My Chapter ladies and I had a very enjoyable Christmas Party on the 13th!  It was the 3rd year at the same restaurant and we love it!  We exchanged some very nice gifts that were less than $10.00.  Another lady contributed little gift favors of various things she had chosen to set at each place, I filled small paper decorated cardboard ornaments with nuts and also set them at each place.  A second lady contributed a gift for a free drawing (it turned out to be a white singing bear dressed in a shiny red hat, jacket and boots) and gave me a special gift that I cannot open until Thursday!  We had a couple of extra place gifts to give away so I picked a number and the closest choice won. 

Coincidentally, the young man who was our waiter, also worked at another restaurant the night before and his last group served was a red hat group.  He goes home, goes to bed, comes to work the next day at a different restaurant and his first group to be served is a red hat group!  Ours!  The third extra place gift we gave to him.  It was a red hat shopping list pad and a Christmas pencil. 

As it turned out, though we had had cold weather (down into the teens and 20's) that that very afternoon, about 4 PM or so it began to snow!  Lucky for us!!  It turned out that another red hat group was also having their Christmas Party lunch at the very same restaurant where our Chapter had been, later the following week...and it was so snowy!  I have no idea if they went ahead with their plans.  It will be 2 weeks of snow this coming Friday if the weather stays cold and doesn't warm up much.  So far, so good!  When I get stir crazy from being indoors I venture out into snowy cold to shop for groceries or whatever. 

Our Chapter, the Purple Petticoat Gang, is looking forward to 2009!  One of the Chapterettes is planning the January lunch towards the end of the month.  If she doesn't have a Mongolian soup pot lunch at her place, then we will go to a very nice Chinese buffet.  The Chinese Year of the Ox begins on the 26th. 

In February, another Chapterette is planning on having us all celebrate our Chapter Birthday/Anniversary with lunch at the airport restaurant.  An exchange of inexpensive boxed valentines with decorated valentine boxes that will win prizes for different catagorys of decoration.  Plus a few other things that prizes will be given for. 

In March, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day, for the past 2 or 3 years we've had dinner at one of the hotels hosting "wearin' of the green" celebrations.  It was the tip-top best when the first year the local drum and pipers band performed before we left!  We still wear our red hats, but we add bits of green too!  Clovers, or whatever.  The first year I asked some Irish trivia questions and whomever got the right answer won a "green" prize.  But I ran out of trivia question ideas by the second year. 

We haven't gotten to April yet, but at some future point we are considering having a Teddy Bear (Pajama) Breakfast at a local restaurant that has great breakfasts and isn't wildly busy in the morning. 

Wanted to change my profile to a different animated one, but it isn't working for some reason.  Instead, to help kick off the winter chills, I put a bright Summer sunflower with a blue sky background to cheer up the day!  Hope Christmas and New Years is a great one for you all!

Let nothing you dismay...

Well the first week of this month is gone already and just over 2 more weeks to go!  This year has certainly blown by hasn't it? 

I've received December cards already from some of the gals in the feline friends group!  Thank you!  I enjoy every one!  I will be sending mine out this week!  I just was not coming up with a creative idea for the holidays...until I was looking for something in the china hutch and spotted my cat mug and saucer.  Ah-HA!  You'll see! :)  I'm doing very little shopping, just catching up on housecleaning (something we never escape!) doing a little decorating, creating aprons and knitted/crocheted stuff and dreaming of the perfect bellydancer costume to make!

To you all:  May the Light of the Creator and his Son bring love and joy into your homes, to celebrate together the things that really matter.  Have a positively Merry Christmas and a very Upbeat New Year!  The Creator watch over you all.