The Day After

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  We had a really great day.  It started early...you'd think an almost 18 year-old and a 14 year-old wouldn't be up at the crack of dawn, anxious to see what Santa brought, but they were.  I'm actually grateful for that...I know eventually we'll have many, many Christmases without kids asking, "How early can we get up?" or cracking open the bedroom door with a "Wake up, it's CHRISTMAS!"  I'm gonna enjoy it while I can! The day ended with the Doctor Who Christmas Special...and a new Doctor!

We ventured into Historic Annapolis on Christmas Eve for a walk around, a warm beverage and some fun.  It was cold!  Well, the temps weren't that bad but the wind was burrrrr!!

The Pirie Five.

When we got home from Annapolis we got out some snacks and Clue and had some fun indoors!  While we were playing, it started to SNOW!!  We're always hoping for snow and when the flurries started, we got so excited.  Out on the deck...catching flakes and taking pictures.  The neighbors must think we're nuts.

The snow didn't last long and there was no white Christmas this year.  Maybe next year...hope springs eternal.

Mike and the kids got me the COOLEST gift...it's a print of a drawing of the City Dock in Annapolis.  And it's signed ("To Brenda") but the artist!  I can't wait to get this framed and hung in the house.  

Day after Christmas today.  Not much going on...

We'll probably watch a movie or two.  I'll knit (duh). I finished Veronica's sweater last night so photos of that will be forthcoming. I'm starting a new sweater with yarn Mike gave me for Christmas.  We have some returns to take care of but no way am I going anywhere near a mall today. I need to bake a cake for our knitting get together tomorrow at Dolly's house.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the gals and hearing about their Christmases.  

A new year is around the corner and I'm throwing around ideas for what needs to be considered a priority in my life in the New Year (can you tell I'm trying NOT to say resolutions).  haha

Plenty of time to think about that...for now.

Five for Friday: Didn't Do

This Five for Friday list is 5 things that I didn't do this year for Christmas.  In an effort to put less stress on myself (and my family), capture that elusive Christmas Spirit, hang on to it with all my might...and smile more this season.

1.  I'm not sending Christmas cards. Sorry if you're disappointed.  I'm considering sending a Happy New Year's card with a photo of the whole family sometime in January.  I know many of our friends and relatives like to see how the kids have grown so I'd like to send something. Being so far away from a bunch of people we love, I really need to send something.  It can wait.

2.  I did A LOT of shopping online this year.  In fact, most of my shopping I did online.  It's wonderful when you can shop in your comfy-cozies; no crowds, rude people, nasty sales people and weather to contend with.

3.  We FINALLY bought a new fake Christmas tree.  The last one we bought while we were living in the house on Stanford Avenue in La Mesa...let's see...at least 12 years we had that tree! We bought a pre-lit tree.  I was poo-pooing it because I was concerned about the lights not working when we unpack it next year.  Who cares! It was so easy to get the tree up...no unwrapping the lights, laying them out to see if they still worked, running to Target to get more lights, stringing them on the tree...it's all done for you! I highly recommend a pre-lit tree, you will whine less and smile more.
 
4.  To say that I have a lot of Christmas ornaments is a gross understatement.  I have hundreds!! I have enough to decorate two 6' trees, easy. They're all cute...very few actual Christmas "balls" and traditional stuff like that...they're stuff you'd buy at craft fairs or hand make.  Really beautiful to look at...I love them all and each holds a wonderful memory or story.  BUT put all these ornaments on the tree and you can't even see the TREE!!  In fact, it's so many, you can't even see the ornaments when looking at the tree...just looks like a sea of stuff. Ok, so this year, we only put up about half of them.  Now you can see each ornament and the tree as well. I store them in two large boxes...so one box was unpacked and each one lovingly placed on the tree.  In the other box I placed a piece of typing paper (yes, I call it typing paper not computer or printer paper, so there) and wrote "2014" so I'd know which one to use next year.  Nice, huh?  I have to admit, I was a little sad about this but I decided it was more fun (less grumbling about too many ornaments and not enough room on the tree) and I'd probably appreciate seeing the ornaments in the 2014 box even more.

5.  And lastly, I didn't make myself crazy this year trying to knit a bunch of stuff for Christmas presents.  It's very stressful to knit with a deadline, which is closer than you think if you have to mail something across the country. Oh, people will be getting hand knit stuff because I knit up and set aside certain projects throughout the year.  It's called planning ahead and every once in a while I actually do just that.

Five for Friday

I love to watch Christmas movies.  I love them so much that I watch them all year round.  I usually stop in late summer so that when Christmastime comes around they're a bit fresher and I won't be able to say, "Oh, I just watched that."  Here are my top five favorites.

1.  The Santa Clause
     "Just because you can't see something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
     "Can we take a direct flight back to reality, or do we have to change planes in          Denver?"

2.  Elf
     "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear."
     "Um, your father...he's on the naughty list."   NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

3.  A Christmas Story
     "I TRIPLE-dog-dare ya!"
     "Only I didn't say "Fudge."  I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother            of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word!

4.  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
     "No doe of mine is gonna be seen with a Rrrrred-Nosed Rrrrrreindeer!"

5.  Love Actually
     "Let's go get the shit kicked out of us by love!"
     "Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals         gate at Heathrow Airport.  General opinion's starting to make our that we live         in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that.  It seems to me that love is       everywhere.  Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's                 always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husband and wives,         boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.  When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as         far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were                     messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for         it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."

Boogie your blues away with Mr. Santa

It's hard sometimes to get into the Christmas Spirit. This year, I think, is very hard because it's such a short season. Only 20 days till Christmas Eve.  Sorry I said that now. 

Here's video to help put you in the mood.  Bob your head or shake your tail feather...but put a smile on your face and embrace your inner Santa!