18 Days Until Christmas

Long time, no blog. The last couple of months have been rather busy, and I guess I've found other uses for the little bits of spare time I find now and then. I've also been trying to spend less time on the computer, but now that the holiday season is upon us, that notion is totally out the window. I started out with a personal commitment to shop locally, but have been let down by retailers who don't have what I'm looking for and don't seem to want to bother with special ordering for me or otherwise being helpful in anyway. Well okay then, fine. Amazon it is then!

I'm also working on some Christmas gift projects, and am starting to feel the crunch. One project that I'm pretty excited about (although I know it won't be as well received as I want it to be) is a binder for Kira filled with trading card pages containing photos of all the toys, art supplies, games, etc. that she already has and hardly ever plays with. (I'm trying to think of a clever name for it, but am not having much luck. I'm thinking "The I'm Not Bored Book" but am open to suggestions!) She, like many kids, often complains, "I'm bored" and I'm looking forward to directing her to her binder to help her find things to do. Since the pages are all pockets, we can add new toys and games to them as she acquires them. It's been difficult to work on since I can only do it when she's not home or asleep, but I'm hoping it will be worth it in the end. I'll try to post some photos of the finished product a little later.

As I said before, we've been busy. Adam has been working around 60 hours a week, and we miss him around here. He did take a chunk of time off the week of Thanksgiving to be with Kira (since she didn't have school and I did), but went to work when I got home and worked late into the night. He's been putting in lots of time on the weekends as well. Too bad he's salaried--we'd be rich by now if he got overtime! We did manage to get our Christmas tree the Friday after Thanksgiving at our favorite tree farm, Loch Lolly Chirstmas Forest. We brought in in the house a couple of days later, where it sat undecorated for another five days. Friday after school, I finally dove in and put the lights on our 8 foot Noble. We had to use all new ones this year, so I was able to count and there are 1,100 lights on it! We got it all decorated and were so pleased that we got it done early-ish this year.







However, when we came home this afternoon from an overnight visit to Salem, this is what we found:



The real bummer is that one of the lacquered apple ornaments (that I've had on my tree every year since I moved out on my own in 1991--I've had the popcorn garland that long too!) got wet from the spilled tree water and stained a spot in our carpet a lovely shade of neon pink that won't come out for anything. {Sigh.} Luckily, all of the ornaments survived the fall.

We made a quick trip to Salem yesterday so that Kira could go to see Bolt with Adam's parents, and Adam and I could go on a date. We had dinner at Thai Orchid (like we usually do when we go to Salem--time to branch out and find some new dining options down there). Then we walked around downtown and ended up hanging out at The Book Bin. (Adam worked at the one in Corvallis when we were in college.) It's a great new & used bookstore--kind like a smaller, manageable version of Powell's. We killed time there 'til it was time to go to our movie at Northern Lights. We finally saw The Dark Knight. It was our third try going to see this movie, and Kira called about 3/4 of the way through to say, "I want you"--stinker. I have to say, I could have skipped it. Yes, Heath Ledger was pretty brilliant as The Joker (oh man, that tongue thing he did really creeped me out) and Christian Bale is very easy on the eyes, but other than that it was pretty meh. I think I may have preferred Bolt after all.

Well, this week the holiday craziness really starts in with three parties within 36 hours this Friday and Saturday. (Any ideas for white elephant gifts? I would definitely consider this pencil sharpener {guess where you put the pencil!} but it's more than I want to spend....) I've also got some baking to do, and Adam still has to put up the outside lights. There's still some shopping to take care of, but for the most part I know what everyone is getting--which for me is the hardest part.

I'm going to sit down and get crankin' on our holiday cards, and maybe we'll actually get them sent out this year! In case I don't get back to the ol' blog soon, have a very merry Christmas!

xo,
Amy