Merry Post-Christmas

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I know I sure did. Christmas Eve was filled with lots of family, fun and food. I was up late playing Santa, divvying up candy and filling stockings. Christmas morning we had a great breakfast and everyone loved all the presents they got, including me. Josh and I opened our gifts to each other after my family left. I already knew he had spoiled me because he "forgot" our gift count limit of 5. Along with all sorts of movies and books I wanted he got me a new drive & battery for my laptop, and a brand new netbook! I can't wait to be able to take notes so much quicker in class next semester! He spent his personal money on it. I don't get to tell him how he should spend that, and though I keep telling him he shouldn't have I'm still super glad to have a cute white netbook to use for school. And on top of all that, yesterday a package came for him from Cypress. He was confused, but when he opened it he realized it was the necklace I'd wanted from Etsy. He hadn't even noticed that it hadn't arrived yet! On top of all that I got a few of the things from the wish list I shared here too- those cute boots, the flash for my Holga, the movies, etc. I am so blessed to have people who care about me, and showed me that through picking out thoughtful gifts and wrapping them up sweetly.

Josh loved his presents, especially his super soft robe and the graphic novel. And our mom was really happy to get her new coat and the little peanut pendant necklace I got her at the last minute. But, I'd say the home run gift this year was the vintage hypnosis book we got for his stepdad, Jack. He really seemed impressed that we'd found something so neat that fit his interests so well. Etsy scores another win!

Christmas night we spent at Josh's dad and stepmom Ann's house. Along with siblings, uncles, aunts, and some of Ann's family in from Rochester, we had a wonderful evening with lots of good snacky food, fun games, and a warm fire. Again, left feeling super blessed to have so much wonderful family in our lives.

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time

First off, I don't care how many people speak ill of it- I like that Paul McCartney Christmas song. Now that that's out of the way, I can share that I got my final GPA for my first semester- 4.0! Woohoo! I'm not a dullard! But, on to more important things like Christmas. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, can you believe it? This year has whizzed by so quickly. All of our gifts are wrapped and under the tree. This year I got Josh a new cozy robe, some pajamas, a hilarious graphic novel from one of my new pals on Twitter, a video game he had on his wish list, and the second season of Kids In The Hall on DVD. I'm excited to see him open all his presents! And he wrapped up lots of goodies for me, so I'm excited to open some too.

Tonight we'll be having dinner with our awesome friend Diggy, in for the holidays from San Francisco. I can't wait to watch his latest short film that he's bringing to us, and pepper him with questions all about his next big idea. Tomorrow I've got to get some groceries for our holiday festivities. I'll do a little baking and then we'll be headed to Josh's mom's for Christmas Eve dinner.

Christmas morning my mom, brother and his family will be coming over for breakfast and gift opening. Then Josh and I will have a little time to relax and marvel at how blessed we are before we head off to his dad's house for even more blessings! Some of his stepmother's relatives will be in from Rochester and we'll have a nice evening of snacks, champagne, visiting, and Bananagrams. My father-in-law has been talking big about how he's going to kick all our butts, so I've got my game-face ready to meet his challenge!

I hope that everyone has a great holiday, with friends and family close and lots of wonderful memories made!

My 2010 Christmas Wish List (plus some other stuff)

The other stuff is that I am 99.9% done with school for the semester! I took my last math test and History final yesterday. Thanks to several extra credit opportunities, and actually studying, I got a 120 on my History test! My average for the semester came out to 107.4. Woohoo! And, despite it taking me forever, I got a 90 on my math test. I am more than pleased with that, since I sat struggling with 4 of the problems for quite awhile. I finally remembered what I was supposed to do to solve three of them, and guessed on the 4th. Funnily enough, the one I guessed I got right! I can't convey the bliss of coming home, making dinner, and having the freedom to do pretty much whatever I want. I watched 3 hours of television Monday night. It was awesome. Tomorrow I have to turn in my final Comp 1 paper, but I'm intending on heckling my teacher into grading it right then and there so I can know what I'm making. I also want to take a copy of the graded paper with me. These analytical papers on films might come in handy later, what with me hoping to major in Radio, Television, Film.

Now that school is out of the way, I really have to get on the ball for Christmas. I've got 30 gifts to wrap, and I need to do a couple of them ASAP to get them in the mail. I realized last night that I'm nowhere near having enough Christmas cards, so I need to pick some more of those up. And now, to share my Christmas Wish List for this holiday season.

























Play:

• Fujifilm Instax Mini 7s Instant Film Camera- I love my Holga, but I wanted something fun to play with that came with a little instant gratification
• Holga Manual Mount Flash- Speaking of my Holga, I asked for something to up my shooting ante
  
• Pottery Barn Wood Gallery Square Frames- You don't really play with frames I guess, but I recently ordered some of these and need more to finish my family photo gallery for the hall

Read:

• Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris- Dying to read Sedaris' latest book. Especially after hearing him talk about it on The Daily Show
• The War for Late Night by Bill Carter- Carter's latest book, about Conan, that big chinned dude, and the whole Tonight Shot debacle. I think it's pretty obvious why I asked for this. :)
• Woody Allen: A Biography by Eric Lax- I loved the previous Allen book by Eric Lax that I read, so I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy this one. Lax has a great grasp on who Woody, considering he's been interviewing him for over 30 years.

Wear:

• Mossimo Western Boots- I'm working on growing my boot wardrobe. These are from Target.
• Enamel necklace from etsy- Don't tell me if you click this link and it says sold- I'm being a good girl and not peeking!
• The Looping Lanes and Soft Bow belts, both from Anthropologie- both also appear to be gone form their website, so really hoping somebody bought me at least one. Fingers crossed!

Watch:

• Mystery Science Theater 3000: I Accuse My Parents- one of my favorite MST3K flicks. It's amazing how few of these I own, and yet how much I adore them.
• Star Wars Trilogy- Yeah, I don't even know why we don't own this yet. I routinely don't buy the movies we love. I'm crazy.

Well, that wraps up my 2010 wish list. Technically there's a bunch more stuff on my list, but these are some of the highlights; the things I am most coveting.

Heralding the Holidays

Ah, I've finally reached the weekend. Things haven't gone just as I was hoping this week; still lots of work to be done on my final English paper and put my Math test off until Tuesday, so I've got a lot of school work to do this weekend before things get wrapped up next week. Yesterday was so rough that by the time I got home I was completely done in. I showered, put on my pajamas, and immediately got into bed. Josh got home to find me reading the new issue of Real Simple that had come in the mail. He did chores, gave me some snuggles, then fed me yummy Spinach & Feta pizza. That husband of mine really is the best. And of course last night's Conan episode really cheered me up too. Did you guys see She & Him? Totally amazing.

I managed to finish almost all of my Christmas shopping this week, and almost all of it on Monday as a matter of fact! Between a BIG Amazon order, which should be arriving today, and a shopathon with Mom I pretty much just have stocking stuffers left to buy. I do however still have all those gifts to wrap- yoinks! But that'll be waiting until I'm done with my school work next week.

Today has been quite a bit better. I got some work done and it's been quite in the office. But, even better than that, this evening Josh and I are going to participate in one of my favorite holiday traditions we've started. We'll be getting our Christmas tree after work, and we decorate it while watching The Muppet Christmas Carol and over a dinner of fish & chips, Old Speckled Hen, and some bread pudding for dessert. The Muppet Christmas Carol is one of my most favorite holiday movies (although I do have a lot of favorites, ha) and I haven't even let myself watch it yet, so I get to see it for the first time this season. I hope everyone else is having fun getting into the holiday spirit!

News and Shoes

Hey duders! Things are really getting hectic around here these days. We managed to survive our three Thanksgiving dinners last week, and we're headed into a busy weekend. I go in for my 6 month glaucoma exam this afternoon. Really not looking forward to that- especially since I'm well aware of what all it entails now. Lots of poking and poofing my eyeballs, and the darn dilation drops that make me soooo sleepy- they contain a decongestant. They conveniently don't tell you that part, so thought I was going crazy when I felt all drugged up after the first time. Following the eye exam we'll be heading to a surprise party for Josh's stepbrother Alec. That should be fun on the sleepy eye meds, ha.

We have our nephew, Alec's son, Griffin's birthday party early tomorrow morning and have to leave it a little early to make it to our haircut appointments. We adopted a Fort Worth Zoo animal in his name for his present. Josh tells me that he's going to put the Christmas lights up on the house this weekend, so I'll probably put the other outdoor decorations up too. We were invited to another party tomorrow evening, but it's not looking likely that we'll have time to attend. Oh, and I have to write a short paper with 2 outside sources analyzing portions of the film Wag the Dog. And History notes to catch up on. And about 5 loads of laundry. And grocery shopping. Haha, I can't wait until the semester is over, so I'll actually have some time for all the housework instead of homework.

This week I got an A+ on my Network paper for English, and a 100 on my Service Learning Project in History. Josh had me put my English paper on the refrigerator, haha. :) And I paid for my next semester's classes, so aside from books I'm all ready to go for the Spring.

So, that's the news portion of this post. For the shoes portion- well, it's technically the boots portion- I got these great gray boots in the mail this week. Ordered them from Piperlime and they came quickly and well-packed. And, best of all, only $69. I lurve them.