Holidays never last long enough, until we're sick of them

Its been a good holiday. We've seen some loved ones from afar, received and given some lovely gifts, gone to the Nutcracker, attended Christmas Eve service at a Catholic church (which non-Catholics that we are, we actually enjoyed!), donated blood and goods, and eaten too much rich, wonderful food!

We had a few hiccups, my recurring hacking cough and migraine and our car accident...but I'll get better and the car is in the shop, so things are looking up. I'm back to work on the 2nd, so I'm trying to enjoy these remaining 2 days. I know there are a million things around here I need to be taking care of, and I'll kick myself for not doing it while I had time, but this cold is befuddling all my well-laid plans.

It's certainly been an interesting year, which I won't go into detail here - my punishment for not blogging when it happened. Really, life just happened. And we're still here to show for it.

Here's to more blogs in 2008, and many exciting changes for our family and friends. And if my head hurt less right now...I'd write more on that topic.

Happy Happy to All!

Tiny things that make noise

Lots and lots of noise. A Barbie that sings - heaven help us. WAY too many noise ornaments that get taken off the tree and played with. A calculating cash register - cha-ching! Button-pushing madness for an otherwise adorable 3yr-old. Simply too many opportunities.

For once, I can't wait to take the tree down. Between the noise and the small section of blinking lights that should NOT be blinking, the plastic wonder-tree is driving me nuts.

**Side-note on the wonder-tree. It is named for the fact that its a wonder I put it up.
I hate plastic trees. Its plastic.
I hate multi-colored lights. Guess what it has.
I hate putting the thing together. I do it every year.
I bought it two years ago, after Christmas. A lovely 7 ftr with white lights. The box said so. The photo said so. The people at the store guaranteed it (verbally). Opened it the year after. Rainbow lights. Oh, how I hate it.

A Cynic's Christmas Tale

You prepare and plan and wrap, and plan, and clean, and plan. Before you know it, the holiday has come and gone. We stayed home this year. It was mostly lovely, really, especially since the weather has been mildly icy/snowy. And on that note...

We were on our way to the Nutcracker 2 Saturdays ago. It had snowed and was a little slick, but we're carful drivers and I've had tickets since the first day they sold them to the general public - Oct. 22. There was no way we were going to miss it...or so I thought.

On our way, we were in the right lane of a 4 lane street. To the left of us (left lane), a small white/gray car began fishtailing...next thing we knew, she was in OUR lane, and too close for us to avoid her. My dear Chee was driving, and he did his damndest to not hit her straight on, sucessfully avoiding a 9 foot concrete and metal barrier near the sidewalk, which could have seriously damaged the truck AND my face as the airbog would have most certainly gone off.

Since she was in our lane, her rear right tail hit my front left fender, bashing it in completely, then proceeding to gouge its way all along the right side of my vehicle. It smashed the driver's door handle in, and basically fucked up four panels of my SantaFe. The worst part for me was that my sweet Twinkers was in the car, too.

In our state, if there are no witnesses, no one gets ticketed. No one was badly injured (my back is a mess, I've been to the dr.), and both vehicles were driveable, so we were told by a passing cop to head to the nearest police station to give a statement. Chee did so, and the other driver did not say anything about his statement being incorrect. Needless to say, we missed the Nutcracker.

2 days later, her insurance agency called (Progressive, those little weasels) and she had completely LIED HER ASS OFF. NOW, she says she started out in the right lane, which is a huge load of horseshit. So now, instead of her insurance paying for our damage, which is completely her fault, we're paying our deductible, plus any overage on a rental.

It could have been such a worse accident -- and I'm grateful that we weren't hurt. And we were able to get seats at the Nutcracker using the same tickets. But really, I just wanted to tell that lying so and so -- for God's sake, it's Christmas. Can't you tell the truth now?? But considering our house was broken into on Dec. 23rd a few years back, I guess I can't hope for good feelings around the holiday. Everyone is just out for themselves.

And this said by someone who donated blood this morning, across from a 76 yr-old nun! I hate feeling this cynical.

Tardy Christmas Cards

I had decided to not send any this year. But guilt prevails. I'm sending a very few, to people who:
A. sent us one
B. are family I haven't heard from and miss terribly

I am; however, avoiding sending cards to people who sent me photo cards. I just can't compete with that this year. It's my overachiever syndrome - if you can't play, stay off the court.

So if you received a card from me and are reading this to see the christmas program video...go back a few days (i.e. scroll down).

Merry Dec. 21st.

Party at work for the kids

How fun this was! Building Gingerbread Houses, watching Christmas movies, food and laughter. I'm so lucky to work where this is important stuff.

Lovely.

My Favorite Christmas Singers

Enjoy, PS4 parents!

Sorry for the shake (and the head that keeps getting in the way). The sound is not as good as it was straight from the camera...but you can get the gist.


PS4



The whole group!