Last NEWSFLASH for 2008

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Time to do the news update thing once again, the last one for 2008.

N - nature
E - entertainment
W - wise words
S - spirit
F - family
L - love
A - anxiety
S - smiles
H - home

NATURE

The biggest event Nature staged in December was the amazing frost and ice that the below freezing temperatures brought us through Christmas to the new year. This photo below was the view from our house, across the frozen icy fields, on New year's Eve.

ENTERTAINMENT

We never went anywhere in December, it was too cold and since some of my in-laws were ill there wasn't any incentive to visit anyone and pass along germs! So we stayed home relaxing was exactly what we all needed. We watched TV and DVDs, ate snacks and now and then made short trips up to the shops to buy the last Christmas bits or basic groceries. The closest we came to entertainment was New year's eve when the towns around us lit fireworks at midnight and we all sat in the house watching them through the windows.

WISE WORDS
My favourite quote for the month, with one important twist - they have to be words from a fellow blogger! My Wise Words choice for December come from a friend and fellow blogger, Jean-Jacques of Gypsy Cafe:

"To travel is to evolve when travelling is consciously used as the vehicle to go beyond personal borders.

To evolve is to always attempt to shift the borders of our own limitations beyond their current borders.

To evolve is to expand our life experiences in order to learn more from life beyond the borders of the conventional.

To evolve is to continue facing our fears and to overcome them beyond the borders of the limitations they have imposed on us.

To evolve is to become autonomous in our thoughts beyond the borders of collective thinking and conditioning."

SPIRIT

To me the greatest wonder of this time of year is the ever-repeated mystery of life-death birth-rebirth. In every religion, and in nature itself in the Northern hemisphere, there is the theme of endings and beginnings: the longest night in winter heralding the death of the natural year that reminds us of the coming rebirth of spring, several different versions of new year (depending on your religion or culture), and interwoven in all that the story of a child being born to die physically so no-one should ever die spiritually.


FAMILY
Not much to report. It was a quiet Christmas. A cousin in England sent me a Christmas card saying he'd been on holiday and found the grave of my great great great grandmother in Istanbul, but he never said if he took photos! :-( I keep meaning to write to him and ask, but I know he never reads his email, so it'll probably be better if I write an actual letter... yuck! I'm so out of writing, having had email for nine years.

LOVE
Hubby bought me a wonderful surprise for Christmas - a new monitor. It's one of those flat screen things and almost as big as our original TV! It's wonderful. :-)

ANXIETY
The biggest December anxiety was in early December when both mom and I realised we'd bought clothing gifts in the wrong sizes. There was a mad dash back to the shops the next day. Thankfully we were able to sort them all out and everyone got gifts they could wear.

SMILES
Smile of the month is this sign I was sent in an email. I'd love to know what animal it was written about. Obviously it's a very sensitive, or irritable, animal! :-D


HOME
I'm posting a photo for this portion, one that I think sums up the word home for December - hubby and dad washing and drying the dishes. Nothing more thrilling to a woman's heart than men getting domesticated. ;-) ..