Yesterday I posted a glimpse of the good and bad during the  holiday season at the Police Dept.  Now I want to hear from you!  What were  your best holiday moments this year?  Was there a “worst”? 

Early on in the month something happened that disrupted our holiday plans and shook us up a bit.   I can’t be more specific, but it did affect me and still does.   Things are fine now, but this setback caused me to withdraw and not find my holiday spirit.  Until yesterday.  Reading what I wrote about putting others first being the true meaning of Christmas made me realize that I hadn’t been doing that this month.   At least not fully in my heart- it was just “surviving” to get past Christmas.  

I’m happy to say that even when something bad happens, I can usually find the good.  It may take a while,  but eventually I get it.  Throughout the month, I did have little moments with Keith that reminded me to be grateful for the essentials. Yesterday my post drove it home.  I am SO GRATEFUL we have our health.  That we have our home.  That we have our jobs.  That we have a relatively normal, drama-free family.  Grateful even for the ”clutter that’s driving me crazy” because I have clutter.  There are so many people right now with none of this and then have it even worse.    

So, because I missed out this year in making my own holiday spirit, tell me your happy holiday stories.  There’s still time before New Year’s to catch some.  And if you have an “ugly” holiday story, tell me that too!  We’ll cheer each other up!

Most blog posts this last week have been full of holiday cheer and good tidings.  And that is the way it should be!  We should all take this time to reflect on the good part of our lives and let those you love know you love them.  I hope everyone had a special Christmas- whether you were with your family, friends or co-workers, or your fur-babies.  We had a very nice day with both families after I got off work (I worked some OT on Christmas morning). 

The holidays can be a very stressful time of year for most of us.  For some people, who weren’t blessed with or raised with the coping skills most of us have to get along through adversity, this means the police become involved in matters big & small.  I thought I’d share some of the Good, Bad & Ugly with you.   These are all actual calls and we get these every year.  I’ll start with the Bad and end on the Good!

The BAD

  • The Dad who called Christmas Morning to get on the Toys 4 Tots list.  To get on the list for the free toys for your kids, you must call ahead.  But you can call as as late as the 20th of December and we can usually accomodate you.   It takes a lot of time to organize the donated toys- they have to be sorted by sex & age and we can begin filling orders for the individual families.  It also takes a lot of time to wrap the gifts (usually a police/fire department wrap party occurs- all on personal time).  The deliveries are on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning – where again, more PD/FD employees volunteer their time.  Calling on Christmas Morning is too late.  Being mad at us because you were too preoccupied with yourself to plan for your kids- double bad.
  • Delivering the toys to the families who cannot afford to purchase toys for their kids is usually a wonderful, enriching experience and many of our employees have their kids help.  It is somewhat suspicious when a delivery is made to the “wealthy” part of town and parked in the driveway of a large, perfectly manicured home are two newer model Mercedes. 

 

  • You may be wondering how this lovely Christmas card rates “BAD”?  My coworker found this on the front door when she came in from her break.  She handed it to me with an “Awwww,  look- someone left us a card!” and a shit eating grin… 

                                        

I opened it up and just laughed!  We cracked up so I was torn between listing this as a Good or a Bad.   It’s best to not take the nut-jobs personally.  And was he confusing the Parkland Officers shooting deaths to Pearl Harbour Day? Or did he really mean “Lakeport”?  We weren’t quite sure where he was going with that. 

Thanks Chris of the Holiday Card Terror Threat FAIL.

 The UGLY

  • Most of the worst human experiences during the holiday season has to do with SHOPPING.  You know this from news accounts of mass stampedes injuring/killing people over items such as the Playstation.  Seriously people?  Trisha (my coworker) and I deemed Monday December 7th ”Official Parking Lot Space Rage Day”.  We had at least 3  reports of fights over parking spaces on this day.   One in particular stands out.  We got a call from an elderly woman who was being harrassed at the local Costco.  Apparently she pulled into a handicapped parking space that another driver had intended to park in.  It forced that other driver to park 10 feet further from the door in the space next to the desired space.  The other driver began yelling vile obscenities at the woman, who was with her disabled husband and then loitered around her car waiting for her to get out.  She called 911  and stayed in the car with doors locked until we got there.  The Ugly One was a younger man with no visible disability… except  his defective humanity.  He also had to throw in the race card (“You took that spot because I am ____”.)  Whatever dude.

 and now for the GOOD:

  • Every year I organize a collection within the department for our custodian.  He works two jobs to support his family and this year his hours got cut to 4 nights a week from 7 nights a week.  We really can tell when he’s not there.  This year we were down 50% from our normal amount and I put out a last ditch email to garner up some more cashola.  One of the officers came up the next day and handed me a $100 bill.  He made my day.
  • The ladies of the Senior Center brought in a truckload of baked goods for our department- as did a handful of citizens.  Baked goods are always a day maker.
  • The woman who called to thank us for responding so fast to a noise complaint.  Every once in a while we’ll get a thank you call and it is very much appreciated.
  • This year we started a Food Drive in addition to the Toys 4 Tots- and while it took a little bit to take off, I have high hopes that we’ll win the friendly competition between county wide dispatch centers next year!  Full barrels of food are always a good thing!

I do think that more good things happen than bad during the Holidays.  While every year, the Bad & Ugly come to visit, I can only hope that the ones from this year take stock in themselves and try to do better.  Putting others before yourself is a sure way to do that.  That’s what the season is really all about.    Happy New Year!

Hello!

I hope  you’re having a wonderfully relaxing, fun filled Christmas Day!

Or having a wonderfully relaxing, fun filled Friday!

I have completed (just by the hair on my chinny chin chin) my 4×6 desktop 2010 photo calendars and thought I’d share.

And I’m sharing the digi files for the 2010 monthly calendar for free!  More information & download links on this post

You can see all the pages from the calendar in the gallery below.  Come back tomorrow for a Police Expose’ – The Good, the Bad & the Ugly Holiday Wrap Up!

I have been looking all over for a monthly calendar that I can use for my 4×6 Photo Calendars that I make as gifts every Christmas.  Funny thing is, I purchased This Cute Calendar last year and the designer wasn’t doing one for 2010.  There were others that she pointed me to in the store, and I did purchase one, but it’s not really clicking with me.  I decided to spend the time typing numbers and lining them up and seeing how it went.

I’m happy to tell you I like the results– so I’m sharing!  For FREE!  Here is January.  Isn’t that font DELISH!?!

 There are two versions available to download:  One is a  .PNG version- which is like an overlay with a transparent background and should work with any design program – including My Digital Studio (but i haven’t tried it yet!!) or an .ABR file – which is a Photoshop Brush (like a digital stamp).  If you follow the link, you will arrive at a site called 4Share – a free file sharing site (my first venture* into this arena as well).  You will be able to download a zip file of either or both sets.  

PLEASE let me know if you download- and if there are any issues with the download or the file itself.  Thanks!

Download .ABR link  -  how to install and use the .abr (photoshop brush) can be located at PhotoShopSupport.

Download .PNG link

I wanted to clarify- I have downloaded LOTS of free stuff from 4Share and never had a problem- this is my first UPLOAD to share with others.  If you’re worried about downloading from the interwebs, fear not.  Your normal firewall/virus protection should warn you if there was an issue.  And my stuff is clean! :D

ETA:  Details for my 4×6 desktop photo calendar.  The sunflower is a photo I took and applied a “watercolor” effect to in Photoshop Elements.  Parts of the layout came from this template, available at ScrapGirls.com.  I also made “May” a little larger by erasing the ”May” from my .abr stamp/brush  and adding a text layer with a bigger “May”.  Last year, I packaged the 12 photos (printed at Costco) in a 4×6 plastic case and gave a small frame to put the calendar in.  This year, just the replacement calendar pages!

Happy Holidays!!  Are you ready for Christmas?  I’m sooo not….

Some of you know that I follow a blog by an attorney/foodie living in Chicago who has a very adorable little dog called Little Filthy (stage name).  The dog is adorable and has a moose as a girlfriend!  As you can imagine, there are all kinds of shenanigans going on over at  www.randomesq.com.

But today there is a particular reason you need to know this, my dear, kind hearted, rubber lovin’ readers, and that is this:  A rubber stamp of Little Filthy has been created by one of RandomEsq’s readers and is available for sale- benefiting the American Cancer Society!   You can purchase your own “Adorable Pug with Attitude” stamp and do something good at the same time. Rubbermoon is where you can buy the stamp.  I purchased mine – now you should too.  It’s for a good cause!!! 

I will just have to hide it from MitzivonStrudel, as she will demand one be made of her…

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