Rave...A New Year, 2009!

This was an e-mail sent to us from friends in Ghana
and thought it would be fun to share today:


Best Wishes for the New Year!

(cute happy faces)

Proposed 2009 Contract Renewal

(cute moving monkey with bottle of champagne)

After serious & cautious consideration . . .

Our contract of friendship is eligible for renewal into the New Year!

Our wishes for you in 2009:
May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your debts.
May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills.
May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!
May your clothes smell of success like smoking tires.
May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy.
May the problems you had in 2008 forget your home and your work address!

In simple words: Here's hoping 2009 will be the best year of your life (so far...)!

Fondly,
John David and Jumaane


What will you be doing to ring in the New Year?

Rant...or maybe rave?....I've been tagged

Well, this is a new one for me...but looks like I've been tagged by Political Morsels and Other Droppings and now you have been too!
Here are the rules!

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

My six...random or not...

1. I'm claustrophobic!

2. I"m 5' 10" and everyone always asks me to reach stuff on the top shelf.

3. I hate to run!!! But love to walk...

4. I love jazz...

5. I'm a sports girl...3 brothers and a coach for a dad!

6. I love Mexico...


Bloggers beware:

Laurie's Blogspot
Trying to be Domestic
Big Ass Belle
On the Fritz
THINGS according to me
Todd's Rules

Rave....Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve is the big holiday at our house...I guess maybe left over from my Scandinavian roots! As kids, we always had a casual dinner, shared with friends, went to church...Mom and I sang in the choir...then we came home and had our family time, with homemade cookies and present opening. Christmas morning was exciting because Santa had come...our gifts were upwrapped and sitting by our stockings on the fireplace or under the tree. The morning was chaos, and a lot of playing with new toys...with three brothers, that could get close to riot stage!! Christmas dinner was more formal, and often my grandparents had traveled from the midwest, and later Arizona, to visit us.
We have tried to carry on with a lot of these traditions while my daughter was growing up....with grandkids, we've gone back to many of them. They are anxiously awaiting tonight, and of course are planning what cookies to leave for Santa, what cup to put his eggnog in, and of course....how many carrots for the reindeer?!! And....NO fire in the fireplace for Christmas Eve...damn!
I will of course be cooking and baking today...cornish hens for dinner, and cinnamon rolls and Christmas bread for Christmas morning. We will be having Christmas Day dinner at Nepenthe, in Big Sur......
What are some of your traditions, and what will you be doing for Christmas? Whatever you do, I'm hoping that it will be festive, and full of family and friends, or whatever makes it good for you! MERRY CHRISTMAS to you from our house!!!!!!!!

Rave...Nacimientos!

For you Laurie.....Merry Christmas!!!!!

Rant & Rave...Christmas Memorials!

Today is the anniversary of Eric's death, always embedded in our brains because it was Dec. 23rd! It was his favorite time of year, and the things that I inherited from him are all about Christmas, so the memorial is a yearly one in a natural sort of way....one of his pictures hangs as an ornament on my tree, along with a tassle in his honor...he loved tassels, and of course one of his ornaments from his Christopher Radko collection, an AIDS bunny. On my mantel, his cherubs join mine, and it's one of my decorations that never change from year to year except for which garland I use. Some years I put out the hand drawn Christmas card he made for me, with a sweet little note inside.
Rest in peace my sweet sweet cousin, and know that you are remembered today and all through Christmas! We know you are living it up with Christopher, Gwen, Red, Bobbie, Doc, Nancy, and Grandma and Grandpa!

Rave...Go Jerry

I hope this lady won't mind my stealing her comment, but thought it said a lot....this comment was in response to an article about Jerry Brown's legal fight in Calif. on behalf of the gay community and their right to marry....repeal Prop. 8!!!!!!!!



Sat, 12/20/2008 - 18:30 — Helene (not verified)
"to use the ballot box to take away an "inalienable" right would establish a "tyranny of the majority," which the Constitution was designed, in part, to prevent" That is exactly what Prop.8 is: a tyranny of the majority. As a mother of a gay son living in California, I was appalled by the passage of this proposition. I, and the rest of our family, believe that he should have the same right to marry as my straight son. I love his partner dearly. They are happy together and I sincerely thank God for this loving relationship. It is a blessing for our family. While the churches have the right to deny their own blessings, and people have the right to disapprove of such unions, they don't have the right to deny the civil right that civil marriage is. Perhaps enlightenment will come later for them, perhaps it won't. But my son's life can't wait. I am extremely grateful to Mr. Brown for seeing the light and having the courage to act to implement justice.

Rant...Doldrums

If you haven't already noticed, I've hit some kinda wall in the last few days...I've lost what little sense of humor I can muster for a post, burned out on the political scene, busy with Holiday stuff, being under the weather and trying to plan a get-away in the MIDDLE of it all! On Wed. we're leaving for a week to hang out at the beach in So Cal. I'm hoping it will be a nice break and I will come back refreshed and wanting to do cookies, The Nutcracker and Christmas....right now, I cut my usual decorations in half and am sitting here writing instead of trimming the tree. Maybe my usual ideological picture that I have in my head of all that Christmas can be, and enjoying making it so, seems a little silly this year, but I'm trying to make it the best that I can for my grand daughters anyway....if it weren't for them, I wouldn't even have a tree, and I'd stay gone 2 or 3 weeks!!!!!!!!!! At best, I'm hoping for a renewed spirit for the 'reason for the season', not just tradition, and getting my soul filled up...sometimes we just need a re-fill!!!!!!