Last night we as a family were off and running doing one of our favorite Christmas traditions that make the holiday season truly Christmas for us.

Yes it was time for the Annual Trek to see Santa.

Our trip started with a trip to the Seattle Center, where they have a wonderful Christmas train display. My nephew, who is into trains, was nearly beside himself with joy just watching the trains and over the top with excitement getting to drive one, with a $5 donation he also received one mighty cool mini train whistle. Uncle Nate, Michele’s husband, came up with the most ingenious way of getting Andrew to leave the trains by enticing him with a ride on the Monorail. Riding in the front of the car he was able to watch the driver guide us along the downtown corridor to the heart of Downtown Seattle.

Off we went to our appointment to see Santa. My sister Michele surprised both Becky and I by hopping right onto his lap. Most years she fusses but not this year, she climbed aboard his knee and had quite the conversation with him. My mom officially has 40 Santa pictures of her daughters. Starting with me at 4 months old and going through this year.

This is one of the traditions that never seem to die. Several years ago my mom decided we could stop going if we chose, however, we girls planned the trip right around her. It’s taken on a life of its own. No matter where anyone of us girls has resided in or out of state we always manage to make it to see Santa and sit upon his knee.

After our trip downtown we all head down to a local favorite, the Old Spaghetti factory. Down on the Seattle waterfront across from Pier 70, it’s an old warehouse converted to be a warm welcoming restaurant. Anyone who’s ever been inside of one knows they are filled to the brim with antiques, have beds for tables and serve some of the best spaghetti this side of Italy.

It’s Christmas Eve now and tonight we’ll head down to Church for the Christmas Eve Vigil. As always our family enjoys a wonderful program then heads home for a holiday Ham and visiting. After which we all snuggle down in our beds and wait for Santa to arrive.

Tomorrow morning the whole family will descend upon the house bringing Christmas cheer and laugher to our day. Andrew and Megan will be agog at the presents under the tree, baby dolls, trucks and other fun things are waiting in their bright colored packages to be opened and played with. After which we will share a Christmas turkey and all its fixings and more fun times.

Here is wishing you and yours a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years.

From our house to yours!!!

Kat and the kids

There is nothing more exciting than knowing that the holidays are upon us.  I am sitting here typing to you while listening to KOST 103.5, Southern California’s soft rock station.  Through the holidays they play continual Christmas music, and I must say listening to both traditional and obscure holiday tunes songs that I grew up on is most comforting.  I’m sure all three of the kids are wondering why I’m listening to Christmas music, they will understand when they check their stockings and see that Santa has left them all catnip treats, crinkle balls and fun mice to play with.

I’m pleased to announce that NORAD has begun its official 2007 Santa tracking!  You too can follow along by visiting their site.  There are lots of things to explore in the North Pole and on Christmas Eve following Santa’s flight, just make sure you dive into bed before Santa lands on your roof top.  *Note: You can click the Norad banner above and be whisked away to the North Pole to check out the going ons up there this time of year.*

I am headed home to Seattle for the holidays and am looking forward to the trip.  My nephew Andrew is such a darling.  The other day I called and spoke with him.  He asked me “Auntie Kat… when is your birfday?” I told him “It’s in August baby.”  Then he asked the one of those questions that men should never ask a lady. “Auntie Kat how old will you be?” When I replied “40”, he stated “I’m four”.  He knows that Christmas means we exchange gifts and he has a little trouble with remembering the difference between birthdays and the holidays.  Then the imp asked me.  “Auntie Kat what would you like for your birfday?”  when I said “Well, I’m not sure.”  he stated with great certainty, “You need a new car because your car has a flat tire.”  I had to smile, the things this little man remembers, I mentioned during the thanksgiving holiday that my car had a flat tire and darn if he didn’t remember that.

During my trip home we girls will be embarking upon one of our family traditions of sitting on Santa’s lap.  My mother can chronicle our lives by those photos.  This year she will have her 40^th photo of me on Santa’s lap.  She loves to pull them out and we all enjoy looking at them and remembering when. 

In the beginning it’s just me, then as the years slowly tick by you see the addition of my two sisters.  There are years my mom swears she wonders if we girls had a mother, due to impart the current styles in the late 70s and 80s and into the 90s.  Then we have those years where one of us looked stunning and the other two, well not so much, and on the odd year when all three of us beauties looked just that simply gorgeous. 

I suppose if I ever bring home a fellow for the family to meet, instead of whipping out the obligatory Kat, as a baby naked on the bed, she will show them our life story in the holiday pictures.

I received a wonderful card from my moms God daughter Cheryl.  She and I have been pen pals since I was in 3^rd grade and begged my mom for someone to write to.  She is the woman I shared all my hopes and dreams with throughout the last 30+ years.  She’s shared the trials and tribulations of my life and I hers.  She knew every time I had a boyfriend, a crush, or just needed to vent about life in general.  There is nothing like having a confidant like she was for me.  Since she lived on the east coast and I live out on the west coast, it was to expensive to call however at the time it cost nearly nothing to send a letter in the mail.  I used to wait for her letters and read them over and over.  To this day I have every childhood letter she sent me, they fill an entire box!  I remember the first time I talked to her on the phone, it was right before I married at the ripe old age of 19 and she called me to confirm that my wedding dress was indeed white due to her dream that I was getting married in an ORANGE dress. 

In her note she sent along a picture, her three babies are no longer so little, her oldest is now 17, her middle is 15 and her baby is now 12, its amazing how time flies.  I’ve watched all three grow up through pictures, letters and heard about life on the occasional phone call we have now and again.  She to this day remains the one friend I’ve had the longest, with the one exception of my sister Becky.  I’d like to send her family warm wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years. *note: I’ll be sending a card snail mail too*

On that note it’s now 11:06pm and I’ve been sitting here singing songs along with KOST’s holiday songs and it’s time for me to retire to bed.

Here is wishing you and yours a very Happy, Safe and Wonderful Holiday Season!

Love Kat and the kids.

So I finally did it… I got this wild hair to paint my bedroom a new bright happy color.  I went up to my local home depot and pulled all those little cards, one by one I rejected each color until I found what I thought was the absolutely perfect light yellow color,  Moonlit Yellow.  Now my internal voice is saying to me Kat, this color will lighten up your room, bring a smile to your face when you wake up and the sun is streaming into the room.

Armed with my chosen color, I went to the paint counter, handed my card with its little swatch selection over to the paint guy and had him mix it.  He opened up the can afterwards and it was this innocuous yellow, little did I know what would follow.

I was on the phone with my dear friend John, asking him a gazllion questions, such as what size roller do I need?  Is 3/8 nap what I want or do I want this one that is sponge?  I think he is glad that he’s in Kentucky and I’m here in California so I couldn’t try conning him into painting for me.  All proud of my selections I walked over, paid for it all and walked out.  I should mention I also spent a good bit of time looking for “Just” the right curtain rod.  Yep, I’m all girl when it comes to this shopping stuff. 

I spent the next two days cleaning out my bedroom.  Now I must say, I moved the bed out and I thought the dust bunnies were going to bite me on the ankles they were that big.  All I could say was DAYMN!  I also found out that Ace the cat is a kleptomaniac; he had a stash of toys, straws, socks, and other things I couldn’t find way in the back dark corner that I never saw before.

So it’s the big day, Saturday, and armed with my roller, paintbrush and plastic drop cloth I was ready to paint.  I started taping off the room with this blue tape that John told me to buy, then picking up the big one gallon paint can, I popped the top, poured out the paint and got going.  Rolling away I managed to drop the paint tray more than once, yes ladies this is why you use a plastic drop cloth or your carpet will match your walls for sure. I rolled and rolled, and when my friend Kevin called, he said “Kat, make sure you make big W’s so the paint will blend nicely” he also told me that while it looked light now, it would dry a touch darker than I might think and I’d see for sure if I missed any spots.  So I painted and painted until it late afternoon when it was so hot I had to quit. 

Now the fun part… watching paint dry.  Amazing but true paint changes colors as it dries.  It went from this light sunshiny yellow to a color that we as adults all know and associate with one big Sesame Street character “BIG BIRD”.  Yes to my dismay, my charming yellow was BIG BIRD YELLOW. Now imagine I’ve painted 3.5 walls and I even managed to run out of paint and made an emergency run for one more quart, only to see that Sunday just HOW bright my room was.  Good Lord, Moonlit yellow, yes, the moon lights up my room like a candle now.

So it’s now a week later and so far the Yellow has grown on me.  I’ve even managed to hang drapes, add a few homey touches and I’m starting to really like this bright cheery room.  Would I have picked this color out on my own, that’s easy No, but am I happy with how it’s turned out, well I have to say, sometimes a mistake can turn out to be a heck of a cool thing.

So St. Patrick’s day is upon us and world wide there were be loads of people tipping green beer, wearing green and celebrating this day. But what exactly is the point of St. Patrick’s day? I figured it was time to explore my Irish roots (yes I’m a typical American, I have a little of this and that in me)

So this is what I’ve found out about this man and the holiday we celebrate…

From what little can be gleaned factually about St. Patrick, he wasn’t an Irish man, Patrick was born in Britain, probably in Wales, around 385 A.D. His father was a Roman official. When Patrick was 16, seafaring raiders captured him, carried him to Ireland, and sold him into slavery. The Christian Patrick spent six lonely years herding sheep and, according to him, praying 100 times a day. In a dream, God told him to escape. He returned home, where he had another vision in which the Irish people begged him to return and minister to them: “We ask thee, boy, come and walk among us once more,”. He studied for the priesthood in France and made his way back to Ireland. This information comes to us from the autobiographical Confession and a letter written to Crotoicus, who was a slave taking marauder.

He spent his last 30 years there, baptizing pagans, ordaining priests, and founding churches and monasteries. His persuasive powers must have been astounding: Ireland fully converted to Christianity within 200 years and was the only country in Europe to Christianize peacefully. Patrick’s Christian conversion ended slavery, human sacrifice, and most intertribal warfare in Ireland. (He did not banish the snakes: Ireland never had any. Scholars now consider snakes a metaphor for the serpent of paganism. Nor did he invent the Shamrock Trinity. That was an 18^th-century fabrication.)

A good source of information regarding St. Patrick can be found in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

So as you tip a green beer and celebrate this St. Patrick’s day… remember there is always more to the holidays that we celebrate than meets the eye.

Kiss the Blarney stone for me!

~Kat

 

So, here I was one evening seven days ago, hanging out in a yahoo chat room just passing time, when one of my girlfriends told me about this gaming site.  She told me Kat you need to check it out.  After putting up an initial fuss I bopped over the Future Criminal and signed up.  So here I am this noob (slang for newbie) who had no clue what she was in for.  Having my girlfriend walk me through getting a job (yes you have a job, but it doesn’t pay diddly squat… kind of like real life) and opening up a bank account, I was confident that I could handle what came my way.  Little did I expect to spend the rest of the night in the hospital having been cyber tossed from a building, into traffic and numerous other things.

The next day partnering up with one of my dearest male friends, I spent it networking.  Meeting up with some pretty nifty people, who were more than willing to take me under their wings and teach me to play this game.    Events happen in real time.  When you go to jail you can be there for 1 minute to umpteen million (ok so it feels like that many) minutes, with the options of sitting there waiting for your time to be done, to bribing guards or having someone break you out of jail, you just never know what’s going to happen next, yes one could say… I LOVE THIS GAME.

The staff of Future Criminal are always willing to impart any wisdom, you just have to be smart enough to ask them.  Any issues are handled swiftly with diplomacy as would be expected of any gaming site.  Players are helpful and will take a noob under their wing to teach them the ropes.  There is fun to be had by all, even those who have never gamed before will find this site easy to navigate and understand.

So, log on to Future Criminal sign up for an account and give it a whirl, you won’t be disappointed with this fun creative gaming site!

To some “Normal” means to conform to society’s conventional standards and expectations, yet for others “Normal” is entirely subjective and can be applicable for one person, to what another considers completely abnormal.

Example: A couple are laying in bed… she might ask her significant other to bend her over and spank her till her backside is a hot pink color.

If one is conforming to society standards, this could be considered outside of the norm, however if her Point of Reference (POR) is that of the BDSM World, then this would be considered normal, tame if you will.
So often people try to use “abnormal” as an indictment, .a means by which to insult or to demean others these people miss an important reality, that abnormal is not necessarily the desired state of being but for some, it is the “normal” that is to be avoided, shunned even, and the abnormal, the atypical, the strange, to be sought after and emulated. With so many people in the world possessing so many different values, beliefs and interests and desires, who can possibly say what is normal and more importantly, why normal should necessarily be preferred?
I often wonder about those who judge others.  Just because it’s outside of your ‘norm’ does it make it wrong?

Example: A young man is at a club, he spots another young man walking by and is attracted to him, and in speaking to the other man he finds they are both sexually attracted to each other.  They leave together.

While in some cultures this is considered ‘normal’ in others it’s considered not only abnormal but aberrant behavior. Just because something is outside of a persons POR or range of experience, does it give them the right to judge someone else on what their behaviors are? Should people be so wrapped up in their own comfort zones that they force their thoughts, beliefs and ways upon others?  Understanding that being “normal” does not necessarily mean that someone is repressed, but means that in that particular persons eyes, being “normal’ is subjective to his/her POR.

Remember one persons abnormal today might just be that persons “normal” tomorrow.  
  

Credits: This blog was brought about due to a sexual in nature discussion that went on last night on yahoo chat.  The individuals will remain unnamed, however I wanted to bring up the fact that, while most people find chat to be boring, un-educational and often times droll, there are times when the subject matter gives one pause to stop and think about what is being said.

NORAD is tracking Santa across the globe, following his progress as he flies from country to country spreading Christmas Joy to the billions who believe in him.

Being a firm believer in Santa myself, I’ve been following his flight closely along with my family to monitor when he will be making his appearance in Seattle, WA (yes, I am home for the holidays, having left the warmth of Southern California, for the cold and rain of Seattle) 

I remember as a child having another little girl on our block tell me that there is no such thing as Santa… armed with this new information, I raced home to confront my mother. 

“Mom” I said, “She told me there is no such thing as Santa” I was totally heartbroken, until my mother said in response.  “Well, Kat, Santa is real but only for those who believe, so unless you believe with all your might he won’t come for you.”  and I must say at the ripe old age of 38, I BELIEVE!!!

Corny but true.

So enjoy following Santas progess because, I to will be doing the same.  Waiting on baited breath for Santa to land upon the roof reindeer and all!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a GREAT NIGHT!!!

Happy Holidays!

Kat and the kids (Tori, Cera and Ace)

So the Christmas Season has started… well the ‘traditional’ season.  The shopping season however leaves a lot to be desired.  I remember back in the day (sounds like I’m an old kat doesn’t it) When the shopping season actually started the day after thanksgiving, as I grew older it became the first of November, then before Halloween. If we keep up this tradition by the time I’m in my dotage we’ll be having Christmas sales at the end of January.
 

 Black Friday always amazes me, I was in Seattle for the Thanksgiving holiday this year and while watching the news I was shocked to see that people had forgone enjoying their Thanksgiving day to camp out in front of retail stores in search of bargains.  How sad is it that we as a society are willing to forgo a holiday with friends and family, to give thanks and celebrate this great country of ours, to sit in the cold and damp weather overnight just to save 50% on something that we really don’t need.
 

I remember a time when stores would actually close for the ENTIRE day on the actual holiday, now they are open until 6pm, so the last minute shopper can run in and buy what they forgot.  Well people, I hate to say this but it’s needed.  It’s time to follow the 6 P’s of life.  Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.  If you actually take the time to plan ahead, you’ll have everything you need for the holiday season.
 

Slow down and think about what makes the holiday special, your family, friends and loved ones.    Reflect on what the various holidays mean to you.  Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Kwanza, Christmas and the New Year, you will be amazed at how much you’ll actually enjoy the holiday season.
 

Happy Holidays to you and yours.
 

From
Kat and family (Ace, Cera and Tori)

Please send an encouraging message to a retarded friend, just as I’m doing here.

I don’t care if you lick windows, interfere with farm animals, vote liberal or occasionally shit yourself…….

You hang in there sunshine !!! 

You’re fucking special… 

Love,  Kat   

Here is where it gets fun… story time: