Yes I still Smoke Cigarettes and I am addicted to the smoking habit - support and chat thread.

[aikanae1]

Good Morning! I hope everybody has a wonderful day!

Todays theme: The Best Of.

Christmas Traditions where you live; boat parades, parades, seeing the lights, etc...., in your family; what do you do Christmas Eve?, Day?, Christmas recipes; cookies,cakes, meals, etc..., TV specials, etc....

if you have a recipe to share please post it!

recipes for e-liquid are good too! lol

Post as often as you like!

I'm going to have to think on that. I don't remember childhood which I think is probably fortunate. So most my traditions developed as an adult and those have changed as I moved around. One thing I enjoyed was making Kalhua and it's nothing like store bought. I used expresso, GOOD vanilla beans, everclear. Then let that sit in the dark for apx 6 months. Oh my. It's nothing like anything else.

I also used to make krumkaka, leftsa and rosettes with my inlaws. I got very good with krumkaka. The dinners were horrible. That's why I keep making lutefisk jokes. Fish soaked in lye? They served blood soup (made with beet juice) to honor their past. It was usually a huge event with the friends and neighbors. The most fascinating part was after the festivies and everyone had enough vodka because many of their group had been in the Norweigen underground and those stories would start coming out. That was usually 3, 4 in the morning.

Another friend had a passion for making chocolates and I'd help making the Christmas truffles. My fav was the B52 ones. I could never get the hang of doing the proper swirling on top. The ones I did were, shall we say, obvious. Another friend I spent years with, their family celebrated Christmas eve. They would spend the day making kompfs. Mashed potatoes encased in sausage, meat mixture, then boiled, then browned for gravy. It was a Swedish tradition. One thing living in the SW is that Christmas isn't celebrated as strongly as it is in other areas. I spent a coulple of weeks in Mexico one year at Christmas. Wow. Talk about celebrations! I think the whole month is involved. Huge mass and fireworks all night long on Christmas eve. I wouldn't mind exploring more of that.

It really depends on where I'm at and who I'm with at the time.

 

[Karen N Daytona]

I'm going to have to think on that. I don't remember childhood which I think is probably fortunate. So most my traditions developed as an adult and those have changed as I moved around. One thing I enjoyed was making Kalhua and it's nothing like store bought. I used expresso, GOOD vanilla beans, everclear. Then let that sit in the dark for apx 6 months. Oh my. It's nothing like anything else.

I also used to make krumkaka, leftsa and rosettes with my inlaws. I got very good with krumkaka. The dinners were horrible. That's why I keep making lutefisk jokes. Fish soaked in lye? They served blood soup (made with beet juice) to honor their past. It was usually a huge event with the friends and neighbors. The most fascinating part was after the festivies and everyone had enough vodka because many of their group had been in the Norweigen underground and those stories would start coming out. That was usually 3, 4 in the morning.

Another friend had a passion for making chocolates and I'd help making the Christmas truffles. My fav was the B52 ones. I could never get the hang of doing the proper swirling on top. The ones I did were, shall we say, obvious. Another friend I spent years with, their family celebrated Christmas eve. They would spend the day making kompfs. Mashed potatoes encased in sausage, meat mixture, then boiled, then browned for gravy. It was a Swedish tradition. One thing living in the SW is that Christmas isn't celebrated as strongly as it is in other areas. I spent a couple of weeks in Mexico one year at Christmas. Wow. Talk about celebrations! I think the whole month is involved. Huge mass and fireworks all night long on Christmas eve. I wouldn't mind exploring more of that.

It really depends on where I'm at and who I'm with at the time.

You continue to amaze me! You are so knowledgeable about so many things. Not just a few tidbits of Trivia, but fully knowledgeable. I would have enjoyed making chocolate truffles, and yes, mine would have been ugly but yummy.

My grandmother made a beet soup when I was very young, I remember liking it, must have been sweet. I still like beets now in a salad.
I think hers had milk or something in it because it was pink. Maybe a borscht???

Kahlua used to be my only alcoholic drink with cream. or in coffee. Frangelica, I think. Been a very long time. I just was never into it.

I have changed my Traditions over the years a few times. It does depend on the people you are with. I do keep certain traditions no matter what. The ones I love.

 

[DoloresB]

Well, I'm the odd one out on this one, because it's not food that my Christmas traditions settle around, but people--lovingly remembering those that have passed away, and cherishing time with the ones that are still alive. I'm fortunate this Christmas season, as I have enough time off from work to visit with all those that near and dear to me.

 

[FinallyQuit]

I think the loss of my loved ones, and the separation from the remaining ones, is what has depressed me so much this year. Mamma and Daddy have been gone for 8 and 16 years respectively. The memories I have of Christmas growing up are not, shall we say, good ones. I'm enjoying my little family but have a hard time making new traditions. So I feel like I'm just going through the motions and passing time until it's over.

When we were small we would get a silver dollar every Sunday. We then put them in a large plastic (bright pink) piggy bank. Every year at Christmas we would go to the store, pick out toys, watch Mamma and Daddy pay for them with the money in the piggy bank, then go home and "pretend" that we forgot what we bought. Daddy didn't want that fat guy to get credit for what we got, I remember him saying. I also remember it being a time when we travelled and saw extended family, something I no longer do. And of course we had good food, and lots of it, which requires another one of my least favorite activities, cooking!

New traditions in my little family, we get stockings (never had them as kids) and we absolutely have to get a surprise gift, no matter what gets put on the list, there's no "knowing" what you're getting until you open it. Also I won't leave my house to go anywhere on Christmas day, if anyone wants to get together with us they need to come to our house or plan for another day. My sister just can't understand why I don't wake up early, rush them through their little ceremony, then run out to her house to watch her kids do it. She also has a fit if I don't make a "traditional" meal. Mmmm, if you're coming to cook it we'll have it, otherwise it's all about me today! Hey, I told you I was a scrooge!

All right, time to wrap up a few more things and think about going home, thank goodness! See y'all later if the internet gods are smiling upon our house tonight. . .

 

[aikanae1]

You continue to amaze me! You are so knowledgeable about so many things. Not just a few tidbits of Trivia, but fully knowledgeable. I would have enjoyed making chocolate truffles, and yes, mine would have been ugly but yummy.

My grandmother made a beet soup when I was very young, I remember liking it, must have been sweet. I still like beets now in a salad.
I think hers had milk or something in it because it was pink. Maybe a borscht???

Kahlua used to be my only alcoholic drink with cream. or in coffee. Frangelica, I think. Been a very long time. I just was never into it.

I have changed my Traditions over the years a few times. It does depend on the people you are with. I do keep certain traditions no matter what. The ones I love.

Yes, there is a russian borscht made with beets. On a drive through Canada one time, ran into a town where all the billboards advertised resturants serving borscht, so of course I had to try it. I don't remember it, so it didn't make much impression. I'll try about anything ONCE. In some ways, not having my own traditions or family has probably left a void that I look to fill through others. Good, bad? It just is. The university of life is knowing how to get what you need when you need it.

 

[Claudia P]

The traditions growing up in my family were all about family, I'm sure the women spent hours or days cooking, but not in my home. We would go to my mom's brother's Christmas eve, one or the other of them, rotating years, and eat wonderful food, then everyone would gather and sing carols and open gifts. It wasn't a large family and there were only 4 kids, cousins, but we had a great time. Christmas day was spent at home with mom and dad, I was an only child growing up as my brother didn't come along until I was married and had a child of my own. After my grandmother died this all ended and Christmas was celebrated at my house with just my mom and stepdad, brother, hubby, daughter and I. Mom would insist that all presents be opened on Christmas Eve because she wanted to watch everyone. Yikes I totally forgot to mention the years with my two granddaughters, those were really good ones and I did to quite a bit of cooking and we had a great Christmas eve. This went on until mom and my hubby died and I moved away from all of my family. Now it is just Cliff and I and the dogs and we exchange gifts at midnight and sleep in on Christmas day, both of us sad and missing all of those no longer with us, or far far away. Until his cousin moved here last year I would either fix us a small dinner or we would go to Golden Corral, now we go to her house for a small dinner as her daughter and granddaughter come down from MD the weekend before and they have their Christmas then.

I think these days it is pretty normal for the older folks to spend Christmas alone with families spread so far apart and so many no longer here.

 

[aikanae1]

I encourage your quest for new traditions. It sounds like you just need to celebrate your own little family in whatever form that may be. What would your DD"s want? Obviously that doesn't include you cooking it either. Do a family "potluck". What would be the number one pick from everyone for a perfect day?

One of the later traditions that developed between a group of friends was "silly's". It was something picked up through the year, usually cheap, that reminded us of each other. I gave a friend a workbook I found in a thrift on 'how to be a beauty queen' because we always made fun of the Seafair princess on floats (elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist). I got a magnetic key box one year because of this HUGE hassle caused from loosing my keys. Something related and it's so much more personal. So much less likely to end up in the Goodwill pile too.

I really question this "wish list" focus at Christmas. Things don't drop out of the sky as if it's magic. It doesn't even have anything to do with being good or bad. It's about wanting it bad enough to work for it; money or make it yourself. Idk. IMO it's gotta be about more than a "wish list" of things, or doing stuff that looks like an ad.

For many years, one of my friends had an open house potluck on Christmas day for "orphan's" which included ppl who needed an excuse to get out of doing traditional Christmas with their dysfunctional families. That was always a blast.

I think the loss of my loved ones, and the separation from the remaining ones, is what has depressed me so much this year. Mamma and Daddy have been gone for 8 and 16 years respectively. The memories I have of Christmas growing up are not, shall we say, good ones. I'm enjoying my little family but have a hard time making new traditions. So I feel like I'm just going through the motions and passing time until it's over.

When we were small we would get a silver dollar every Sunday. We then put them in a large plastic (bright pink) piggy bank. Every year at Christmas we would go to the store, pick out toys, watch Mamma and Daddy pay for them with the money in the piggy bank, then go home and "pretend" that we forgot what we bought. Daddy didn't want that fat guy to get credit for what we got, I remember him saying. I also remember it being a time when we travelled and saw extended family, something I no longer do. And of course we had good food, and lots of it, which requires another one of my least favorite activities, cooking!

New traditions in my little family, we get stockings (never had them as kids) and we absolutely have to get a surprise gift, no matter what gets put on the list, there's no "knowing" what you're getting until you open it. Also I won't leave my house to go anywhere on Christmas day, if anyone wants to get together with us they need to come to our house or plan for another day. My sister just can't understand why I don't wake up early, rush them through their little ceremony, then run out to her house to watch her kids do it. She also has a fit if I don't make a "traditional" meal. Mmmm, if you're coming to cook it we'll have it, otherwise it's all about me today! Hey, I told you I was a scrooge!

All right, time to wrap up a few more things and think about going home, thank goodness! See y'all later if the internet gods are smiling upon our house tonight. . .

​

 

[QueenVictoria]

Hello All. Today was my Christmas party at work. They do a raffle for gifts and I got the second best one, a microwave that I don't need. There is still a blender out in my shed from 2 years ago still in the gift wrap. LOL

I also got some PT2s I ordered from vapor bank's winter sale. Someone posted the link here the other day and I couldn't resist because I already have evods and a whole bunch of the replacement coils. So TY to whoever posted that... I'm too lazy to go back and look for it. Seriously I'm more excited about the vape stuff than the expensive microwave. Maybe I can return it. I think someone said its from Sam's Club.

 

[aikanae1]

Return requirements have gotten so weird. I tried a simple return at Kmart and it needed to be within 14 days WITH reciept for a bath mat? Go to Target and they can look up anything from the past 90 days, no reciept. And the lines. It might be easier to sell on Craigslist for cash.

 

[FinallyQuit]

Ah life is good. New internet wireless router hanging on the fencepost behind the mailbox when I got home. Unplugged the old stuff, plugged in the new stuff, a less than 5 minute phone call to Windstream got it all set up, things should be a lot calmer around here now. Oh, and the girls will not have to listen to my screams of frustration any more, so they will be happy too!

To celebrate I'm going to bed early, insomnia last night so bad I barely got 4 hours sleep. Hyperextended my left knee yesterday, still hearing crunching sounds in the joint when I move, and dammit it hurts! Now the lower back is also protesting from the altered gait. Tomorrow I'll be walking like Quasimodo. The high schoolers get to stay home tomorrow and the little one has a half day. We have to pack a lunch since the cafeteria isn't serving, and she'll have to stay at school until I get there after work around 6:00. The older girls are in for a treat and they don't even know it! I think I'll take advantage of this opportunity to have them do some chores. . .insert evil laugh and hand rubbing here. . .

Hope you all have a great night!

 

[Karen N Daytona]

I want you all to know, that while the season may make you a little sad thinking of those you lost, it brings warm memories for many. Sharing the good may require thinking of some things not so good but for the most part, you get to remember some lovely things. (Aikanae, I'm sorry that your family life was difficult, but again you have beautiful adult memories)

There is something I must tell all of you. You are all beautiful souls, giving, empathetic, nurturing, the list just goes on and on. Perhaps, one must have some life challenges to be this way. You are who you are through your experiences, I wouldn't change a thing even with the things I deal with. I like who I am. I have my days, when everything is horrible, but, I still wouldn't change a thing.

Rejoice with those that are around you and be proud of achievements and hard work. I know I worked hard for all my life, I am proud of that
When you spend time with the ones you love, that is tradition, when you read some of what others experience perhaps the traditions will be appealing and they will be your new traditions. I know I ramble and sometimes don't get to a point, but this time I think I did.

I love you all and I am proud of all of you!

Don't fret about what is lost, make new memories, their is a world of new experiences waiting.

Talk about the happy memories of those you lost. You are sharing the best of you!Not only will you remember, you will be giving the rest of us a piece of you. Share as you will.

My mother is still alive, but is in failing health. She is the most important person in my life, I can't talk to her anymore. She is dying, but she has lived 84+ years. My mother was my cheerleader, friend, my everything. I miss talking to her, we spoke two to three times a day when she was healthier. When my father left, she had never had to work in her life, she found a job and went to work to support us, she learned about real estate and bought and sold the homes we lived in every year for the next 15 years to support us. This in addition to taking care of us, me and 2 sisters, she took my grandmother in and was with her, nursing her till the end. I love my mother and wish I could do the same for her now. My favorite memories were parties she threw and family dinners. She was expert at making a party and preparing wonderful meals.

so, here's to memories of the way we were

 

[Karen N Daytona]

To new Traditions!

 

[Karen N Daytona]

OK, Do I need to send out the troops?

 

[Topdogie01]

Im half awake with a sniffley child. Trying to decide if he is getting sick or just cold. And my Internet keeps flaking out. Every half hour. And takes Internet company about 45 min to answer so of course it works when they answer and look

 

[FinallyQuit]

Im half awake with a sniffley child. Trying to decide if he is getting sick or just cold. And my Internet keeps flaking out. Every half hour. And takes Internet company about 45 min to answer so of course it works when they answer and look

We should totally run an internet company, I am in the wrong line of work. We could be squillionaires! Just provide service during off-peak hours, take 3 days to correct the problem, and blame it all on the customer. Let's not forget offering a really high speed, but telling everyone "you've got the highest speed available where you live" just to make them gnash their teeth. Yeah, been through a lot of that for the last week. Now that I'm out $100 and got a new router it's working fantastic. Yippee. . .

 

[aikanae1]

I'm praying that Google fiber sets up soon. I think they are the only ones able to break the monopoly.

​

 

[Topdogie01]

Oh, I have a modem from them to replace the one I owned before they ruined mine. Sent in mine for warranty replacement (motorola os pretty good aboit replacing them when its provider forces an incompatible update to rhem) and anytime I have limited connections I hook up cable companies modem and I get no connection. My personal modem makes 4 simultaneous connections for redundancy and improved stability. Cable companies modem makes a single connection and stops on ant issues like no time of day response. Im sure I could manage a small Internet company myself if I had the 10 grand to buy tje hardware and get a fiber network installed

 

[DoloresB]

I've just gotten off the phone with my older sister, trying to make plans to get together over Christmas.

Top, it's really too bad you ISP can't get its stuff together and start providing you with some decent service. That's one thing I've not had to worry about. It may be expensive here in Canada, but it's reliable.

Warm and wonderful words from a warm and wonderful lady, Karen. Thank you. I'm glad to know you, too.

 

[Topdogie01]

i have gaming buddies who live in thunder bay area and hate thier provider. some days its fine, but when there is issues its just like my problems. he has called me just so i can tell the tech at his house what to do to fix some of the issues. its horrible how many people have technical jobs that have no experience other than what they learned in training or school (which doesnt help in the real world for tech.. sure i can learn about programming on a punch card, but that doesnt help when a company hiring wants me to know java and c#.. [sidenote: well it does since you would know the basics of programming and thats a big step in the right direction.. but thats besides the point] but putting college on your resume gives you an instant pay bump and employer seems to think you have real world experience with any issue that may arrise.) . but i have 0 college experience, (well, i have a few credit hours from being in highschool it those classes were about as good as reading a Dummies guide to computers, i played online games the entire time i was in that class, or programmed for the fun of it with the expensive software that i had access to since i was a "tech" student, which i still have a lifetime license for..) so employers look at my resume and pass over me for someone who even went to school for journalism rather than me who has been working on computers since he was about 13 (i say about because i fixed problems starting at 11, but didnt actually know WHAT i was doing and why i was doing it until i was 13) and has a list of reffrences whos (whoms?) computers i have fixed and responded to emergency calls at all hours of the night as long as a new york city hpone book, but that doesnt matter. gah.

occasionally my ISP gets everything working as it should, and i will go a month or two if im lucky with no issues except some slowness (either the website im using is slow or neighbors are downloading alot at the same time) but when i have issues it seems to last forever and just frusterates me to no end.

 

[DoloresB]

I stand corrected. What I should have said was that I've had no problems with my internet service wherever I've made my home.

I'm sorry to hear of your friend's internet problems. Is he with TbayTel or Shaw?