Christmas Recap

This was, without a doubt, the best holiday season yet. For starters, I was able to actually enjoy my family a little during Christmas since I'm no longer working retail. For Christmas Eve, we went to church service in London, at the First United Methodist Church (where we were married). I wish I had thought to take a picture. What a gorgeous church. With all of the evergreens and candles, it was just breathtaking. My mom and dad came with us, which was awesome. I don't think I've ever gone to a Christmas Eve service. For the past 20 years I've been working on Christmas Eve, and before that we always went out of town (grandma's house), so we just didn't do church on Christmas Eve. A baby girl was baptized during the service and it was all just so touching and beautiful. I also learned something about my husband that I didn't know -- he's a loud hymn signer in church.

I hosted Christmas Day. Woo Hoo! First time hostess! My sister and her husband came up from Cincinnati with their dog (and my nephew), Wynne. My parents brought their puppies (Frankie & Lola). I got to use my china and new silverware. We ate a turducken. It was mass chaos with all of the animals. And I loved every minute of it.

On Monday we celebrated with Tom's mom and spent some time at my parents' house. Finally, today is Tom's birthday. All he wanted was for me to cook dinner. Bless his heart, he loves my cooking. I told him he could have any cake he wanted, and he selected a chocolate fudge cake with Toffee Cream icing. It tasted just as good as it looked.

Our house is back in order now. I think I've swept up all of the hair that my sister's dog so kindly left me. Our tree is still up, of course. (Isn't it bad luck to take it down before New Year's Day??) I think we're staying in on New Year's Eve, but that hasn't been finalized yet. I'm hoping we stay home - I'm looking forward to a nice, quiet evening.

Quelf!

Do yourself a favor and get this game. It is sooo much fun. My sister bought it for her hubby for Christmas, and we played it on Monday. I don't think I've laughed that hard in ages. You might have a tough time finding it. It seems to be out of stock at every Target I've been to lately, and it's $44 on Amazon.com. I'm holding out for a while. But I definitely want it. Here's the "official" description from Amazon:

Quelf is the game that gives random a new name! Use your creativity and imagination to answer crazy questions and perform ridiculous stunts. There’s only one rule – OBEY THE CARD! If a player obeys their card they get to move ahead! You’ll laugh until you cry with this outrageous, unpredictable, and fun filled party game. Be the first person to cross the finish line and you win! Enjoy a non-stop hilarious adventure with Quelf!

Cookies

Today was the first day that I have baked cookies during the holiday season for at least 10 years! I have been known to bust out a batch of cookies or cranberry bread at Christmas, but that's usually it. Working retail just sucks all of the energy and Christmas spirit out of you. So today, my mom came over and we baked all day long. We baked at my house because I have a brand new (bright red!) Kitchen Aid mixer that I wanted to use. (One of the best gifts I've ever received! That thing rocks!)

My mom is kinda good at baking. And by kinda good, what I really mean is she is amazingly talented. Born and raised on a farm, she was in FHA, 4H and also taught Home Ec in her early teaching days. So it's best to just do as she says in the kitchen. A couple of things you must know if you're baking with Cheryl:
1) Read the entire recipe first. If you don't, you will mess up somewhere and she will tell you, "That's why you read the recipe first".
2) Cream the butter and sugar together first.
3) If you're making cut out cookies, it's best to just let her roll out the dough herself. She likes that part.

Now Cheryl's going to read this and think that I'm making fun of her, but I swear that I'm not. We actually had a really good time and had a routine down pat. We made 5 different cookies today. Big Batch Kris Kringle Cookies, Peanut Blossoms, Snoballs, Peppermint Snoballs and Gingerbread Boys, Girls & Gnomes. It's mid afternoon and the kitchen is cleaned and the cookies are cooling. Between these and the cookies from last week's book club cookie exchange, I am all set! I may even have enough energy to make some cut out cookies later this week.... Maybe.

Black Friday Reminders

As I type this, several of my good friends are preparing themselves for a long night of work. In fact, a few of them have to be at work as early as 6pm to open their stores at 9pm. Ridiculous. Can you imagine handling hordes of Black Friday shoppers with a turkey hangover?? Me? I am thankful to not be working on Black Friday for the first time in 20 years. One of my friends, who is a store manager, posted this earlier today. I think it's a good reminder for all of you who may be shopping tonight or tomorrow.

I just want to set the ground rules for you shoppers:

1. If it says "Limited", that means the number of items we have. If you thought there would be more than 20-30 of them, you are wrong. Don't be #400 in line and wonder why the hot item is gone!

2. If the line is long outside, it is going to be long inside for the registers as well. Use your head! If you don't want to wait for 30 minutes i...n a checkout line, come in later!

3. Those people in front of you working, they have a family too! Remember, if we had more stuff, we'd love to get it for you, but Santa's Workshop isn't in the back...so when we are out of something, get over it!

4. Do us a favor, don't tell us "This is nuts!", "I hate this!", etc. You are a part of what is nuts and what you hate. Just be jolly and focus on keeping yourself and others safe!

5. Most important, how about just a little class and respect. A lot of hard work goes into making your 20 minute trip value added for you. Instead of yelling or complaining, how about a "Thank You" and "Great Job"!

Black Friday

This week I learned that Target is opening up at midnight on Black Friday. Seriously, Target? Do you HAVE to open at midnight? Welllll, technically it's listed in the news as 12:01 am on Friday. If that's Target's way of trying to make themselves look better by not "technically" opening on Thanksgiving night, it's not working. Then Wal-Mart announced 10pm. And, I just heard a couple of days ago that Toys R Us is opening at 9pm. Are you freakin' kidding me? I am so, so happy to be spending holiday season 2011 not working in retail. It is the first time in 20 years that I won't be missing one single family party or Christmas event. I get that companies are trying to make as much money as they can this holiday season in an uncertain economy. Makes sense. But I don't know that the people who make these decisions understand the impact it has on the morale of the employees that work in these fine establishments. The days going into Black Friday are rough. Let me break it down for you. First of all, Store Managers typically work a "late" shift on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Usually we do this to make sure that everything is wired for BF. This means that we could leave anywhere between 10pm Wednesday night and 6am on Thanksgiving Day. In 20 years of retail, I have had Thanksgiving dinner with my family maybe twice. Maybe. You're usually so exhausted that you just opt out of dinner - I can't imagine being the one to have to do the cooking. If you work for a company who opens at....let's say 9pm on Thanksgiving night....you have to be at the store by 7pm at the latest. The only good thing about Black Friday is that the day FLIES by. 14 hours later, you're back home and dead on your feet. Yes, I know that working retail was a choice. And there are a lot of good things about working retail, but the holidays are rough enough. Why 9pm on Thanksgiving night?? It's ridiculous. Which is why I'm boycotting Black Friday. I am okay with boycotting Toys R Us and Wal-Mart altogether this holiday season. Honestly, I don't really shop there anyways. But it would be too tough for me to boycott Target. I love me some Target. But I definitely won't be there Black Friday.

Birthday Blues? Not Me.

Lately, I've been in what my mom would call a blue funk. Three weeks ago today we buried my sweet cousin, Sarah. She was 20 and had been fighting cancer for 8 years. And I'm just so angry at God. So angry. Maybe I've been struggling with it because she was so young.... Kids just shouldn't have to go through what this girl went through for so long. And then last week, Tom's cousin, Rusty, died. Cancer as well. Diagnosed just three weeks ago. Three weeks from the time he went to the Dr. for what he thought was an ulcer. Can you imagine? When Tom called to tell me when the funeral was, I thought "Great - just how I want to spend my birthday". Selfish? Yes. I know. And I was very sad that this great man is no longer in our lives. He was like a brother to my man, so of course I love him! But to spend my entire birthday at a funeral - ugh. We got to that part of the funeral where the pastor asks if anyone wants to stand up and say something. (BTW - I hate that part. I always WANT to say something, but then I worry about looking stupid and end up regretting that I don't go up.) Anyways, Tom stood up. Tom is not one who does a lot of talking in front of people, so this was a really big deal for him. He told a story about Rusty and talked about how important family is. I was so, so proud on my man for standing up in front of all of those people and celebrating the life of his cousin. And, all of a sudden, it hit me. This is EXACTLY how I wanted to sepnd my birthday. With my soon-to-be husband and his family. A sad family, but a family full of love. So by the time we got home, Tommy offered to pick up dinner while I took a bubble bath. What a man, huh? So now I'm happily snuggled in pjs waiting for PF Changs. A perfect end to my birthday....and I seemed to have snapped out of my blue funk.

Cohabitation

The first full week of Tom and I cohabitating has come to a close. Let me first say that I never thought that I'd be living with someone before marriage. But, we're now 32 days away from the wedding. Seeing how I just mailed the final checks to the baker/photographer/DJ/florist, I figure that this is pretty much a sure thing. And I'm really glad that we have this moving stuff over with, because the next 30 days will be a whirlwind With that said, I have learned a few things about living with someone:

1) Living with someone is a lot different than them just being at your house all the time. Very. Different.
2) I didn't know that it was possible for someone to watch football from noon-midnight and not be completely sick of it. And....along the same lines.....
3) It is possible for someone to watch sports at the same time on two tvs. In two separate rooms.
4) Having another person in the house triples your laundry. I know that my friends with kids have ABSOLUTELY NO sympathy for me on this one. And, to be fair, Tom really doesn't have that much laundry. It just seems that way.
5) Tom is a morning person. Seriously. There's no middle ground. If he's awake, he's wide awake, happy and talkative. Me, not so much.
6) Choose your battles.
7) If you want a man to do something, you need to flat out tell him! There is no need to say,"Gee..I wish that someone would (start a load of laundry / take me out for dinner / whatever miscellaneous thing you want him to do)...."! You need to ask. Men don't get hints. And they also don't respond well when you say, "Well, I shouldn't have HAD to ask".
And, I would be remiss if I didn't add this one:
8) I am happier than I've ever been in my life.