From the Mind of AlphaBetsy

Friday, December 9, 2016: We went to see our favorite nail techs at CS Nailspa in Gahanna. Christmas nails. Saturday, December 10, 2016:  My little sister was attending a military ball with her boyfriend Dan, so I drove to Cambridge to take pictures and help her get ready.  Sunday, December 11, 2016: We broke out our new skinny tree, and began decorating for the holidays.  Monday, December 12, 2016: Tea with Tarot night, and my cat climbed into one of the boxes of decorations.  Tuesday, December 13, 2016: Beautiful Koi from a fountain in a local Chinese restaurant.  Wednesday, December 14, 2016: Spent time carving the stamp for my holiday cards, and stamping them. So much green paint.  Thursday, December 15, 2016: Holiday Sock Exchange! You buy a pair of socks and stuff them with awesome stuff. The socks I got had holiday flamingos, and were chock full of awesome!  This we...

December, and the holidays therein, has always been the worst for me when it comes to my anxiety issues. (This includes a week long panic attack a couple of years ago.) I know the underlying causes of this for me personally, but it does not make the anxiety less, or help mitigate the issue. I am realizing, though, that many others also suffer from holiday anxiety. So I am going to share how I am making the holidays work for me this year. It may not work for everyone, but this is my approach, and at least it may help you come up with your own holiday survival plan. 1) Reward Board! - The lovely JoAnna Devoe of The Kickass Witch introduced me to the concept of the Reward Board, and I love it. The idea is that you set yourself daily goals for the month, and then set yourself a Reward if you are able to meet these goals. For me, as you can see below, I wanted to have a creative month. In that spirit I made goals to blog, make art, craft, write poetry, and to dance. Also I set a daily go...

For me, Christmas always begins the moment that Santa hits Herald Square in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I was in the middle of a walk when it happened, but I know that Santa hit about Noon today, so it is officially Christmas/ Yuletide Time. I have been buying some pre-holiday time holiday buys. I bought two DVD's: Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas and the original Miracle on 34th Street. I bought some holiday face art at 5below, as well as some holiday suspenders. And then at Target I got the cutest ugly sweater skirt. We are now on the lookout for a new tree for our house. Our old tree was, well, old. So we took it out to the curb after last year, rather than taking it back to the basement. And we forgot about that until this week when thinking about decorating. Well, shit. We need a new tree. I know exactly what I would like to get; a 9 foot skinny tree, preferably un-lit, but lit white is fine. Hopefully we can find one in the next couple days for not too much....