I just want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season. Through the blogs I have come to know some fascinating people, learned an awful lot about the community and had more than a few giggles.

Peace to everyone. May next year bring us all a little more wisdom, courage, compassion, tolerance and love.

I had the misfortune to marry someone who has a birthday on...Christmas Eve. All of his life he was put through that whole "Here's your birthday & your Christmas present" stuff, plus never being able to have a birthday party on his real birthday because people tend to have plans on Christmas Eve.

Anyway, since we've been together I've worked very hard to have a BIRTHDAY celebration on 12/24 and a Christmas celebration on 12/25. But I have to be honest, after eighteen or so years I'm running out of ideas to make it fun or special.

Does anyone else have one of those late December birthday people in their family? Do you do something different for them?

In case you hadn't heard, Taco Samich is open again.

Yea!

I went to grab a sandwich at one of those quickie chains yesterday and on the back of  my receipt was a web site to go and take a survey based on my experience there.

I think that pretty much any place that offers takeout food now includes those on the receipt, always with the lure of being the big sweepstakes winner.

Even though I figure I'm about one percent more likely to win this than to win the lottery, I still find myself filling them out. Am I the only one looking for that $1,000 they give away every day?

This year my DH and I have hit an all-time low for holiday decorating, mostly because we were busy buying new furniture for the living room, getting rid of old furniture and moving everything around. Anyway, we have almost nothing in the house to indicate that the holidays are just around the corner.

Oh, and we have the most organized gang of decoration-destroyers ever found on four feet.

Having said that, anyone have ideas for quick and easy decorations that will make the home look a little more festive? We don't do a tree, since one cat lives to remove all of the decorations and one of the others chews through the strings of lights and bites the light bulbs until they burst. We are convinced that he will burn down our house if we keep giving him the opportunity. So, barring a tree idea, I'm open to anything else.

I had a couple of pieces of new furniture delivered today (just a coffee table and an end table, no biggie) and, as usual, the people delivering commented on how much they liked the artwork in our house.

It's kind of funny, because while we do have several interesting pieces hanging on our walls, the majority of what people comment on when they come over are framed album covers. We change them out every six months or so, just to give the rooms a different look for us, but we didn't consider them a big deal until other people kept pointing out how very cool they are.  Now they may be one of my favorite things about the house.

Plus, the art draws attention away from what might be one of the ugliest kitchens in all of Kern County. My dream is to someday get it remodeled, but I sure wish the lottery people would hurry up and pick me, so I can fund it :o)

Now that we're in the season of others coming by your home, what are the most favorite and least favorite parts of your house? Is there something you display with pride, while you do your best to camouflage something else?

In my slow quest to be a better, more thoughtful consumer of products I recently came across something that made me think the green evolution had gone around the bend.

I found a web site that offered, among other things, panties made out of bamboo fiber. Now, when I think of bamboo I think of furniture, curtain-like thingys that separate rooms and the fact that if you plant it in your yard it will never go away. But I don't think clothing, let alone panties.

But there they were, promising to be soft, sleek and better for the environment than even organic cotton. I had to have them. So, I sent in my order, as well as an order for a couple of T-shirts for my DH and a shirt for me.

And it was all true. Bamboo clothing is as soft as your most favorite broken-in T-shirt. It looks great, feels great and is great for the environment. And, as an added bonus, you get to say things like "bamboo panties".