I've made no secret of the fact that it's been a rough couple of weeks here at Casa masses. It's been a lot of drama, a lot of personal decisions, and incredibly overwhelming pile load of stuff on me. Several of my last posts have been somewhat, shall we say, depressing, And for that I do apologize. This blog is my way of processing things.

But tonight, I want to focus on the things that are good. I challenged myself to only think of things that make me smile, and here's the list I came up with. I'm choosing, tonight, to dwell in the good. What would you put on your list?

• Gingerbread martinis



 

• chewy molasses cookies
• driving down the interstate with Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas concert on volume 1,000,0003
• Seeing my daughters delight at being in a school that she loves (even if the opera rehearsals are about to kill me dead – I guess it's my turn after putting my parents through years of rehearsals - but my parents didn't have to drive 30 minutes each way - just sayin')
• phone calls and text chats with new and old friends
• Impromptu street corner brass bands


 

• 60° at 8:30 on a Friday night in December.
• Knowing that we have Santa breakfast tomorrow, and knowing that I at least have this year when at least one child still believes
• Snapchat pictures with my big kids – yes, I saw the Today show story about the horrors of Snapchat, and yes, I still let my kids do it. In fact, I do it with them. I believe in meeting them where they are. 
• Fresh hot coffee first thing in the morning
• Knowing that I got really great shots for my Christmas cards this year
• Buying some Christmas presents, and finding great deals on them at Want Not
• Discovering a new recipe for cranberry chutney that was delicious, and deciding to can it for Christmas gifts

• Throwing away unmatched socks and 58 (!!) eraserless pencils
• Good mail  - a great friend sent me an AWESOME gift - it was a just because she was thinking of me, and it seriously put a smile on my face for an hour

• Making a really difficult decision, with regards to one of my children, and being completely at peace with it, after four years. Well, kind of at peace. Quazi, kind of, sort of at peace - but I talked to my dad about it for a long time and that was good, too. 
• My brand-new license plate - ten made up Internet points to you if you know what it means