Month: December 2001

Too lazy to blog…
It’s not that I haven’t had anything to say lately – I’ve just been too lazy to blog. Christmas was good, although busy – this year I really intended to simplify, but it somehow ended up more complicated and stressful than usual. Now I’m getting my house ready for the new year. It just feels better to start a new year with a clean house and all the laundry done.

Snowmen
Not that I’m anywhere near the Martha Stewart-level that Jenny has acheived, but I did make a fair number of the gifts I gave out this year. My favorites are the little wooden snowmen. (I’m pretty sure everyone – or at least those that read this – have gotten theirs, if not *don’t look!*)

As you can see, they looked like a little army, all waiting to do my bidding…which was to become nifty little gifts for all my friends! The carrot noses were the best part. To cure them, I had to bake them in the oven, so I had all these little carrot noses sitting on a cookie sheet. Now I just have a few more gifts left to finish (yes, I know, Christmas is only 4 days away) and then I can relax. Ahhh.

Talk to the Monkey!
Tony got me a monkey bobblehead doll for Christmas! It’s definitely the most bizarre gift I’ve gotten (maybe ever!) for Christmas… Now when people want stuff from me, they’ll have to go through the monkey first. :D

Of course, I got so many cool things from my friends this year, I don’t even know where to begin! Jenny made everything – the gifts, the paper, the tags – and my favorite part is the set of shrinky-dink EAT team members. (I’m easy to pick out, since I’m the red-head.) I got neat Harry Potter stuff and lotion from Abby, Tina gave me a Star Wars calendar, and Jo’s blueberry scented lipgloss and lotion smell so good I can’t wait for blueberry season again! I hope I didn’t miss anybody – if I did, it’s only because I’m on a sugar-high from all the cookies and rice krispy treats… Once again, I can only say that I have fantastic friends! I love you guys!

Wow. That was a great movie! It didn’t even matter that I hadn’t finished reading it, although that made some of the more suspensful parts in the second half a little harder to handle – I think I jumped three feet when…well, I won’t give anything away in case someone reading this hasn’t read the book or seen the movie. I’d go see it again. Just maybe not on a weeknight – I can barely keep my eyes open this morning.

Lord of the Rings
Ok, so between helping my grandparents with their tree, wrapping gifts, and finishing the Christmas cards, I didn’t get a chance to finish reading Lord of the Rings last night. Oh, well. We’re going to see it tonight instead of going to Sonnenberg gardens – Lisa and I decided that the lights would wait a week! I guess I’m just going to have to wait and see what happens after they leave the council. It’s actually kind of better this way, because we’re going to an 8 pm show, so we should be just about at the part I got to right around the time I’d normally get sleepy (it is, after all, an almost 3-hour-long movie). Hopefully, it will be less of a disappointment than Harry Potter was. Not that it was a bad movie – it just wasn’t as good as it could have been…

Holiday Travels
Whew! What a crazy weekend! We headed down to NYC to visit Denis’ family. We got to play with our three nieces, and we only got a little ribbing about when we’re going to have kids – actually less than expected since I played with one or another of the girls pretty much the whole time…after all, I only see them around once every three months, so I have to spend lots of time with them so they remember me the next time I see them! It was one family gathering after another, but in between I managed to get most of our Christmas cards done. Yay! It also probably wasn’t the best week to go back on weight watchers, but I managed to do ok anyway.

Denis’ sister gave us one of those Nomo quad-cam cameras – which is pretty cool considering I was planning on ordering one for myself and it turned out to be back-ordered! I’m going to see if I can catch Molly wagging her tail – I think that would be kind of cute.

I have such wonderful friends and family. I had a fantastic birthday yesterday! I went to my favorite restaurant, went for coffee and had a mocha which kept me really wired until about midnight, and got really neat gifts from everyone. Oh, and my mom and dad sent me pretty flowers at work, with talking snapdragons. I’m with Lisa – I think snapdragons are just about the coolest flower. Thanks, everyone!

A lovely night
Last night Lisa and I did the girls’ night out thing – we went shopping and got our nails done. Then we met the guys at Richardson’s Canal House. Mmmm. The food was excellent, everyone was all dressed up, and all-in-all it was a wonderful evening. Thanks, Lisa!

The only thing worse than having a dentist appointment first thing in the morning is having a dentist appointment, then having to go to the DMV first thing in the morning. Yuck!

Busy Weekend…
…as usual! Almost all the Christmas shopping is done – I still have a couple things I want to get for Denis, and I’m making a bunch of things which are all in states of being half-done… Seeing as it’s only the 10th, I’m still fairly sure I’ll get everything done in time, though. Probably. :) Of course, I bought all my Christmas cards before Thanksgiving, with the intention of spending that long weekend writing out cards and planting bulbs, right? So far, I’ve planted two dozen bulbs and the boxes of cards aren’t even open yet… Phooey. I wonder how late you can plant bulbs, anyway?

I had my very first (and probably last) Tupperware party last night. It’s not that it wasn’t fun, and I did get a lot of free stuff, but somehow I feel guilty inviting people over, making them listen to some boring stuff, and expecting them to get their wallets out afterwards. It’s a great excuse for a party, but I think next time I’ll just have the party and skip the Tupperware. Amazingly enough, aside from a little post-party cleanup that I was too tired to do last night, my house is sparkling – another side benefit of having people over.