Let the holiday season begin!

It's officially the Christmas season in my world--I heard two of my favorite Christmas songs today. Now, I'm really in the mood for some chestnut roasting and conspiring by the fire.

The songs, you ask?

Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano and Last Christmas by Wham!

I didn't say they were good--just that they were among my favorites.

I'm hoping to get the Christmas tree at least set up tonight--maybe decorated if I'm really energetic. I wish Paul enjoyed helping decorate the tree because it would be more fun to do it with someone. I can't remember my dad ever helping decorate the tree though--it was always Mom and us girls. Maybe men are genetically wired to not enjoy decorating the tree. I'll have to ask around--see what my friends say their husbands do. And I do have to sayt htat it's not that Paul doesn't help at all--when he sees me scaling some ladder or perched precariously on a chair, he's right there no matter what the chore is. I guess he figures it's easier to hang some lights than take me to the emergency room for a gaping head wound because I'm clumsy.

On the road again...

I can see my attempts to be better about journaling through this blog are going about as well as anytime I think I'll journal with a pen and paper. I have so many beautiful blank books that are just that--blank. Eventually I'll figure out what to do with them. I should finally work on getting our wedding journal/scrapbook completed. But what's the hurry--it's only been 6 years. I've hopefully got another 60 with this guy.

Tomorrow morning, as with just about every holiday in the past, we'll be heading back to Texas. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone but holy cow, that drive gets old quickly. And then there is the constant back-and-forth between the various grandparents' houses. I feel bad whining about it, even--I'm amazingly blessed to have three sets of grandparents still alive and healthy. But no matter what we do, it always seems that we're letting someone down because we don't stay at their house long enough or we're at someone else's house longer. :::sigh::: Hopefully it will be better this year. That's my positive thinking for the weekend. I'm just going to be thankful for all the people and all the places we have to drag around to any time we go home. And I'm going to be thankful for the drive time because I'll hopefully be able to make a dent in my reading. (Currently reading Rebecca for my school book club--I love the way old literature is written. It's so flowery and flowy. But wordy!)

I'm positively thrilled that we're staying home for Christmas--the longest drive will be to the airport to pick up Donna. Woohoo! It's going to be so exciting to have my family here. I'll probably go a *little* overboard with the decorations and food but that's what makes the holidays fun. And I really think we'll have a holiday party/open house/get together of some sort. At least have some of my friends over for lunch, if nothing else. I'll be sure to send an invitation to my super-busy husband--it might be the only way he's able to schedule me in. :)

How time flies

Wow--a week has gone by and I hadn't made it over here to write. That's not entirely true--I did try to get over here earlier and the computer froze. I'm not even sure what I was going to write about at that time. Something terribly exciting and important, I'm sure.

Finally finished reading The Robber Bride. LOVED it. Zenia is just evil. Definitely one of those characters you love to hate. I've got another book of Margaret Atwood's on my bookshelf that I need to read--a lovely hard cover copy of The Blind Assasin. I've tried starting it a couple of times but can't get any further than a few pages in. I probably just need to keep plugging away at it and not give up. Next on the list is Rebecca for my school book club and I'd like to reread Life of Pi. Such a great book and our discussion at book club brought up some things I didn't remember or recognize. I'm looking forward to the holiday breaks so I can schlub on the couch with a stack of books. Good times.

Birthday Day #2

Since my own mother doesn't always remember the actual day I was born, I celebrate many. She's mentioned the 12th as a possible birthday but most frequently, she thinks my birthday is Nov. 9. Shortly after Paul and I started dating, I had him ask her what day my birthday is--she matter-of-factly told him it was November 9. It only took her a second to realize her mistake but it continues to happen. I loved my phone message from her this morning: "Happy belated birthday. I know I'm a day late. I knew it was your birthday yesterday." Very cute.

So today, Paul and I celebrated my "real" birthday. By buying him an iPod Video. Me? I got the sales receipt. I'm sure that's a fair trade in some strange way.

I have a school holiday on Friday for Veteran's Day. I'm not sure why/when it was decided that we get that day off but hey, I'm not one to argue with a day off from work. I'm going shopping with my mother-in-law to celebrate my birthday. It's becoming a nice little tradition of ours that I enjoy. I'm lucky to have inlaws I like much less with whom I enjoy a shopping trip or two. I'm also hoping to be a complete vegetable this weekend to get a jump on some reading. I'm currently reading Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride and really enjoying it but it's a slooooow read. There is also a stack of about 8 books from my library that I'd like to read. That's a benefit to being the librarian--I get first dibs on new books in the library. Yippee!