Merry Christmas...Joyous Yule

Hello. Sorry for being such a stranger. Time, as I'm sure you understand, just tends to get away from you sometimes. Actually, the older I get, the more slippery time seems to be. Sort of like trying to catch a well-oiled fish.
Chester's update first. He is doing very well, still in remission. I once again urge you to support ACTSS. Without them we would not have our little man with us. He passed his year mark at the end of November and rules the house with an iron fist. At least in his own mind he does. He seems to spend a lot of time hauling around a stuffed toy puppy, eternally looking for the perfect place to bury it. I actually found it in a corner "buried" under a sock and an electric cord. I'm sure in Chester's mind it was a mighty mountain of soil deep in the woods. I've found it in the wood bin, under blankets and pillows and jammed into every crook and cranny imaginable. He then guards the thing fiercely until he forgets what he's doing and moves on to the tennis ball or the puck.
I think one of the reasons that I haven't just sat down to write something is that I don't know where to start any more. I always have something to say (as those of you who are connected to me on Facebook know;-). I suppose I sometimes feel that there is little point in preaching to the choir. All you have to do is look around you to see that we are on a path of no turning back now. I am having a harder time than usual this Christmas, not because I don't like the season. I do. I love decorating the house. I love giving gifts to people that I care about. I just, as so many people do, hate the awful greed and frenzied corporate monsters out there trying to convince you that you are not a good parent/spouse/friend if you don't get out and purchase incredibly expensive stuff for your loved ones. As if only money will show how much you care. And it does translate to people's expectations of what they should be given. I know family members and friends who would (and have) looked at me like I'm some sort of cheap-assed loser when I've given them something that I've made. It doesn't seem to occur to them that others pay me for the same thing to give to their loved ones. It's effed up.
So here we are at the end of 2011. We, as a planet have not slowed climate change...we have seemingly done everything in our power to accelerate it. There are still the not-smarts out there saying "DUH...this has always happened...this climate thing...". We've got a power-hungry lunatic running the country. We've got almost no snow and above zero temperatures (mmhmm...very normal). We've been occupied. We've been Arab-Springed. We are truly in a pickle and I'm pretty sure that no one really listens to my input about it and if they do they either want to argue about it or do nothing that means they have to get up off their lazy asses and change.
So instead, some little bits and pieces that made me think and or smile since last I wrote:
My nephew, Joey, who is 7 has never been out here. I don't think he's ever been outside the city. I hate that but I don't drive and my brother doesn't drive. So Twyla and I decided to make him a little video of "Auntie's House at Christmas". We took him on the grand tour, showing him the kitchen where I talk to him on the phone every morning, the lights and the Christmas tree with presents underneath. He even got to kiss Twyla under the mistletoe! We showed him the animals and he got to see Twyla's room. At the end of it...(Jim called me so Joey could have me on the phone as he watched the neat video he got in the mail!)...he gets on the phone. He goes "Auntie Paula? I think you are the luckiest person in the whole Universe!"
I think he feels I live at the North Pole with Father Christmas, himself, or maybe in Disneyland. When I can make the little guy smile like that, I feel like I am the luckiest person in the Universe.
Twyla is becoming quite the harpist. Her teacher seems to think she shows promise. Like I needed to be told that. She just finished up her anatomy/physiology course and starts her Nutrition 1 course in the new year.
We attended a funeral on Friday for one of Brad's family members. I don't feel comfortable talking about the deceased (this one anyway) but I have to tell you it was the strangest funeral I have ever attended...and I've attended a few. It was just really sort of cold and impersonal and the pastor/preacher or whatever he was seemed more like a game show host than a person with a link to the hereafter or a line on talking to the bereaved. All he did was read bad poems out of what I am sure are pilfered Hallmark cards. I mean...my dad, who by all accounts was not the most likable guy, had bagpipes and kilts and bells and tears and a passionate priest (who had never met my dad) and flowers and standing salutes and speeches. Nobody was picking lint or farting around with a cell phone during the thing, I'll tell you that. Just...really surreal. I dragged Brad and Twyla out the second I could do so without looking crass and rude. It felt like people were just so disconnected that even a funeral was just something to hurry through. WTF.
The rest of our time has been spent figuring out the new website, which I hope you take the time to visit (the www.theraggedrose.com.) Figuring out what direction to take with it. If you love this blog so much that you just can't get enough (there's obviously some tongue-in-cheek there kids) there is another blog linked to the website. It mostly updates what we are working on for The Ragged Rose.
I am looking forward to New Year's Eve with some trepidation. The whole getting older thing is a bit of a pill, ya know. Twyla is going to make me a super-terrific birthday dinner and I think we'll likely go to the movies on New Year's Day. Not much for partying these days and I have absolutely no time for drunks. Whenever I smell booze on somebody it makes me want to slap them and tell them they stink. It literally makes me nauseous...the smell and the behaviour. Nothing like a swaying, glassy-eyed eejit laughing at their own cleverness and 'loooooooving' you soooooo much. 'Tis the season, I guess.
Today, book work, paper work. All the fun stuff. It's one week to Christmas so it will be a super busy week with business parties and shopping and maybe a bit of visiting. I hope that all of you reading this have a lovely and peaceful holiday, whatever holiday you celebrate, even if it's only the celebration of the light returning after the 21st. I'll be thinking of you all, those I've loved and cared for in the long distant past, the present and I will be looking forward to our meetings in the coming year(s). Many bright blessings to you all with our love to each and every one. Stay safe, keep your silly ass out of the car if you are going to have even one drink and be a do-gooder! Give something to the food bank and Santas Anonymous, even if you don't celebrate the season yourself. I guarantee you there are those worse off than you who do not deserve to be.

What's on the menu: Homemade macaroni and cheese with broccoli
Reading: The Earthwise Herbal
Goals: Work on website updates
Music: UP 99.3 Christmas music
Viewing: A Christmas Carol (with Patrick Stewart...my favourite)