General Grumpy Christmas Musings!

It has been a while...

Here is the news:

1. We are in the midst of Christmas planning here in Hoyt Land. I have a love/hate relationship with the holiday here is the tally thus far:

Love:

• The birth of Jesus
• Children and the look in their eyes
• Decorating
• Getting off of work for two weeks
• Good will inspired in myself and others
• Midnight Mass and the hour of Lessons and Carols that I get to sing on Christmas Eve

Hate:

• The incessant singing of Handel's Messiah. I have a number of reasons for wanting Jesus to come back, the fact that my friends won't have to sing the Messiah at Christmas anymore...
• Snow and the bad driving that ensues here in Portland (don't get me wrong I don't mind the snow, just the people who feel the need to drive in it and ram their cars into each other.)
• Greed (I still am in shock that a man was trampled to death in WalMart and two people died in a shooting at Toys R Us)

I guess that I can handle the rest of Advent and the following season of Christmas (a note, Christmas is a season that begins at Midnight on December 25th and continues for 8 days to the solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, then the following Sunday is Epiphany and finally the Baptism of the Lord. The four weeks prior to all of this (the time we mark by trampling people to death is known as the season of Advent.)

2. At any rate, my curmudgeonly self is here and doing well the dear poodles continues to thrive and grow at an alarming rate, the wife is well and inspired with more Christmas (Advent) spirit than I...

3. Erin and I are still employed. Things are fine on that front for the moment, I do have to say that I am a bit worried as I work in the publishing world, and the religious publishing world at that. Let's hope that I can keep the health coverage for just a bit longer.
4. Still thinking about what else to write, been thinking about a great deal of things. Started a new type of therapy in which I try to truly feel the emotions of past experiences, not sure what to think as of yet and not ready to put pen to paper as of yet...

5. In a holding pattern with my sister Emillie's case, no news as of yet. This month marks the 4 year anniversary of her disappearance, hope to have some updates soon.

So, there it is. Life in a nutshell. I hope that you all are doing well, please do me a favor and boycott the singing of Handel's Messiah so that I can effectively plan a Christmas party that includes my musician friends!