Pre-Holiday Thoughts and Rambles

We're in the home stretch for the holidays and the end of the DECADE is less than 2 weeks away.  (How the heck did that happen???)  It's time for me to spend some time spreading my special brand of Bfth cheer with rants and maybe a few raves too...

• As I write this we are technically still in autumn.  Yet, we have already used up a snow day and this Tuesday's ice storm looked like nothing...until I hit the backyard.  My usual ice coated driveway was clear, but each blade of grass was engulfed in ice.  Sure the trees looked pretty, but when one uprooted in my backyard...not so pretty.  (And not so cheap to get removed!) 
  
   If this is what late autumn looks like, what is winter proper going to be?  I'm shivering in my shoes and it's not from the temperatures!  (Although I would LOVE a day where the temperature actually hits freezing or above!)

• This entire month has been one giant grid lock alert.  I should be used to it; I travel Route 3 every day and it's NEVER pretty no matter what the hour of the day.  But it's been horrific...Of course I probably should just be grateful that I'm not on Route 280. Fingers crossed that next week, while no one is working (but I am) that traffic will actually be manageable.  Even if highways are not great, at least I won't be stuck behind a school bus.

• My house is not clean.  I keep trying to get to it, but other things get in the way.  It WILL get clean...sort of...maybe.  There are worse things than dust for Christmas right?  No judging?  Can I blame this all on my Elf on the Shelf?  (Yes, I still have one even though my kid is in high school.  Ralph doesn't move around quite as much as he once did and he seems to be hanging out more by the bottles of wine.  If you were hanging out by bottles of wine would you move?)  Maybe I can get my teen to dust and/or clean the bathroom while he is home on Monday?  Am I expecting too much of a Christmas miracle?  How about a Hanukkah miracle?  I don't need the candles to burn for 8 nights, but it would be a miracle if someone (besides me) cleaned the toilet!

• The school holiday concert was this week.  You probably think this will be another rant, but it isn't.  Although it was almost 2 hours long (partially because they had a multitude of musical groups), it was the best one I've ever been to.  When you hit high school it becomes pretty good.  (No offense to the elementary and middle schools; if the kids didn't go through that they never would have gotten to where they are now.) It was also actually a holiday concert with seasonal music and musicians in Santa hats and ugly sweaters.  I may have gotten home much later than I would have liked (and not gotten to sleep until WAY past my bedtime), but how could I not feeling good after the show closing with the Alleluia chorus?  All wanted to were invited up to sing.  I was extremely tempted.  (I LOVE The Messiah!)  However, I decided to be a good mom and stay seated.  (Plus I don't think any parent went up...the chorus was instead joined by friends and recent graduates.)  IF this is how the concert always closes out, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to stay seated in future years.

• Speaking of music, if you are in a bad mood (like I was in traffic this morning), you need to find a copy of "We Three Chipmunks."  I like it so much that here it is:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s5UGmCFMb4  (note there is no video for this).  I've heard it before and loved it, but it was just what I needed this morning.  You need it too...it's a jazz mix that is done right and exceedingly well.  It won't relax you, but it WILL make you feel better.  I can pretty much guarantee it.  Thank you to The Airmen of Note; you are amazing.

And with that I leave you...I need to get back to work and maybe bake some more cookies...because there can NEVER be enough cookies!