Friday Fragments

~  Has anybody tried this:

Oh.My.  It's really good over pumpkin pie; even pecan pie.

~  Think I go to Starbucks too much?  The manager gave me this when I went in on Tues. afternoon:

~ On Monday, Mr. Principal was doing the announcements, and he let everybody know that some bear cubs were seen on the school property over the weekend. (This was not my "mountain" school. This school isn't in town, but still isn't in the mountains.) Since it was a nasty, rainy day, there was no danger to anybody since everybody was staying inside. It's quite a problem this year: the bears are coming down looking for food.

~ When I was going home after getting the girls' food from the vet on Wed., I noticed that the mountains were all white.  I pulled into a neighborhood to get a good picture, turned on my camera, and...nothing.  The batteries were dead.  I tried everything to get just a little juice, but, no go.  They were beautiful, and the snow was gone yesterday.   So, you'll just have to use your imagination and pretend that this picture was from Wed. and not last year:

 Visit Mrs. 4444 and see how everybody's week was!

Day 1: Something Red

Susan at This Day!  is hosting a fun activity in December.  It's kind of a scavenger hunt of sorts:  She's listed 25 things; those of us who are playing take a picture and post it to our blog.  I'm not sure how I'm going to get some of the items on the list, but I'll just have to be creative!
As I wandered around the halls at school today, I was looking for something red.  I have a student who isn't in school yet; I only see him once a month and today was his day.  He had a nice little gift for me, and it was RED!  HOORAY!  Here it is:

The boy knows how to give a perfect gift, no? 

Go visit Susan and see what everybody else came up with it.  Feel free to join in and play, if you want. The list can be found here.  If you don't know Susan, it's worth your time to take a visit. She's a Harley-riding, Jesus-loving woman who is always on the go!

Strike!

I had a good laugh on Monday night when I turned on Lifetime and saw this movie was on :  On Strike for Christmas.  I fell asleep during the movie, but what I saw depicted exactly how I felt.

 Holidays are never what I expect them to be, especially now that the 2 oldest boys are in college.  I always thought that when they reached this age, we would do more things together during the holidays.  Can anyone say "Dream World"?  Definitely not my reality.  I was really hoping that we would have one night together.  Playing a game, watching a movie, or watching a football game.
Wed. night we went out for dinner, then the 2 oldest were off to visit friends.  Even Thanksgiving night they went to friends' houses.  My initial hope was that we could all go for a hike together, as a family.  But, CH wanted to go for a motorcycle ride, MS & YS didn't want to go, and OS slept late.  By the time he got up, I was headed out to the Yankee Candle Shop to see what they had.  So, he & a friend went hiking instead.
I don't think the boys realize how hard I work to make the holidays special for them, so they'll have memories and traditions to pass down to their kids.  Maybe, being boys, they just don't care and/or it just isn't important to them.  I guess we'll see this year, because I'm going on strike.  I had plans to put up the Christmas decorations over the weekend, but because of the attitudes, I rethought that.  In fact, I'm not going to go out of my way to do anything.  If they want it done, they can do it themselves.
I've threatened that in the past, but didn't follow through because I didn't think it was fair to YS, but, now that he's 17, I think he can handle it.
I shed some tears this weekend in the privacy of my bedroom, and I'm just tired of feeling this way.  Maybe my family has always been this way and I just hoped that it would change as the boys got older.  I told the boys last year that all they had to do was tell us what they wanted to do as a family and we would do it.  Did I hear any suggestions?  Nope; not a one.  We are a family of 5 who have 5 different interests.  Guess I should just get over it and realize that this is how we are.

I'm not looking for sympathy; I just wanted to get this off of my chest and feel better about everything.  It won't be too much longer and they'll have families of their own and won't be spending any holidays with us.

So...do you have the "dream family" and spend a lot of time together during the holidays, or does everybody do their own thing?