Ringin' In The New Year In My Pajamas

I got invited to a New Year's Eve party. Great...I love to party. And I'm going to like this party even more because he'll be there. Then my friend calls me to tell me that the party has been changed to a pajama party.

Just great.

First of all, C has seen me in my pajamas so that's no big deal. Unfortunately these are mostly her friends and I don't know them as well as I know her...bottom line...I'm not comfortable showing up in my current sets of pajamas. Second of all, yes I wear pajamas. Just those comfortable kinds that aren't always appropriate for wearing out in public...the mixed variety kind of public. Third of all, did I mention that he'll be there and I'd like to make a good impression.

So, tonight after supper I'm off to buy some trampy pajamas. Okay not trampy as in I'm trying to spotlight my bedtime activities, but trampy as in hey-she-looks-hot-in-her-pjs kind of way. (Umm I feel that I should clarify that my bedtime activities only include things like washing my face, putting on hand lotion, and snuggling up to my body pillow.)

I wonder if flannel bottoms are trampy enough?

Deck The Halls (With PICTURES...Finally)

This is a picture of my baby, Sophie. She's been through numerous Christmas trees so I just posted this one of her in her sweater! Doesn't she just scream Merry Christmas?!

Anyway, I only posted my favorites. I hope that you enjoy them too. And I just have to toot my own horn...I figured out how to do this without having to bother fellow blogger Hick!!!

To see the pictures go to:
Deck The Halls Part I
Deck The Halls Part II
Merry Christmas

I'm slowly recovering from the holidays so I consider this a great start. At least those few that were asking about my pictures can see what I kept going on about.

I hope that everyone enjoys the last few days of 2005 and is looking forward to all that 2006 holds!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Oh it's nice to be back home...though it won't be for long. We're leaving for my grandparents this afternoon after I get off work.

I had a fantastic time in New York (well with the exception of the transit strike) and I will be posting probably more details than anyone will want to read shortly. Also, I figured out how to add pictures!!! I'll catch up with everything.

Anyway, I wanted to wish everyone that stops by this little spot of blogland a very Merry Christmas!!!!

Live From DFW

Haha....who said the internet wasn't everywhere? We have about 25 minutes until take off! I am so ready for vacation!!!!

Tis The Season For Busyness

I have a confession...I shouldn't be blogging...I should be working on the million and one other things that are on my list of things to get done today. But I believe that blogging is kind of therapeutic so I'll continue.

The Christmas season (well it actually starts right after Thanksgiving) brings many wonderful things, but it also brings an incredible flurry of busyness. I think that this year has been the worst one I've had (in terms of being busy) in many years. My friend S was saying that she was having a hard time getting into the Christmas Spirit. Well, it also works the other way too. Sometimes I find myself just wishing the entire season was over so that things would settle down and return to normal.

My December started out with parties planned (a record setting 7 parties in two weeks) for every day it seemed. Don't get me wrong...once I was there with the required pot luck dish or snack item and wrapped present it was great. It was just getting everything ready. Yesterday I had a delightful time with my friend B. We went out to dinner to catch up and enjoy the Christmas season. And her new sports car inspired a little trip down memory lane for me too. Oh the joys of driving a standard. The world goes fuzzy as I remember back to my first major car accident where I totaled my first car. Then my aunt graciously let me use her old car...her old standard car. Now I can laugh about the stalling, flooding the engine, peeling out. Then it wasn't so funny, but I eventually learned how to control the clutch and get everything to go at the same time. Like I told B, I think I'm a better person for learning how to drive a standard. And it also made me appreciate my automatic too. Fuzzy as we return to the here and now. I have a party tonight and also I need to wrap gifts, work on a packing list, balance my checkbook, those kind of things. Oh the joys of a packed December.

I'm sure there are probably only a handful of people (and they probably only care a smidgen) out there that might miss my posts or my comments on their blogs, but blogging will have to be regulated to the back burner for the next few weeks. I think I'm already having withdrawal symptoms. I must get ready for my New York trip. I must wrap presents. I must finish shopping for presents to wrap. I must pack. I must attend my final Christmas party of the season. So for those of you out there that I might not get a chance to write to again before Christmas I hope that you have a great Christmas and enjoy all the delights of the season!

Is anyone else still behind on buy Christmas presents? Has anyone else saved wrapping until the very last minute? Was anyone else crazy enough to plan a major trip for five days before Christmas? There should be professional help available for people like me!

Here's A Freebie!

Tonight for dinner we had Taco Bell. Now normally I'd prefer to have Taco Bueno, but The Bell is constantly redeemed by their taco sauce packets. Has anyone noticed that they now put little sayings on their taco sauce packets?

Well they do and it is darned entertaining!

Here were a few of my favorites from tonight:

Nice palm. I see a lot of pleasure in your future.
Bike wheels scare me!
My sauce is on the A honor roll at Taco Meal School.
You can say it. I love you too.

So for my $0.49 taco I get a meal and a smile....what a deal!

Bath Time Brrrrrs

I firmly believe in the importance of being clean. I bathe on a regular and frequent basis. I have all of the showertime goodies a girl can be expected to have sitting on the tub. I have two kinds of shampoo, a conditioner for regular hair days and then an extra one for the days when my hair feels a little frizzed. There are various bottles and scents of body wash and, of course, a well loved loofa sponge and bath puff.

I enjoy shower time too. I got made fun of a lot when I was a freshman living in the dorms. I had a three tiered shower cart that I'd roll down to the bathroom each time I went to shower. It held most of the above mentioned items along with my bath robe and shower shoes...a necessity when you shower with 35 other girls. Okay not shower with but use the same shower as 35 other girls. I have to make the clarification because some of you have minds that need to borrow some of the above mentioned soap.

Anyway, I heard it all, but I'm not apologizing for enjoying my shower. Just this past summer I was regulated to the-last-one-to-shower status because they said I took too long on a camping trip. I think it can safely be assumed that you get the point that I enjoy the shower.

Well, lately I dread stepping into the shower. Okay so it's not the shower so much as the cold that seems to be hovering over the shower. Haven't you ever noticed that the shower floor is so cold and no matter how hot you set the water that when you first step in it's freezing cold? And just about the time that you've really started to move around enough to get warm you have to open the curtain and step back out? Winter really makes showering the pits.

I've developed a plan that hasn't seemed to cause too much of a rift in the family. Thank goodness that I'm an only child as I'm sure if I were sharing a bathroom this might not always work. We have a heater thingy that is in the ceiling so I turn that on when I first get up (or about five minutes before I'm ready to get in there) and shut the bathroom door so the heat doesn't escape. Sometimes this can cause trouble as others think that I'm in there when I'm really not. Oh well. I also let the water run for a few minutes so the bottom of the tub is not like a block of ice when I step in.

Other than showering in my bathrobe this seems to work...kinda. Thankfully Winter doesn't last too long down here in Texas.

Deck The Halls (Part II)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. At least the boxes are gone! This morning the head elf was in a happy mood so I grabbed some spare minutes and snapped a few pictures to post. Yes, I know...shock...I'm going to attempt something technical. The pictures are currently still on the digital, but I promise they will be coming shortly. The pictures are mostly of things on the good list from Part I.

This Christmas is Dexter's (kitten that will now find his name on Santa's naughty list under tree distroyer) first Christmas. Tuesday (when the tree actually got decorated) Dexter was napping on my bed during the morning. When he came into the living room in the afternoon he started to walk past the tree and then stopped and stared. I could just picture the little wheels in his mind...wow...that's the biggest toy I've ever seen! Those of you with pets (especially of the kitty variety) proably know what I'm fixing to share.

At first it was funny to see him look at all the low hanging ornaments and gently tap them with his paw. When he discovered that they wouldn't bite back he started to play a little more rough. (Side Note: each year my parents and I each get a new ornament for the tree. We have a fully loaded tree.) Apparently the Christmas tree is just too much of a temptation for the little guy. First it was the ornaments. Then it was the pom poms on the tree skirt. Finally it was the lights. And here we come to the main part of this little tale.

The pictures that you'll get to see will be special ones because the entire tree is lit up. Tonight while we were at church Dexter had free access to the Christmas tree...our fault. We came in and the first thing we do is plug in the tree. That's when I noticed that only the bottom half...no the bottom fourth...wait...the bottom row of branches were the only ones lit up. What the heck? That's when we discovered that a string of lights had been chewed in two. Yep folks, Dexter just broke the Christmas tree. Tomorrow my dad said he'd go about trying to wire them back together but you know how impossible a task like that will be. I'm afraid that our tree may not recover from Dex's first Christmas.

Anyway, check back for the final installment of the Deck The Halls mini series where the pictures will be up!

Deck The Halls (Part I)

The following account is what happens at my home every December...well except for the last five years when I was blissfully away at college.

First, I should mention that I love the holiday season! I love turning out all the living room lights and just looking at the Christmas tree all lit up. I like seeing holiday decorations in every room of the house. I love the glittery gaudy ornaments and I cherish the old porcelain nativity that sits in the hallway. I love Christmas.

I hate putting the decorations up. Saturday while I was at work, yes...it was on purpose, my dad got all the Christmas boxes drug in from the store room in the backyard. Just to let you get the whole picture...there were 20, twenty, 2-0 boxes of stuff to be gone through. The last few years my parents only put up the bare minimum since I was away at school and only home for a few weeks. Anyway, this morning my mom and I got started bright and early. Well, to be exact...she went through the boxes and I did the leg work. We have a lot of stuff...too much stuff. Thankfully, my aunt was over today so my mom pawned off three boxes of stuff to her and me. Basically today we just opened all the boxes and made piles of things around the living room. There is a basket pile, a snowman pile, an ornament pile...well you get the picture.

Tomorrow we will once again hit the decorating trail. Hopefully, it will much less time consuming since we boxed up normal decorations and there are a lot of blank spaces within the house. At least that's my prayer. You guys know how much I love lists so here is a run down of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good
1. The porcelain nativity - this has been around ever since I can remember. My dad's sister sent this to my parents many years ago. For a long time, it was set up in the living room. For the last few years, we've been putting it in the hallway. It's simple and fairly plain, but for me that makes it even more meaningful as it represents the cornerstone of my faith.
2. The Christmas tree - we've had a Charlie Brown tree the last few years. My mom bought it because my dad said he couldn't find our huge almost-touch-the-ceiling tree. It's tiny and just a little bit shorter than I am. This year we have the huge tree out! Right now it only has the lights on it, but the ornaments are coming.
3. The advent calendar - every year there is some sort of an advent calendar out. When I was little it was one that had been made from fabric with little pockets. There was a mouse as the counter. And in the pockets my parents had always placed small little gifts (usually candy or quarters...I'm an only child and make no bones about being a little spoiled, but a good spoiled and not the snotty kind of spoiled...can anyone tell I have a slight complex?). Counting down to Christmas Eve was and still is one of my favorite traditions.

The Bad
1. THESE DANG BOXES!
2. Tommy: The Talking Snowman - my mom loves snowmen. She'll pretty much buy anything that resembles a snowman if it's cute. She fell in love with Tommy the talking snowman. He's about 3 feet tall and has a little motion sensor in his hat. Every time anyone walks by they set him off. He has about four different sayings and it's in that saccharine sweet little boy voice. It's annoying as heck and after the second round of Tommy talking I put him in the corner so he couldn't sense any motion. I hate that dumb snowman.
3. DID I MENTION ALL THESE STUPID BOXES?!!

The Ugly
1. Elf figurines - my mom has this set of three elves that are ugly and kinda creepy too. She normally sets them in the bathroom. I'm telling you that ugly, creepy elf figurines are not what you want to see during a midnight trip to the bathroom. Thankfully, they are part of what is not going to be put out this Christmas!
2. The boxes...it looks like Santa barfed all over the living room, the dining room, the hallways, well basically the whole house.

Look for at least one more update on decking the halls. All this work, at least until it's completely finished, just makes me want to shout Merry frickin' Christmas.

I Want Nuts

This afternoon I found myself in a serious quandary. I was running a little behind and only had about 20 minutes to get to work. Here comes the quandary...I hadn't eaten since breakfast and I was pretty hungry. I had run into Hobby Lobby to pick up some stickers and as I was waiting in the line to check out I noticed these bags of nuts. I love nuts (now all you dirty minded individuals need a mental bath) so I was trying to decided between the chocolate covered peanut clusters or the chocolate covered raisins. I was a winner either way as chocolate was involved.

Anyway, just as I was about to wrap my fingers around a package of chocolate covered peanuts, the checker (who was pretty impatient by the way) said "Can I help you ma'am?" I looked up and just grabbed the nuts and put them with the rest of my purchases. Things moved quickly after that...she was in a hurry and I was in a hurry.

I got back to my car and started to pull out of the parking lot and figured that I'd open the nuts and munch on a few before I got to work. I reached into the sack and pulled out the bag of nuts. Now you know how most things have a little slit near the corner of the bag. Well mine was sans slit. So, as I'm navigating traffic (please refer to I'm That Driver) I begin to try to get into my nuts. The darned plastic stuff wouldn't give at all. So here I am, trying to open this stupid package of nuts, and I'm driving all over my own lane.

Finally, I give it a go with my teeth. Just a tip...it's not smart to drive and practically cover your eyes with peanut packaging while you're driving. By this time I'm just wanting my nuts!!! So finally I get it where I can use both hands and try to pull the bag open. It took a lot of might, but never underestimate the power of hunger. Now, I want you to be able to picture this. I'm in the car. I'm trying to steer with my wrists as I rip open this bag of peanuts. I'm using a lot of force. Can you see what happened in your mind?

Yep, I pulled a little too hard and chocolate peanuts went flying all over me and my car. The bag was split almost down the middle and the precious little peanuts were now rolling down my shirt and between my legs. Hey, I'm a clean person and they were only down there for a minute...quit judging me.

Anyway, I grabbed one of the escapees and popped it into my mouth. I bit down and got the shock of my life...okay not my life but I've just had an experience with these nuts. It was not a nut after all. It was some chewy something or other. ICK. I soon discovered that it was caramel...I don't do caramel. A red light gave me plenty of time to look at the now nearly destroyed package of what I thought was nuts. It was bridge mix. That's a mixture of chocolate covered nuts, fruit, caramels, and filled centers.

I was a little disappointed...I only found about four actual chocolate covered nuts. Perhaps the rest are rolling around in the floor board. Anyway, the moral of this story is to take your time when picking out nuts. Hey, this is advice that works in a variety of situations!