Christmas with my family... There's just no way to describe how wonderful it is to be with my family, anytime. We're so BradyBunch that it might frighten some people. I don't care. I love it. For me, it's normal to love and be loved by the people to whom you're related. We don't just pay each other lip service owed by an unwritten creed of how family members should be. We actually do care about each other. We enjoy each others company. We have fun together! We enjoy our history together and look forward to where our lives will take us. There is a deep compassionate connection and a promise of continuity which I wish every person could feel with their own family.

I am the oldest of five children. All of us are married. The other four have children. There have been divorces and some blending, but I count all my nieces and nephews equally, regardless of bloodlines. My parents are terrific role models. They are just damned good people, to us and to everyone they meet. I try to emulate that, as do my siblings. Their children are learning the same. My grandparents were marvelous people too. I don't know how many generations of us have been decent citizens of the world, but I'm glad I was born into this legacy. No one is perfect, but the base is there, the solid foundation of integrity and humanity is there. I cherish this gift and I'm glad to see it's being carried into the future.

As the year turns once again, I wish love and laughter to all. I wish every child could know the love, comfort and support that my nieces and nephews know.... the same love, comfort and support that I grew up with and which carries me through every day of my life.

Peace On Earth, Good Will Toward All.

Here's a quiz for ya - How Smart Are You? ~~~ I got 9 out of 11. One error is a matter of interpretation, imo. The other, well, I had a lapse in biblical discernment. Sosume :)

And now... selected trivia:

In the late 19th century, millions of human mummies were used as fuel for locomotives in Egypt where wood and coal was scarce, but mummies were plentiful.

The average human produces 25,000 quarts of spit in a lifetime, enough to fill two swimming pools.

An American Animal Hospital Association poll showed that 33% of dog owners admit that they talk to their dogs on the phone or leave messages on an answering machine while away.

When the Black Death swept across England one theory was that cats caused the plague. Thousands were slaughtered. Ironically, those that kept their cats were less affected, because they kept their houses clear of the real culprits, rats.

The air we breathe is 78% nitrogen, 21.5% oxygen, .5% argon and other gases.

100 Things About Me
1. I hate these things and yet I do them anyway.
2. I'm a 5'7" redheaded woman with blue eyes and freckles.
3. I'm a redhead til I'm dead, regardless of how bleached my hair may get from age.
4. I liked growing up in central Kentucky. It was free from most natural hazards and poisonous creatures.
5. I used to hate spiders. Now I just really really dislike them and wish they'd live away from me.
6. I don't mind snakes, unless they're being sneaky. I like the feel of their skin.
7. I like the smell of horses, cut grass, honeysuckle, babies...
8. I make great use of my three most valuable innate skills: association, assimilation, and pattern recognition.
9. I am the oldest of 5 children.
10. I love my siblings. I am closest to my sister.
11. I love my parents. I am closest to my mother, but getting closer to my dad all the time.
12. I like soaking in the bathtub and letting the excess energy (stress) float away into the water so it may eventually go where needed.
13. I am 47 1/2 years old.
14. I like being me. I didn't always, but I learned.
15. I have had the privilege of knowing all my grandparents well. I still have a grandmother living. She's awesome.
16. I have the privilege of remembering a few moments with one great grandmother.
17. I learned how to be a friendly and sociable smart ass from my father's father.
18. I learned how to treat every person I meet with sincerity, fairness, and respect, from my father.
19. I learned how to care for people, sometimes at personal risk, from my mother.
20. I learned the habit of singing song snippets cued by words, from my mother. Makes life fun.
21. I have online friends who are as dear to me as anyone I have ever known offline.
22. I find it annoying that I have to refer to these people as eFriends to my family because most of them are not online.
23. I am Gemini Sun, Scorpio Moon, Libra Rising. That makes for a whole lot of people in my head.
24. I do not have Multiple Personality Disorder, technically.
25. I burn to a crackly crunch in more than fifteen minutes of sunshine.
26. I love to meet brand new humans and secretly welcome them to this lovely planet.
27. I like the taste of sauerkraut juice and dill pickle juice and lemon juice....
28. I don't mind ignorance at all, but I abhor stupidity, especially willful stupidity.
29. I am intolerant of intolerance.
30. I wear glasses because I'm myopic and I don't like bumping into things or seeing the world as a big fuzzball.
31. I think I will live to see the New Year when I'm 92, but won't stick around for my 93rd birthday in 2050.
32. I love mercury, the element. I love its silver fluidity, its weight, and its seemingly independent motion.
33. I love the color purple, but not that reddish violet color, I mean real (blue) purple.
34. I am inexplicably infatuated with the image of the Egyptian jackal-headed god Anubis.
35. I have little or no interest in traveling outside the continental US, except maybe to see the pyramids at Giza or in the Yucatan Peninsula.
36. I think I am a reincarnated Atlantean.
37. I think I may not bother to reincarnate again.
38. I have seen ghosts.
39. I have really long arms and legs. My arm span is longer than my height and it's not supposed to be.
40. I didn't get married until I was 33.
41. I am terrible at math, but great at logic. Go figure.
42. I know I existed before I was born, and I know I will exist after this body dies. It's just transformation.
43. I have a technical side and an artistic side which work well together into graphics and web design.
44. I have often been told I'm a great listener and give good advice.
45. I believe in the inherent goodness of people and trust them until they force me to re-evaluate that trust
46. I have good instincts and my intuition has improved with age.
47. I have created my own patchwork of spiritual beliefs and views of the cosmos which I'm constantly revising.
48. I remember feeling slighted when I was little, and I know it was just because my siblings needed more attention at the time. It still hurts.
49. I sometimes cry over really stupid stuff, but I've learned that's okay.
50. I prefer cats rather than dogs.
51. I don't like to go to the dentist unless something is hurting me more than the dentist can hurt me.
52. I have a really low gag threshhold and even the suggestion of hair in my food can make me gag.
53. I don't think bodily functions are all that funny. In fact, I'd like to skip some.
54. I can make software dance. I used to break software for a living. Same process, different purpose.
55. I think I'd like to be cremated when I die. I just can't decide where my ashes should be scattered.
56. I tried a lot of different majors in college, incl computer science, vocal music, electronics engineering...
57. I have an Associate of Science Degree in Art, and probably enough leftover credits for a bachelor's degree
58. I am not a morning person. My best hours are from about 10pm to 3am
59. I actually get a cold sore on my lip after I have a picture taken. I think it's a nervous reaction.
60. I can make things work out even when there's not much to work with. There is always a way.
61. I can always find silver linings, always. They are always there. Sometimes it's a long search.
62. I have a hard time accepting appreciation, but I'm working on that.
63. I would choose these three books if stranded on a desert island: Shakespeare's complete works, the Bible, and a thick blank book to write in. (Guess I'd need a pencil too :)
64. I am one of the smartest people I know, and the main thing I know is that I don't know everything.
65. I got very high scores in spacial relations areas on SAT/ACT tests. I can visualize better than anyone I know.
66. I have a gift for being able to break down even the most complicated stuff so the simplest person can understand it.
67. I have a way of finding the essence of an issue or concept.
68. I am a master with metaphor, simile, and analogy. Everything can be explained with something else.
69. I am learning to allow myself to experience emotion without editing it to death.
70. I have also discovered that all the 'bad' emotion I unplugged in earlier years cut me off from a lot of good emotions.
71. I am sometimes overwhelmed by all the little marvels of this world and the wonder of this universe.
72. I cried the morning my youngest niece was born, before I knew that's what was causing the feelings of parting heaven, joy of life, and relief.
73. I have learned to temper my temper with a 5 second gap between anger and action.
74. I actually own a piano, which my grandmother has now because hers went kaput.
75. I can read music but I play mostly by ear.
76. I have been male in other lifetimes. I remember.
77. I have a very warm and sometimes powerful speaking voice.
78. I have a good singing voice but I usually only sing for me.
79. I think nearly all children and animals love me on sight. I reciprocate.
80. I will take suggestion, advice, expertise under consideration, but don't order me to do anything.
81. I am an extrovert, I even talk to people in elevators. Strangers often want to talk to me.
82. I am apparently perceived as a very open and available person, and I'm okay with that.
83. I often analyze stuff to death.
84. I once had a dream where I used astrological data to target optimal birth times and places for souls. I think it was memory.
85. I write a lot, then usually edit and tweak it to death before I'll release it.
86. I am a jack of all trades, mastered a few. It's hard to know just what to do when you can do almost anything.
87. I am almost tired of people telling me how clever I am. I know that. It doesn't pay much.
88. I don't work hard, I work smart.
89. I think I originally came to Earth by way of a route through Orion's Belt because that looks like the way 'home'.
90. I think I worked on or near Mars for a while as we terraformed Earth and worked on human genetics.
91. I was and have always been a researcher in cognitive processes. I've just done it through many guises and lifetimes.
92. I don't like being left. I preferred to be picked up, rather than dropped off.
93. I don't just like quicksilver, I -am- quicksilver.
94. I can think in HTML. I love the instant gratification of making webpages.
95. I love languages and symbols.
96. I am fascinated with Astrology because of its symbolic language and geometry and spatial relations.
97. I have often thought I was born about 50 yrs too soon because I'd really like living virtually, but corporeal reality is fun too.
98. I have a vivid imagination, but that doesn't mean it's all make-believe. A lot of it's true.
99. I didn't have nearly enough on this list on the first go, so I went back and stuffed more things in, sometimes randomly.
100. I would have been bored with reading this, long before now.
I'd like to point out that nothing on this list is for shock value or weird-o-meter points.

What's Your Element? Air
What kind of blogger are you? Social
What Kind of Soul Are You? Visionary
Which of your friends is most likely to get you to take these silly quizzes? Xan
What would you like to do to that friend to get even? I'm still working on it. :)