Holidays without ice....

The holiday season. I love Christmas trees, and christmas music, time spent with friends, cards, etc. Oh and I love giving gifts. I love to surprise people. What I hate are the crowds. Yesterday was a nuthouse. I had no intentions of going out but since something I had just purchased at Target was big time on sale I wanted to get the price difference honored. Which enabled me to finish some other shopping. What a mistake. Lots of rude people in this world. However thanks to my program this didn't get me down, in fact I think I become even nicer when I'm faced with crabby people, sort of like an over the top nice pain in your a-- person! I smile, talk sweetly, and lay it on pretty thick, and you know what? it really drives crabby people nuts! Now I know this isn't right, but before I would be bitchy back and then no one was happy so at least now I get the satisfaction of killing them with kindness! So yes, I'm being rather evil but hey besides smoking an occasional cigar with my hubby I lead a pretty clean life these days! I mean when everyone at work is talking about what movies they saw, or what restaurant they ate at over the weekend, and I chime in "Hey my husband and I found a bag of extra crispy tator tots in the back of the freezer and ate them while we watched "Shrek the Final Chapter" and "How to Train your Dragon" , it's no wonder my co-workers stare at me extra long. But seriously how awesome is it to eat an unhealthy food, and laugh with your kids over a movie they want to watch. It's extra sweet. When AA talks about material wants disappearing I know what they are talking about. Things that I thought were important, things I thought that I had to make my life complete were really just things. So my outlook has changed for the season. The holidays for me used to mean lots of parties, lots of wine, lots of times I couldn't remember. How so much has changed in a year. For once I didn't go overboard Christmas shopping, for once I'm not planning a million things at once that I can't handle, and for once I'm letting our Christmas cards wait until I have time to do them. I'm too busy living this unglamorous, full time working, mother of three, wife, daughter, friend life of mine. I found myself in the toy section of Target humming "Let it Snow" yesterday. And speaking of snow we got over a foot of snow in less than 24 hours on Saturday. This would have driven me nuts, yes even mother nature at one time was against me or so I thought. Now it's beautiful. Deep piles of snow snuggle around our house. They make the outside lights festive, and only add to our ambiance. We have an anual party that we attend every year coming up. This is my first holidays without ice. No Manhattans, martinis, wine, old fashions, and its OK because minus the "ice" means minus the hangover, the black outs, the fights with my husband. The bloated, over exhausted me that was every December. The day after the party I have plans. I'm taking the kids to Breakfast with Santa, and then we have Christmas with my brother and his family at my parents Sunday afternoon. I won't be lying in my bed, afraid to open my eyes and evaluate the hangover headache I normally would have had. Today I'm planning on a nice weekend ahead, and then getting through Alex's surgery, and then we'll let Christmas unfold as it should. Thank you AA, not only did I throw out the ice in my glass, I also got rid of the ice around my heart........