Having an ornament exchange scheduled tonight with my girlfriends (which by the way was wonderful), Monday afternoon my "beautiful real tree, huge and filled with years of accumulated glass ornaments" tumbled to the terra cotta ceramic floor with the loudest crash imaginable.

What a mess... sappy water (I had just filled it), glass, and sand from a cute little seashell and sand filled glass ball EVERYWHERE!

Oh well, it's just stuff. But what a mess just before a party.

Rant: I came home last night to discover that my husband had placed his gifts to me under the tree, and filled my stocking to the bursting point. His now outnumber mine 3 to 1, and I only put a box of tictacs in his stocking. Damn.
Rave: We both have clothes on our back, food in the fridge, good jobs, working cars, and great families.
Rave #2: Hopefully we'll see his classmate Joey win the house they renovated tonight on "House Rules". Go Merchant Marines!
Rave #3: the fact that somebody mentioned "seagull poop"

Rant: A certain store tore my vacation photo negatives and now those pictures can not be developed. Will also have to agree with the Old Navy commercial - man that Fran Drescher voice just annoys me.

Rave: Its Xmas time and we've had no snow or ice yet! Yippee!!!

Happy Holidays everyone!

"the people who feel they have to email every stupid joke, cartoon, political stuff and what not that they get on to everyone they know, and then get out of joint when I ask them not to send anymore to me."

No kidding! And especially getting them from people across the country and having them consider that their way of 'keeping in touch' but never receive an individually addressed personal email from them.

Rave - Starting to plan our Cayman vacation for next May.

Rave - finally getting an awesome gift for my hubby for Christmas since he's so hard to buy for.

Rave: Being in Paris for Christmas, arriving Christmas Eve morning!!

Rant: People who come to work sick exposing everyone else to what they've got!

AND WHAT'S UP WITH THIS COLD WEATHER???

I'm freezing!

OO, I'm so jealous you lucky girl!

Rant-People who can't drive in the snow.

Rave-Seeing Christmas through a 5 year olds eyes. "Where do the reindeer go when Santa comes down the chimney and when he's at the mall." And, "will the dogs chase Santa back up the chimney?"

Rant: I have NO IDEA what to get my husband for a holiday gift. All suggestions welcome.

Rave:I found the greatest white elephant gift for tomorrow's holiday party! His and hers Spongebob undies; boxers for him, bikinis for her (or, I think that's the way it goes...)

Rant: we have had soooooo many Christmas festivities (forced bonhomie)
at work that I feel I've celebrated Christmas five times..enough,already


Rave: looking forward to a lovely New Year's Eve dinner at an elegant restaurant, although Ryan's description of Acapulco sounds like a great idea for next year.

Rant: Yes, yes, yes, the people that send friendship email messages but NEVER include a personal note! AND to make it worse, those "friendship" messages end with, I have an hour to send this message to 5 of my best friends or I'll have to eat cat litter. (or something to that effect)
Rave: Christmas music!

Rant: I've waited until tomorrow to do my Christmas shopping... ugh, yikes and all the rest. Rave: I'll be done with my Christmas shopping by tomorrow.

Rant: Whats up with everyone wanting 80 degrees and sunny??? Its freakin' CHRISTMAS!!!
Rave: We here in Colorado are expenting snow...yay!!!

Rant: Typos...that's E-X-P-E-C-T-I-N-G

Rant: the man at the liquor store talking to me like I am a dunce ( blonde maybe but not a dunce)
Rave: the amazing bottle of port that I found (by myself) for the Yankee.

My rants for this Friday....

1. That our company holiday party was last night instead of tonight. Now everyone at work is hungover, tired, and basically listless including myself.

2. Agree with those Old Navy commercials. The worst is Fran Drescher using the ghetto line of "they fizzled my schizzle" or something like that.

3. The fact that I have to start xmas shopping tonight in a rental car. (I was lucky to even get one!!)

4. People that feel the need to start screaming and yelling after waiting too long on line during the holiday season. Well, what the hell did you expect? A line made especially for you??

5. That everytime I plan on skiing, the weekend I choose to go, the weather never agrees with me!! (ie our lovely hail/freezing rain/snow storm on Sunday)

My Raves:

1. Got a raise and a bonus before the company holiday party.

2. I will be done with my holiday shopping this weekend

3. My family has emailed me what they want which makes #2 a lot easier. But I do wonder whatever happened to being surprised on Christmas Eve.

Rants: I agree with you all about the Fran Drescher and Kelly Ripa annoying commercials. Might I also add the "it's OK I ate Subway" commercials, and the Herbal Essence shampoo ones with women moaning in ecstacy as if they were having a you-know-what when they are washing their hair; then, just in case you didn't get it, they tell you, "it's a totally organic experience". Puleeeze. Andrew Dice Clay is more subtle than that.

Raves: Neighbors keep coming by with homemade cookies today (I guess everyone's baking); we have light snow flurries that look great but aren't sticking to the ground, and that I can find so much in common with complete strangers.

My rant: Some jerk stole my credit card number and has been charging away...including some expensive software for data retrieval!!
My rave: Had a new card overnighted and we're off to Maui in 4 days!!

So autowith, you would be including yourself as you have also replied to this post.

So you are just a big fat loser like the rest of us huh? Welcome to the club. At least post some funny, helpful or clever information.

We can deal with trolls but angry little trolls like you are sad.

LOL, GoTravel, I am always agreeing with you!!
I clicked on this newbies name and see that not one posting is pleasant, someone is just enjoying venting his/her bad mood on the rest of us.
Maybe if we ignore it , it will go away?

Rave: All the great food around the holiday season! I bake a lot in anticipation of several Dec. dessert parties that we host. We have tons of cookies, truffles, fudge and all kinds of good stuff. We light a fire, put on the lights and Christmas tunes and invite friends and their kids over. I indulge freely this time of year, b/c I only eat like this in Dec. I also found a great recipe for a Raspberry Punch made with white zinfandel wine - another treat we don't have other times of the year.

Rave: Manhattan at Christmas time. I took my 10 y.o. son up this week - it was his first Christmas time visit to NYC. We had a great time. Going during the week was wonderful - barely any crowds compared to the busy weekends.

I'm with you GoTravel - those eyebrows are Carrot Top's are truly scary!!