Call me old fashioned but……in a world that has become so high tech and the majority of people communicating via emails, twitter, the Internet, texting, Facebook and the like, the art of sending things in the mail is becoming a lost art. Don’t get me wrong I understand why folks are turning to these methods, but things like receiving First Holy Communion Invitations, Baby Shower Invitations, Wedding Invitations and Baptism Invitations as well as Thank you notes that are at least addressed and signed in a persons hand writing means a whole heck of a lot more to me and numerous other people that feel the same way.

The reason I’m bringing this up is that I received one of the prettiest Quinceanera Invitations in today’s mail that I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing and it dawned on me that it had been a long time since I’ve received any invitations in the mail and it really touched me. I’m so excited to attend a Quinceanera celebration in many moons and I’m really looking forward to going. Things have been pretty quite since the holidays have come and gone, so I’m ready for some fun and celebrate such an occasion with some awesome people that I haven’t seen in a long time.

If the price of postage stamps keep going up as frequently as they have been these last few years, I fear that I’ll never receive anything in my home mailbox. I just found out that the price of post cards went up again, which is disturbing, not that I use post cards very often, but if the post card stamps goes up then you can bet that the rest of the postage rates will be following in suite pretty soon. I hear that Saturday mail delivery will soon be a thing of the past, but if that is what it will take to help keep the price of postage down then I’m all for that change. Basically all I get in the mail is junk mail and/or bills so not receiving these items on Saturdays is no big loss for me at all.

Here is to hoping that this Christmas will be a peaceful and easy one on everyone…….

Am thinking that I have just about got my Christmas presents under control for this year’s Christmas gift giving festivities that are less than 2 weeks away. This year I have not had to go to any store’s physical locations for any of the presents that I have purchased. I have used my laptop for the entire list 100%, and I couldn’t be happier. I just hope that all of my orders come in on time.

I’m still waiting on the jessica howard petite dresses for my very petite young niece as well as the hand sculptures for her mother, my eldest sister. Other than those two items and the large paper bags that I ordered to decorate and use to carry all the families loot home when all is over and done with and the place empties out late Christmas evening. The kids really enjoy decorating these bags for various family members to utilize, something that we have been doing for several years now, it has become kind of a tradition I suppose. We have always been an artsy crafty type of family so it is only fitting.

I’ve decided to go ahead with my first plan of buying my mother a spice rack for Christmas. Her old wall spice rack fell and broke into a million pieces a few months ago, what a mess that was! Now I don’t proclaim to know a whole heck of a lot about spice racks, but I’ve been taking a bit of time and looking around online and I’ve seen a few kitchen spice racks that I think she would welcome into her kitchen.

My mother is one of the best cooks around and she really depends on her spices. I’m not sure why she hasn’t replaced the broken one, except that maybe she knew it would be a good gift idea for someone to get for her for Christmas, much like I plan to do. My mother is a hard one to buy presents for, so this is the perfect opportunity for me to get her something that she really needs and hopefully will use for a very, very long time to come.

Funny how I am still trying to figure out all of the things that my new iPod can and will do for me. I’ve had the darn thing since September, I really thought that I would have had it mastered by now. They say that today’s kids are way more tech savy then we ever were and are, I have to say that I am finding out more and more how true that is.

I have had to rely on a couple of teenagers here and there for assistance with numerous, what I call “high tech” issues and my iPod is no different. I just spent over an hour with a neighbor who has been chatting up some of the cool things that iPods are capable of doing. He suggested that I get an iPod Movie Converter that will convert most files that are video formatted to my iPod, which will be cool. Guess I’ll start looking online and seeing what makes and models from what companies are best suited for my needs and wants. Something like this will have to wait until after Christmas, there are other things that I need to tend to first, but I’ll be doing some research in the mean time.

Since being a fan of the lollipop for as long as I can remember, I am always on the look out for new and exciting lollipops to either try and/or give away, preferably with each variety that I pick up along the way. I just love them all. For a short time in my youth I was even called “Kojak” who was the very famous and completely bald TV Cop from back in the 70′s that almost always had a lollipop in his mouth. Since I refused to shave my head, that nickname didn’t stick (excuse the pun) for too awfully long.

Anyways, I’m on the lookout for some new cool lollipops to get for Christmas. When I wrap my gifts I like to put a lollipop on each one, added to the ribbon and bow, my signature touch I guess you could say. Having the Internet is a great way to find new varieties as well as some of the older types that you don’t see much anymore or that are not being sold in your particular area.

Don’t these pumpkin spice lollipops look and sound yummy?

We bought our turkey for Thanksgiving Day today and it is a huge beast, dang thing must weigh 25 pounds, maybe 30. It is the biggest turkey I have ever seen not on the hoof. (Yes, I know turkeys don’t have hooves!) We used to have some huge old turkeys on the farm when I was a child but we did not eat them, we always had one of the young turkeys for Thanksgiving, my Grand Mother said that they were tender and tasted better than the old ones. I love all the food and football coming in a matter of days and I can not wait to get this huge turkey into the oven on Thursday it will be terrific.

It has taken a while but the new school playground looks as if it is about ready to be played on by all of the school kids that have been without a playground for way too long. Too bad this opening is going to happen at this time of the year. It is getting colder with each passing day, the holidays are fast approaching us and the schools are closed more than they are open from Thanksgiving straight through to the New Year. January seems to be such a strange month to have a Grand Opening as they are now planning out come the first of the year.

The neighborhood kids will have a blast though, school playgrounds are always enjoyed by all of the other kids through out the year, during the evening hours and the weekends, so at least some one will be enjoying the new playground surface built with today’s new and improved rubber mulch. The same shredded rubber mulch, manufactured by Rubberecycle, that was used for the first family’s (The Obama’s) new playground that they had built at the White House pretty much as soon as they moved into the White House to help entertain their two young daughters and their many friends. I remember how that particular event made the headlines and how proud everyone was that the Obama’s had chosen this particular environment friendly bulk rubber mulch.

Anyone remember seeing this picture in the papers, the TV and all over the Internet?

Have received a request for a rain chain for Christmas from my Aunt Peggy this year, who happens to be the greatest Aunt of all times in my book. She is my mother’s eldest sister and has always been like a second mother to me for as long as I can remember. She has always lived close by, while the majority of my relatives have moved out of state, some out of the country entirely, so I have had her in my close personal life since day one. I know that I can trust her and depend on her for anything and I would do anything in my power to help her in any way that I can so I’ve started looking around for these much anticipated rain chains that she has been talking about here recently.

I have found a company online that has these chains rain on their website that I have enjoyed looking at today, I had no idea that these rain chains were getting so popular and that there would be such a wide variety of them available. Now I have to try and decide which one to pick for her. You’d think it wouldn’t be a hard task since I know her so well, but I do struggle with making discussions such as this when it comes to something for some one other than my self.

This Christmas I have been invited to fly up to New York City to spend the holidays with an old high school friend who I haven’t seen in so very long. She moved up there to the big city shortly after high school and we have been keeping in touch via emails, texting and now there is Facebook that we have been enjoying as of late.

She has never married and has a great social life spending a good amount of time at the Gay bars and the Coffee Shops that are so abundant in New York City, especially in her neighborhood. She works at one of the high end Hotels and has met a lot of people from all walks of life and has made a lot of contacts along the way, which she can’t wait for me to meet and get to know on my trip up there.

Besides seeing a good friend, it will be nice to spend Christmas at one of the finer Restaurants that she is always bragging about eating at, without me having to spend the day cooking here for the whole family, which is something that I always end up doing year after year after year after year…….

On the way into town on Friday, 11-11-11, I just had too stop and say thank you, take a picture, and shake the hand of this dedicated Veteran who does this every Veteran’s Day from dusk until dawn. Something I will never, ever forget and hope that he continues to do this for years to come. God Bless America and least I forget to say “Welcome Home” to all the Vietnam Vets that were never told those two simple words!

Jimmy Kimmel did a montage of home videos where the parents of little kids were falsely told by their parents that there was no more Halloween candy left. Some of the parents said that the parents ate it while the kids were asleep. The reactions were predictable – the kids threw themselves into the floor in despair, crying out.

The audience laughed hysterically throughout the segment. I don’t think that was funny and I don’t think it was OK for the parents to lie to their kids, deliberately provoking or distressing them. Why is that funny?

This is the big Labor Day weekend when everyone wants to have a last fun weekend outdoors. But unfortunately, the weather forecast is for cooler days and lots of rain. Today is not raining yet, but you can feel it in the air and you know that it is coming, sooner or later. Let’s hope we all get at least one good day out of the weekend to do things at the lake or the beach.

We are going to head out to the river and just let my daughter splash around in the shallow water by our favorite picnic spot. The river bottom is not too mucky and not too rocky at this particular spot. I cannot tell you where this special spot is – it is our family secret and we don’t want a lot of other people to come there and spoil it.