For those of you who have yet to experience menopause, let me be the first to tell you “MENOPAUSE SUCKS!!!”

As if I weren’t burning enough calories as it was, now that the ovaries have just about sputtered out that’s an additional 400-600 calories that my body has packed on. It seems like you go to bed one night and wake up the next morning with no waist line and your so hot you can feel the heat radiating off your body.

Well, I could go on and on and on……. but, I think you get my drift. I am frantically searching the internet trying to find some way to deal with all the Sh@@ related to menopause. We’ll see what I find.

Hmmm….. still trying to figure out what I’m going to do for Christmas in the way of shopping. Wal-Mart has gotten old (long ago), there is only one mall and it’s very limited. Seems everywhere you go to shop, it is sooo crowded. Some things never change regardless of where you live.

Our hotel is getting ready for the Christmas rush. The lobby is now decorated and looks very nice. I learned my first hula. It wasn’t too hard, just takes lots of practice. I have to thank the ladies in my office for the “x-tra” lessons and advice. We have prepared the “White Christmas” hula and “It’s Christmas at Ka’anapali Beach Hotel” hula. I had to do my first performance during our “Ohana Welcome Breakfast” Friday morning and a second performance during our Friday lobby singing. Both went well. One of the ladies in our office used to be a kumu in hula. Basically that means she used to teach hula. She is very well versed in the dance. After Friday morning, she told me I did a good job. I felt better after her kind words.

I had Thanksgiving Day off, but had to work Wednesday and Friday. It was calm, relaxing day. I had dinner with my neighbors in the big house. I went for a drive late afternoon. People already had their Christmas decorations up.

People decorate like crazy here. I guess you have to in order to get into the Christmas spirit. Since the weather doesn’t change much, you have to do something to get yourself into the Christmas spirit.

No matter where a person lives in the U. S., there is always a “Griswold” house on the block. Sure enough, there is one on our block. I don’t think there is an inch of the house that is not lit up. All the palm trees in their yard have lights on them. To top it all off, they have those blow-up yard decorations on each and every lanai as well as in the yard. Too funny. I’ll try to take a picture and put in my galley.