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We had a nice quiet Christmas this year broken up with a few bits of noisiness that I was thankful for. Heather and Chad invited us to their family Christmas Eve gathering that included a big loud family, lots of kids and a dirty santa game that involved alot of shots. (I think I would have been more homesick without being a part of a big family - so thanks!) Very fun night till about 11pm when I was trying to sleep and realized I ate to much and my stomach did not have room for it. Christmas day was back to quiet with just Jeff and I. We got to eat a Honey Baked Ham turkey dinner my dad sent. (yeah, no cooking). I was a bit sad not to see any of my family for Christmas, but so it goes. I guess next year we'll figure out what traveling with a baby is really like.
Friday morning I headed out to Penney's and the mega sale. I finally got some towels and guest sheets. I even picked up a couple baby girl dresses. Then I went to Pier 1 and got wrapping paper for next year.

Friday afternoon, we drove to Bham to see Jeff's family. We exchanged gifts, and I was excited about the gifts I got (impressed since I didn't really help people for ideas). Then Jeff's parents treated us by going out for an Italian dinner. Very good food, though I missed out on the wine and a couple good appetizers that were not pregnancy friendly. I think I've determined everyplace in Bham is small, crowded and loud, but it was a change from Hsv that is full of mostly chain restaurants. The next morning we had bagels from Panera - again no cooking :)
Saturday we headed back home, so I could meet up with some friends from highschool - a range of people were meeting at Monaco. I kind of forced myself to go since I was not really in a mood to converse with people I only see every few years or not even in 14 years. But I was glad to catch up with a couple people. (hopefully I didn't come across as a snob, but I'm not the best at putting on a false smile) And while they were all drinking I got a big fat ice cream cone (luckily it was a warm night).

I am wondering now if Jeff will go into gadget withdrawal. In the last week or so we've acquired several new gadgets and things he's had to put together or figure out: Garmin GPS (company present), HD video camera, PC tablet (for me), smoker/grill (from his parents), garage code key for door, new computer ram, and something else I'm not remembering now.

Hope everyone had a great holiday.

This past weekend we had Jeff's company Christmas party. He got a new Garmin GPS and I won the door prize - the flowers :)

We also played with the new video camera. I have alot of learning to do. I will say that I love being married to a smart geek that loves new technology. He picks stuff up faster than me, including the editing software. I started trying to film the nursery, but static rooms just aren't exciting. Maybe we'll take it to a party Wednesday or New Years for some action shots.

Last night we got our video camera in so Jeff has a new gadget to play with. I was going to hold off till after the baby came, but I figured now may be best when I may actually have time to learn how to use it and the editing software. I'm open to ideas if anyone has anything that we can go shoot this weekend. (At a minimum I may have to buy some catnip for the kitties and see what happens in our house.) I'm hoping I figure out how to add songs and music over it too. I'm not about to take it to an Adobe Premier level like some friends, but I'd like to know some cool editing stuff. And for those interested we got a Canon Vixia that records in HD.

Yesterday was a little news worthy with the weather. It snowed 4" on the Vegas strip. And North Alabama is finally out of the drought. It does seem like years since we've had so much continuous rain and I'm sick of it. Rain can just bring down your mood. I was thankful to have some girlfriends over last night for a wrapping party to help alleviate some of my gloomy mood from the constant mist. We just sprawled out on the floor and wrapped our own gifts and shared paper. Angie was thankful for the help and I think Heather was glad to have another person writing name tags 'from Santa' since her kids know her handwriting. Yes I took a mental note for future years :)

Now we have Jeff's Christmas party this weekend and then it'll be a slow week at work before Christmas.

I wish I had found this a few weeks ago before all the dirty santa gift exchanges. These soy candles are supposedly better for the environment and air quality than paraffin wax. Scent of a Scandal - has very creative names like: ‘Me So Thorny’, ‘Santa’s Pole’, ‘Hanukkah Bush’, 'Ho Ho Homo' and ‘Challahback Girl’.

Found this cool website:
http://howmanyofme.com/.
There used to be 69 people with my name (maiden name) but now there is only one me in the US. yeah for unique last names :)

Story background:
I work in an old building for a very safety conscious gov't agency. An average of about 4 times a month they will have an asbestos outage at 6pm where no on is allowed in the building till the next morning. (they're doing work in the walls or ceiling and may release some asbestos)
There has been an on-going saga with the ladies bathroom on my floor for about a year. When they couldn't fix the clogged sink, they removed it, busted the tile, and then duck-taped cardboard over the gaping 3 foot+ hole. I've heard the old 50's blue tile is on order - for at least 6 months now. The other day I was fed up with seeing the gross pipes behind the wall, revealed by the loosening duck-tape. I decided to send an email to a new person stressing my concerns of being pregnant and asbestos. Well there were 4 guys working on it this morning. Guess a pregnant lady has more of a voice than the long time employee that has been working the issue for a year. Now I'm still concerned that I've been exposed to some dangerous stuff for so long.

I came across an article that mentioned a few free money tracking/budgeting websites. I decided to try one out (Expensr), so in my down time at work yesterday I went through last months credit card and debit card transactions and put them in (gotta love online banking - have everything at your fingertips). I hope I can keep up with putting in my purchases everyday b/c it is pretty cool to see where the money goes. You also put in your deposits, so it shows you a green or red balance number, then you can break it into categories that shows you a pie chart of where you're spending the most money. So far I'm doing good with a green balance and the biggest chunks going to food, bills and savings. I even got Jeff to start it last night. Again we'll see how long we stay motivated to keep inputting the numbers :)

I saw snow for a few minutes today, but the white ground didn't stay more than another 5 minutes. oh well. It was a bit of a shock after wearing flip flops on the beach all weekend. I do love the beach, but it's not quite as much fun when it's too cold and/or rainy to get in the water. Still, it was a fun family weekend.

I ordered my Christmas cards tonight but I may have accidentally checked for slow shipping, so I'll be sending those out the week before :)