i am a butterfly…

Posts Tagged ‘krismas’

Un-decking the halls.

Letting her enjoy the last bit of time she has left with her tree.

A list for today, in no particular order.

• I woke up with a pounding sinus headache this morning and took some Excedrin then went back to sleep on the couch. The headache is still there, but the pills built a little wall around it. It may break through the wall soon.
• Sinus headache is what I said, but I think it’s also partly a stress headache. Life has been feeling really chaotic lately and that’s making me stressed and anxious. The fact that Krismas is looming so near isn’t helping.
• On the positive side, a project that was meant to launch on January 4 has been pushed back to at least January 25. Moving that deadline did a lot to lessen my anxiety.
• Also on the positive side, the tree is up and the wreath is on the door. Once the tree is decorated and all the boxes are out of the living room, my stress level should drop considerably.
• Most of my shopping is done, though I still need to finish the scarf for my mother-in-law’s husband. I really can’t believe how long this simple scarf is taking to knit. It needs to be finished today, too, so it can have a nice bath and have time to dry in time to be wrapped and shipped on Saturday. That’s causing a bit of stress, let me tell you.
• We took all our change to a Coinstar machine last night and made 60 bucks. That’s like found money.
• The search for pine garland is ongoing. Pine garland is a necessity for draping the living room archway, since we have a fake tree. I need the pine garland to offset the fake and make pretty smells in the house. It’s hard to find around here if you don’t get it really early.
• Being stressed and anxious was making me think that it was too late to decorate this year, which Scott convinced me was silly. He’s right. Though the decorating is adding to my stress level, it will be better when it’s done. And then I can sit in my living room with my pretty tree and the lights in the windows and the smell of pine in the air and drink (wine, beer, bourbon… something), and then I’ll feel happy about the holiday season.
• Monday is the Winter Solstice. Scott took the day off and that’s when we’ll have a big holiday meal. Roast pork and cranberry sauce, most likely. Yum.
• I think we need to start sending out holiday cards again. I got sick of doing it a few years ago and stopped, which has caused us to be dropped from a lot of people’s lists, I think. Either that, or everyone else is getting sick of sending them, too. If that’s the case, I can hardly blame them. It’s a pain.

Okay, that’s all I have for you today. A long list of mostly complaints. T’is the season!

I can’t believe it’s already December 5. It’s kind of hard to get into the holiday spirit yet, even though I have to finish all my shopping in the next few days. Since I’ll be in the hospital until a few days before Krismas, I need to get everything ordered, delivered, wrapped, and shipped out by the 15th.

Surprisingly, I’m almost done. I need to pick up something else for Scott, and some stocking stuffers, and I still need to figure out what to give my mother’s husband, but other than that, I’m done. The best part is, I remembered that I had a whole bunch of Amex points saved up and decided to use them, so I haven’t even had to spend much money. Originally, I was saving them for a KitchenAid mixer, but I’d rather use them on holiday shopping right now. I was able to get my mother-in-law and her husband a $100 gift card for Ruths Cris for exactly zero dollars. That is so worth having to wait longer for the mixer.

I wish that I could say what I’m giving Scott and my mom and my brother, but they all read here and that would ruin the surprise. I’m so bad at keeping secrets about gifts, though. I just want to tell everyone right away. Suffice to say that Alex’s gift is so awesomely cool and I know he’s going to love it. Scott, too. And I have hopes that my mother will like hers, too.

Now we just need to get the house cleaned and decorated. Then maybe it will feel like Solstice season.

I hope you have a warm and wonderful day, whether you celebrate a religious Christmas or a more secular Krismas, as Scott and I do.

We celebrated with a wonderful evening last night, filled with plenty of wine, A Christmas Story, and a fabulous meal of ribeye steaks with bleu cheese compound butter and caramelized onions. On the side, we had green beans with onions and caramelized apples. There was pumpkin souflé for dessert.

After dinner, we tore into the pile of gifts under the tree. We traditionally open gifts on Krismas Eve, because that’s how my family did it and also it allows for sleeping in on Krismas morning. My haul was rather impressive this year, which is amazing considering we put a much firmer cap on spending than in other years. Aside from the traditional new pajamas, Scott gave me two adorable little handmade elephant ornaments from India, a complete set of Harmony Guides , Teuscher truffles, and a beautiful bracelet made of silver and amber.

There was also another gift. A funny one, because I gave him the exact same gift. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned Civilization IV to him, because I was trying to feel out whether he would want it or not. He seemed excited by it, so I got it for him. Meanwhile, he thought I was hinting that I wanted it, and he got it for me. When I saw him put the wrapped gifts under the tree and noticed the gift that could only be a PC game box, I just knew. So as soon as I had his gifts wrapped, I told him there were gifts we each needed to open right away, so I could see something. Sure enough, I was right and we were opening the exact same gifts. That was pretty amusing, and we’re both happy about it, because now we can play at the same time.

From Alex, there were a couple of very cool t-shirts. Our friend Jeff sent an X-box game and chocolate (thanks, Jeff!).

From my mom and her husband, we got a fantastic gift: a Ticketmaster gift card. That was a super thoughtful gift, and one that we’ll definitely get a lot of use from!

Today, Scott and I plan to kick back and play games, drink champagne and eat little appetizers, and generally do nothing. I hope your day is merry and bright and spent with the ones you love.