I love blog hops, I’m jumping into 3 different ones today so if  you see one that looks like  you want in just click the associated button/image and jump on board!

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Each week, Feeling Beachie will plan on listing four statements with a blank for you to fill in on your own blogs. If you want to join the fun and come up with four fill in’s of your own, please email them to her at feelingbeachie@gmail.com. If she uses them, she will add you as co-host to the hop!

1.       ____ is my ideal winter night.

2.       I don’t remember the last time I ___ but, I really want to.

3.       I will never turn down __________

4.      To save money I like to ____________

My Answers:

1.  Curled  up with a cup of flavored coffee, in front of the fireplace in the family room with the other Divas (mom, sister, 2 nieces) laughing and watching TV while I crochet a blanket is my ideal winter night.  For now, as I’m not in a relationship with anyone of the male side of the species.

2.  I don’t remember the last time I heard my son play the bagpipes but, I really want to!  He plays the highland pipes and is in the Cincinnati Emerald Society. He used to play with the Sheriff’s dept. pipe band but being on road patrol he really doesn’t have the ability to be away for events the department band participates in.  He is getting married on St. Patrick’s Day 2012, maybe he’ll play at the reception….

3.  I will never turn down dark chocolate.  I LOVE it and if it is there in front of me, I’m going to eat it.  Life is too short to worry about a few extra calories, especially if it happens to be an Esther Price dark chocolate candy, YUM!

4.  To save money I like to invite people over with food and drinks to watch football games.  While I enjoy the game in a sports bar full of cheering fans, or a good seat at the game with 65,000 screaming fans, I prefer to save money and enjoy the games with friends and family at home.  Not to mention the bathroom is clean and has no line.

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1.  What’s the best Christmas present you’ve ever received?

Wow, that would have to be the I received and gave to someone else.  I gave a child up for adoption at 16yo.  She was born the day after Christmas and was just beautiful.  I knew I was just a kid and not ready to be a mom, and that on a waiting list somewhere was a couple that desperately wanted a daughter.  Giving her life and giving someone else that life to have as their own changed me in many ways that I cannot even begin to explain, all good though.  Sometimes the best gift is the one you give to another.

2.  Worst/Funniest White Elephant gift ever received?

Wow this probably sounds crazy, but I’ve never participated in one that I really remember, nothing stands out.  My sister did though, and it was a clock, still in the package, and it didn’t work.  We hung it up for a while, we thought it was amusing.

3.  Is your Christmas tree plain and simple (white lights and matching ornaments) or is it wild and crazy (colored lights with lots of ornaments collected over the years)?

Actually…both. Though the ornaments collected over the years are with my ex husband and daughter in the marital residence on their tree.  When mom, me, my sister and her 2 daughters bought a house and moved in together, last year was our first Christmas here together in The Diva Den.  We have a living room and family room so we put the tree with white lights in the living room.  We have started collecting “girlie” Diva like ornaments (glittery shoes etc) for that tree.  In the family room is the tree with colored lights and a hodge podge of different ornaments.

4.  “How” do you iron your clothes?  The old fashioned iron/ironing board way, the shower, back in the dryer, etc.

Good grief cannot recall the last time I actually ironed something!  Been a few years that is for certain.  Permanent press is my way to iron, so if all else fails it goes back into the dryer for a bit.  If it is something that NEEDS to be iron, the dry cleaners does it cheap enough that I’ll drop it there.

5.  How much baking do you do for Christmas and what are your “must make” items?

I haven’t done holiday baking for many years now.  I have an old Mirro Cookie Press, the kind you build muscles twisting to push out the dough through little cookie forms.  The Christmas trees per the recipe in the box are the one cookie I must make if I’m going to bake.  My son can sit down and eat several dozen in a sitting, he even has been known to ask for them throughout the year.  My daughter will handle that, along with my niece, here in the Diva Den this weekend.  And they’ll make pies. YUM!  However for the most part no one lets me handle sharp objects or use the stove, the local fire boys have to be put on stand-by if I’m cooking/baking.

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Want to join? — simply write a list of your favorite moments from the week {or a favorite picture or post or even little notes like I did today}, then click the picture/button and go link up!

As my broken heart is healing from the end of the relationship with the Count, many of The Single Woman’sblogs and Tweets, as well as things I see on MyStandards Tumblr account are jumping out at me as things I need to remember.  Here are some of those:

TheSingleWoman™

“Perfect” doesn’t mean “Perfect for YOU.” Don’t settle for someone just ‘cuz u can’t think of a reason NOT to.

Being the author of your own life gives u permission to write anyone you choose OUT of the script at any time.

No one is responsible for your happiness except YOU. Stop making excuses & start making changes.

Genuinely wanting to be with someone is love. Not wanting to be without someone is co-dependence.

Your circumstances don’t DEFINE u, but REFINE u..turning the ashes of your past into the diamonds of your future.

The most radiant woman in the room is the one full of life and experience. ~Sharon Stone

Sometimes God takes away everything you thought you wanted to bring you everything you ever dreamed of