but fit into none of these categories. What happened to the snowmen or reindeer or gingerbread men?? Has anyone found any of those this year? I found fir boughs and pine cones, but they aren't really Christmasy. Is it just down here? Don't misunderstand, as a person of faith, I have no objection to any of the above. I just have some friends who celebrate a secular Christmas holiday.

They need a sun stamp for Solstice. Something with Capricorn in it.

Here are the choices, Louise.

I'm not celebrating Kwanzaa anymore - it's just so commercial! ^_^

So what's the best Christmas gift you ever received??????

tough one to answer

I don't ask easy questions - that's what the other forums are for!!! ^_^

Its odd but the best gift wasnt something I even asked for.
I was 13 and got most of the things I wanted.
I opened a gift from my mother and it was a Norwegien sweater,white with red raindeer on the yolk front and back and red dots on the body with red cuffs.

She must have knit at night.
I just adored it and thought I was pretty hot stuff,none of my friends would ever have anything like it.


I envied my GF's in those days. They had storebought clothes with smocking and lace on the sleeves.

My father was an insurance agent and was involved with rehabing property. Not a big deal nowdays but in the 40's it was a revolutionary idea.Ohh by the way, no TV at that time.

To save money my mother made all our clothes.
Pretty plain sale fabrics so nothing special.
Her hand made talents really paid off when I unwrapped that sweater. This would have been 1949.Duering the second WW.
Its always what I think of when thinking of really memorable or special gifts.

Here Louise, 'Winter Holidays' section, online ordering from USPS.

https://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?storeId=10052&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&pageSize=8&beginIndex=0&sType=AdvancedSearch&resultType=2&searchTerm=holidays&searchTermScope=4

They also have Santa Clause

https://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?storeId=10052&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&pageSize=8&beginIndex=0&sType=AdvancedSearch&resultType=2&searchTerm=santa+clause&searchTermScope=4

Duh, just realized I did not post the link! Same as WC's.

Thank you, Jo. Very nice memory! Very hear-warming. I think the best gifts are the unexpected ones.

This message was edited Dec 12, 2010 6:19 PM

Just got back from visiting the kids in NYC, nice weekend. Saw the train show at the botanical garden, quite impressive. DH couldn't believe they only put it up for the holidays.
Also saw Chicago which was fun. And the kids will be here in 2 weeks too.

Glad you had a good time, Deb! Hope to get to the show this week. Glad to hear the kids are well. Great that they'll be home for the holidays! Great gift for you.

I was trying to think of my best gift, but couldn't come up with one.

One was a nice surprise, a no reason gift. I came home from work, and there was something on the floor in the hallway, looked like a small box of crayons. So I was about to yell at DH for dropping something out of the closet and leaving it there. But, I didn't say anything and just went to pick it up. It was the first of a line of gifts, a battery pack, then a few feet later was a cleaning kit, then a few feet later something else, then in the next room, a new digital camera. That was about 7 years ago.
I was really glad I didn't open my mouth!

Another was mother's day when I was a single mom, and my sister called and asked David what he got for me. Well, he hadn't known it was mother's day, so wrapped up $1.11 for me!

Nice, Deb.

Thats a sweet story.

As was yours Jo, I couldn't come up with one that brought me memories like that!

I don't really have any!

our tree is done. DD helped with it.

Mine too! Mine too! ☺
... now I have to figure out some good lighting for a pic. (lol!)

IR!!

DH got the outside done yesterday.

- dont have an InfraRed camera/filters, maybe the same settings as for fireworks but shorter SS with a soft side light and low ISO.. I donno, I'll figure something out. (lol!)

Thanks, Victor and WC! I figured there must be more on line, but none of the post offices have any of those choices here. I was mailing a package and they had all the choices that I mentioned under the glass on the counter, and you had to select from those alone. I got the "holiday greenery" forever stamps since the stamps go up so often and I have years of leftover holiday stamps in my desk drawer, but no onesies or twosies to go with them. Ahhh, such problems. lol

JoAnn - I love your "best present" story! And yours is a nice one too, Debi~~ Mine was one I've already mentioned - the Takahashi china plate my son spent all of his savings on for me for Christmas when he was 8. Not only was it so touching to me, it was really beautiful as well.

It's Florida!

No tree as yet, with family living all over the country, have had other things to do especially wrapping & mailing.

Must be a pain, Lucy. Tell them all to move back closer!!!

Said this last year, but I am so tired of 'shoutouts'!!!

Love good memory stories!! My best gift was a bottle of Old Grandad...now am not a drinker but my dad always insisted on a small gift to open along with his monetary gift, every year was something different. The year he bought us all the bottle was his last Christmas with us...It still sits on my shelf with a nip here and there on very special occasion Christmas being one of them.