1. Bank accounts. Um, shaddup. If we can't make it on what I make, we deserve the ridicule.

2. Cookies. I'm not so keen on bourbon balls, but the rest of what ya do is just fine. Two words: Chocolate chip. I can always take the excess to the office.

3. Cards. Just.not.us.

4. Guilt. A 70% solution, accomplished, kicks the hell outta a 100% solution in your dreams.

5. Depression. The Monster is an Ass. Just.don't.do.it. I know. Easy to say, hard to do. Been there, do that. More often than I like to admit. Daddy Jack (and mebbe Meriwether Lewis) bred true, sadly.

6. Tractor. Meet 3rd or 4th Gear when tootling about . When moving from pasture to pasture... Hi Range!

7. Da House. Whatever ya want, babe. Whatever ya want.

Wow, you sound just like me. I finally get a chance to do all of the Christmasy stuff I want to. This time last year I was in the middle of a legal battle with a (small) chance of losing the kids. Now both kids are in school and I have hours to spend on whatever. I'm debating just how much stuff I'm going to do.

Depression is horrid, I'm doing that myself. Without something immediate and deathly important to focus on, I feel lost and all I have to worry about is my own performance. It's not fun at all.

If you're worried about the calorie count on the Christmas baking, check out this book: http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Miniatures-Flo-Braker/dp/0811824462/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195872955&sr=8-1 . Tons of good stuff to bake in smaller portions so you can present an awe-inspiring spread without dozens upon dozens of large desserts.

Now that you have all those acres, you could consider making your decorations from stuff you find (next year, even). For example, when we moved to our house, we had an evergreen tree that pooped pine cones all over our backyard. We had to pick them up all the time, so I kept them in a bucket. Sometime over the summer, I dried them out in the oven and bleached them, put some wire on them and those were our Christmas decorations. It took maybe 6 hours over nine months to do.

Another year, I was on a diet and wanted to bake cookies, but I didn't want the calories. So the kids and I made gingerbread cutout cookies and hung them on the tree. They were inedible, but they sure did smell nice.

Don't worry about Christmas cards if you don't want to. Or take a picture of your backyard, and make it a postcard to your friends. If you want to make it funny, have your husband stand 100 yards away and suggest that your friends play "Where's Waldo" with your Christmas card. Use address labels, instead of writing them all out.

Or you could just do what you've always done for Christmas. Just because you're home more often, doesn't mean you have to quadruple your Christmas preparation work load. You can just have a happy, homey Christmas surrounded by the folks you love...without the fuss.

Enjoy your family and friends. You are surrounded by an amazing group of people, both at home and in the blogsphere. John is the sort of man I would want for a friend, the kind that calls on the phone, says, "Come over, please," hangs up, AND I GO! (With rifle, pistol, beer, and bandages!) That you command John's respect and love speaks volumes for the woman you are.

Depression is, "Hell on earth," my wife said one time. I have it in my family, and I am a professional health care provider! I affects us all, BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE TO WIN! Live, love, experience life, and remember the love that others have for you.

As I go through this Christmas season, and the days turn cold and long, I will keep you and your family in my prayers. Give thanks for God's gifts to you, and hug your family whenever you can.

Beth, I joined the ranks of unemployed just one day before leaving for my visit to New Zealand, great timing - not! The owner of the business where I worked ( a true tree hugger) did not like me standing up to her when I defended myself over an incident. Oh well! her loss, I say.
Even though I love being at home all day "playing" I do have the same feelings of depression and it is difficult to pull myself out of the hole.
Thankfully, My honey, MrC, is loving and supportive just like John.
Hang in there Beth,as I will too, I know it will eventually get better for us.

Heh - One of the things my Mom was good at was decorating. Sadly, that gene passed me by. But I inherited a bunch of fun stuff from her collection, and all I do is scatter it about the house. Drives the Hubster a bit crazy, but he gets a kick out of me singing along with the Christmas tunes while I do it ;-)

I agree with John on the cards and stuff ... although I do send cards, but I'm also the data geek of the family. Database is Access, dontcha know. You blog - you don't need to write a newsletter ;-)

For cookies - Bake up a storm, while listening to Christmas music (I personally like Mannheim Steamroller), and let John take 'em to work. It's good for the soul :-) Or send 'em to some troops who know you (since the AnySoldier types may not want unpackaged stuff). If you need suggestions, email me. I have some good folks on my list :-)

I think its funny that it looks like your former place of employ has had your position posted, but the HTML of their careers pages are such a crock that it truncates most of each page. (IE and Firefox, it may work under Opera) So you can only see the first 6-7 of the listings 1..20 and it throws away at least the bottom half of the job descriptions.

It appears as though there is no "there" there.

Seeing as they are used by the major hospital where I live, it might explain why the billing system has no idea that life circumstances could cause one to ever change medical policies.

This caused them to throw out the policy number that was effective the first 4 months of this year and tried to apply the current policy number when they finally got around to billing a procedure from February. A total screw up.

Not as bad as back in 1986 when they couldn't properly address a bill so that the USPS would forward it to a new address. Listing patient name in the address as LAST FIRST MIDDLE (without a comma between LAST and FIRST) is a real good way to ensure that the USPS dumps your unforwarded bill in the dead letter bin. If they can't comply to USPS standards, what other rules have they casually forgotten to follow.

I've got a feeling that those guys may think that they are the best and the brightest even if they are clueless. They probably think Neal, Cliff, and Paul should be put out to pasture too.

On the other stuff:

Christmas Cards -- The last year we mailed cards was 2001. We have the cards from 2002 somewhere, but I never wrote the "note" to help identify who's who ... so they never got sent. Been too busy since. There are fewer Aunts and Uncles each year to receive them anyway. I have some of them on-line. Maybe I should just do that.

I am not in charge of cookies ... I do the Yulecage. I should start a loaf tomorrow.

Tractors are supposed to be slow (most of the time) so that you plow/plant/cut straight lines. You don't want your rows crossing each other and there is no point to cutting the same ground twice. The ones I have driven were always steered with the two wheel clutches, so learn to use the gear shift when you want to go faster. It will come to you in due time.

You can bundle up in the winter and may not need to use the tractor much in the summer, but you can always do what my grandfather did for the summer sun and freeze a half full jug of water. If you fill the rest of the frozen jug with cold water in the morning, the ice plug will keep the water cold for the better part of the day.

I bet most of you have no idea how slow a tractor moves!!!

The truest thing you have ever written!

LOL, make me cookies! Screw the card.

Alan - sounds like you're someone I should call before I siddown to a bayonet maintenance session...