December 21st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! 95 presents wrapped, and around fifty more to go. Before you all think I go completely overboard, let me say, we wrap all the stocking stuffers as well – so that means even the 3/$1 packets of flavored hot cocoa the kids are getting in their stocking, get wrapped individually. Even though I hate to wrap, I know how much fun it is to unwrap a gift, so we wrap EVERYTHING.

I should have wrapped 96 gifts yesterday, but somehow between Thursday night and Friday morning, I lost the box of jumbo muffin liners which were supposed to go in Lys’ stocking. They were sitting on the kitchen table and then they were gone. I asked the folks who were at the cookie exchange if they put them in their bag by mistake when they were packing up, but they said no. It’s a mystery.

Now I need to remember to pick up another pack of muffin liners when I’m out shopping or the stockings won’t be even. Here’s where you will think I am crazy, but it’s just the way I have always done it. Each of my children has EXACTLY the same amount of gifts to open, and I can usually get the value of said gifts within $5 of each other. This year I did really well and got the gifts within $1. Granted it does take a little finagling – one kid might have each $0.33 hot cocoa wrapped separately and one might have either two or three of them wrapped together to make my numbers even.

This year each of my kids, including my son’s girlfriend, will have nineteen stocking stuffers to unwrap. It’s funny, I have been doing this for so long, I don’t even count while I’m shopping. There’s no way I possibly could since I literally shop all year, picking up little things here and there. Yet when I finally get downstairs and sort everything out, the gifts are usually pretty even (and when they’re not, it’s because I have forgotten where I hid a gift).

So do you think I’m certifiable? What holiday quirk do you have? What one thing has you worried about the men in white coats carrying the butterfly nets coming to get you?

Today, since it is supposed to be sunny and in the sixties, I will be baking the Christmas bread. In order to do it, I will need to channel my Baba’s spirit, because every year something doesn’t go quite right with the bread. It’s usually the weather which interferes – if it is raining, snowing or too cold, the bread won’t rise properly. Last year we had a day much like today, where the weather was perfect, so the bread should have come out perfect. Well it didn’t. Wanna know why? Because dingy me forgot to add the sugar. I’m still kicking myself over it. In my defense, there is no exact measuring or even a written recipe for the bread. Well today I have the opportunity to redeem myself. I have ideal weather conditions and I intend to lay all the ingredients I need out on the counter BEFORE I start the process. Wish me luck!

I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

You are sent back to earth as one of the seven deadly sins in human form. You can pick whichever sin you would like, but you must describe yourself without actually saying which sin you are – let us try and figure it out.

So this is the punishment for a less than stellar life is it? Well I’ll show them! I don’t need their help or approval; I can do this all on my own. I’ll just go and find everyone on this Earth who was far worse than I ever was. That’ll show them.

But wait. If I do what I was instructed to do, wouldn’t that damn me to just more of the same? Seal my fate for all eternity? What if I still find those people, but instead of egging them on, I show them the error of their ways? No, I couldn’t simply show them, because then they wouldn’t learn anything. I need to make them realize what they are doing and let them want to change themselves.

Hah, if I can accomplish that, it would thwart the master plan. The soul quota would seriously be under met, for I can only approach the folks suffering from the same sin as I had when I was alive, but it is a start. I wonder if I have the ability to find my six counterparts. If I could enlist their help, we could obliterate the plan altogether.

So who was I?

Your Next Challenge is:

Just smile and say thank you.

 

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

June 8th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Well I survived yesterday without having to get out a canoe and paddles, but just barely. The rain was incredible! It started raining hard early yesterday morning and it didn’t let up until sometime during the night. I haven’t heard any official weather reports this morning, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we got five inches. It was intense! I spent most of the day with soggy feet…YUCK!

Last night my daughters and I went to Verizon because all three of our phones were due for an upgrade, and I did it…I finally relented and upgraded to a smart phone. Not that I have it yet, mind you. As usual, they were not able to move my contacts over to my new phone, even after trying for almost two hours. I have no idea why this happens to me, but ever since my first phone, Verizon has never been able to transfer them and I end up typing them all in again manually. Needless to say, I have lost MANY of my contacts over the years because of typing them in incorrectly. Since this time I had over 200 contacts in my phone, I REFUSED to let it slide, so I left my old phone and my new phone with the guys at Verizon and asked them to figure it out. Hopefully I will have my phone back sometime today.

Today I will be spending the day cleaning and getting the house and some of the food ready for my mom’s birthday party tomorrow. We are just having the immediate family, but that still comes out to just under twenty people. Everyone, please say a little prayer that the weather holds out so I can have the party outside! Twenty people inside my house is a wee bit tight, although we have had many more on occasion.

So, what did you find?

Yesterday’s challenge was:

 

Look what I found…

 

The other day I went down to the basement hunting for something. I was poking around the shelves, peaking in crates and boxes, because God forbid I label anything, and I came across an old box I did not recognize. I thought this was very strange because a few years ago our basement flooded during a storm and we lost a whole lot of stuff. Anyway, I pulled the box out, brought it under some light, sat down and opened the box. It was filled with papers, old papers. On top were some essays I had written while I was in college. Beneath them were some tattered, spiral bound notebooks with short stories and the beginning of a novel I had written in my younger years. They made me chuckle. My writing style had changed dramatically over the years. Finally, at the bottom of the box were dozens of old letters. Letters my friend had written me while he was in boot camp and from the various places he was stationed. Letters from my boyfriend, now husband, he had written me while I was vacationing in Maine with a friend and when I was in Europe for three weeks after graduation. At that point, I had completely forgotten what I had initially gone to the basement to find. I gathered up the letters, climbed back upstairs and said to my husband, “Look what I found.”

 

I only wish this story was true. During hurricane Irene, our basement did flood, and we did lose a ton of stuff, and there was a box which contained exactly what I said it contained in the story above, but unfortunately all of it was destroyed. I couldn’t read old stories I had written. I have no more copies of the letters from so long ago, and I also lost the only copy of the very first story I had published. It was items like those and the photos we lost which made Irene so devastating to us. The rest of the stuff lost was all replaceable, and in the end, it was just “stuff”.

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Thank you very much…

 

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.