December Thread

[AlanfanBecky]

Hi to all.  I can't believe I'm the first here this month!
Make sure to download the new calender page.  It's that old picture of young Alan on Santa's lap.

[katluvsaj]

Becky, thanks for starting the December thread.  I forgot it was December 1st until I got to work this morning.   I've been so busy, haven't been watching the calendar properly.  But love turning my AJ calendar to the new month.

So busy and now throw Christmas into the mix - WOW.  I'll need the two weeks off at the end of the year that I'm planning on taking.

Love the new song!!

[nelle]

Kathy  Take care of yourself because being you are so busy you can get run down and then sick.  We don't want that to happen because you are so nice and caring to everyone.  Please be good to yourself too.  Becky thank you for starting the new month.      Take Care  nelle

[AnitaMartina]

Thanks for starting the December Thread Becky.  I can't believe it is December and almost Christmas again.  I have many birthdays to celebrate this month.  My husband's is this Saturday the 5th and mine on the 12th. Then I have friends on the 9th, 14th, 15th & 17th and one today.  We have the annual Christmas reunion on my husband's mother side of the family on the 5th.  Usually there is about 100 people there. We will have Christmas dinner with my siblings and families on the 25th.  It will be at my brothers house this year.  Then on January 2nd is when we will get together with my husband's siblings and families and his mom for Christmas. That will probably be at his mom's house. Also,  I have to finish my Christmas shopping and baking.  It will be a busy month.  I hope everyone has a great month and stay healthy through the month of December so they can enjoy the festive holidays. 

[January]

Thanks for the calender update, Becky.  I was really disappointed when I turned from the HOT photo for November on the printed calendar - I flipped over to December and what do you know - the infamous - overused and not the best picture of Alan from the Cracker Barrel collection - GEEZ - I am so tired of that picture and it isn't Christmasy - who designs these things?

Happy Birthday to you and your husband, Anita - we have lots of December birthdays too and we are getting another - Dec. 31st at 8am or before if she gets itchy to be born!  My 4th granddaughter will join my husband, various cousins and a great uncle in the December birthday club. We are having a big party on Saturday to celebrate a visit from a niece, the little girls birthday - they were 3 last week and my husband's birthday is the 6th - then on to Christmas shopping - I have no ideas at all fo anyone this year - yikes!

I am looking forward to some snow - that always helps get people in the mood for the holidays.  And we are going to see the Oak Ridge Boys Christmas concert on the 14th - that should be nice too - I got 2nd row center Pit seats for that! 

I hope everyone stays healthy and enjoys their celebrations!  Thanks, Alan for the song - what a lovely gift!

[lsmeltzer]

About that picture (the overused one of Alan), I've got it on the wall above my desk at just the right spot so it looks like he is looking at me all the time.   I just glace up and there are those blue eyes glaring at me.  Try it, you might have a different take on it then.  Leslie

[January]

That is exactly where mine is to- lol - and I have that picture by my phone on the poster from the Windsor concert, and on my coffee cup from the Cracker Barrel collection and on the throw from the Cracker Barrel collection and on both of my CDs from the cracker barrel collection and on about every website that you visit...LOL - I am just weary of it - there are soooo mnay HOT pictures of Alan Jackson and I don't understand why this one is just everywhere - I like the eyes - no doubt about it but on everything???

[Luckylady44]

Thanks for starting the thread Becky.  Can't believe it's December already either. I started to begin the thread yesterday and canceled my post cause it was so blah!  This one isn't much better!   

I love the picture on the December calendar.  Alan looks so good in blue!  He's all over my office in the picture from the What I do poster.  Can't see his eyes real good in that one. 

Y'all have a good Wednesday!

[Canadiangirl]

Becky thanks for the Dec thread.
Anita happy birthday to all your family
who have Dec birthdays.
January enjoy all your Dec birthdays.
It is cloudy and and cold this morning.
Elaine

[HariAJFan]

Hello all my AJ Friends. Thanks, Becky, for starting the December thread. The weather today is wet, rainy & windy but did some shopping yesterday. Still need to finish shopping, do Christmas cards & decorate but it will get done at my own speed which is slow paced. I hope all of you have a Very Merry Christmas.

[AnitaMartina]

Gayle & Elaine thank you for your wishes.  Gayle hope you enjoy all your December Birthdays.  '
Leslie, I have Alan's calendar at work.  He looks like he is always starring at me, too.  I think he looks pretty good in that picture.  I don't think he can take a bad picture.  I took my Throw into work the other day to show the ladies I work with.  They said he should of had the front of him on one side and the back of him on the other side.  Not a bad idea.  Maybe he will do that the next time.  What do you all think?  I would buy another one. 

By the way, I finally received my Fall newsletter.  I have been waiting for this since everyone else has been getting it.

[TAMTOE]

HELLO EVERYONE,

   HAPPY DECEMBER TO YOU ALL !!!!! SORRY I HAVEN'T BEEN ON THE BOARD BUT I HAVE BEEN OUT OF TOWN.
NOW TO START ALL OVER AND CATCHING UP WITH EVERYBODY I AM ON THE WEBSITE ALOT BUT MOSTLY READING.
HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT DECEMBER

GOD BLESS
TAMMY

[BIGHUSKERSRED]

Becky, thanks for starting the December thread. WOW! Time fly too fast and we'd soon be singing Auld Lang Syne again.

Kathy, I love Alan's new song too. Can't wait to hear it played on the radio. You've been working too hard you definitely need a long break from your job.

Harriet, hang in there. You'll figure out your iTunes woes pretty soon. Don't let your frustration get to you. Glad to hear your coughing is doing better.

Nelle, sorry to hear about your falls.  You take care of yourself now.

Anita, birthday wishes to all the celebrants in your family.

Terry, Elaine, Nelle, Jinx and everyone else that responded to my post about our Thanksgiving Day mishap, thank you for your care and concerns.  And to update you all. . .

As I've said on my last post in the November thread, everything turned out well and actually a whole lot better than we expected. First off, the guys who were called in to take care of the water mess from our apartment and the one above us, where the problem started, came at around 3 in the afternoon that same day of the mishap. As one of the guys said, "it's got to get done. . .it's got to get done; besides who would turn down extra money for the holidays?" So the carpet padding in the affected areas were removed and the carpet vacuumed to suck out the excess water from it. We had to wait for the carpet to get completely dry before they can replace the padding removed and spray anti-bacterial carpet deodorizer on it. So, we coped with the stinky musty smell of the drying wet carpet until today when the work on our carpet was done. That was supposed to have been done last Monday.

Meanwhile, we had a dilemma about our turkey dinner. It's obvious that we can't cook our dinner now with all the mess we have to contend with and we can't go out to dinner either as we have to keep on watching the water still leaking from upstairs to make sure the containers we're using does not overflow. And so we decided that hubby will just go and buy our meal from a restaurant and bring it home. But then we realized that there's not very many that will still be open at almost 6 o'clock in the evening and we really can't afford to be expensive either. While we were deciding which restaurant hubby will go to, a knock came on our door. Our neighbor upstairs had come down to our apartment to give us some money for our dinner. They handed hubby $60 and told him to "take your family out to dinner." Now that's Southern hospitality!  Hubby tried to give them back the money but they insisted on him taking it. After they left hubby looked at me and said, "Cracker Barrel okay?" Jinx, I had just read your post where you mentioned us going to Cracker Barrel so I kind of laugh when he said that. I was disappointed, however, because I couldn't go with him there. Anyway, so we ordered their Thanksgiving meal special and hubby picked it up half an hour later. That was a scrumptious dinner, turkey slices, stuffing, ham slices, sweet potato casserole, green beans dish, mash potato with turkey gravy, cranberry sauce and cornbread.

There were 2 ironies in this. One is that our upstairs neighbors apparently were supposed to move out the weekend before but that they decided to postpone their move until this past weekend because the new carpeting in the house they were moving into was being replaced last week. If they had moved that weekend the mishap would not have happened here but probably in their new home. The second is our couch. It got soaked in the mishap and now we have it covered as I refuse to sit on it otherwise. I had been wanting to get rid of it when we moved here from Biloxi then this happened. But we hit a snag, though. The contract lease here do not require but encourages unit renters to secure a renter insurance for such incidents as this one as the ownership and management of this apartment complex will not pay for any damage incurred unless they were caused by the office staff members or their maintenance workers. The problem we have now with that policy in this situation is that we've been here only less than 2 months so our renter insurance is not in effect yet for us to use (it will take effect 3 months from when we signed up for it) so whether to buy a new couch or just have our couch professionally cleaned, the expense will come from our own pocket and we can't afford to do that right now.

This is sure to be another Thanksgiving Day we'll never forget and probably won't be the last. In 1983, while hubby was stationed by the Navy in Hawaii, a hurricane hit the island of Oahu where we were (Hurricane Iwa. . .pronounced Eva). That was the day before Thanksgiving. We had no power and even though we have gas stove/oven we can't use it. Because the water reservoirs that's supplying the water to all the residential and business areas there are operating on gas, everyone were asked not to use any of their gas powered appliances. . .gas runs out means no water. So we ended up cooking our turkey in our charcoal barbeque grill. Our next door neighbor did the same thing and then we combined our dinners and ate them outdoors in the covered carport we shared.

By the way, day after Thanksgiving hubby surprised me and took us out to Cracker Barrel for brunch. It gave me another opportunity to buy more stuff from the AJ Collection. Nice!

Well, Saturday we'll finally be able to start putting up our Christmas decorations. Now that the carpet is fixed, our next job would be to cleanup our windows and remove all the mildews that has built up there. . .chances are some of it were left by the previous tenants here. We had not seen them until after this recent mishap. We have not done any shopping yet either. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday. 

Hello to everyone I had amiss to mention. You all take care and HUGS.

BHR

[ajthecatsmom]

Hi all.........Yes December is here.  Cold and rainy here in Ontario today.  So glad AnitaMartina finally got her newsletter.  My M&G is in there and I did not get mine yet.  Maybe tomorrow.  Did everyone here about the Alan concert in Sarnia, Ontario on July 17?  It is called Bayfest if you want to check it out.  Glad to hear everything worked out Big Red.  You sure are interesting to read.  Going to start putting up the Christmas decorations and get out my Holly Jolly Christmas and Let it be Christmas CD's.......Hope everyone is keeping warm and well.

Gwen aka ajthecatsmom

[JeanB]

Thanks for starting the December thread Becky.
Still rainy and windy in Belgium. I have a cough again. My third sinds summer. When i was at work on the roofs i was never ill and now being inside i get cough after cough. Very frustrating !

Have a nice day everybody,
Enjoy Christmasshopping ... and stay safe and sound.

Jean