History of beloved "Christmas"

Ok, so we're down to just over a week from Christmas. I swear, this time of year, I'm like a kid myself. I get so excited about Christmas. I'm not a religious person, and I don't celebrate it for Jesus' birthday - I celebrate Christmas because it's FUN!!!

I've had some fun over the past couple of weeks over the big hub over department stores bringing back the phrase "merry Christmas". A couple of years ago, due to so many activist groups getting offended, it was no longer acceptable to wish consumers a "merry Christmas". Due to the fact that Hannukah and Kwanzaa were also celebrated around the same time - it was offensive to wish people a merry Christmas. So it was then adopted that "happy holidays" was the better and acceptable greeting. Well, then of course, all of the Christian organizations had a fit about it. Protests boycotting stores that use "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas" started. This year - major department stores, like Wal-Mart, Target and K-Mart, decided that due to all of the flack they were receiving by the Christian organizations they would bring back the phrase "merry Christmas". It once again shows that Christians believe that they are superior to all other religions and beliefs. Well, here's a little news flash for all of those organizations:

Christmas was a holiday brought on by the Roman Catholic church hundreds of years ago in a way to convert pagans to Christianty. On December 21st, a lot of Pagan groups celebrate the Winter Solstice - better known as Yule. Pagan groups would gather with family and friends to celebrate the return of the sun. The symbolism for Yule is the Goddess giving birth to the God, a reminder that with death comes rebirth. (Sound familiar..LOL). Pagan families would celebrate by decorating an Evergreen. An Evergreen symbolized that even with the harshest of conditions life continued. (hmmm - another symolarity?) Pagans also would burn a Yule log and light candles to honor the sun's return. This is just a very brief description of the Yule celebration - but just want to point out some facts. The Winter Solstice has been around since time itself - so very hard to be a speculated holiday. Let's take a moment to look at the birth of Jesus Christ shall we?

It states in the bible that Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem to be included in the census and for the taxes. History has shown that the census would fall around March or April. Also, many scholars of the bible have shown that it would be more accurate to say that with the description of the stars - the birth of Jesus Christ would of been around February or March. Hmmm - that's quite amazing don't you think?

Hundreds of years ago, it was decided by a Pope that Christ's Mass would be celebrated on December 25th so that Pagans could convert to Christianty, but keep some of their important holidays. AMAZING!!

So - for all of those Christian organizations that throw a fit about using the term "merry Christmas" might want to do their homework just a little bit. If anyone should be throwing a little hissy fit - shouldn't it be Pagans??

Ok - so I've made my point. I celebrate a combination of Yule and Christmas - I incorporate all of that material bullshit that has been adopted over the years. That's the best thing about my beliefs - I believe what I want. I recongnize the Winter Solstice on December 21st, but I love to get my kids all excited about the thought of Santa visiting and bringing lots of presents on Christmas eve. We eat, drink, and be merry for a few days - just the way I like it. So to everyone reading this - whether you celebrate Christmas, Yule, Kwanzaa or Hannukah - HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!

Sickness - Bitch Fest, BEWARE!!

Wow, where do I begin? I'm so pissed off right now, words are just jumbled in my brain. What is it with men and sickness?? When a woman gets sick - they don't give a shit. They expect life to go on as normal - but damn, if they get sick the whole world stops fucking revolving!!! Hmmm, can you guess what I'm mad about?

On Monday, at 1 AM, I woke up and puked my guts up. I had fixed chili the night before - and I just have to say OH MY GOD!!! After I got puking, it started coming out the other end. (I know, I know, too much information - but I have to give all the information to get my point across.) I was up about every 30 mins after that scared what end it was going to come out of. That morning, I called Steve to let him know that I was going to stay home from work because I was sick. He sounded fine - told me he would go to Wal-Mart and pick up anything I needed. He got home from work, he was FINE! (Have to point that out again.) He sat on the couch and told me that the heaters at his work weren't working, so he worked out in freezing temps the night before - so he was cold. Hey, that's understandable. So, he layed on the couch and went to sleep. He woke up around noon so that he could go check the mail. He ordered us Bluetooth Headsets for our phones - so he was hoping they came in. Ok - so we all get that he got up to go the mail box to see if WHAT HE WANTED was in there. When he came back he layed on the couch again. He said he was still cold, and maybe he was getting sick because he couldn't warm up. I was thinking "I stayed up all night puking my brains out - but hey if you're cold you MUST be sick" (please note the sacrasm) but I didn't say anything. So, I have to puke again - I go do that - and when I get out of the bathroom, he tells me that he doesn't think like he feels picking the kids up from school. I'm like WTF!!! He says he'll do it because I'm sick - he was just saying he didn't feel like it. Well, I decide to go back to sleep. I wake up a little later cause I heard him reach for something. It was his phone, and he was checking the time. It was 2:30. My kids get out of school at 3. I didn't think anything of it - and went back to sleep. I woke up a little bit after that - 2:50 to be exact - and he's sound asleep!! I try waking him up... NOTHING. Now, he's not usually a hard sleeper - so I'm pretty pissed off. I get up and start putting my shoes on. Conviniently, he wakes up just as I'm tying the last shoe and asks me what I'm doing. I told him I'm going to get the kids. He doesn't move - but says "you don't have to, I will" - still not moving under his den of blankets on the couch. I just get up, grab my coat, and storm out of the house. I go and get the kids and when I get home - HE'S SLEEPING!!! He stayed on the couch pretty much the rest of the night. I cleaned the kitchen (the dishes from the night before hadn't been done, and I couldn't handle the smell coming from the kitchen) I know after that I won't be able to eat chili for a long time, I cooked the kids dinner - he SLEPT! At 5:30 PM I went to bed - he followed shortly after. Being that it was only 6 PM and the kids were still up, I had to get up again to take care of the kids. What did he do? Go to bed!!! I was so pissed off - I'm still pissed off. He hasn't said a word to me since then. I get home from work last and to put icing on my cake - he had fixed CHILI dogs for dinner. I felt like puking the minute I walked in the house. I quietly made myself some toast - and spent the rest of the evening on the computer. I went to bed early - he didn't say a word. Oh, he did leave me a text message this morning - asking me not to forget to pay the insurance bill. How sweet of him (once again sacasm inserted). I really feel like he doesn't give a shit. I'm so mad right now - and he couldn't care less!

Ok - bitch fest over, for now.

Holidays R Here Again!!!

Two months since my last post. Seems as if that's the average.. LOL Things are crazy for me right now. I've got so much going on - my head is spinning. I finally received financial aid to attend school next semester. It seems as though I'm one step closer to getting my dream job of being a teacher. I start in January. I've enrolled in all my classes, the finanacial aid is complete - so it's just waiting for classes to start now. I'm still in the same job. I put on hold looking for a new one, as I'm trying to get something figured out with the director I work with. She's trying to see about getting me a job with her. That would be a lot easier with school coming up. It's very hard to find a new job when I'm going to be gone quite a bit for school. I'm the new Decatur Brownie girl scout leader. That's a lot of fun. Our troop is still very small - but Payton really enjoys it, so I'm going to stick with it.

This year was the first year EVER that I got to have Thanksgiving at my house. I stayed up all night the night before to cook a 20lb turkey. Then I spent all day in the kitchen cooking all the fixings. My parents and grandparents came over, along with my youngest brother and sister. It was a hell of a lot of work - but I had a blast. It was so nice to have all the family over to me. I've never had a house big enough to do it before - so it made having my own house that much more special. My grandpa is one of those men that's pretty hard to impress. He's got onto me my whole life about my weight, and finds little things to dig at me about. Whether it's getting pregnant and "ruining my life", smoking, eating to much - pretty much anything really. On Thanksgiving day he was a completely different man. He was very impressed with the house, and all the hard work I put into making the day perfect. He's nominated me for Thanksgiving again next year.. LOL I told him about going to school in January - and he thought it was great. Usually I hear a long lecture about how bad teacher's pay is blah, blah, blah - but when I made my point about it not being for money, he actually seemed to understand.

Now Christmas is coming. I'm sooo excited. I love Christmas!! Even though it won't be a terribly huge Christmas - it's still Christmas all the same. Got the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. It snowed here a couple of nights ago - and it's REALLY cold. I LOVE it. Sitting in front of the fireplace (yes, we have one.. a real one at that), with a cup of hot chocolate watching a Christmas movie is the best!! For the first time in my life - things are almost perfect. I say almost, because things are never really perfect. But we have money, health, and a beautiful house - what more can we ask for?

New Family Member

Wow - I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since my last entry. Lots of things going on in my life. The first, and most exciting is the long anticipated arrival of my new puppy. Her name is Asia Rayne. She is 8 weeks old tomorrow, and weighs 1lb 8ozs. Isn't she just adorable??? I got to bring her home last Friday. Having a new baby in the house has been rough, but very enjoyable. The only problems we've had is the potty training, but that comes with all new additions. :) She's already spoiled rotten.

Lots of things going on at work. My boss has been moved to a new department. She will be working from San Francisco starting the end of this year - so, unfortunately, that means I don't go with her. I've started keeping my eyes open for a new job, but I've kind of made a promise to stay with her until she moves. The new work that she's doing is exciting - and that's about all I can say about that. It will be hard leaving my department. I love working for my boss - she's so nice, and she's a great mentor. Then there's the other 2 members of my team - Joe and Alicia. Joe is new, so I'm not really that attached to him. Alicia on the other hand - that's a different story. From day one I've liked Alicia. I got to interview her when she was applying for her position - and I really pushed for my boss to hire her. She's such a wonderful person - I'm going to miss working with her very much. She can be trying at times -but can't all superiors?? LOL I'm trying to get into management. All three of the people I support think that I can do it - and that I'm ready. Everyone keep your fingers crossed!!

Things are great on the home front. We've been having a few problems with Brayden at school - but other than that, things couldn't be better. Well, that's it for now. :)

Finally all moved in!!!

So, we're finally settled into our new house. After a very long day of moving on Saturday - we finally piled everything into the living room. Steve and I then spent the next two days getting everything unpacked. Now, we're all done and enjoying all of our space. The house is so big compared to our last house. Our new house has 3 bedrooms - technically it has 4, but we're using one as an office - 2 baths, huge living room and kitchen, formal dining area, nestled in the middle of 5 wooded acres. It's beautiful out here.

Last night, we took the kids to open house at their new school. They got to meet their new teachers, and are very excited about starting school on Monday. I think Steve is equally excited - as he will now have the house all to himself again during the day.

Work is going good. I've started doing some project managment work for the People department, which is Wal-Mart's version of Human Resources. The People Manager I'm working with is really nice, and I think he's going to help me a lot in my development. My boss is on vacation this week, and she will be back in the office next week. She's been really supportive of me working with People to enhance my learning and experience.

Online studies are going great. I'm learning a lot - and there is a lot of work to do. It's very overwhelming at the amount of studying I'm doing, but I'm enjoying it very much. Being out here in the woods should help me with my concentration and ability to enhance my meditation skills. Right now, I'm learning a lot about Pagan Gods and Goddesses which is extremely interesting. I had no idea there were so many of them. History is a class that I'm also enjoying - some really interesting stuff is being covered.

Well, that's the update on me right now.. Till next time. :)