so.pretty.

For christmas, I wanted gift certificates to sephora so I could get all new makeup. I got some, and yesterday was the big day! I brought *ja* for support (plus she wanted to get some application tips) and got set up with ayana at the chestnut hill store. This girl was great! She sat me down and ran around the store grabbing things she thought would look good on me. Then the makeover began. I thought I knew how to apply eyeshadow and liner, but it turns out I was doing it all wrong. The same goes for foundation, and lip stuff. I was excited to end up with the spray foundation that carmindy used on "what not to wear." The coverage is great, and makes everything nice and even. In the end, I had an entire new stash of makeup and brushes, and even with the large sum of gift certificates, was still out $100. All I have to say is thank god (and all of you who got them for me) for gift certificates. There's no way I'd pay $324 for makeup if it was all out of my own pocket. Here's the finished product (many hours and glasses of wine later!)

old.friend

I'm excited about tonight. I'm meeting up with *ja* and one of our favorite high school friends *ba* whom we haven't seen in probably seven years. He lives in western massachusetts now, but is back in acton through new year's. I'm not quite sure how we fell out of touch, but at least we're working it out now. We all thought he'd be at the ten year reunion, but he couldn't make it, and that's when we started trying to catch up again. We'll see how it goes.

home.movie.

My dad made us one of the best christmas presents ever; he took two years worth of vhs video taped home movies, converted them to dvd, and edited them into a hilariously funny and wonderful movie. It starts on the day my sister came home from the hospital with my mom, and covers birthdays, piano "recitals", school visits, my littlest brother's arrival, funny faces/horse rides/eyebrows, and a walk through of our old house (something we all thought had been accidentally taped over long ago). Not only was it great to relive memories that had faded long ago, but it was wonderful to have video of my grandmother who died two years ago. She was the first person I knew who died, and it was much harder than I could have imagined. Being able to hear her voice and see her again was priceless.
I'll leave you with a picture of my 7 year old self making the scariest face I have ever seen. I literally took a picture of the television, thus the lines and grainy quality.

happy.birthday.j

Today's *j's* birthday. She's twenty-two. Happy birthday! We went bowling again. Two times in less than twenty-four hours. I think it's a record. I was hanging with the girls, with nothing to do, and I was still so excited about bowling last night that I suggested we go today. They were game, so we called my siblings, and they were up for it too. We played candlepin since the girls wouldn't be able to handle the heavy balls. For some reason, I'd always believed that candlepin was easier. Sure, the balls are tiny and pins narrow, and this combination makes it tricky to knock anything down, but you get three balls, and the knocked down pins stay in the cage area to be used as spinning helpers. Turns out I was wrong. Seriously wrong. We had the bumpers up in my lane since I bowled with the three girls, and while I bumped off of them several times, I still lost to the six year old. Embarrassing. I'm now a believer in the "big ball" bowling.

holy.s**t.

We had a great family night tonight. First we drove to a hole-in-the-wall pasta place in malden that was delicious. Then we went bowling at lanes and games in cambridge. I love bowling. Normally, we do some sort of family night as part of our christmas present, but it's always been dinner and a show in boston. That's great, but bowling is much more interactive. We decided on the big-ball bowling (10 pin), got two lanes next to each other, and split into a group of three, and a group of four. I was on a team with my dad and *j*. Everyone did much better than expected. We had a bunch of totals over 100. The big surprise was *b* in the last game. He got four strikes in a row, for a total of 162. Even he was surprised, and texted friends back in austin right away. I was impressed.

new.years

What's everyone doing for new year's? I think I want to go into boston this year. I hadn't been to fanueil hall in a long time, but went to a bar there for my reunion, and had a blast. I'm thinking north end for dinner/drinks, and then a bar afterwards? Not sure yet, but let me know if you're interested.

snip.snip.

I cut my sister's hair today. She started out doing it herself, but cut it shorter than she wanted. I was brought in to make it even all the way around, which I did a decent job at. Then she put layers in to spice things up a little. I walked into the bathroom while she was doing this, and it was pretty amusing. She wasn't pulling pieces out like I would have, but just moving the scissors back and forth around her head while snipping. She did it this way before when she got a bad haircut (no layers, just straight across at the shoulders) and she was happy. Quite frankly, I'm amazed that it turns out as well as it does. It almost makes me question the large sum of money I pay my guy. Almost. Not quite.

our.day.out

Here's a picture of the four of us (*b*, *j*, *k*, me) on the world's smallest suspension bridge in the public gardens. We took it yesterday with my camera and little tripod on our day in boston. We all like it, although *j* thinks her eyes are closed. I told her that they aren't closed, just narrow, and that's what they usually look like in pictures. I asked her if she even knew what she looked like. She said that people like themselves in the mirror better than in photos.

happy.happy.

Happy christmas everyone! Today was great in our house. Everyone got along, dinner went well, and we even squeezed in a few games of mad gab, a game I like a lot more with six or more people. Our youngest brother's girlfriend *js* came for the day. He's been dating her longer than any other girlfriend he's had so far (in his twenty years), and apparently is the only one our sister likes. (She's very protective of our baby brother.) Since *b* and I no longer live at home, nor visit regularly during the summer or college vacation weeks, we'd yet to meet her, although the pure fact that she had never been camping before, but asked to go, made me sure she'd be great (which she is). Along with *js*, our cousins *kk* and *ek* came, so we had a group of seven youngsters total. We played games in the family room while the grown-ups chatted in the living room.*b* also brought his wii which he picked up from target. Apparently he got there at 4:15am. Insane. It was pretty neat though- using the controls for bowling, boxing, baseball, tennis and golf was fun. We seem to be in a pattern of *b* exposing us to new video games every christmas. In 2004 it was karaoke revolution (karaoke rocks!!), in 2005 guitar hero, and this year is wii. We'll have to wait and see what happens next year.

lost.baggage

My brother flew in to boston from austin saturday. He didn't take a direct flight, but flew through dallas and as luck would have it, they lost his luggage along the way. Poor kid. The four of us spent the day together walking around newbury, and he was a little nippy since he only had a light "coat", and the wind was whipping through downtown. After lunch, he called the lost baggage number to see if anything had been found, and after speaking to a rep (since the automated system consistently tells you it hasn't been located) learned that it was on its way to acton. Good news! He'd be able to wear his nice clothes to church at 6. After some more poking, we headed home around 4, only to arrive to find that nothing had been delivered. After another call (and staying on hold for 40 mins) he was told that it had been picked up, but could be delivered anywhere between 3 and 9pm. Luckily, he had bought a button-down and a casual blazer on our shopping excursion, so he wore those with his jeans to church. Upon arriving home to no bag, he called the info line again, (and stayed on hold for another 40 mins or so) and was told that it had been picked up by the delivery company at 8pm. What? He asked for the delivery company's contact info, but they wouldn't give it out, so the woman called the company herself, and connected them 3-way. Apparently they were short drivers, so while they had the bag, it wasn't going to be delivered until tomorrow. *b* wasn't happy about this- especially since all his christmas gifts were in there waiting to be wrapped. He said as much, and the guy told him he had a driver coming in who could take it out, but that it wouldn't show up in acton until 12 or 1am. *b* ensured the guy this was fine, and the guy said the driver would call *b's* cell when he was on his way. We'll see what happens.

*Update (9:47am, 12/25/06)*: By 12:45am, no bag, no call, so *b* phoned the info line again (and stayed on hold for 25 mins) only to end up unable to contact the delivery company. After swearing to kill several people and their families, he cut his losses and went to bed. Hopefully it will show up today, but who knows at this rate. The ridiculous thing is that if they hadn't told him the bag had already been picked up when he called after lunch, (which it hadn't been) we could have swung by there on our way home. We were downtown already, and could have made it there in 15 mins or so. Hopefully he'll get some money for the stuff he had to buy in the meantime.

*Update 2 (2:58pm, 12/26/06)*: He called the airlines again on christmas morning, and talked to a much less understanding lady. He explained the situation- how he had been told it would arrive by 1am, and it never came- and she snapped back at him, "What's done it done. The drivers are having their christmas dinner, and it will get there when it gets there." Obviously she wasn't happy to be working on christmas (who would be?) but seriously...the amount of crap that he had to put up with throughout the whole ordeal should have gained him some apologies, however insincere. The suitcase arrived around 4pm, with all the presents in tow. Part of my mom's present was broken, but some super glue took care of that.

it's.amazing.what.marketing.can.do

I ordered some stuff from this company called red lollipop the other day. Since it was for a christmas gift, I selected the 2-day shipping option which cost $20.77. I figured this was worth it, since the total for the items plus the $20.77 shipping fee was still about $15 less than if I were to go to a local store and pick up the same things. I placed the order on monday. I received the confirmation e-mail on tuesday. I didn't receive the items on wednesday, but I figured that they wouldn't have shipped the items until tuesday, so two days from that would make it thursday. They didn't come on thursday. Or friday. Every time the bell rang to notify us that there was a new batch of boxes sitting on our porch, my heart would skip, and I'd dig through the pile, hoping for one with my name on it. By 1:15, I was irritated, and worried that my brother wasn't going to get his gift. I called the toll free number, and after many rings, an answering machine picked up. I didn't leave a message. Next, I sent an e-mail to their contact address. I immediately got an auto-message back saying that they were opened monday-friday from 9-5 pacific time, and that the e-mail would be responded to quickly- sometimes within minutes of sending it- if it was sent during these times. 1:15 east coast time=10:15 pacific time, so I should have been good. I never got an e-mail back. When my brother called that night to ask a question about our other brother, I told him he might not be getting his gift on christmas. Since he's twenty six, and a new home owner (which automatically makes him a grown-up), he didn't complain, and said it wasn't a big deal. While I knew he wouldn't be upset, that wasn't the point. I paid extra for it to get here in two days. I wanted it here in time for christmas. What fun is it to say, " sorry, I got you a gift, but it isn't here yet. I'll mail it to you when it finally arrives." You don't get to see them open it, and guess if they like it or hate it. You look like a loser who waited until the last minute to shop for people, which automatically means that you probably didn't put too much effort into it- neither of which are true. I'd built up quite a bit of resentment towards red lollipop and their non-existent customer service (so opposite to that of elizabeth w (from a previous post)) and I wasn't sure what to do when I received the package today at 1:27. I was trying to decide between being relieved that it got here, or being annoyed that it took five days to arrive, when I opened the box. Along with my brother's gift and the shipping info (which did say 2-day shipping) was a perfect, round, old-fashioned style red lollipop. I was immediately impressed by this clever marketing strategy, and rationed that it wasn't really their fault. It was right before christmas, and surely things get busy around the holidays. After all, I did get it in time for monday (even if it was at the last possible minute) and I got a tasty treat as well.

surgery.

My dad called a few hours ago, and said that my sister found a way to get out of christmas shopping...she's having her gallbladder out. Jeez. The poor kid's only twenty-two, and she gets to have surgery not only a few days before christmas, but her birthday as well (which is on the 28th). My doctor friend says that it will probably be the new fancy kind where they poke three holes, and suck everything out through them instead of slicing her all up. This way she'll just end up with three band aids. It must be pretty serious though, since she just went to the hospital this morning, and they're operating at 2. Let's just hope that she already got my present.

better.tv.

I love tivo. Some people think that it encourages you to watch more tv. This is not true for me. In fact, not only do I watch much less tv, but I also watch better* tv. I used to watch whatever was on at night, and didn't realize how much fluff I was taking in. Now, I rarely watch something live, but see what I have on tivo instead. One of my new favorites is project runway. Since it's over this season, tivo gets it off of bravo, which runs marathons. I'm not sure how I missed out on this the past few years, but like the show lost, it's much better when you can watch everything at once instead of one episode each week. I also like the bbc version of what not to wear (as well as the american one). For some reason, my previous favorite- law and order (svu, criminal intent, etc)- is not interesting to me anymore. I never watch it. Maybe it's because I've already seen every episode.

*better= shows that are more enjoyable for me. Not necessarily "better" quality shows.

i.heart.jamaica.pond

Today was one of those typical new england days. Brilliantly sunny, yet cold. Thirty five to forty degrees. I was sitting in traffic on the riverway today. I was definitely annoyed, and wasn't happy that they had decided to do some sort of road work which closed off one of the lanes. As I was sitting there, I happened to look out the window towards jamaica pond, and saw this.

I love the contrast between the water, sky, trees, and lamp. I happened to have my camera, and since I had the luck to be stuck in traffic, I rolled down the window and snapped this picture. It made me happy.

magic.potion

I got some new moisturizer. Clinique dramatically different moisturizing lotion to be precise. I got a free sample of it about five years ago, and recently started using it (although I'm sure it's not nice and fresh anymore). I've never been a big believer in face lotion, but last winter I noticed my skin got pretty dry and tight- something it'd never done before- so I thought I should put a little effort into taking care of it. I really liked how the sample (staleness aside) made my skin feel, plus I always hear about how great it is, so I decided to pick it up. I actually decided this several months ago, but being my frugal self, wanted to wait for the next clinique bonus time to rake in some free stuff. Luckily for me, that was yesterday at lord and taylors. I hitched a ride downtown, and spent the afternoon walking around downtown crossing, the public gardens and copley, before picking up the magic stuff and hopping on the bus back home. I've used it four times so far, and already notice a difference. My skin's softer and smoother, plus, I can smile without my face cracking.

dinner.party

Last night was my dinner party. It was great. There were twelve people which made for a good crowd, but didn't overload the table. I kept the menu low-key since I'm no chef, and cooking for twelve people isn't my idea of a blast. For desert I made an icebox cake. My parents used to make this, but I hadn't had it in a while, so when I was trying to come up with an easy but nice looking dessert, this popped to mind. It consists of chocolate wafer cookies and whipped cream which you make into a log shaped sandwich. After sitting in the fridge for a while, the cookies absorb the moisture from the cream, so when you cut it at an angle, it's nice and soft. Delicious.

update.

Here's my bruise update. Nice huh? The dress I'm wearing tonight
is sleeveless, but since this sucker is on the inside of my arm, it's not as shockingly obvious as it could be.

momentary.lapse

Here's the background info. Every year since 2003 (and once in 1999), I have a christmas dinner party with an ornament exchange. Each couple has to make (yup-handmake) a predetermined number of identical ornaments. Then we each give one to everyone else, and go home with a brand-spanking-new set. As you may know from reading previous posts, I love ornaments, and look forward to coming up with, and making my set each year. Not everyone shares my excitement, and I know that it causes more stress and last minute rushing for many of them. In the end, I hope that most of them are glad to have done it. I've heard about people putting up their ornaments from previous years and being happy to have them, so that bodes well. Anyway, here's the e-mail I sent out that you needed the background info for.

From: ss
To: ja, nn, mk, ns, ac, tm, ki, km
Date: Dec 15, 2006 7:46PM
Subject: Re: rsvp?

This is funny. I was just writing down who was coming so I could figure it
out, and I came up with 10 girls. I freaked out a little because I'd previously
counted only 9, but I hadn't actually written anything down- just went over it
in my head. So then I freaked out again because that meant that I had to tell
everyone to make an extra ornament less than 24 hours before the party (and I'm
sure you've all finished yours several weeks ago). I briefly considered
giving up the ones I'd get, but since I'm probably the one most excited about
them, it would be too much of a sacrifice. So I figured I might as well
send an e-mail out asap so you could all get to work, and as I checked the
e-mail addresses against my list, I couldn't figure out who wasn't on the e-mail
list. Finally, (and I'm talking several times back and forth here) I realized
that I wrote one name down twice on my invite list. HA!

So it all worked out in the long run. Everyone will get a set, and now, they'll only have nine to make tomorrow instead of ten!

pol.iti.cal.ly.correct

Today was the christmas assembly at the girls school. The whole classes K-2 through 3 each read a poem and sang a song, and then the ensemble and choir (of kids classes 4-12) played carols. It was very festive. That's one nice thing about private schools- they can celebrate christmas if they want to. I understand the rational behind taking holiday celebrations out of public schools, but it makes me sad. I remember being in tenth grade and having to do some group writing project in english about winter solstice celebrations. Every group had to do something different, so our group picked christmas. We'd gotten a good deal through the paper when our teacher told us we had to switch to something else. It was right around the time the whole holiday political correctness came about. Luckily, since we'd completed a large portion of the paper, we were allowed to continue with it, as long as we stuck in some stuff about kwanzaa and chanukah.

loser.winner.(spoiler.alert)

Erik won the biggest loser tonight. Big surprise. There wasn't really a way for any of the other three to beat him since he started out a lot bigger than them. Granted, it's the biggest percentage of weight loss that counts, but if you start off having a lot more to lose, you have a much better shot at winning. He looked great. He started off at 407, and finished at 193 for a total loss of 214 lbs, or 52.58%. He lost more than half of himself. Kai was off her rocker tonight. Who knows what she ingested before coming out on stage, but it's not the best idea when you're on live television. Great way to embarrass yourself for sure....

big.bruise

I got a huge bruise on my arm today. It's not as exciting as it sounds- I went in to donate, and had a new girl who missed my draw line. *l*, who regularly pokes me, set up a new machine and tried for my inner vein. She'd only had to try this once before, and got it with no problem, so she thought she could get it again. Unfortunately, she nicked the vein, and with the pressure on the cuff all the way up, and with me squeezing the ball, blood bubbled up under the skin and made a huge bump. It looked like a golf ball- no kidding. She said that she never bruises people (which she doesn't- she's really good) and that this was the worst she'd seen in a while. She stuck half a squeezy ball on her arm under her shirt sleeve, and walked around showing everyone what my arm looked like. It was better to have it happen to me (since I really don't care) than a new donor who might not come back. The only bad news is that this likely means that I won't be able to meet the limit of 24 donations per year. Today would have been 23, but that didn't happen, and since I have to wait until this bruise goes down, I probably won't be back in before the end of the year. Bummer.


(So that's it up there. The beginnings of a nice, big bruise. You can't really tell, but there's a huge bump sticking out the side towards the camera. Pretty soon that will settle down, and all that blood will spread throughout my arm. It's exciting to think of what it will end up like. I'll put another picture up once it reaches its peak.)

tree's.up

I got my tree today. It's very exciting...really. It's perfect- a good shape, good size (it's not shrimpy, but will still fit through the window when I have to shove it out), and it smells good. You'd think that any real christmas tree would smell good, but I had one once that didn't smell at all. I think that half the point of having a tree is so you can come home and feel all warm and snuggly when you smell it, so you can imagine my disappointment. Anyway...I spent the last three and a half hours decorating it and then wrapping presents so I'd have something to put under it. I started to count how many ornaments I have (as I try to do every year) but forgot that I was counting after 36 or so. I'd guess that I have around 400. I love hanging ornaments- as my mom always says she does- because you get to remember where they came from. To clarify, I don't have one of those designer trees with coordinated ornaments, bows, etc., nor would I want one. My tree starts off with white lights, and is literally covered with ornaments I've accumulated over the past 28 years. I started my life off with many that were given to me (and often made) by grandparents, relatives, friends of my parents, etc. Then I moved onto the ones I made myself at happy hours (my nursury school) that consist of glittery pinecones, gold painted cardstock with pasta glued on, colored dough ornaments, and my favorite, oscar the grouch. There's the group from my parents, who give each of us an ornament every year that has to do with what we're interested in (so I have a couple pianos, a soccer player, a caggabe patch doll, a ballerina, etc), and there's the group from my christmas dinner parties where we do an ornament exchange. So it all adds up to quite a collection that I look forward to putting up every year. Here's me putting the lights on.

new.pillows

I got two new pillows today. A regular one (a firm support fiber filled) and a synthetic down one. I use the regular ones to sleep with, and the down/fake down on top for some fluff during the day. I haven't had a new pillow in years, and forgot how nice it is to have both soft yet firm support. This new guy is springy enough that I won't wake up suffocating from having my head sunk deep in the pillow. I may have to get two more for the other side of my bed.

bowling.cats

I just spent the last fifteen minutes playing this halloween bowling game that my mom sent me. My high score was 115, and I had to stop myself before I wasted several hours trying to beat it. It makes me want to go bowling for real. I love it, and yet do it so infrequently. I wonder why. Also notice the eyes- again. Why couldn't they just add in a black dot or something. It would make me so much happier.

*Update. My high score is now 139.

no.misspellings.found

What's up with spell check on blogger? It's not working. I rely on spellcheck to pick up on little mistakes that I miss as I zip through an entry, and am not happy it's on the fritz. I found a couple mistakes in past posts, and did some experimenting. Like this: kolfreungwralako. Wow- no misspellings found. What's the point of having it if it doesn't work.

zippy.

Wow. I made my favorite veggie chili again, and decided to put in a little extra chipotle pepper(in adobo sauce) since I couldn't really taste it last time. The recipe calls for 1 and 1/2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon finely chopped pepper, but I make only a half pot (since a whole pot's huge), so I only used one chili pepper. I'd guess it was about 2 teaspoons. This time I wanted to get more of the smoky flavor, (plus I had an open can in the fridge that was moving towards the trash- does anyone know how long they last once opened anyway?) so I used three peppers. About 6 teaspoons/2 tablespoons. Boy oh boy did I get some smoky flavor. I think the big difference was that I definitely got in more of the adobo sauce this time, while last time I had mostly pepper. My nose was running and my lips were stinging. The good news is that my tolerance for spice has been cranked up over the past few years, so while it might be too spicy for some people (cough..mom..cough), it's a-ok for me.

to.do.list

I made a big dent in my christmas shopping list today. I picked up gifts for eight people. This is good since there's less than three weeks left until the big day. I really only have five people left to get gifts for, and of those five, I only need an idea for two. I have one other group of little gifts to get together, but that's pretty straigtforward, so I'm not really counting them as items on my to do list. I'm sure I'll count them as gifts once I get them, but for now, I'm more focused on the "real" presents. graiongatninja

old.friend

So this is weird. Since my high school reunion, I've been spending more time on myspace since I can keep up with people I don't see often. (I thought it was kind of silly to have just people I actually see on it, so I never logged on.) I started doing name searches and just entering in names from my past, and I found a friend I've literally not seen in 18 years. We were best friends before my family moved, and then fell out of touch (espeically since she was 7, her sister was 8, and I was 9). The crazy thing is that she looks exactly the same, just grown up. Weird.

musical.chairs

I mean bottles. My mom forwarded me this clip. I thought it was cool enough to stick in here:)

*For some reason, I couldn't embed the video directly into this post. I think blogger's acting up again.

cookie.castles

Holy hell. I just spent two hours with the girls and one of their friends, and it felt like ten hours. We made gingerbread houses. *a* got some premade pieces that I put together and then let the kids go to town on. It sounds pretty straight forward, but was far from it. These are the steps involved:

1. Heat up sugar to make syrup.
2. Use the syrup to attach the pieces of gingerbread. Careful! Hot sugar will burn you!
3. Hold the pieces together until the sugar solidifies. Then pull all the stringy pieces off and put them back in the pot.
4. By now, forty-five minutes have passed and all four houses should be put together. Spend a few minutes running your burnt fingers under cold water.
5. Have kids open all the candy and dump into bowls while you melt butter and cream on the stove. Add some confectionery sugar and vanilla, beat with the mixer, and you have some darn good frosting.
6. Spread frosting over one roof section of each house. In thirty seconds, half the candy's gone, and they're all asking for more frosting.
7. Frost the other side of the roof and the chimney. *e* pushes too hard on the roof, and one of the short walls breaks. Fix it with frosting, and tell her to be gentle.
8. Make some more frosting so they can decorate the walls too. See *e* cramming candy in her mouth when she thinks you're not looking.
9. Add some frosting to *m's* roof to keep some gumdrops from falling off.
10. *e* crushes her entire house. It's reduced to a pile of gingerbread rubble. Surprisingly, she's not upset. Apparently the fact that she can still eat it outweighs any dissapointment at the disaster.
11. Put the finished creations on the counter and have the kids clean up the table and the leftover candy. (All two pieces of it.)
12. Send the kids off and start to clean up the disaster of a kitchen.

There you have it. You too can be the proud owner of some fancy schmancy gingerbread houses. It reminded me of when we used to make one for christmas every year. My dad would make the dough from scratch and cut out the pieces. He'd put it together, and my siblings and I would fancy that thing up with a necco wafer roof, m+m windows and a menage of trees, steps, etc. It was a beauty. People would nibble on the gingerbread, but mainly eat the candy off of it. We stopped making this several years ago, and it was sad. Very sad.

stinging.mouth

I have some freaky food allergies. I don't get super sick or have my throat close up or anything, I just get a strong stinging sensation on the roof of my mouth. I generally know what will set it off; walnuts, raw broccoli, cooked spinach, banana strings (I have to get every little stringy thing off before I eat them), cauliflower. The list goes on. Something I ate tonight drove my mouth crazy. It's stinging pretty badly even now, hours after dinner, after I brushed, flossed and rinsed with act. I can't figure out what it was. We had a bunch of random stuff; smoked pork, roasted potatoes, schnitzel, schpaetzel, sauteed green beans and some super special tres leche cake. (There was a ton of uncooked pork leftover from the party yesterday, so *p* cooked up some different meals. Plus, a guest brought the cake and we conveniently forgot to put it out.) It's perplexing. I've had everything before and don't remember having issues with anything. Maybe it's the combination that bothers me.

london.

My london friend *ab* just called to say that they're coming back to the states for christmas and new years. This is exciting since he thought that he might not get the time off work to come back. I'm excited. I miss them a lot, so it will be good to catch up. I'm also excited to go back to london in march to see them. I told *ab* the dates I'd be there, and he pointed out that I'll arrive early on st. patrick's day. They're getting a babysitter so we can go out. It should be fun.

christmas.list

Santa was at our house today. He stopped by to see the 30+ kids who were waiting with bated breath. This one was a real professional as opposed to the friends who've filled in the past two years. The kids each got a present and told santa what they'd like for christmas. *e* told him she wanted tic tacs (the holiday ones with three packs; red, white and green) and marbles. I'm happy that she has a reasonable list. Sometimes they go overboard and end up with a multiple page list with ridiculously expensive items. Maybe at four, she's already realized that if you come up with a smaller and more realistic list, you're more likely to get what you ask for. Speaking of which- I have to get my list going.

december.one

Happy december! Only 24 days until christmas which means I better get my butt in gear. I'm actually doing pretty well. I have about half the gifts I need, and have ideas for most of the other people. This is a real step up from last year which is good. No last minute stress outs for me!