Update Dec 18- 23 2023: The Christmas Edition!

 Hey all!

I'm on my second paid week off of the year! It's been well deserved! I am going to see my mom for a few days for the holidays and using this week to relax from my hectic work schedule (it's not that hectic but i do work hard at work!) and finalize my Christmas shopping. The Christmas shopping is coming along!

I'm hoping your Christmas and holiday season is going well. I am really hoping to get poetry up on here! I'm not sure if it will happen this week. I'm hoping in the next few months esp. with the New Year coming I will be more committed to this blog than I previously had been.

Hashbrown has been happy and fat. She recently turned 4 years old last month and is living her best life. She's coming with me to my moms as I always bring my pet(s) even in past years.

I'm also hoping that 2024 is a better year for everyone. I can't say that 2023 was the worst year but in some ways it wasn't that great in terms of the cost of living.

In March 2024 is my 5 year anniversary at work. I am going to be able to have a third paid week off as every 5 years you've been at the thrift store you get an extra week of vacation. They are picking for vacation soon. I usually can't get July or August due to seniority ranking but I do get some decent picks and I have most of the year to pick from besides summer and the black out month of October.  

I have some Christmas traditions I do on my own and with family. I have a tree that belonged to my younger cousins paternal grandmom that my Grampy and I eventually got and I still use even after my Grampy passed. We used to have small arguments on how the lights connected to be plugged in because it is pre lit but you need to connect the plugs a certain way to make the whole thing light up. There are ornaments of mine from my childhood and ones that belonged to my younger cousin's mom that she gave our Grampy to use on the tree. As well my Nanny who was Grampy's wife had handmade some ornaments and they are on the tree. I have certain ornaments I always put on no matter what. One of my childhood ones that always go on are all four of the Avon Mickey's Christmas Carol ornaments. My absolute fave from that set is Goofy as Jacob Marley. My mom has also given me some Christmas Pickle ornaments for the tree. One I may have bought myself too I don't remember! The Christmas Pickle has a few possible origins but my mom's tree also has pickles on it too. Whoever finds the pickle in the tree gets to open a present early or at least how we do it.

Other traditions are that in the last so many years I go home to see my mom for Christmas. We have grocery aisle Chinese food on Dec 24th and our new tradition as of last year is playing merchandise bingo with prizes we bought each other. We play friendly though because if one of us win more than the other the one who doesn't win as much still gets to open their prize. We wrap our prizes. My mom last year got me some food items for my prizes and my mom's prizes were practical things. All our prizes are things each other likes without breaking the bank.

Often when I come home for Christmas my mom and I play other games too. We play crazy eights, War and Yahtzee! I keep five dice and a Yahtzee! pad at my moms all year. War goes on forever because it's just the two of us.

Something we did last year, my mom and I, and we're doing it again this year, is watching the Christmas special of Call the Midwife. She's seen more of the show than I have but I find it's really good. Apparently the 2023 Christmas special is airing right on Dec 25th this year!

curlyalicia