Merry Christmas Part II

Now that it's the day after, I figured I'd post a little about Christmas itself.

Around 9 am, my mom came in and got us up. Another sign that we're old: Mom is getting the kids out of bed on Christmas morning. We got up and opened presents, then sat around for a bit playing with new stuff... a bit after 2 we left for Aunt Lisa's. Dinner was practically ready by the time we got over there, so we sat down to a lovely Christmas lasagna. :) Usually my grandpa makes it, but over the years he's gotten really sick of making "the damn lasagna" so this year my aunt took over. She did a lovely job. In the midst of dinner, I heard Bryon's phone ringing, so I tried to make a mad dash, but.. I missed it. I got a voicemail, and sure enough, it was Bryon. He ended up getting on the computer to text message me and said that his phone card stopped working; so no more calling from him. :( Anyway, I got on the computer directly after dinner and there he was. We got to talk for 20 minutes or so before he got kicked off the computer (the lines were HUGE, as I'm sure anyone could imagine, it being Christmas Day and all). My grandparents were amazed that I could type directly back and forth with him all the way from Iraq. :)

After racing my cousin Grayson on the PS2, and watching a brief karaoke session involving my aunt, mom and grandmother, we opened presents. Probably the funniest moment was Aunt Lisa opening the can of "radiant beans" my dad had made up for her. We had dessert and then went home. It was a good meal, and it's always good to see everyone. When I got home I immediately put on pjs, pulled out my knitting and the third Harry Potter movie, and settled in. Mom and I watched it and played around with the special features.

So, here's the Christmas haul: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD (obviously), Return of the King Extended Edition, three lovely sweaters, set of pretty coasters, IOU for the Jem DVD set :), the new U2 CD, Spiderman 2 DVD, Knitting Pattern-a-day desk calendar, pretty sparkly heart necklace from Avon (it has a magnet in it so you can wear it with the four hearst spread out, or pulled together to make a pendant), LOVELY Japanese decorative plate from my Grandpa, and a knitting magazine. And a paaaaartridge in a pear treeeeeeeeeee.

Today is my parents' anniversary. 29 years, I do believe. So... yaaaaay, Mom and Dad! :) I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I wonder what we'll be doing for New Year's?

Merry Christmas!

Hello... it's Christmas once again, and I hope everyone is having a lovely day filled with family and friends, delicious food, and of course... nice presents. :)

Once again I haven't posted in a while, so here's a recap of the past week or so:

- Work's going well.
- Bryon's unit was supposed to have their demobilization ceremony on NEW YEAR'S EVE. As in, BACK IN THE U.S. and only 3 hours away!!! But then they moved it to Jan. 3rd instead. I was very disappointed. The days are CRAWLING by, but at least we're back in single digits again.
- I had a lovely 25th birthday (on the 23rd). I had to work, but it was mostly a goof-off day anyway since half the people weren't there, and everyone was in vacation mode. We had a yummy birthday dinner of chicken, (lumpy!!) mashed potatoes, and carrots with cheese sauce. Mmmmmm. Then Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Lisa and the boys came up for cake and presents.
- We had our yearly 10 pm meetup at Applebee's. Everyone is home for the holidays by this time so, conveniently, my birthday gets to be quite the celebration. :D Sara, Stine, D, Donya, Josh, Josh's friend Heather, and Kim were there (even though Kim's car died on her!). I had nachos and, thanks to an errant piece of bacon, a free dessert (since when do you HAVE to pick a Brownie Sundae for it to be a free birthday dessert???). In the midst of it, Bryon made about 8 attempts to get me on the phone. I'd forgotten to refill mine, and his had a low battery, so I kept getting voicemails on his phone but I really don't think it was ringing. Then he text messaged me from IM, and finally we worked out that he could call me on Sara's phone, because it was free minutes (after 7) and had a full battery. So, thank you Sara for kindly letting me use the phone, and thank you lovely Bryon for working so hard to get in touch with me on my birthday. :D
- After Applebee's, Stine and Kim came back here and I gave Kim her Christmas presents. She quite enjoyed them, especially the 'lake water enema' she had given me as a gag gift for high school graduation. I wrapped it up in toilet paper (just like she'd wrapped it for me) and then wrapped THAT... and still, when she hit the toilet paper, she just went.. "OH, NOOOOO!!!!!" Haha.
- The birthday haul: Aladdin special edition, lovely new winter coat (that I picked out anyway...), wall clock, French memo board, money from my grandparents, Haibane Renmei DVD #4, movie purchase coupon from my brother, Starbeam My Little Pony, cute star earrings with blue gems in them, pretty paper stars, an adorable Boyd's Bears ornament, with the bear dressed in an Army uniform (hee hee), a very cute purse, and a load of Japanese snack food. :D Plus some cute cards.

On Christmas Eve, we mostly bummed around and then had a nice dinner; then we went to the Candlelight Service. Uhm.. it was... interesting. We've been going to the early service for years now, but they are gearing it more and more towards kids/family, and I think this year it might have pushed us over the edge. We had to watch several .avi movies on a big projection screen, sit through a (rather mediocre, sorry) puppet show, and act out parts of the Twelve Days of Christmas (we were the piping pipers). On top of it all, there was a typo in the Silent Night lyrics ("radiant beans from thy holy face") that nearly caused a major debacle. Aunt Lisa noticed it mid-song, pointed it out to my dad, and the two of them got in the worst giggle-fit... they were struggling soooo badly not to burst out laughing in the middle of a prayer, and their giggling got ME giggling too even though I had no idea about the radiant beans. It was hilarious. You know you're old when it's the adults and not the kids who are misbehaving in church! Maybe we'll find somewhere else to go next year, or go to the later service. More Christmas Eve highlights:
- After making our yearly tour around the circle to see everyone's Christmas lights, we came back and opened our stocking presents. (The contents: a pretty star stamp, a monthly organizer that matches my scrapbook, Cadbury chocolate-covered orange cookies, the new Gwen Stefani CD, and some mini envelopes for scrapbooking (ok, so I put those in there myself).
- We watched White Christmas - and amazingly three of us did make it all the way through, although my brother was released after he attempted to slither out of the room so that we wouldn't notice him. It didn't work.
- For the first time, I had to have a midnight present-wrapping marathon, and I don't even have kids! At least my shopping was done about 4 days before Christmas. :)

Well, Merry Christmas everyone! I think I will save the actual Christmas Day post for later because, well.. it's not over yet! In the meantime... we're not having a white Christmas, but we ARE having a White Deer Christmas:

Stop pie.

Another spam email.

Anyway, some great news!!! I got a phone call and an email yesterday... the demobilization ceremony is on NEW YEAR'S EVE. That means the guys will be out of Iraq before the new year even starts!!! :D :D :D :D Soooo, I'm going to take the 31st off and hopefully stay up there two days, driving back down on the 2nd (probably work that afternoon). I am so excited.

I hope Bryon doesn't have to stay up there too long. I think having SOME time to take a break is good, but I know it will drive him crazy not being able to leave.

Mike's visit went really well. I think we sufficiently entertained him. We also did birthday and Christmas stuff while he was here (my birthday is the 23rd, his is the 24th) and boy did he blow me away. He got me this adorable Swarovski crystal panda, some little Swarovski crystal stick-on gems, and this BEAUTIFUL stained glass panel that you hang in front of a window, with a woman holding a cherub who has colorful butterfly wings. It's just gorgeous. Can't wait til I have someplace to put it. :D

We had the Munson Christmas this past Friday... we went to Olive Garden, which is completely weird since we've never gone out for this event, ever. It was a lot of fun though - and I had the MOST DELICIOUS Chicken Castellina. After dinner everyone came back here for brownie sundaes and all the women looked through scrapbooks and stuff. It was great fun.

In other news, Stiner-beanius has arrived home so she and Sara and I have been hanging out. Yesterday Stine and I went to Ithaca so I could FINALLY pick up my green contacts, and we got a lot of Christmas shopping done. I have one more tiiiiiny thing to get and then I think I'm done. Amazing. I had a huge wrap party last night. I am trying to use up a lot of my ribbon and bows this year, because we have this HUUUGE supply of them and then we don't end up using any. So the presents look pretty. :)

When we were hanging out at Denny's last night, a young messenger (we figure about 18 or 19) arrived at our table with a huge bowl of creamers and a note "from the guy in the blue.... oh wait, they're all wearing blue..." It seems a certain Calvin wanted us to have his phone number. It was pretty funny but we all agreed that 1) they were toooooo young and that 2) "love favors the bold," which did a lot for the messenger but not much for poor Calvin, whichever one he was. We did call the cell phone number to thank him for the creamers. :)

Ok, I'm off to get cracking on some stuff... I'm still working on The Secret Christmas Project and I think I've fallen behind on my (unwritten) schedule. I'm soooooo glad I have today off. I'm just going to stay in and relax, considering how gross it is outside.

Later I'll post something about my Gigantic Sailor Moon Dilemma.

Family fun

Today I worked 10-1, just to cover the gift shop while Lisa was at an event at Tanglewood. Not very exciting.

I've been working on a Secret Christmas Project, which of course I can't describe in any greater detail for another couple of weeks. ;) It's going very well though; I'm very happy with it.

This afternoon, an amazing thing happened. My whole family went to see National Treasure. We went to a cheap matinee show so it only cost us about $12 total. Basically, my parents thought it was pretty good, while my brother and I thought it had many dumb moments, very nearly outweighing the good moments. I don't really like Nicholas Cage in the first place. I guess what saved it for me in the end was... I'd really like to think there are mysterious things out there like that! Mysterious, cryptic clues to hidden treasures undisturbed for centuries. All the stuff about the Masons and the Illuminati, etc., fascinates me. My mom says if I like that stuff, I should read The Da Vinci Code. I've been meaning to - maybe that should be next after Hammerfall; except of course, I have the book Lisa lent me, plus another that Aunt Lisa lent me... not to mention TONS of books in my room already that I haven't read yet. Well, I've got to start somewhere!

We stopped at Burger King for dinner. Let me write it here, the next time I think about ordering a Whopper instead of a Whopper Jr., someone STOP ME. Those things are massive.

Well, I'm off to work more on my Secret Project while The Fellowship of the Ring plays on TV. :) A good end to a good day.

"Don't be evil."

This is a great motto. And this is why Google is cool.

...and... AHHHH!!!! They almost killed Charlie!!! AAACK! I had to call Sara right after Lost was over, to see if she watched it and to having someone to flip out with. She did watch it, and we did flip out together. Much luff. Happily, they are showing the first two episodes next week. I'm glad to get a chance to see them, since I came in at episode 5 (let's just ignore the fact that I keep missing it by accident).

Actually, and this is truly sad... I didn't know today was Wednesday until Lost came on. But hey, that means today was Hump Day and I only have two more days of work before the weekend! Er, technically I am working 10-12 on Saturday as well.. but that's not a big deal. I get so caught up in the ads and website work I'm doing that I lose track of time sometimes.

I don't know what I'm going to do this weekend. I'm having that same kind of aimless feeling I had while working at Verizon - I get some time off and I'm so overwhelmed with stuff I could do, that I have a hard time choosing one thing. I end up shifting from one thing to another in rapid succession, and it's kind of hard for me to complete a task. Well, tonight I was determined to fix that, so I placed orders with J.C. Penney and Victoria's Secret (I'd been planning these orders for a good two weeks), wrote the Flat Stanley letter to go with Bryon's picture, and now I'm trying to find Bryon's info so I can find out what went wrong with his AT&T card. Oh yeah, I also mailed the CD of Bryon pictures to his sister, FINALLY. I'm so ashamed it took me this long. -_-;;;

Another happy thing - I think I can officially say I've learned to knit continental style! I think it's less of a strain on my right thumb joint, which has been subject to severe pain lately. :( I don't want to have to quit my hobbies! I actually rather like continental style; it really feels like a conservation of movement instead of having my right hand leave the needles and throw the yarn. It's getting me back into that mode where I want to be working on a project ALL THE TIME.

So. Tomorrow night Sara and Mike and I are going to hang out. Not sure what we'll do. I'm excited about some of the movies coming out - Finding Neverland and Flight of the Phoenix in particular (not sure what their release dates are). Right now, though, I'm off to fix Bryon's card, write another Bryon letter, and SLEEEEP. At least tomorrow is Thursday!! :D

It boggles the mind...

...how much stuff one can accumulate in (nearly) 25 years.

I/We are making great strides in the basement. I am through all my apartment stuff, plus I've now gone through all the stuff from my old room - years of memorabilia, stuffed animals, etc. etc. Came up with two more boxes of stuff for the Salvation Army, and another bag of garbage! How scary that this stuff was all sitting down there for so long, and for no reason.

This organizing thing feels soooooo good. It's a giant load off my mind.

ANYway... heard from Bryon today, sort of. He messaged my phone but in a moment of pure idiocy I said to myself, "that couldn't have been my phone, Bryon's not due back for another week" and went on with my life, er... lunch. Turns out he was on briefly; he emailed me and said they've managed to rig up an internet connection. All the guys want to use it, of course, so he didn't have much time.

Oh yeah, the Kim visit. Basically, we arrived, we sojourned to the mall, I went to Circuit City and exchanged the blasted foam dance pad that stopped working on the first day I had it for a regular pad, and we returned to Kim's apartment. We then discovered that a Price Chopper run was needed (well actually, a Target run was needed but they weren't open anymore). We gathered all the chaos into piles, replaced a few light bulbs.. and... that's about it. Mike and I wanted to do more, but there's only so much someone else can do in YOUR apartment, you know? YOU have to do organizing and sorting and putting away. I wish we could at least have vacuumed though.

Had interesting conversations with Mike on the way there and back. Overall, it was a good trip.

Ok, all this cleaning is wiping me out, so I'm off to bed.

Cheese face on a sandwich

(I just got a spam email with that as the subject line.)

Yesterday I went on a Mission: Organization, you know, just like the TV show. Except instead of the hosts, my mom was helping me; we didn't drag anything out onto the lawn; and I was just working on MY stuff. Which is still a scary amount of stuff.

I went through all my stuff from my apartment(s) and sorted it, weeded it out, and repacked it so that now I know all the boxes are labeled correctly. Plus I know there's nothing in the boxes that I don't want. We are donating bags and bags and bags of stuff to the Salvation Army; some clothes, but more... stuff. Dishes, framed pictures, knick-knacks, stuffed animals, just.... STUFF.

And now I have 5 heaping laundry baskets less of stuff! :D :D :D :D :D *dances*

Of course... the amount that remains is still too scary to be contemplated.

Today I'm going to Kimmmmm's. Mike is coming with me. We are going to hit the mall, and cleeean. I'm sure Mike will be thrilled about the cleaning part. :D But oh well, that was the original mission for this trip anyway.

Triple Treat Torte-ure

Ok, let's just call this "an interesting baking experience." The corn pudding was a success - smells marvelous, actually - but making the pie was torte-uous.

First off, the crust did NOT want to stay in the pan. I was trying to smoosh a thin layer of crust (really just flour and butter) into a greased 13x9 inch pan, per instructions. It wouldn't stay put. Secondly, the chocolate layer was about the consistency of rubber. I'm sure you can imagine how hard that is to spread around. The peanut butter layer came out beautifully... but now the two layers are very much mixed together; and I will just pretend it was meant to be that way. The top is just Cool Whip, with a few chocolate chips and peanuts grated onto it. I'm sure it will all taste fine. I'll just know not to use a 13x9 inch pan next time, and not to beat the chocolate layer for the full two minutes.

[EDIT.] AND HOW ABOUT PUTTING IN THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF MILK NEXT TIME. #&*@&$^@&%@*&$.

The printer was hungry

Things are going well. The job is challenging but doable, and on top of that.... I got to make a half-page ad for a tourism guide!! *_* Wheeee~~~ The one annoying thing about today was that the printer stopped printing envelopes. Yesterday it was perfectly fine, then today it was apparently hungry, because it ate EVERY FRIGGING ONE.

Tonight I am making corn pudding (it's really more like... moist corn bread) and "Triple Treat Torte" for the staff Christmas party tomorrow night. I enjoy making things like this, although the crust for the pie-thing was reeeeally annoying. I know that the end result will be worth it, though - we had it at Thanksgiving. :D Aunt Lisa is definitely the Queen of All Desserts, and was kind enough to give me both recipes over the phone! If the torte turns out pretty maybe I'll take a picture. :)

It's still probably going to be another week before Bryon can call. Argh. But we got an email listing dates for the reunion/reintegration briefing for families of deployed soldiers - a very good sign!!! :D I'm trying to wait patiently... not doing a very good job.

Bryon's friend Mike is here on leave from Iraq. He always stays at Bryon's house, so it's no different now that Bryon's not here. Last night we went to the mall. Not very exciting, but a treat for any Army guy who's spent 9 months in the desert! Mike is active army (unlike Bryon, who's National Guard) and has just re-enlisted for another 5 years. That will put him at 15 years in; after 20 he can retire!! Then I think he will open a tattoo parlor and design amazing tattoos for people. :D He'd be soooo good at that.

Well, I'm off to bake some more...