So the countdown begins

Finally got around to putting the rest of the decorations on our tree yesterday. We didn't have a chance to decorate Saturday because none of us had the ambition. I only got 4 hours of sleep Friday night. Actually I didn't sleep at all Friday night, it was Saturday morning before I even managed to get in bed. The band didn't return to the school until 1:30am Saturday morning. It was right at 2:00am when I got back home from picking them up and I went straight to bed. Saturday morning it was up at 6:00am as usual and off to work. I did take a nap for about an hour once I got home from work. However, I don't think my body really recovered until Sunday afternoon. I took a short nap Sunday afternoon and it was only after that nap that I really felt myself again. The kids slept some on the bus ride home Friday night, plus they slept late Saturday morning, so they didn't suffer too much of a sleep deficit.

Since none of us had much get up and go Saturday night, we spent our time watching our Netflix DVD. I am using this Netflix subscription to introduce my kids to some classic tv shows. If we had satellite or cable tv we would get channels like TV Land that air classic tv shows, but that's not the case. Our first foray into classic tv was "Wonder Woman". This came about because one of the tv shows that we do watch had a main character dressed up as Wonder Woman for a Halloween Party. Some of the dialog from the tv show was lost on the kids because they had never seen the Wonder Woman tv show. Randy and I were explaining how Linda Carter was such a perfect Wonder Woman that the comic book could have been drawn based on her rather than her being chosen based on the comic book. This tv series was corny even when it originally aired, because it never tried to deny it's comic book origins. However, it is good clean fun and we all enjoyed it. This particular disc had the pilot episode plus one series episode. Randy had never seen the pilot, and being able to see where Wonder Woman came from cleared some things up for him.

I'm thinking of adding episode of "Welcome Back Kotter" to our list. Not because I enjoyed it so much when it first aired, but because I would love to see how the kids react to a very young John Travolta. They've seen him in several movies, "Grease", "Broken Arrow" and "Ladder 49" are several that come to mind. It should be interesting to see their reactions.

Another classic tv shows that is on our list is an episode of "Mission Impossible". I don't remember much about this tv show, because I don't believe that I actually saw very many of the episodes. I do know that the tv show was quite a bit different from the movies. I've only seen the first two movies with Tom Cruise. While they were pretty good, they were too much of a one person show rather than a team effort. If I remember correctly the series was about a team of specialists. To succeed in their missions everyone had a part to play and everyone counted on their team mate to do their part. I guess I'll have to wait for that particular DVD to see if my memory is correct.

I began addressing my Christmas cards last night. I got about half way done. I'll work on it some more tonight, addressing a few a night. They probably won't go out in the mail until Saturday. There is still plenty of time for them to be delivered before the holiday, so I'm not going to get stressed out about it. I still have some Christmas shopping to do, and don't know when I'll have a chance to do that. I may have to wait until I get my Christmas Bonus to pick up the last couple of things. I'm hopeful that we will get our bonuses at our company Christmas Party, like we did last year. The party is on the 12th and if we don't get them at the party we will most likely receive them on the 21st. That is how it has worked in years past.

Thank goodness I have a Christmas Club account that I put money in each year. I've only been doing this for a couple of years now, putting a little aside each week, but it makes a big difference when it comes time for me to buy Christmas gifts. This year I had to use about half of my Christmas Club to pay bills, but at least I was able to pay those bills. The family knows it may be a lean Christmas and they have accepted that fact. They are grateful to receive anything at all, considering the circumstances. Now that our tree is in place I will have to wrap the gifts that I've bought and put them under the tree. Despite the prospects of not receiving much in the way of gifts, I know we are all counting down the days until Christmas.