I immediately thought it reminded me of 2 things: 1) we better rush buying Christmas presents because it's only 85 days to Christmas and Koreans or Chinese might snap up all presents in the market; or 2) the LRT Chief is a former jail warden who got sacked by the Commission on Human Rights for jamming prison airwaves with Air Supply and a medley of Christmas songs, two potent jailbreak deterrents.

Preso 1: "Pare, tatakas tayo mamayang gabi!"

Preso 2: "Sige pare, di ko na kaya dito!Puro na lang Air Supply!"

(insert Christmas medley)

Preso 1: "Naririnig mo ba yun?"

Preso 2: "Oo nga ano? ....The weather outside is frightful…"

Preso 1: "...And since we've no place to go…"

Preso 2: "Dito na lang tayo pare.."

Preso 1: "Oo nga...When we finally kiss goodnight..."

So that is why the jail warden is now an LRT Chief. Anyway, I already see the quick results of this LRT Christmas Tracks. I'm now humming Christmas songs while peeing (or is it the other way around? hmm); more commuters now wear mittens in 32^oC; booth tellers are now selling castanas inside the stations (..Isa pong Doroteo Jose, tsaka isang kilong castanas), and the guards are now dressed as Frosty…

Don't laugh! Thanks to their disguise, these Frosty-the-snowguards have actually caught pickpockets, lascivious old men dressed as elves, and imposters of Santa Claus who hide kilos of castanas under their belly. They even caught Olof, the evil reindeer who used to bully Rudolf (…Olof, the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names…)

Anyway I hope the LRT Christmas Album  does well in the box office, strong enough to kick the hell out of Jose Mari Chan who runs a monopoly of Christmas songs.

Sift dry ingredients.  Cut into shortening until mixture ressembles coarse cornmeal.  Combine orange
juice and grated rind with egg.  Pour into dry ingredients , mix ingredients just enough to dampen.
Carefully fold in chopped nuts cranberrie.  Spoon into reased loaf pan (9X5X3)  Spread corners and sides
slightly higher than center.  Bake 350/ 1 hr...until crust is golden brown. (Tooth pick in center) Remover
from pan.  Store overnight for easy slicing.
Keep under refrigeration - freeze for later use.

Mix oil, choc and sugar. Blend in 1 egg at a time. Add vanilla. Stir in salt, flour, and baking powder. Chill several hours. Drop tsp fuls in powdered sugar. Shape into balls. Place 2" a part on baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. Yield: 50

For this year’s break, I actually have a lot of things to attend to. One of my best friends is having her birthday so I still need to prep for that. My darling siblings are planning some out of town trip and I still don’t know what we’ll end up doing but that’s also something I’m excited about. I need to finish my HK tasks, like the hotel booking, our itinerary and others. We haven’t celebrated Shin’s birthday, he’s still so busy with school but I should come up with something nice soon. Jogging – yeah, I need to do that again. Claudia hasn’t informed us yet on her exact date of arrival because she said she wants it to be a surprise:D so I have to reserve a full week for that too. There are a lot of wonderful things going on for me and I’m so happy because they seem like my reward for being a good girlJ.

Bottom line is, this break doesn’t mean rest for me, only this time, the things I’ll be doing are more fun and exciting! All the sleepless and I’m-living-on-caffeine-and-lipovitanXL150 days are worth it. I’m making the most out of this because soon, I’ll be out there again. And funny me, I actually have a theme song for this sembreak, haha I’m such a teenybopper I know, but I’m sure you’ve heard of Metro Station’s Shake It from the Minute Maid Pulpy Orange commercial, such a fun fun song! Visit their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/metrostation.

♣Now if she does it like this will you do it like that, Now if she touches like this, will you touch her right back, Now if she moves like this, will you move it like that, Come on!

Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, uh shake it, Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, uh shake it, Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, uh shake it, Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, uh shake it, Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, uh shake it!♣

Oh btw, I’m planning to change my pc’s OS to Vista, it’s new so I expect that there are still a lot of bugs to be fixed but I’ve heard some pretty good feedbacks. Feel free to help and share your thoughts on thisJ.

Christmas Alert guys! 71 days before the big holiday! I’m so happy, can you tell??? :D

So, I promise I will blog some quality stuff soon.

Megan and I went to see So You Think You Can Dance the tour on Friday. It was awesome. I took some great pics and video--you'll get a blog on that soon.

I have started Christmas shopping...can't afford to do it all at once, so I've started picking up things here and there on-line. I think I've bought too much at once already though! I have to stop until payday.

My pervert neighbor across the street called me over to confront me on information he was given about me telling someone that he was hitting on me a long time ago.  He said he was furious. In the midst of our conversation, which was very uncomfortable, he told me he and his wife have spiced up their marriage by swinging.  To answer your next question, no, he did not proposition me. Thank God!

I was fingerprinted today for the adoption. I paid $50 for the pleasure.

I took T and L to the doctor today for their adoption physicals. They're there so often that they think they live there. You should see them run around the office--through the halls, back behind the receptionists' desk, the file room. We were waiting over an hour, and I pretty much chased and fought with them the entire time. It was fun.

I want Jenny Craig to pay me to be a spokesperson for them. They can do commercials and everything. It's not fair they just choose celebrities for the commercials--how about feature a real person with a real life and real families to deal with?

I have a gigantic pimple--it wasn't gigantic until I picked and picked at it. I don't want to go to work with it tomorrow.

Tonight when I went outside to take the trash out (I wish I had a guy to do that stinky job for me), I realized it was a really nice, calm, quiet evening. So, I decided that I would go sit outside in my backyard to enjoy it. I didn't want to turn the light on and attract mosquitoes, so I went out in the dark, tripped over some toy, stubbed my toe on the stone, and finally sat on the plastic chair out there. I sat there about five minutes in the dark, staring at the kiddie pool I need to empty, pop, and throw away and feeling like a weirdo for sitting there. My toe was throbbing, my butt was uncomfortable in the chair, and I could hear T from outside singing in his bedroom. I went back inside.

Work is sucking hardcore right now...I have all kinds of great kids and great, supportive parents. But the ones that are pains in my rear are really making life difficult right now.

I need to start that eleven day diet! I may need to wait until pay day though.

Alrightie...there's my mind dump for this evening.

Sweet Potato Casserole

5 medium sweet potatoes, boiled, peeled, mashed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup sugar or more

Mix well and place in a large casserole dish.

Make a topping of:

1/4 cup melted butter
3 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mix and spread over the potatoes.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Y'all Enjoy!  :)

My goal this week is to make a bunch of Christmas tags for my presents.  (Why buy when you can make?!)

I'll post photos and ideas later this week.

Actually, I think that's what I would like to start doing. Less blogging, more sewing. I do lament not buying serger needles while I had the chance today. Shucks!

I don't believe there is some major conspiracy involving men with gruff voices meeting in dark, smokey rooms composing email messages meant to mislead the masses. Rather, the conspiracy is a random collection of misled people misleading each other. Blind leading blind.

So I received an email recently from Ben Stein (well, it wasn't Ben himself. It was a considerate friend who lovingly forwarded his message along to me). Here's what Ben apparently had to say:
He told me he's Jewish, but not offended by Christmas trees - Thanks Ben.
He told me he's not offended when people say "Merry Christmas" - Well, Merry Christmas, Mr. Stein.
He relayed a message from Billy Graham's daughter explaining that Katrina happened because we kicked God out of our schools and government... - ...
He said our kids will commit suicide if we don't spank them... - ... Uhh...

Okay, I know Ben Stein. And this is not Ben Stein. Seriously, I shared a Chick-fil-a sandwich with him once. He told me I was "really, quite funny." I also managed to anger him several hours later when I asked if he was the informant in the Nixon administration referred to as Deep Throat (this was before the real Deep Throat was revealed a few years ago). And this means Ben (first name basis) and I are close, because I have many close friends I've never shared a Chik-fil-a sandwich with, or accused of being an infamous informant. Hell, I haven't done either of those things with my wife! Therefore I must consider Ben one of my closest friends. So I know Ben Stein is a very reasonable individual, and he would never make those ridiculous comments, much less make assumptions about God's will in respect to Katrina.

So I checked into it (which all of us should do) and discovered this email contained portions of a statement Ben made on CBS Sunday Morning mixed with comments and false information added by individuals dozens of links before me in this email chain. It's like the game "operator" that we play as pre-schoolers. We sit in a circle and whisper into each other's ear and soon a short phrase turns from "I love the smell of fire in the winter" to "I rub the smell of urine in the creamer".

Many of us don't forward messages on, and there are many other people who get frustrated with this as much as I do. But if you are one of those people who rely on forwarded messages for the formation of political, spiritual or parenting views please do all of us a favor and throw away your computer. It's the better move for the preservation of our civilization. We don't want the freedom promised by your patriotic messages that tell me to quickly send them to fifteen friends or else I'm ashamed to be a Christian, American, non-socialist Republican.

We'd rather have freedom from ignorance.

The Calico Rebellion

P.S.- I would, however, ask that all of you copy this into an email and forward it to everyone you know. In return for this act of loyalty to me/humanity I promise peace will come to Darfur, Palestinians will stop hating Israelis, Israelis will stop hating Palestinians, Germans will stop loving David Hasselhoff and someone will discover a full, unreleased season of Saved By the Bell and will give it way for free on the internet.

(okay, that last one was for me)

First of all I need to admit that I got it wrong. I thought that with petrol prices going up that we would be like frogs who get thrown in a pot of cold water, that we just put up with the rises, but the reduction of cars on the road in Auckland is clearly noticable.

Last year the newspapers were full of stories of domestic violence at Chistmas time and womens refuges were overflowing with people hiding from their partners or other family members. I suspect this year will be much worse. The retailers are suffering as are many sectors of the public, who won't be able to spoil their families this Christmas. The pressure on low income families will be particularly bad, and as I have blogged before, the retailers have been giving delayed payments and interest free terms for so long that many people are in debt up to their eyeballs already.

There is also likely to be an increase in burglaries as those who can't provide for their family or young people whose hopes for cool presents are dissapointed decide to help themselves to other people's property. Most at risk will be people who leave their homes vacant while they head to their batches or camp grounds. I'd recommend they look at their home security and communicate their plans with their trusted neighbours.

Is there anything you can do to help? There will no doubt be many Christmas Charity events. Why not check out your neighbourhood and see if there is anywhere you can help. My brother in law alway made his children pick on of their brand new presents and take it to the City Mission.  Auckland City Mission is already well organised in their campaign to help people have a better Christmas. Each person who gives something at Christmas is going to feel much happier than those who didn't. The Auckland City Mission will be hosting a Christmas dinner for 1200 people and need gifts and support. They have a page were you can find drop off points where you can leave a gift. So when you are off doing your shopping, buy something extra and feel good about putting a smile on someone's face. I will.

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No, it makes sense, with the monthly magazines about to release November and December editions. Thank goodness for the internet, which makes this process all the quicker.

I subscribe to Esquire's RSS feed because, well, actually I'm not sure, except that I like the magazine. Always struck me as GQ's cousin with a better sense of humor.

Anyway, the RSS feed delivered a bunch of Christmas gift guides for various recipients, among them your dad and your wife. Oh, and your other lady, aka your mistress or lover. I digs it. Really.  The mistress list if just a tad sexier (Louboutin heels, Legere bandage dress) if shorter than the wife offerings (which run the gamut from fragrance to golf clubs to ice cream to, yes, lingerie). I guess if your wife is going to be opening her presents with you (hopefully) and the kids, it would be more appropriate for her to open a beautiful cocktail ring than, say, a DVD of "The Lover".

Here is the best letterpress calendar:

Ilee also makes really lovely greeting cards, but this calendar is a must.  I just ordered mine, and it will be my 3rd ilee calendar.  They are all beautiful.

I've been thinking about why everyone seems so rabid about tearing Christmas apart these days.  people getting depressed and sick and jumping off high things.  I think it's one of those pure times, with the very character of the savior himself.  and as we all know people tend to have two reactions to him: east and west.  Some are filled with warmth and greatfulness, other terror and derision.  Not necessarily a litmus test of who's filled with the devil but a litmus test none the less: at this, the culmination of the year and its happenings, are you any closer to what you desire in the deepest of your heart, those things that really matter.  logically, when people realize that that which they've surrounded themselves with the entire year cannot even compete with the potent sanctity of a single year's day, they freak out.  hell, i would to.  this is what is called in the judeo christian faith, "conviction."  which, i believe, is a detrimental trait to lose, if only once a year.

I am part of a mom group called Exceptional Moms.  We have decided to put together a cook book and sell it.  The funds will go towards our website to keep things running.  This cook book is something we have talked about doing for years.  I can't believe we are FINALLY doing it!  We haven't decided on a price, but it will not be high by any means.  There will be recipes that we have been given by our family members, and carrying down family traditions.  Wouldn't that be nice to have?  I think I may scoop up a few as gifts.

Check back for when the cook book will be for sale!

Advent Conspiracy was started by Imago Dei Community Church in Portland, Oregon.  Their pastors were bemoaning how hard it is to be a pastor during the Christmas season because most people spend 1 hour on Sunday nodding their head to God and Jesus and then shoot right out the door to worship to the god of consumerism the other 6 days and 23 hours that week.   Their wistful thought of "Wouldn't it be nice if..." led to the creation of Advent Conspiracy. 

The concept is simple.  Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All. 

This isn't a fundraiser.  It's not a guilt trip.  Advent Conspiracy, like Water Brings Life, doesn't collect any money for their own use.  Their dream is this.  What if the people who celebrate Christmas decided to give one less gift this year for Christmas?  And, what if more of the gifts that were given were relationship building rather than just objects that will collect dust and contribute to family debt?  For example, what about a family exchanging hand made gifts?  Or, what about giving games to each person that everyone can play on a family fun night each week?  What if friends made dinners for each other?  Or took each other to the zoo or a museum for a day to spend together?  You get the idea.

Then, what if each person took the money they would have spent on that one gift, and they gave it to a good cause?  Last year, Advent Conspiracy asked that 25% of the money each church raised during the "Give More" offering be donated to a water aid organization.  They specifically recommended Living Water International...but the decision was left up to the specific church/family/etc.  The movement raised over $500K.  You can read about the wells that have been built here.

Last year, $450 billion was spent on Christmas in the United States.  $11.4 billion would bring a sustainable clean drinking water source to every person on the planet.

My church is on board for this.  What about yours?  If you talk to your pastors/elders/whomever, would you comment here?  We'd love to know.  And, if you need information, let us know.  We can get that for you, too!

Now winter smells completely different.  You can feel the air getting crisper as it passes through your nose all the way down to your throat.  You start to smell the amazing smell of fresh pine trees, homemade cookies, and the frigid scent of snow on the way.  Christmas music has got to be my favorite thing about the season.  It makes me feel all giddy and excited like it used to be when I was little.

Christmas has changed over the years, which depresses me a bit.  When I was little, I used to get so excited I could never fall asleep.  I was too busy keeping an ear out for Santa's reindeer, making sure I had left Santa his milk, cookies, and a notepad (so he could leave me a note) and going over all the toys I had asked for.  Once Christmas morning would come, my sisters and I would run into my parents room at 4 or 5AM!!! They were never too pleased, but I have that to look forward to with my own kids.  My dad would make us sit at the top of the stairs (which would kill us with anticipation) squirming with every movement he made downstairs.  He, of course, had to turn on all the lights, play some Christmas Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, or (our fav) GRP Christmas.  After we would open all our presents, we would jump up and scream "WE FORGOT, OUR STOCKINGS"!  Clothes were always the worst presents to get when you were little, but now that's all I ask for.  I miss all of that excitement and enthusiasm that seems to escape you when you're grown up.  I can't wait to see it again in my children.

I'm looking forward to this fall and winter, and can't wait to experience all of those childhood memories with my own some day.  Right now, fall is smelling divine!

xoxo

rachmadee♥

Big Hair Envy asked if I'd share some of my family's Thanksgiving traditions.  Well, my family is not a real traditional family.  We're an Air Force family, which means we're spread out a lot.  (Less at the moment, as three of my siblings live within four hours of each other in Alberta.)  This means that at Thanksgiving, whoever is within a reasonable drive of each other will have dinner together.  So I went to my parents' house (across town) yesterday, and my siblings all gathered at Sis1's house.

I almost always spend Thanksgiving with my parents.  I am usually the one who lives closest.  I'm also single, and there seems to be an expectation that single folks will do the family thing.

We used to have the full-on traditional T'giving meal:  roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes ('cuz we're Irish-ish and the world would end if we had a meal without them), a second vegetable (usually brussels sprouts since I tried them and developed a preference), pumpkin pie.  Sometimes we'd have yams.  My mother used to always make it a big, fancy meal, using the "good" china, putting out "pick trays" of cheese cubes, pickles, tomatoes, carrot sticks, celery sticks.  We also used to have Jello salad, which was either green or red Jello with small cubes of apple mixed in before it solidified.  (I have never liked Jello salad;  I have never understood it.  Anybody else know what I'm talking about?)

This is the first year that we have not had at least some semblance of the turkey dinner.  My mother has a stomach condition and can't eat turkey anymore.  She hasn't been able to for quite some time now, but until this year, she has always made turkey dinner for my father and me.  She took an uncharacteristically selfish (in a positive way) stand this year and said we were having steak.  So the tradition for a "fancy" steak dinner includes sauteed mushrooms, some sort of potato (again, it is a requirement in my parents' house), brussels sprouts, and pumpkin pie.

Another part of our family tradition is that we have the family dinner on the Sunday, rather than the Monday (which is, I believe, the actual Thanksgiving Day).  I asked my mother about it the other day, and she said that they started doing that because people could travel on the Saturday, have the big meal on the Sunday, and travel home on the Monday.  Since it is only a three-day weekend in Canada, this makes sense.

We don't have any other family traditions associated with T'Giving.  Many families will go around the table to share what they are thankful for.  We don't do that.  I don't think my father understands why people would do such a thing.  (My father is a conundrum.  Another post for another day.)  Some families play touch football.  We've never done that, either.  We do all eat too much, which isn't so much tradition as it is inevitable.

Sometimes, one of my siblings will call to wish us all a Happy T'Giving.  Or more than one.  But this is not mandatory with T'Giving, the way it is at Christmas.  At Christmas, we all must talk to each other.  Someone starts things off (one or the other of my sisters, usually), and calls another person.  Who then must call another household, who must call the first household.  A happy little round robin of phoning.  It doesn't all have to happen on Xmas day;  it is acceptable to wait until Boxing Day.  (Which is the day after Xmas.  I've heard that there is no such day in the US;  maybe I'll blog about that sometime.)

I can't help but think that this is a bit of a disappointing post.  My family just doesn't do traditions, for the most part.  My father really dislikes them, and nobody else pushes it.  I know my sisters have their own family traditions, but I don't really know what they are.

So the fact that we don't really have many traditions probably says a lot about my family.  As I commented to my parents last night, our biggest tradition for holidays like T'Giving and Xmas is being together.  Usually not all of us, but whoever is close by gets together and shares a meal.  And to me, that's what those days are all about.

I SWEAR if I have to sit through one more Power Rangers episode with my son, with about 3000 toy commercials in between breaks, and him asking me for EVERY SINGLE ONE, I will PERSONALLY cancel Christmas for EVERYBODY, FOREVER!!! I MEAN IT! QUIT FUCKIN WITH ME DISNEY, NICKELODEON AND CARTOON NETWORK! Damn kids driving me crazy. I was never the kind of parent that told my kids about Santa-hell, Santa don't pay for a thing! Mama! ALL DAY LONG BABE! But the backlash of being this honest with my kids is that since they know that I buy the gifts, I can't just tell them to jot it down on a list for Santa; they come straight to the source. Everything from the TV commercials to those damn toy catalogs, I hear it on a daily basis. My eight-year old can't even PRONOUNCE Nintendo, yet she asks for a "ento DS" 2 to 3 times a week. Don't get me wrong, I love the looks on their faces come Christmas morning, and I often wake them up at 1am (a family tradition) just for them to tear my living room to shreds with wrapping paper. But it seems as though advertising for Christmas hits us earlier and earlier each year.  Christmas decorations are even in stores now, before Halloween!! I'm on the Internet now searching for numbers for every toy manufacturer I know so the next time Alex, Nate or Ash decide they want to announce all the bullshit they want under the tree, I will have them motherfuckas on speed dial-CALL AND WORRY THEIR ASSES! Hmph!

'TIS THE FUCKIN SEASON!

By the way, it seems by birthday is Sunday. Hooray? Birthdays don't seem to matter much anymore. I certainly don't feel or look my age, so I don't really see the point. My birthday week will be quite eventful though, so I am actually looking forward to it for once.