Where did the time go? I haven't posted since Thanksgiving...goodness.
Well, my first attempt at NaBlaPoMo wasn't too bad. I posted 16 times, out of 30 days, during the month of November. I had fun doing it. Obviously, I kind of fell off towards the end of the month, but that just means we have been busy.
We had a great Thanksgiving...as always. A quick recap on what we have been up to the past week or so.
As I mentioned in my last post, we were in Austin for part of Thanksgiving weekend. We got the Jeep passenger window fixed...nothing like not having a ghetto window, with layers of tape just to keep it up, fixed. The small things in life. Bonus was that my dad paid for it for us too. Our Christmas present. Not exactly what I usually ask for, but was very happy when he offered. Plus he was happy too, since he doesn't have to come up with something else for us. ha!
I did get up and go shopping on Black Friday, but I didn't leave the house until 10:30ish...and got all that I went for. Which wasn't much. My highlight of shopping that day was running into two friends that I only keep "in touch" with on FB. Great to see them! Jim, Sydney and I met my dad, Brad, Jessie and Brianna for lunch too. It was so nice to see them all. I even got a few smiles out of Brianna...love that little girl! :) After lunch Jim headed back home, while Sydney and I stayed at my mom's. That night we were going to go to Christmas in the City...but it was to darn cold. We skipped it. We went to WalMart instead to check out their Christmas section and had dinner at McDonald's. We drove by the festivities on Main St...didn't look like we missed much. Then it was home for the night. Sat. we enjoyed lunch at Steve's pizza...YUM! Then we took Sydney to "Main Street" (store). They have an awesome indoor playground for kids..and she needed to burn off some energy. Mom and I took turns looking at all the great things they have there. After that we packed up and headed home. Made a quick stop at the Medford Outlet mall so we could go to Carter's. Made it home in time for bed (for Sydney) and for me to fall asleep on the couch...ha!
What did we do last week? Good question! I know we were busy, but must have been with random things. Monday night I "had" to run out to get Sydney's "Santa" gift...I was worried they would run out of them (an awesome bike). Feels so good to have almost all of her gifts bought. Thursday night I had a TS party to attend and before I went, I had to find a Leapster Explorer for Sydney, from G & G Jagow. Found it! Whew! I think that means all of her big gifts are bought! And Friday was a snowstorm...during rush hour. Which means that it took me almost 2 hours to get to daycare...usually I can make it there in about 40 - 45 mins. Needless to say I was happy to get home. Those are days when I question why I live where we do. ha!
Saturday was spent cleaning. We also had Jim's holiday party on Sat. night. Well, really it was for Intertec, which he sub-contracts for them. He probably knows more people there than he does for the actual company he works for. The life of a contractor I guess. The party was at the Wabasha Caves and was catered by Cosetta's. YUM!! Not only was I excited for us to be invited to a work holiday party (neither of us had one last year), but the fact that it was catered by Cosetta's made it even better. They also had Casino Night, where you could earn money to use later to bid on auction items. Great prizes too. Lots of fun playing "21" and "Hi/Lo" (I think that's what they were called). We won a docking station / stereo for our ipod at home. Nice! They also had gifts for everyone when you left. Another cool thing was that all W2 employee's (which Jim is not...remember he is a sub-contractor) received an Ipod Touch as another holiday gift.
Sunday we went to get our Christmas Tree. We thought it would be fun to go to a Christmas Tree farm, however, being that I'm a Christmas Tree farm virgin, I had no idea that we needed to dress up as if we were going to play in the snow. HA! Needless to say, Jim was dressed for the part, but Sydney and I were NOT. So, instead of cutting down our own tree, we opted to buy one already cut. Good choice. Much more spendy then our normal one at Home Depot, but...we were already there and it was freezing. After a little searching for the 3 Christmas Tree stands that we own (yes, 3...don't ask), Jim found them and the tree is now sitting in our entry way, waiting for us to bring it up to the living room. It is so pretty and smells so good. Can't wait to decorate it. Speaking of which, after we got home with the tree, I made a turkey (we wanted a Thanksgiving meal that we didn't get on Thanksgiving...it was yummy), but I also pulled out all our Christmas stuff from under the stairs. Six totes of
crap stuff...who needs that much Christmas stuff? NOT US! There was also other things under the steps (our only real storage in this house) that I just keep re-packing each year. Needless to say, I was in the mood to get rid of stuff. And I did! I still am. After clearing out the non-Christmas stuff we don't need, I moved on the Christmas stuff. I'm still working on it, but I think I should get it down to 3, maybe 4 totes. Can't wait! The stuff is all being donated to our friend who does auctions, with the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. Win win for all!
I guess this wasn't a super quick recap....but oh well, that's me. Once we get the tree decorated in the next couple of days, I will post pictures.
I hope to remain consistant at posting...most likely 2 - 3 times a week. Everyday was a little difficult. A few times a week seems much more manageable.
Happy Holidays!
