New Year's Resolutions? "Not Me!"

photo taken in our front yard in ft. worth, texas on december 24, 2009,

and at kardkorner headquarters, the photo was brought to life by yours truly, with watercolor enhancements and snow-loving characters

Above is a photo I took last Christmas Eve when Fort Worth was generously dusted with one of the prettiest snowfalls I have seen in Texas.  This snow started early afternoon on Christmas Eve and continued throughout the day.  It snowed, and snowed, and snowed- all night long and into Christmas day!  What a beautiful gift!

Can you see the snowman standing up against the tree that our neighbor built?  He and his children worked late into the night on Christmas Eve to complete him.  He looks pretty good, huh?  But I'm not sure what kind of hat he's wearing-kind of looks like a hubcap!

And here's our Husky, Whitey, early in the day when the snow first started to fall.  She's right in her element!  Whitey is a rescue dog-she showed up at our place about 40 miles from Ft. Worth where we have a piece of property near a lake.  And Karo took her in.  We think she could be about 9 or 10 years old-I think we've had her 7 or 8 years now.  A wonderful dog.  Karo calls her Whitey because of her light blue eyes. 

By 9:51pm on Christmas Eve 2009 our Red Tip Photinias were spread-eagle from the snow.  We wondered if they would ever stand up again.  And, yes, they did!  The Cherry Laurel was leaning every which way too.  It took a while for it to recouperate from this event.  Twas a beautiful Christmas, no doubt about it!

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Yikes!!!  Remember this?  It's Y2K coming into the year 2000!  Do you know that in the 11 years following "The Great Millennium", I've heard no one talk about the chaos this event caused.  I started thinking about it the other day, and, I'm sorry, but I had to laugh!  It's almost as though it never happened.  People were freaked out worrying about major blackouts in the cities-working up survival kits just in case.  Grocery stores were contemplating bringing out the old cash registers so they could continue to ring up groceries and make change, just in case (really, I'm kidding-maybe).  And the banks!  Oh, my goodness-they could still take our deposits, somehow-but how would they get them into our accounts?  Safely?  Just in case!

And, our computer systems!  Wow!  We were building fallout shelters for our computers!  Banks and corporations were worried that the computers couldn't handle the transition of the 2000 event.  And it was feared that if you were using the machine during the moment of the 1999 changeover into 2000, that many systems would think it was the year 1900.  "Back, Back, to the Future!"  In the early days programmers used only 2-digit systems for dates focusing on the last 2 digits-it was cheaper.  And, now, they would possibly have to re-program many systems to accommodate the first 2 digits to read 20 instead of 19.

  Just in case!  This would prove to be quite expensive.  

On New Year's Eve, 1999,  at a party, Karo and I closed our eyes and held our breaths at midnight, waiting for what was predicted to come.  Instead of blackout-nothing, we missed the fireworks, and almost missed the New Year's Kiss!  We got married in September of  2000, after y2k -10 years ago!  We didn't even own a computer, or cell phones at the time.  Now, we even have a DVD player! And I get to make my own Greeting Cards!  We've come a long way since y2k, and so has our nation!  We all made it through Y2K-at work we did back up our files and battened down the hatches.  I have to tell you, I would have been up a creek come January 2, 2000 if my computer was a mess when I got to work.  And I don't think the stock market would have liked it much, either.  It does give us a lot to think about, since so much of our lives revolve around computers and high technology resources.   Cheers to the 21st Century!

***

I don't make New Year's resolutions anymore, because the ones I've made over the span of my adult life are still ongoing.  Why make new ones, when I'm still working on the old ones-like striving to be a better person?  And, tho it's a work in progress, I have had some luck with that one.  I know that when I do what I can for others, I am blessed some way in return.  I've never had a lot, but I do give back, mostly of myself, and gladly!  It just makes me feel good to know that it's easier than you think to take a moment to reach for an item in the grocery store for any person who can't get to it.  Or to go ahead and smile-be cheerful to a grouchy person, who got up on the wrong side of the bed.  Before you know it, that person is smiling back and probably wondering to himself or herself why they were grouchy in the first place-
you can just FEEL IT!  Warm and cozy!

And how about the "Johnny on the Spot" resolutions?  Like some time during the year, you screw something up or do something stupid like getting a ticket for no seatbelt-after the $l50 or $200 fine, it's OOPS!  And that could be a permanent resolution!  Or, you get in over your head in some financial whimsy and didn't tell yourself  before the New Year NOT to do that!  It's ok!  You can "Johnny on the Spot" resolve to get yourself out of it gracefully and NEXT time-use your head!  How about your weight?  You may have been at your ideal weight before the New Year, but by July you've gained 15 lbs.  You can "Johnny on the Spot" start losing the weight, and hope to keep it off!  So, what am I trying to say?  Resolutions aren't just for New Years?  We can make resolutions any time of the year as long as we can back them up?

Works for me! 

We didn't get snow in Forth Worth, Texas this Christmas, but I'm happy to report that a couple of my 'blogmates" were blessed with the white fluffy stuff!  Becky from "Just Being Me-Becky" in Georgia did get some snow, but she says it was gone by morning-sorry Becky. But I enjoyed your pictures of your mom, daughters and Santa!  And "Thisisme" from "Southhamsdarling" in the United Kingdom made a grueling, snowy trek to Paris to be with her family for Christmas-by the way Thisisme, your Granddaughters are beautiful.  I got a glimpse of your Paris pics...will get back soon for a better look.  You can find the links to these two ladies blogs in the "Blogs I follow, happily" section on my sidebar.

***

Well, no one voted on my "favorite Christmas song poll".  I know, I know, we were all busy.  But, my favorite Christmas song is "O Holy Night".  We sang it in my high school choir and I still love to hear it sung and I TRY to play it on my keyboard at Christmas.  Maybe I'll come up with a more challenging survey next time around, you think?

I would like to make note that some of my info on Y2K was gathered from answers.com and the corresponding pictures from yahoo images search.

My New Year's animations are from christmas-graphics-plus.com and gifanimations.com

*** Thank You ***

And now, I would like to thank all of my readers for spending time at Christmas to read my stories, and for sharing their Christmas antics with me.  It seems as tho I had quite a few viewers on my "Christmas Across The Ocean...The Star of India" post.  Believe me, it was exciting, and I hope it was enjoyable as well as informative.   My mother was proud to be featured in this story-well-she was the "speaker"!  As for my shy readers, please continue to stop by whenever you feel like it.  I truly appreciate the interest and welcome your comments and conversation.  Happy New Year to All-no resolutions necessary!

***

"New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions."

Who else but my ole' buddy...~mark twain

Bonne Annee!