I'll be returning to my blog next year as in January 1st! For now please stop by www.tackychristmasyards.com and visit my mail bag. You can find it on the menu on the left. It's kinda funny.

See you next year and next month!

Dear Readers,

You may not have heard a peep from me the past few days on my lovely website but I assure you I have not been quiet! I'm almost famous! The whole world has heard from me. Well, maybe through those 7 degrees of separation.

Most of you have read my Rules for Christmas blog entry and then you found out I launched www.tackychristmasyards.com. Following this, I was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and the story ran yesterday. Here are the links: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119810213850540481.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119809109658140043.html?mod=your_money_hidden_1_general_hs (later photos are mine)

The past few days Tacky Christmas has taken off and several on air appearances have been scheduled or fulfilled. Please be patient with me and my short hiatus. I will be back! For now, join in on the seasonal fun!

Joy,

Kat

Oh yeah, it's our Sunday show! Check it out by clicking on "podcast" on the menu.

Maybe I should have waited one more day before writing that post. A check that someone wrote to me for close to $500 has bounced! Then, I received news that another check for $400 is going to come late, probably AFTER Christmas. Seeing that it’s from the very same person who wrote me the rubbery check, I doubt that will even happen. There goes my insurance and car payment and HOA dues and groceries and the cable bill…

I try so hard to remain positive but it’s so hard sometimes! Especially when the day after I am positive, I get bit a little too hard. Since getting married and getting into business on our own, we've learned some hard lessons. Contracts mean nothing and expectations are rarely met (KC, you rock by the way! Congrats on your bandy award).

When I was younger, all I wanted was something that made a lot of noise; a keyboard, a puppy, a laser shooter gun that went “pew, pew, pew”, Girl Talk games, loud board games, a radio…..

The list goes on and on. Not much has changed. Now I would love to have a nice stereo in the house with built in speakers, satellite radio, mp3 players, a plasma television…. Again, the list goes on and on.

To my dad and mom, the worst toy was anything that made noise. It kind of became a game between the families; who could out noise the other person’s kids. Either way, it appeared that dad always lost. An hour into Christmas, he would leave the room and return with a bottle of Aspirin and a bathrobe sash tied around his head to help cure his headache. Sometimes we would receive a toy and the batteries mysteriously disappeared from the backs of the toy within a day. Around our house, the only things harder to find than candy were batteries.

The year that we all received our own stereos with a recording option, I am sure that my dad took an entire bottle of aspirin before we were done opening gifts. Or the year of the musical teddy bears from Uncle: mom took them away before New Years and stashed them in the pantry. I didn’t see the little white bear with a red stocking cap until I moved out 11 years later.

After spending many days with the windows open at my own home, I have come to agree with my father. The small ride in cars with the car sounds, the remote control vehicles, the singing anything and the children’s karaoke sets; the worst toys to give to children are ones that make noise. However, the best racket made during the whole experience of gift giving is the gleeful sound that the kids make while using the gift. Luckily, even the loudest toys can’t drown that out.