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We celebrated Christmas with Jeff's family this past weekend. Everyone came in Friday night and we had our wine and cheese tasting again. Well Greg spiced it up a bit with a shrimp baguette appetizer that was yummy. Presents were exchanged and Jim cracked us up (and scared Karen) with his homemade drawings on gift tags. Claire's dad did an amazing job on a wedding photo album; the parents got a big version and we got a smaller flip book. Bruce has 2 books on digital photography how-to, so he better be an expert by the time we all travel for the Alaskan cruise. Saturday's weather was beautiful, so the guys went out early to play disc golf and then later played croquet in the backyard. That night we had a nice dinner, beef tenderloin. Karen went to bed early since she was still in alot of pain but she's having her second back surgery this morning, so hopefully they'll fix her up for good. The guys were watching football and nearly passed out, so Claire and I took off to go to a friends house. It was a mini highschool reunion with some girls I haven't seen for 3 years or so. The last 2 weekends have been good for seeing several old friends and catching up. Now I'm looking forward to seeing some of my family this weekend.

Does Christmas feel like Christmas when you don't see any family or have big gatherings and kids around creating chaos? To me, not really. So I'm trying to stay in the Christmas spirit through the next 2 weekends, when we will see family. Our 4 day weekend started off fun when 2 of my highschool friends came over Friday night. We just talked, caught up on things, drank 2 bottles of wine, ate Dancing Deer cookies (yum!) and played some ping pong. The rest of the weekend consisted of a lot of laziness in PJs and movie watching. We did go out to see the Golden Compass. Then it was back to the comfort of our couch. I did make some sugar cookies from scratch and I think I'll just buy some Pillsbury dough next year - much easier and probably tastier. Overall it was a nice calm weekend with just the husband and kitties. I had to wonder how many people have this stress-free a Christmas. We'll see some chaos in a couple weekends when we go to Texas and hang around some hyper nephews :)

I have been holding out trying to find a good weekend to visit my dad in Texas. My brother will be on call for work xmas weekend, so they are planning on going to dad's Jan 4th weekend. So last night I purchased tickets for me and Jeff to fly on Jan 4th and back that Monday. So we'll just celebrate Christmas a little late with my family. Either Friday or Saturday we'll take Jeff to experience Salt Lick BBQ - he can feast on real Texas BBQ! I have my fingers crossed for mild/warm weather :)

Tis the season for giving and caring which makes me think of those less fortunate, which then gets me to thinking of all that I have. So I've been trying to be more conscious and thankful for so many good things in my life. I'm not sure what order they would go in but the top of list would be my health, family and happy marriage. Though I'd like to be closer to my family (in physical location) I always know I can call them or get on a plane and see them unlike so many people with loved ones serving this country for a war that seems to be dragging on forever. I'm also thankful for a job and having money in the bank, which makes me think back to how I got it all. There have been a lot of influential people in my life both good and bad - penny-pinching grandma and hardworking father to teach the value of a dollar, and then the other extreme of extended family members collecting welfare money and living in poverty. They all help guide paths I've chosen in life and I'm so grateful to have a nice house filled with probably too many materialistic gadgets and women's shoes. In trying to think of non-materialistic things, I thought how I'm pretty darn happy to be able to do or go most anywhere I want. There have been some scary news articles lately out of other countries, about women threatened for leaving their house without a husband, one for example, got raped and put in jail for allowing herself to get raped since she was alone. So while we do have crime in the U.S., I do usually feel secure in my daily life and I don't want to imagine having to live without the freedom and securities I probably take for granted too often. And on a lighter note, for those rough days I feel like complaining about petty stuff, I'm so thankful for my girlfriends lending their ear and sharing a margarita!

My sister called me Monday to tell me her 13 year old was going to have his appendix taken out. Poor kid, that sounds like so much pain. Luckily they did get it out before it burst, and he just has 3 tiny incisions, so hopefully he'll heal up fast. Between 4 kids (3 boys), she is in the hospital pretty frequently. I need to ask her what the record is for most in one year.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store and got a good laugh walking up. In between Publix (grocery store) and the Marble Slab Creamery (ice cream) is GUNS, selling guns and ammunition. I've never paid attention to where gun stores are, but certainly would not have guessed someone would place it in a major strip center where kids need to walk by it to get to an ice cream shop. Wonder how long it'll stay around.

I must be getting pay back for having too much fun Friday night. I had a sore throat and now major head congestion all weekend. So I slept.... alot, both Saturday and Sunday. No fever so far, hopefully it's just a minor cold that will be gone by Christmas. Thank goodness I already have all my Christmas shopping and decorating done. Mondays are worse when you're sick. I'll just think of how next weekend will be 4 days.

Here is a summary of last night. The good normal part was Jeff's company Christmas party - dinner at Terranovas. All the guys (and now 1 female employee) got an Ipod Touch. (very nice, esp since I just got a $20 gift card from walmart from my job). We come home and I asked Jeff one more time if he wanted to go see DJ Logic at Crossroads. He said no. I called some girlfriends, and yes they were still in, so I headed out without the husband. The opening band I had never heard of - Lord T & Eloise. They came to the stage kinda late a little before 11pm. I wish I had taken a photo of my facial expression b/c I'm not sure how to describe it - awe, shock, amusement, probably. On stage were 3 white boys, one in an aristocrat wig, one with a silver painted face and another one. They break out into full rap and jump around stage like I would picture the way I acted when I was 12. It was hilarious. I didnt care much for the music but some of the young crowd seemed to be into it. Though I'm pretty sure some of them were already rolling on some kind of special stuff. Anyway, the first few songs were hilarious since I've never experienced anything like that before. My cheeks did hurt from laughing at everything, the lyrics, the props they wore and showed off (gold cape, tennis racket, and yes real money - given away to most everyone).
DJ Logic did not take the stage till nearly 12:20, so by that point I was coming down from whatever excitement I had about going out that night. I'm glad I got to see him, but I wasnt blown away like I had hoped. He only had a few more groovy techy snipits that I liked. He mixed in a little too much rap sounding stuff for my tastes. I was home a little after 1 am. And got to sleep in past 8am - yeah!

This helped get me in the Christmas spirit

I had lunch with an old friend today, Steph. It's pretty hard to track her down so when we do get together seems like all kinds of news comes up. I knew Jon was engaged, did not know Patrick got engaged. Exciting news! It may be another summer filled with wedding travel for us. I've never been to Los Angeles, so that will be fun. And Jon is in Austin now, so I can make a side visit to the family. Another highschool friend is pregnant with twins. that makes 2 now. Weddings and babies everywhere.

A couple nights ago I had a night out with the margarita girls. And tonight is movie night with a couple more girlfriends. This will give Jeff time on the computer with his puzzle game to get us further in the running for the $2 million. (I can dream!)

I mailed my last Christmas box today. yes - all done! And I think I can re-gift some things for a friends party next week that has a dirty santa game. I really hope the gifts are better than the ones from the tall club dirty santa game where Jeff got a tea pot. (I'll just give that one away to someone).
Back to work and figuring out a new microsoft piece of software, joy....

My mother-in-law is having surgery on her back this morning. I think I was more nervous than she was (hard to tell in an email though). I've had 2 surgeries before, one horrible experience and one fairly good one. I also had a friend die recently after a routine surgery, so to me, hospitals are more than scary. I will have to be near death before I do a voluntary surgery.
Hopefully my mother-in-law will have a speedy recovery and be pain free by Christmas. That's probably really optimistic - I haven't heard how long recovery will take.

A while ago I signed up for 43 places, now I noticed they have 43 things: what do you want to do with your life. Since I dont remember my password, I'll just put some of them here:
I want to:

• stop being so critical
  
• like exercising & do it more
  
• meet more of my neighbors
  
• be more creative & create more
  
• laugh more
  
• really learn a foreign language
  
• see all the Cirque du Soliel shows
  
• get organized
  
• improve my memory
  
• have whiter teeth / remember to use my bleach
  
• learn to blow glass
  
• not be embarrased dancing
  
• visit all the national parks
  
• either be kinder or not be as blunt
  
• be more spontanious
  
• take more pictures (to help my memory)
  
• own a lake house one day
  
• swim with dolphins
  
• help mother nature more
  
• try acupuncture
  
• See the northern lights
  
• keep improving my design skills
  
• master CSS
  
• like gardening
  
• find a way to make my home office inspiring
  
• not live in the bible belt forever
  
• drive a luxury sports car in Europe
  
• drive a convertible down the Pacific Coast Highway
  
• spend the night in a castle
  
• volunteer with pre-teen girls and help improve their self-esteem
  

I don't have any strong beliefs on whether there is a heaven or hell, but I'd like to think that if there is a heaven it really is set up in the clouds. Clouds can be so beautiful. On my way into work there is a long stretch of straight road with fields on either side so it's easy to get lost in a daze looking up at the clouds. Especially if it's a party cloudy day and there are sun rays breaking through leaving streaks of light pointing down to these green fields. It made me think if there is a heaven and people live amongst the clouds, I hope they are in between some layers of clouds so they can still look up to see the many formations and see them moving and changing with sunsets and sunrises.
From my second story office window I have dogwood (I think) trees practically touching one half of my windows and the other half is clear so I can see some hills in the distance and a good stretch of blue sky. Definitely the best office view I've ever had.

Driving home today I had a white mini van behind me with something on each side. I figured we're done with college football (in Alabama anyway), so what the hell is that. It was a brown fuzzy antler on each window and there was a big red dot on the grill, I presume to be a nose. To me this is taking seasonal decorating way too far. How can a big fat white mini van come close to looking like Rudolph the reindeer? I'm sure I'll see some grill wreaths and Christmas lights tacked up inside cars at some point. I'll stick to just decorating my house and maybe a mini tree in the office or something.

I can't remember where I read this to credit the person, but somewhere someone had posted tips to saving water. It took me a few weeks but I finally remembered. This weekend I pulled out a 5 gallon bucket and put it in our shower. Our water takes a while to warm up. so long in fact - it filled up that bucket! So the plan is to fill it up every morning and then one of us will take it out to the trees and plants. I wish I had started this in the summer. Oh well, it's a small start.