I did a snowman theme last year and what I liked most about it, was that I could leave it up beyond Christmas. This year I used some artifical pines with pinecones, very delicate and a little gold glitter on the tips of some of the pine needles and just sat them randomly on top of the mantle with a burgundy wire ribbon intertwined throughout. There are 2 antique clocks on my mantle, so the pines are tucked around them, etc. I have our 4 stockings hung and 3 boyds bears christmas figures, they are very tall, so they stick up nicely out of the pine. I have had them for years and never use them, so it was time to use them or lose them.

excel spreadsheets? lists? rooms dedicated to wrapping? Sheesh that's far too organized for me. I thought just getting the ornaments organized by tree was a HUGE undertaking! For wrapping I use the desperately rushed, christmas is in 4 hours, need a bottle of wine approach. I spread out the entire mess of crap with a hole in the middle for me and the wine, and begin digging my way out carefully :p I actually am organized when it comes to the decorations though. I have one attic for trees, one for ornaments that go on the trees that are on the 3rd and 4th floor as well as the decoration, and then I store the decorations and ornaments for the first floor and second floor are kept on the second floor. Less hauling down (and up) stairs that way :) I also label the boxes for the appropriate tree which is helpful when distributing boxes around the house. WHile I can obviously see what's vintage and what's traditional as well as all the other themes of a tree through the plastic boxes, I don't know how many vintage go to each tree unless I put them in separate boxes. THat leaves me just enough ornaments for each tree without taxing my little brain. I wish I could apply that kind of organization to presents LOL I do actually wrap all but the Santa ones in advance (so that's the 23rd verses the 24th btw) and those can go out under the main tree. I have been known to buy the same thing more than once...perhaps that list idea is a good one LOL Gad a room dedicated to wrapping and holiday storage...well I'm a bit nutso over christmas (major santa barf is in EVERY room) so that would have to be a big big big room! But it's a lovely fantasy!

The following is the Q&A on Late Menopause: Q:"Are there any advantages to still having periods at the age of 56? Is there a benefit to late menopause, or is it better to undergo it earlier? "  Rosemary, Pennsylvania A: Having a late menopause (menopause after the age of around 55) is a double-edged sword. There's some evidence that a later menopause carries a decreased risk of coronary heart disease, but there may also be a slightly higher risk of breast cancer. However, the associations between these health conditions and menopause aren't very strong. The other good news is that there are ways to avoid many health problems  such as doing regular exercise, following a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and so forth. There is an association between menopause and smoking  smokers often have an earlier menopause. You are probably a nonsmoker, though, which is also good for your health. Keep in mind too that 56 is well within the normal age range for menopause, though it's toward the upper end of the spectrum. So you have nothing to worry about right now. Last Updated: 08/04/2008 JoAnn Manson, MD, is a professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Because of distance (3 hour drive), SD is with whoever normally has her for Halloween, 4th of July and her birthday. (the other parent has from after school or 2pm-6pm on her birthday) On her last birthday, DH offered to let BM pick her up at 8am-8pm since she would have to drive 6 hours for a 4 hour visit and it was on a Saturday. She declined. Thanksgiving & Easter are alternated, she had last year, we have this year. Christmas break is divided... there is 15 or 16 days, she gets the first 8, we get the second 8 this year. Last year, we had the first 6 days and gave BM the last 10 days- DH was trying to give her a bigger chunk of time because she had just moved away, even though the order didn't say it. This year, he's sticking to the order because BM has canceled time & doesn't actually spend it with her so he wants to have her here. Monday holidays are added to whoever has her that weekend. If you live close enough to BM, maybe she can have Christmas Eve until 8:30 and SS can spend the night at your house so he can wake up there. It's so hard to split up Christmas, I used to do exchanges on Christmas morning with my son's dad and I always felt it wasn't fair to my son to have to be traded off on Christmas when all the other kids were playing with new toys and he opened his stuff & had to leave. I'm sure he liked getting two sets of gifts to open, but when we went to celebrating on a different day. ie. he spent Christmas eve/day with one of us & when he went to the other, he got another 'Christmas', it was less stressful for everyone. At the time, I had my other kids & my BF's kids so it was hard to not have my son with all of us on Christmas morning when he was with his father, there were no other kids at his father's house. My SD is in the reverse situation, there are kids at her mom's house and not ours. I think she'll have a lot more fun at her mom's, opening gifts with her sister.