It isn't the prettiest duck-cake of all time, but I like it!
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Holiday, Oooooh Holiday!
Considering the fact that I have been essentially celebrating Christmas since December 15, the actual day was quite smashing! Neen and I headed out of town on Christmas eve, late afternoon. We actually talked the entire way home, and we did not argue about anything (shocking, I know)!
We stopped by big bro’s apt to help him finish up his Christmas gift to our parents. Last weekend he asked my sister and I to make a 1-2 minute video message saying how appreciative and loved we felt. While I do love my parents very much and I am very appreciative of all they have given us over the years, I do not love the video camera. Thanks to the digital age, we are capable of taking 19 shots of the same photo opportunity until we are happy with what we get. A video is a running, streaming reminder of what I look like and how I sound, I am not a big fan of that. I put it off for as long as I could, and avoided my brother’s phone calls for a few days, to no avail. We ended up doing a collective video of the four us, the originals plus the newest Jenn C. It is entertainingly and delightfully flawed. We were all happy with it. “It” was a dvd collection of our greatest pictures from the wedding, the road trips and the get-togethers.
I was honestly touched by the generosity shown by mine and Ryan’s families. I am fortunate enough to get to celebrate Christmas with his family every year (amazingly smart to celebrate Christmas a bit early to get people together!). I brought home so much fun loot and this year, there isn’t one gift that I traded to my sister or tried to figure out how to return it quietly. My new candles/diffuser are already proudly on display, my new pj pants have been sported around the apartment on several occasions, I’ve watched my secret indulgence on dvd and put up my new calendar; I’ve even re-organized my closet based on my new hangers. The gifts I gave this year were quite a hit. My brother and I got each other the same thing, a gorilla pod. We both bragged to Neen about it, it’s fantastic features and flexibility and how neat the gift was. Then she called us both and spilled the secret.
After all the celebrating and gift giving, Neen and I headed home. And that’s where the fun stops. For years I have bragged about my ticket-free driving record. Well, there is a first time for everything. I got my first speeding ticket ever in my nearly 8 years of driving. Of course, it was given to me in Waldo (grumble grumble). I have driven that road countless times in the 6 years that I’ve lived in Gainesville and have always been careful of my speed in that horrible area. I have no excuses, the police officer was fair and not rude or awful. I was speeding (because I wasn’t paying attention) and I got a ticket, a very expensive mistake. I held it together, though with shaking hands, until I got home and everything hit me and the tears spilled out. I am currently going through a self-imposed financial punishment for the month of January. No more coffee/bagel treats at work, no OG this month, no Panera soup and salad and no new clothes this month. Ouch. My ticket will definitely be a lesson learned. The fun part is, I get to plead “no contest” in a hearing to see if the judge will have mercy on me and wipe away the bad... wish me luck and think of me at 2:30 on January 31.
Happy holidays!
We stopped by big bro’s apt to help him finish up his Christmas gift to our parents. Last weekend he asked my sister and I to make a 1-2 minute video message saying how appreciative and loved we felt. While I do love my parents very much and I am very appreciative of all they have given us over the years, I do not love the video camera. Thanks to the digital age, we are capable of taking 19 shots of the same photo opportunity until we are happy with what we get. A video is a running, streaming reminder of what I look like and how I sound, I am not a big fan of that. I put it off for as long as I could, and avoided my brother’s phone calls for a few days, to no avail. We ended up doing a collective video of the four us, the originals plus the newest Jenn C. It is entertainingly and delightfully flawed. We were all happy with it. “It” was a dvd collection of our greatest pictures from the wedding, the road trips and the get-togethers.
I was honestly touched by the generosity shown by mine and Ryan’s families. I am fortunate enough to get to celebrate Christmas with his family every year (amazingly smart to celebrate Christmas a bit early to get people together!). I brought home so much fun loot and this year, there isn’t one gift that I traded to my sister or tried to figure out how to return it quietly. My new candles/diffuser are already proudly on display, my new pj pants have been sported around the apartment on several occasions, I’ve watched my secret indulgence on dvd and put up my new calendar; I’ve even re-organized my closet based on my new hangers. The gifts I gave this year were quite a hit. My brother and I got each other the same thing, a gorilla pod. We both bragged to Neen about it, it’s fantastic features and flexibility and how neat the gift was. Then she called us both and spilled the secret.
After all the celebrating and gift giving, Neen and I headed home. And that’s where the fun stops. For years I have bragged about my ticket-free driving record. Well, there is a first time for everything. I got my first speeding ticket ever in my nearly 8 years of driving. Of course, it was given to me in Waldo (grumble grumble). I have driven that road countless times in the 6 years that I’ve lived in Gainesville and have always been careful of my speed in that horrible area. I have no excuses, the police officer was fair and not rude or awful. I was speeding (because I wasn’t paying attention) and I got a ticket, a very expensive mistake. I held it together, though with shaking hands, until I got home and everything hit me and the tears spilled out. I am currently going through a self-imposed financial punishment for the month of January. No more coffee/bagel treats at work, no OG this month, no Panera soup and salad and no new clothes this month. Ouch. My ticket will definitely be a lesson learned. The fun part is, I get to plead “no contest” in a hearing to see if the judge will have mercy on me and wipe away the bad... wish me luck and think of me at 2:30 on January 31.
Happy holidays!
Saturday, October 27, 2007
holidays, oh holidays
It is officially "that time of year". The weather is finally taking a turn for the cold. The unbearable heat and humidity are letting up and we can have the windows open. We turn our clocks back an hour next weekend. Thanksgiving is one month away, Christmas is 2. Hands down, Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. It's a 360 holiday. When it comes to Christmas, I am in all-out mode. I decorate the apartment and the tree the best that I possibly can. This year I am particularly excited because last year I raided the sale racks and bought all of my favorite holiday classics. There are many benefits to this because my wrapping paper is different from this year's picks. No one really remembers what wrapping paper looked like last year. The best part of Christmas, aside from the obvious birthday, is the gifts. I actually hate trying to think of what I want from anyone because I am so excited about picking stuff out for my family and friends. I could care less about receiving gifts, but giving gifts is very special. I love love love! wrapping presents. I love bows, ribbons, tissue paper, everything. It takes me about 2 months to figure out the right gift for each person. Nina and I go shopping every black Thursday. We plan who we're buying for, where we're going and in what order we go. By the end of the day, we've knocked out about 75% of the gifts we have to buy at discounted prices. Then we also have stories to tell about how we got up at 5:00am, how we fought to get it and stood in line forever to buy just the right gift.
My second favorite thing is the the treeeeeee. Since Ryan and I live in an apartment, we can't really buy a real tree. It is too messy, it's a fire hazard and hard to dispose. For our 2nd and 3rd Christmas' together, Ryan and I had a 2 or 3 foot tall tree from his sister. We covered it in little mini ornaments and little mini lights. It was on top of a little end table with an enormous pile of presents stacked all around. We are blessed to have large families full of parents, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, aunts uncles, grandparents and friends. This means we get to put gift after gift under the tree and it is just lovely.
I am very excited about Christmas this year. The tough thing is celebrating between my family and Ryan's family. He and I play a sort of Hannukah style Christmas. I am a big fan of buying Ryan lots and lots of presents, though I am awful at keeping secrets and executing surprises. So to help me not go crazy, he lets us open presents throughout the week before Christmas. He endures lots and lots of pictures for me and I give him lots of presents. It's a good working relationship.
So. Here we are about a month before black Thursday and 2 months before Christmas. I am very excited. Christmas here we come!
And lastly, here's a shot of our mini tree from last year:
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