The Christmas Rush. Is It On Or Not?

Hi All!

Welcome to Monday and the final sopping days before Christmas. For some, it is time to relax and enjoy all the cookies already baked, decorations hung and gifts all wrapped under the beautifully decorated tree. For others, it is not the final days until December 23rd! I am somewhere in the middle this year. My shopping is done, my few decorations are up, my little fiber optic tree is decorated with pictures of me, Dave and Mason and my baking is scheduled for the 18th when Julie can come bake and visit with us. I am also waiting to wrap presents as if I do them now, Mason will open them and I am guessing I will have to warp and re wrap them many times over.

Dave and I seem to be in sync with our feelings of loneliness and excitement. The holidays are a tough time to be without each other BUT, we are also both feeling the excitement of this deployment finally nearing its end. Once we ring in the new year, it is all down hill. I am sure the date he is slated to leave Iraq will change more than 100 times in the coming weeks but there will be a date. Right now it is March 8. We have tentative dates for Poobah and Mexico so it won't be long until we get to the business of living our lives. Rest assured there will be many parties in 2005. Two to make note of will be Dave's homecoming party and our anniversary in Nevada City. I think we may do it the weekend of November 11, 12 and 13. We can celebrate our anniversary and Veterans Day in one fun weekend. Just think replay of our wedding and it should be pretty clear the kind of fun we will be having!

I am sending out our Christmas card with a mini "Year in Review" letter. It is not really going to be a year in review as much as it is a prelude to the story of how we tried to get our Christmas card photo. Take a minute to read it and have a good laugh on us. I am celebrating my birthday month and am looking forward to wrapping this year up. Come on 2005! Have a wonderful holiday season and remember, it is incredibly relaxing to celebrate with the "Gift of Nothing." Lots of love!

Kathy

Time Is Now

Time is neither your servant nor your oppressor. It is your workplace.

The passing of time can bring you down or lift you up. It all depends on how you make use of that time.

Time always comes to you packaged as now. To make full use of time, you must make full use of now.

If you put your efforts off until later, time will keep the fruits of those efforts always out of your reach. Yet when you let your efforts fill the time of now, time will deliver great rewards as it flows along.

With time on your side, any dream can become real, any goal can be reached. The time you have to work with is now, and in now is the seed for the best you can imagine.

Plant that seed of achievement and real fulfillment now. And time will bear its magnificent fruit. Ralph Marston from The Daily Motivator with permission www.thedailymotivator.com