Entries by TATIANA

The spirit of Christmas has been present around here for a few weeks. I have been decorating, singing Christmas songs, tearing up more than usual and now it's here.
Christmas is here! Merry Christmas to all of you that are reading this, wherever you are.
I hope that the spirit of the season is with you. I am going to eat chocolate and licorice, maybe even drink some glögg and munch on some gingerbread cookies. YUM!
Here is my place, home sweet home.





















All the best to you.....from me.
❤

Some late nights thoughts on a late and dark nights.......thoughts about life. This journey of being here, being alive. I read a magazine the other day (Shambala Sun) and came across
The Five Remembrances.

I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.

I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health.

I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.

All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions.
My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

That has been on my mind. I don't want any of that! I don't want to get separated from people and Chhaya by death. I don't want to get old, sick and die. I don't want to! WHY???
This is why I think life is suffering. But it's also happiness and wonderful.
I have so much that I am grateful for. Every day. Since 2013 is coming to an end I want to express my gratitude to KISA, my friend in Germany. He has helped me with the blog, there is much more to it than just writing a daily entry and uploading a few pics.....I found out.
He does not ask for anything in return, he spends something very valuable on ME, a person that he has never met, he is spending his TIME and effort and time we can never get back.
I know the value of doing for others without getting anything in return at best and in other cases (from personal experience) getting negativity in return. Therefore I am grateful for KISA. THANK YOU!!!



I am also so grateful that I got to experience Burning Man this year. That I decided to go basically by myself. I had the time of my life. Here is a video that I got in my inbox yesterday, it's a short Burning Man documentary.

WE ARE ONLY HUMAN x BURNING MAN 2013 from Aaron Freeder on Vimeo.

I woke up a little before noon today after a very uneventful night at work last night, two nights like that this week (complete waste of my time and the gas it takes to get there) and the other two were kind of bad too (I'm talking about money now not about my mood). That's how it is here in the wintertime. You either make nothing, or something and once in a while it's good.
After waking up I drove to Coffee Roasters, then I went to the store. When I returned home I took Chhaya for a walk and then I got busy with a mountain of dishes, several loads of laundry and other things that I needed to do around the house. A typical Sunday. There are still a couple of hours left before midnight. I'm going to take a bath and read. It was winter solstice yesterday......the daylight will be around for longer now, slowly but surely. Here are some December pics from Alaska.

It's a little after 5 am and I'm in bed eating caramel popcorn, yoghurt and drinking tea. I have to wash my face and then I can sleep. Work was FUN tonight.....that means I was laughing a lot, joking, singing loud and acting silly. That's fun to me. Oh, and I also got some gifts.
How sweet! A Victoria's Secret gift card and a cute gift bag (with puppy paws on it) full of nice stuff, even Chhaya got some treats. But I'm starting to get tired now, if I don't wash my face I will fall asleep with the eyeshadow and mascara still on and I don't like that. Plus, I have to get Chhaya's Christmas gift tomorrow and some other stuff and I'm hoping to wake up around noon.

I finally got everything packaged, sealed, declared and shipped off. What an ordeal! Seriously. I'm happy I'm done (almost). I got lucky and arrived at the post office when the line wasn't too bad. When I got up to the counter, the line behind me was really long. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish, so not that long and the cost? North of $ 200. It's the international shipping that is the expensive part. Bohoooooo......I could had gotten myself some nice boots or two relaxing facials for that money. But then again, it's Christmas and I can't help myself, I like giving. So this year Santa (me) had many people on the list. It's good that I had my little helper Chhaya by my side. I still have a few more gifts to wrap and deliver but that can wait until next week, on Christmas.



And here are the gifts that got delivered personally.



Speaking of gifts, while driving into town I heard the list of the most commonly asked for Christmas gifts by children 100 years ago. In order.....candy, nuts, rocking horse, doll, mittens or gloves, toy train, oranges,books, handkerchief and skates. Hmmmmm.......interesting.
I have included chocolate and toffee (candy), arm warmers and gloves, books and a couple of dolls in my Christmas presents this year. So some of the same things as 100 years ago.

I love yoghurt and I have found a new fave.....oh yum, I am addicted! It's called Liberte and it's the blackberry kind I like. Soooooo good, look for it if you like yoghurt, you will love it!
Other yoghurts that I approve of are FAGE with honey and Brown Cow. I used to eat Chobani 2% with pineapple but I think I will bojcott it due to that Chobani might be using milk from cows fed GMO feed.
But I have to go.....need to wash my hair, pick up Sharon and go to work.