Tag Archives: Christmas

Pre-Christmas partying


This was the week of parties.

It started out Tuesday when I took my department at work out to lunch at Pacifica Del Mar. A friend of mine recently bought into the restaurant and has turned it into a really lovely spot. Been hearing so many good reviews and was finally able to have a good excuse to wander over. Lunch was so good that I already promised them a February visit for all their birthdays. Here’s my Ahi salad – fabulous!

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Wednesday night was the first of two cookie parties. This was with the Leg Up group and even with two no shows there were PLENTY O’ COOKIES to exchange:

LegUP cookies

Poor lighting, but you can see those chocolate truffles up at the top? Yeah….my downfall….they are AMAZING!

LegUp cookie party

Even though we had enjoyed a pretty good dinner, we still dove into the treats afterwards!

So, those truffles – I purposely took in more than half of my haul of the truffles in to work the next day. Even though we would only be there Thursday and then half a day Friday, I had to offload some of them. Because they are SO DAMN GOOD that I would have chomped them all down by myself. As it is, the half that I kept with me? There is only one left. I’ve rationed myself to one a day after eating about four on Thursday and at least that many Friday. No self control with those!

Thursday the big bosses upstairs took out the managers to another fancy spot in town called Burlap. Another relatively new spot that I’ve been wanting to check out and it was also really nice. Atmosphere is really fantastic and the food was a hit with everyone. My favorite was dessert (since I’ve clearly not had enough sugar in my life!)…an espresso/ice cream blend with whipped condensed milk concoction on top. Oh my WORD was that good!

Friday was a short day at work and I thought it would be fairly easy to slide on over to the closest mall for a couple of holiday gifts.

I left work at 12:15….and gave up at 12:45 when 20 minutes of circling resulted in no parking spots! Then I sat through ridiculous traffic just to get AWAY from the mall and over to another area off to the north. At 2pm I was finally eating lunch after having purchased ONE item on my list. I was frustrated and fearing what the weekend would bring so I vowed to get out early Saturday.

Which would be kinds hard since cookie party #2 was Friday night. Thankfully just next door :-) I actually managed to come away from that one without a huge number of additional treats! I’m down to two cookie containers now (and the lone truffle).

Saturday I managed to get out at the perfect time. Back to the dreaded mall with a parking spot secured immediately – yay! That was at 10am and I was home by 3pm with all items on my list procured. Then I tackled the wrapping and by 5pm I was finally done – yes, it took me that long because I was being very creative with the containers I used and the left over wrapping paper from prior years. Plus, there was the inevitable feline “assistance”.  They are not too thrilled that one of their favorite napping spots is now blocked off:

Tree gifts

So the presents are wrapped, cookies baked and consumed – now what you ask?

Time to run some of those damn cookies OFF!

Sunday morning trail run today we set out to explore a new spot – Lake Hodges. It was COLD and a little wet but still just perfect. 6 miles later I felt a little less guilty about the week’s food intake.

Lake Hodges

Of course, later on tonight we will start it all over again :-) I’ve got beef stew/soup in the crock pot and the ingredients for a pot of glogg and we will fill our bellies, fill our mugs, and then head out to walk the neighborhood ooohing and aahing and Christmas lights. Wherein I will gather ideas for next year :-)

One last photo – Lake Hodges was gorgeous today – glassy and calm providing the perfect reflection of the hills around it. Which, from the right angle and distance, look like a sleeping brontosaurus. This is the hump:

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Happy Festivus!

Merry Christmas Eve!

and Merry Christmas (if I don’t get back in here again until after)!

More ornaments!


 

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OK, well, just one since I don’t have time for much more, but this seems to The Color right now. When I put events or meetings in my calendar I use a color coded system to organize them by the type of event. Purple happens to be the color I assigned for “Party” and given that it is December, my calendar for the next two weeks (starting tonight) is exploding in PURPLE!

So, here is the prominent purple ornament from the tree. Yes, it really is that big! I love sprinkling some non-conforming colors into my tree. Purples, blues, pinks to brighten up the more traditional red/green/gold/silver patterns. Another one originally from my mom – it’s not quite as old as the first two but it is also probably a good 10-15 years old at this point.

Anyhow, off to the first purple event – 16′s end of year football team party. If I approach him properly I may even get a picture of him and with him tonight – in dress clothes! A tie! A button down shirt! Shhhhhh….keep your fingers crossed that I can pull that off :-)

Merry Go Round


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It’s a tree ornament AND a state of life!

Another old classic, though not as old as the mouse. This one has been around ever since we started using white lights in a tree – which I think is pretty much when my parents bought the first fake tree we owned and my mom and I perfected the art of “wrapping” the branches with over a 1000 lights. Yeah, really. It was pretty obnoxious – and very very bright!

This ornament is almost more entertaining in the daylight. What you do is remove one light from a strand and plug in the merry go round instead. And then, it spins. Hence the slight blurring of the black horse. The mirrored bottom and top accents reflect the lights all around it. But, when positioned properly on the side of the tree nearest a window that gets direct sunlight at certain points of the day…it also catches THAT reflection and then bounces light all around the surrounding wall.

Given that the ornament is at least 25+ years old, I am quite impressed that it is still going strong!

Me this week? Not so much :( Started out feeling a bounce back from the cold and other stuff on Monday & Tuesday. Even baked a batch of chocolate cookies to follow up on the first jello spritz batch. But then the whole car sharing with 27 got a little complicated this week and started weighing on me Wednesday. As did the news that my dad had chest pains and was in the hospital. That meant spending Thursday with my mom while we waited for those tests though still with lingering transportation issues covering 27′s work day. He got a ride into work at the last minute, but I still had to muddle through worse than ever evening traffic to pick him up after a long day of sitting around.

Thankfully my dad is OK. Nothing major to fix or surgery needed. Just some new medications he should take to help his heart work more efficiently. It’s not working at 100%, but after bypass surgery and at his age, they don’t expect it to do that. It’s a relief that nothing more invasive than the tests had to be done, that’s for sure!

But yeah, it was a long, out of sorts week and I was very happy to know that today I could have a ‘normal’ day and have my car the whole time.

Yes, I am a super independent control freak who needs to keep certain things in order so that I keep a grip on sanity. Sue me. It works :-)

The transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas is complete!


I toyed with the idea of putting off the outdoor decorating until next weekend given that Thanksgiving was SO early this year. But then, I saw that there is a first winter rain storm predicted to arrive next weekend – and this weekend was gorgeous. Warm even in the middle of the day.

So after two days of Thanksgiving, I did move on.

Renee played helper elf again for the harder parts requiring the ladder. Thank heavens too because I had to break the rules and stand on the very top step to place lights at the highest point above my front door.  It also helps to have two brains straining to remember the logistics of light and extension cord placement – one of us could usually get a spark of memory going!

There was still a bit of drama and, yes, a complete redo of a major segment. Just as Renee was leaving we noticed there was a strand along the long wall that was burned out. Ugh! Then we both remembered this foiling us last year too and I had discovered that the strands I used on the wall were kind of off market and not sold in local stores so I couldn’t replace any dead bulbs easily. Figures! I guess when I started switching to LED strands, I bought some online that aren’t commonly used. Last year I think I “hid” that segment on one end when we tend to have extras anyway. Then I was supposed to buy new lights for the wall at the after Christmas sales….but, I forgot.

After she left, I ran to the store, bought the necessary replacement strands and proceeded to take down everything we had put up from the back fence all the way around the long wall – double UGH! All in the dark along with some bonus cold fog. Yay.

This morning I waited until the fog had burned off and went back out to finish. Then I waited until it was dark so I could see the results. And then? I saw that the two red bows hung on the two palm trees that are the hardest to access – were each only half lit up. ARGH!

I’m ignoring those for now.

The inside will be done over the next week or so. Window frame lights and mantle/piano/TV stand are done but the tree will take time. I saw a tree posted by a friend on Facebook and now I have a bit of an inspiration for a new decorating theme. One that does not require any new purchases. Winner!

New feature – wrapped the post with strands my mom gave me. Please note that the snowflakes go all the way UP. Rawr!

View from across the street of the side wall and hillside. Those are the cooperative bows on palm trees. I cut off the rebellious ones.

New fence – much easier to hang lights on than the too low crumbling mess that used to be out there. That corner behind the peach tree was a challenge – thanks Renee for squeezing back there!

One of my favorite views – since the backyard is pretty small, with every edge covered, it just glows all around you. Plus, you can see in to the white lights inside.

My favorite pictures from Christmas


More to come later, but we are truly a goofy bunch as proven by these candid shots The Boyfriend (and I) took:

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I was one of THOSE people this week


You know the ones.

People who don’t do a stitch of Christmas shopping until the days of December begin with a ’2′.

It was just a horrible combination of time + money availability not lining up until after the 15th of the month.

Then because my company is so generous with the holiday time off, I looked at my last day being 12/21 (ending at noon mind you) and thinking that 3.5 days was somehow PLENTY enough to get things done.

Sure, I am hosting lunch as usual which means cleaning and meal planning but NO WORRIES right? 3.5 whole days!

OK, then I remembered I was invited to an old friend’s house on the evening of the 24th. Which is GOOD since Alex is gone and I am quite used to sitting at home on the 24th watching It’s A Wonderful Life and waiting for his dad to drop him off here. Which isn’t happening this year since they are in Sweden. So rather than possibly sitting at home feeling blue it is good that I have a change of routine that takes me out of the house.

Except I have to leave here at 3:30 tomorrow.

So now I am down to 3 days.

And then Nick calls to remind of the 3 appointments he has Wed afternoon, Thursday evening and Friday mid-day.

All good and necessary as he FINISHES his DUI classes (finally!) and also gets some much needed medical visits in. He got himself a JOB starting next week – just part time but it’s WORK and that’s awesome.

But – this means chunks of time taken out of each day.

And suddenly, 3.5 days doesn’t seem quite so much!

I shopped locally Wed afternoon and marveled at how crowded it was. Not horrid, but surely more packed than normal in our local shopping center.

I had to hit the mall Thursday and it truly was PACKED. I was mostly surrounded by men or men +boys shopping for their women. I even was asked to consult with a couple of them on purses! Even though it was packed I was able to check out pretty easily and zipped out of there feeling not too stressed.

The roads were just teeming with cars though. Many zipping around as if no one else was on the road. That part was kinda scary.

Another outing early this morning  to another packed to the gills store where the checkout line wound just about half way back into the main aisles. It moved quickly thankfully and the gal noticed that a picture frame I had picked up had been cracked. Of course, what she didn’t know is that it most likely was cracked IN my basket as I carried it through the store along with a wine bottle which clearly rolled into it one too many times! Oopsie.

Got out of there and then had to take Nick to the doctor and then we went to Wal Mart. Yes, Wal Mart on December 23rd. THAT was fun! So many people were cruising through those aisles that I swear we were breaking a capacity load of some kind. And I only had to get ONE thing!

The checkout line Gods smiled on me again though and we got out of there largely unscathed (there was the shopping cart that clipped Nick’s ankle, but he’s recovering nicely).

Another sort of stressful drive home past a fully engulfed big rig fire and YAY – I was done!

Then the wrapping began.

It’s still not done.

3 more boxes.

And I still have to get a few things at the grocery tomorrow.

And clean the house.

But I took the time tonight to make a pot of Glogg and Renee and I wandered around looking at Christmas lights.

New traditions.

But – I would be quite happy to never again be the last minute shopper driving around between 12/21-12/23 pulling her hair out to find everything for everyone on her list.

I suppose everyone has to do it once and that I am lucky it took this long to hit me.

I much prefer ordering online in November & sitting at home while UPS & Fed Ex deliver the gifts!

I’ll be the one sleeping all day Monday for sure :-)

Merry Christmas!

Has anyone seen my Christmas spirit?


I’ve determined (ok, perhaps my body determined) that I can no longer deny the existence of the cold that has been trying to take hold since last week. I am now officially snuffly & coughy & generally cloudy headed & feeling icky and I will most likely whine about these things for a few days while I continue to drown myself in vitamin C. I am sure the 2 day burst of super warm, dry air over the weekend did not actually help the situation (WTF with the 80 degrees and less than 20% humidity?!). Of course, now we are plunging into another cold snap with possible rain so – yay?!

Anyhow, I pretty much crashed after the decorating frenzy on Friday and my tree currently contains about 12 ornaments. The boxes are still out and opened all around it and I have yet to find proper inspiration to finish it up. Not that the cats care as you can see above – they have already staked out their favorite new spots.

I may be the only person on a diet after Thanksgiving. Well, diet is a strong word – let’s just say I am making sure to eat my proper share of fruits and veggies every day and I’m avoiding all desserts until I can get in for my 6 months cholesterol checkup blood test. I was due in last week, but who wants to fast and deal with something like that the week of Thanksgiving? I could go this week, but well, I don’t feeeeeel welll (whine whine)…and I kind of want to at least have 7-10 days of a healthy diet in my system just to be safe. So I have not yet begun my next stage in holiday mania – the cookie baking explosion. I think that might have to wait until the second weekend of December.

Alex has made his dad and I apoplectic again over his grades and his overall attitude towards school. He has a head bang inducing 1.83 GPA right now which means that if he DID want to play a winter sport, he couldn’t. Kinda sad when you can’t even maintain the low 2.0 it requires to play sports!  Two of his teachers have contacted me about it now. One says she spoke with him and his response to her was that he “just didn’t want to do the work”. Lovely. Where in the heck does he get this idea that he doesn’t have to even try? We don’t understand and all we can do at this point is remove EVERYTHING fun from him. We’ve demanded a 3.0 GPA in order to return his Xbox and internet access and a 3.5 in order to get his driver’s permit (he’s eligible in Feb). I’m sure that means we are in for a not so jolly time with him over the next couple of months but…oh well!! He has got to get over this “I can do the bare minimum to get by” crap.

I tried to run on Sunday which was most likely not the best idea but I just HAD to try! The results were that I can barely manage 20 minutes and that I most likely need to just not attempt it again until I truly feel better. Which I hope is this weekend because I cannot stand not moving! (more whining, yes!)

My company holiday party is this Saturday and I have almost no interest in going! Free food (and it’s good) and I just can’t muster up enthusiasm. (whine whine).

It’s day two back at work after Thanksgiving and I have not made one move to decorate this place. And I normally go just as crazy here as I do at home. So far? Bah! (whine whine).

Maybe I can blame it on the calendar. After all, it IS still November. I mean, it sure seemed awesome to have Thanksgiving so early at the time. But…maybe it’s throwing me off?

Or maybe it’s just this damn cold (whine whine).

 

Outdoor Christmas lights 2011 edition


Thanks to my new camera that actually captures the light display rather decently (except for the odd purple glow in the backyard with all the multi-colored lights surrounding it) – here is the 2011 edition of my Griswold-like yard. As always, this was put up in one day. This year my eager helper was Renee who objects to being called a jolly helper elf. I don’t know why – she was a boat load jollier than either of my boys would have been (and have been in prior years!) She fully supported my notion that we should leave no lights on the shelf – old school or new. I’ve largely replaced all the strings with LED’s now anyway so the few old style lights aren’t going to burn that much more electricity. So we dangled the old red bows on the palm trees and hung the other displays on the corner bougainvillea.

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That’s 4 strands of C7 LED’s on the side wall & 2 on the back wall

5 strands of C6s strung together from the edge of the front wall, around the corner and then along the hill – ALMOST to the end. Will be all the way when I hopefully received 3 more thanks to another SDG&E light exchange program.

12 strands of multi-colored icicle style LED strands on the back patio and roof line and in the peach tree

8 strands of snowflake LED lights on the main roof line

4 large LED snowflakes on the wall posts

2 LED shaped displays on either side of the garage

4 strands of white icicle LED lights on the front hill

6 candy canes

3 LED figurines

1 old school see-saw

4 old school red bows

4 old school rope lights on the hill

2 old school displays hanging from the bougainvillea

Set on two timers to run from 5-11pm

In other words – a shit-ton of Christmas lights! All strung up by two people over 5 hours. Woot!

 

 

How to get your teen to hug you


1) Buy a used Xbox 360 as an early Christmas gift

2) Set up an Xbox Live account so he & his brother can play games online with friends

3) Agree to get him the latest game (previously mentioned Black Ops, this time for the Xbox) also for Christmas. Stumble into a nice cash back ebates deal through Dell.com where you have a credit account. Buy it right away so it will be delivered on time.

4) Black Ops arrives two days later. You immediately spirit it up to your room along with a new Adam Lambert 2011 calendar that also arrived in the mail for you. Consider giving him the game early since he takes off for San Fran with his dad on Christmas night for a week away. Decide he can wait since he does already have the game at his dad’s & is no longer dying to play it, right?

5) On twitter, notice that a Padres player you follow has posted his Xbox live account name. Show it to the teen just for shits & giggles not really thinking he’d take it that seriously.

6) Watch teen jump up faster than he’s moved in months to race to the Xbox & sign in and find the Padres player.

7) Remind teen that Padres player has over 2000 followers on twitter and that probably a few dozen or so just did the same thing as him and don’t be too disappointed if Padres player doesn’t accept friend request right away.

8) 30 mins later here teen give a squeal…no, check that..his voice is changing…it was more of a squawk…of glee as Padres player accepts his friend request.

9) Go see what’s up as the teen checks to see what game Padres player is using since he is now online – Black Ops!

10) See teen fall to the floor in agony because he knows he *asked* me for the game for Christmas but he also knows that it’s still over 2 weeks away, and he only told me 2 days ago so there is no way….right?

11) See me grin ear to ear and ask him how badly he wants that game right now?

12) See teen’s eyes get huge & hear him promise to do dishes for a week and to do ALL of the cookie dough stirring this weekend and….

13) Tell teen the game is in your room under the Adam Lambert calendar on your dresser

14) See/hear teen break speed of light to retrieve game

15) As the game loads…teen turns to you…puts out his arms and says “Thanks mom!”

 

Yes, I even got a smile!

16) Padres player is so cool, he plays with the teen and *talks* to him during the game

17) Realize that the only way dishes will get done or cookies made is if you physically unplug the magical Xbox machine because otherwise that boy is butt planted into that chair forever. Well, not forever as that is his brother’s room. He plays there because his room is still elementary school boy style. What he doesn’t know is that I’ve got those plans laid out too so that this pose can soon be set up in his own room. :-)

Friday Beauty – ‘Tis the Season


******** FIVE YEARS OF BLOGGING TODAY *********

I really need to figure out the proper setting on my camera so that I can take a decent picture of my own house light display, but in lieu of that – I absolutely have to admit that I ADORE even the tackiest of light displays :-) Beyond the music (give me the Grinch soundtrack or Andy Williams singing anything & I’m happy), the smells (yes, I have an artificial tree, but I still love the pine/cinnamon/mulberry scent of the season), it is the lights that warm my heart. I LOVE driving through neighborhoods to see displays. I love organized light displays. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE lights!!

Have a very colorful, sparkly weekend!