December 26...is it really all over?

I think the most depressing thing about Christmas is when you turn on the radio the day after and it's back to regular music :(  No more Christmas carols.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday! Mine was stressful and rushed and a bit exhausting, but definitely one of the better ones in my recent memory.  Spent Christmas Eve last minute wrapping gifts and then went down to South Bay to have our Annual celebration with all the family. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, lolas, lolos...it's always a chaotic mess. But one I love deeply.

Christmas was wonderful for me, the family had a really great day together - which has been increasingly rare unfortunately, so it's like the day was a special treat. We all woke up on our own time and had a relaxed morning; opened gifts at noon; went to Denny's for a late brunch; ran around to different grocery stores to grab last minute forgotten ingredients; and spent the rest of the evening cooking, napping, and watching X-Men: First Class (amazing movie, sad I didn't see it sooner!).

Nothing spectacular, but still lovely. I mean, something happened at brunch that had us literally laughing until tears came out our eyes for minutes - that's a wonderful feeling.

This week gets to be spent doing a little Winter cleaning, celebrating my mom's birthday, and figuring out New Year's Eve plans! I'm also working on some changes here and on the debut of my book blog, all of which will hopefully happen on January 1.  Oooooo...

I didn't take many photos this holiday, but I leave you with some lingering holiday cheer.

Mom's M&M tree :) We didn't put up all the ornaments this year.

How cute is that snowman decal on my Sprinkles cupcake?!
(And it was a free cupcake, which makes it all the better!)

The aftermath of gift opening. We're a surprisingly organized unwrapping family.

Our tree :)

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It's a Holiday-themed Friday (which suits me just fine!)

So as a small reminder, check out Girl With Curls for my guest blog post!  Apparently my math was way off (I am not surprised) because it's already up on her site - so have fun with me and the 10 Christmas Things that Make Me Happy!

This weekend promises a lot of Holiday madness! My dad made a deal with me that when I cleaned the living room (it's been sorely neglected in all the November/Thanksgiving busy-ness), he'd get the Christmas decorations down from the garage.  And guess what I spent all day Thursday doing?? It is spotless (if I do say so myself...), so I get my decorations :)

Unfortunately, we had a small beehive issue in the summer and it happened to be right in the corner where we store all the decorations in the garage. A few bees had made it into the garage, so we had to spray the bug killer inside as well, and now we're uncertain if it's damaged any of the boxes or if the chemicals have gotten into the bins. Which means, we may have to toss out the majority of our Christmas things :(  This is horrible news for my mom and I as we have several keepsakes and memories in there, from childhood or handed down to us from generations. Keep your fingers crossed that most of it is fine!

(Although I have to say it'll be fun stocking up on decorations again if we have to replace any!)

So what is everyone else's plans? Are you starting in on the Holiday hoopla too, or putting it off for one more blissful weekend?

I hope everyone has a wonderful end of week, and let's get on with Fill in the blank Friday!

Link Up Here!

1.   The holiday season is   perfection. A time of family and loved ones and remembering how lucky and blessed you've been through the year; and a time to be determined and look forward to the new year .

2.   Snow makes me  cold. And it makes me miss Belgium, because that's the last place I've lived that really gets any     .

3.  The best comfort food to eat when it's cold out is   soup in a bread bowl from Panera. Delicious! 

4. Winter is the best time for    baking and cooking! Our house heats up when we use the stove, so it's almost torturous to use it in the summer months (Southern California weather + heated house = bad news). So when it's cold out, all the better to make it warm and toasty inside - PLUS, you get delicious holiday goodies!  

5.  I can hardly wait for   decorating my house and wrapping all the gifts. I'm almost done with Christmas shopping, 2 gifts left! .

6.  When it comes to holiday gifts I prefer to   give them, and if I can, make them. It's awkward receiving gifts, but I love giving people presents and showing them how much they mean to me .

7.  If I were to rate my excitement about the holiday season on a scale from 1-10, I would say I am at about a   9. You would think a 10, but I get the holiday blues/grinchiness about a day or two of the season when it's overwhelming and seems a bit...pointless.  But then I look at garland and turn on the lights to my Christmas tree and I remember how much I have to be thankful for and perk up  .

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11.11.11!

Happy Friday, all! This weekend is filled with Holiday hoopla (already!), which will be stressful, but done in the hopes of relieving stress at it gets closer to actual Thanksgiving and Christmas. It hasn't started the best, seeing my beloved Chargers losing to the fucking Raiders...but we can only go up from here!  In the mean time, here are some lovely links I've found from around the internet...

Found via my Pinterest - credit unknown

Wouldn't this make a neat gift?

Perfect for hair & music enthusiasts alike.

Adorable to keep the piggies warm (DUN DUN).

An awesome urban area San Diego map. (She has other cities, too!)

Make your own snowflakes for the holidays.

Have a wonderful weekend!

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If you feel like crying today, watch this.

So, I apologize for making you a click a link, but if you feel like crying today, please watch this.

It's not up on YouTube yet (so nothing I can embed), but I saw it yesterday on TV and spent a good 30 seconds bawling like a baby. Maybe because it hits so many personal things with me, but even if you don't have a loved one in the military...it's gonna hit you. Hard.

Damn Hallmark Recordable books. I thought they were just for grandparents to give grandkids.  Marketing over there is genius.

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This post contains a Christmas tree. Yes, I am aware it is November 9.

The dueling pianos!

Girls of the night :)

Pre-Games. That's me with my back towards the camera and shiny ponytail!

The tower I made! Unfortunately, I did not down-stack well.
Nor did I do it under a minute.

The weekend was mostly taken up by a massive 3-birthday celebration - myself and 19 friends went downtown to one of my favourite places ever: The Shout! House!  It's a dueling piano bar that's so much fun. It's pretty dirty and sexist, but all in fun.  The pianists are absolutely amazing, and you get to request songs and all that jazz.  They even call out audience members who are texting or not paying attention! Which makes me nervous, but so far, so good.  Tons of fun every time I've been there.

After that, we headed back to our friend's house to do some Birthday Minute to Win It games (kind of like my brother's birthday that I showed here) - lots of fun. I love how everything always seems easy, but ends up being so difficult!  Like that stupid cup tower pyramid in the photos that I built - so much more difficult to do than expected. But we were speculating that our cups weren't the best because they were odd shaped and sticky.

All in all, incredibly fun, and I'm reminded that I'm really lucky to have some amazing friends.

I also put up my first tree of the Season!

The Charlie Brown tree! It's been sitting on our dining room table since my brother bought it for me in January as a late Christmas gift, and I put it up since I'd never assembled it before.  I intended to take it down because even I think it's a bit early to decorate for Christmas - but it's so freakin' cute!!  It hasn't been taken down yet, so we'll see how long that stays...

Still hoofing it through my NaNoWriMo novel.  Started incredibly slow, since I didn't even start working on it until the evening of Day 2. Have had a few rough days, but as of right now I sit at 17,554 words!  Which means I'm ahead of schedule!  I found out I'm losing more days in November than I previously thought, so this is good - hopefully I can still finish on time.

How's your week going so far, my dears?  We're halfway to the weekend!

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Ok, two month recap: GO!

Dear blog,

I miss you. It has been entirely too long since we've seen each other, and I regret that. I really do. It feels like I'm missing my friend.

Really, it boils down to two reasons: winter and holidays. Christmas was fun and hectic, if not a bit strange. I worked for the first time ever during a Christmas season, which is something I most definitely did not enjoy. I had zero time and zero thought and it felt like a very incomplete holiday.

My office also had a holiday party of dune buggying and ATVing, in which I learned something about myself: I am a weak, weak, wuss of a woman. Really. I plan on blogging about it later.

The New Year was good as well, if not as stressful as Christmas. Worked again, but I did play a lot too. Went out with three of my girlfriends and met up with one of my work boys and his friends, which was an increeeeeedible adventure. None of them had met but each had heard so much of the other..I was incredibly nervous. But it worked out well!

Recently (as in, last weekend), I went to Big Bear! I was going to go snowboarding, but I am unfortunately sick so I decided not to - if I can't breath when I'm just sitting on a couch, i really shouldn't try to snowboard for the first time, either. But I did go sledding for the first time in my life, which was AMAZING. I was terrified because I hate steep hills that are basically drops...my bro's gf almost had to push the sled to get me to go down the first time, but i survived and realized that it's pretty damn awesome.  I still scream bloody murder every time I go down the hill, but I enjoy it at the same time, too.

There were 24 of us crammed into a cabin, by the way.  I brought one of my best friends, two works friends, and it was my brother, his friends, and their cousins.  So many people, lots of names and faces, plenty of beer, Taboo, sick germs, little sleep and a 10-year-old playing beer pong.  I'll tell more details later, but suffice to say it was one of the most chaotic weekends of my life.

And this past weekend I did something I've actually never done before in my entire life: partied three nights in a row. And holy everloving Lord am I paying for it now at work...ugh.  Friday was the belated office holiday dinner combined with the Good-bye Dinner of our departing coworkers (which makes me incredibly sad because he is one of my favourites) - we went to a Brazilian restaurant called Rei Do Gado, infamous for the waiters who walk around with all different types of meat on skewers and who will cut and carve directly onto your plate.  Fucking fab food, incredibly delicious, but I gave up after one plateful - so much, too much.  After we went to East Village Tavern Bowl, a bowling alley/sports bar, which was incredibly awesome.  I am a not-so-secret bowler, so that was fun to pull out on all my office men--and it was so much fun to just bowl, have some beers, and hang out.

After that, my two bosses left, so I was with the "young" men of the office--who promptly called up some of their guys and were like, "Ok guys, lets get our bar on!" And we bar hopped for the rest of the night.  And let me tell you, being the only girl in a group of 6 guys who are gettin' their flirt on...it's not as enjoyable as it would seem. Every single guy I was with is some sort of combination of super attractive, super charming, super flirty, super nice, and super outgoing.  So, they're all checking out girls and hitting on them and making obnoxious and obscene comments to me, no matter how kindly or how many times I had to remind them that while I appreciate their comfort around me, I AM NOT A GUY AND NO, I WILL NOT CHECK OUT THE GINORMOUS RACK ON THAT BLONDE BIMBO.  Fuckin' bros.

The upside was that I did happen to be with some of the more attractive men in the bars we were in, so lots of looks, lots of girls who gave me a jealous look, and the men all bought me drinks - I didn't pay a damn dime the entire night, and I had 3 shots of tequila, 2 shots of whiskey, and a boatload of beer. So...as much as I did not like being privy to the male mind that night, there were some benefits I can't deny.

Anyway. So that was Friday, and Saturday was one of my best friend's boyfriends birthday, so we went downtown to bar hop and celebrate; and Sunday was a girls night out that ended up featuring my work friend again and his friends.  It was super fun and we went to a Dueling Piano bar and I think I fell in love 25 times over with one of the piano players.  Once again, way more beer than I should have had, way more shots than I should have had, and so much fun.

....and that is the basic gist as to why I have been ignoring you, dear blog.  Forgive me <3

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Where I'm At Now

Why yes, my Firefox is a Big Bang Theory theme, thanks for noticing!

• Pretty fucking irritated with my car/Toyota dealership. I'm at my 90k tune-up, and I get that it's major.  But fucking SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS MAJOR?! I'm going to cry. Last time I was there for my 85k, they said it would probably be around $300, maybe $350.  And that's what I've budgeted for the last six months.  And suddenly, oh, synthetic oil prices went up, and your cabin filter does need changing, and labor fees went up, and JUST ROB ME BLIND WHY DON'T YOU.  Fuck.
• That said, I am now down 80% of my budgeted Christmas fund.  Um, sorry acquaintances and office friends: you get a hug now.  Maybe even a kiss on the cheek if I think you're really special.
• Photo above is literally where I am at right now.  Starbucks in San Marcos.
• I am also incredibly sick at the moment.  Maybe not incredibly, but sick enough where I'm breathing loudly through my mouth, my nose is a veritable waterfall that's too stuffed to sniff, and my head feels like an overinflated balloon. I knew this was coming since three co-workers and two friends were sick, and I'm already not sleeping enough...but it still sucks.
• Peppermint mochas and Ritz crackers are not very yummy together.
• Despite the negativity on this blog and in my life right now, I am excited for the holidays in relation to my office!  Not for the Christmas party, since I'm no adrenaline junkie (see this tweet for reference)--but because my boss gave me free reign to decorate the office!  And I'm so fucking exciting to decorate a space all on my own I'm even willing to ignore the slight offense that he's letting me because I'm female.
• Feeling weird since I ran into my old co-editors big sister and she updated me on her life.  I'm happy for her, I really am: but it's strange to hear that my 3-years-younger old friend is now engaged and getting married in the Summer.  As if I don't already feel like 23-going-on-90.  Except I'm a lonely 90 year old, without even cats, who's never known love...
• I have a free Disneyland ticket, and I forgot about it, and now it expires next Wednesday, and I have no time to go!  ARGHHHH.
• Can't Stop. Listening. To...CHRISTMAS CAROLS.  (Currently: Glee Cast - We Need A Little Christmas.  Up next: When Christmas Comes To Town - Polar Express OST)
• Wondering what the heck I'm going to get my brother for Christmas.  What do you get a 26-year-old who lives at home, hates any and all technology, and does not need anything else for his guitars?  He is not into cars, tools, football, going to the gym, or anything movie- or hollywood-related.
• And am now signing off to go have lunch with my mom.  Despite the fact I'm not at work and am therefore not making money, I'm happy since I rarely get to see my mom during the week (you'd think I would since I live with my family...).

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The State of Ashley - Mid(ish)-November Report

Was I the only one who didn't realize Thanksgiving is next week?  Because holy shit when the hell did that happen and where the fuck did my time go?!

Now that's out of the way...

So, I'm alive.  Barely, and I think my stress levels will take care of the pathetic pieces that are left of me, but for what it's worth...at least enough to put up a blog post!  Work has gotten absolutely insane, and I basically work full time (on minimum wage!  Totally fair. Sarcasm).  I actually even worked overtime today.  I don't discuss work in depth on here, but I work in the financial industry (let's all laugh about that since I had to cry in my AP calculus class in high school to pass.  That's real, y'all) and a good 90% of our clients' fiscal year ends sometime this month.  Therefore, they're all scrambling and stressed and getting all holleration yelly screamy shouty, and it, in turn, makes my life murderous super fucking awesome.

In addition to that...a second job is on the horizon.  Sort of.  It's mine if I want it, but...I don't think I do.  I'm not sure.  It's all really up in the air and I can't make decisions, so we'll leave it that last week, I worked a grand total of 70 hours.  And I felt like I was dying.  I was literally falling asleep anywhere I was, no matter the time or place or if I was standing or sitting or leaning.

So, naturally, NaNoWriMo was a bust.  Or at least...so far.  I stubbornly steadfastly refuse to admit defeat, partially because I have busted out mass amounts of word counts in a week, and mostly because I still think I actually can complete it.  But I currently sit at 5,894 words--and those were all done the first 3 days of November.  I still may try for something during the holiday break, but...it may fall to the wayside.  Which is unfortunate, but necessary.

Despite the fact that I apparently don't know how close it is to the holidays, I am super duper excited for Christmas season!  I am that obnoxious person who has Christmas carols already, and why yes, I have in fact watched Elf already.  I have yet to buy my first Christmas gift (Target was sold out of what I was going to purchase :(), but I have thought about how I'm going to decorate my house.  And my room.  And my office.  And I'm trying to plan my office holiday party...I just can't help how much I love it!

One thing that's been happening is a loooot of baking (which those of you who follow me on Twitter have found out)!  I've gone kind of cookie crazy, for some reason. It started that I saw a recipe that I really wanted to try, and then I found out I am going to be baking a lot for the holidays, so I figured...why not start now?  I've had two go-rounds with pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and one with mint chocolate chip cookies.  Both of which were mighty successful with my office men, which made me astonishingly happy.  It's just nice when someone tells you your baking is "delicious" and you notice that they come out to your office for cookies.  Makes me feel all warm 'n snuggly (is that sad?  Don't answer that...).

I wish I could have blogged more this month, but I feel like I'm slowly making my way into a routine.  I'm going to attempt the #reverb10 prompt-given reflection on 2010 that's happening in December...we'll see if I can find the time to commit to it, but it's nice to have something to look forward to that will make me be around here more.  Especially since I miss all you wonderful bloggy friends so!

I have work in the morning, so I am off to bed...but more importantly, how are you all doing?

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I can tell you what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

The summer when I was 9 years old, my family and I moved from Belgium to Italy. It was difficult, as I'd just spent 5 years in Belgium (the longest I'd been in a country) and was inconsolably sad having to leave my friends. I was adjusting to my new life in Italy, missing my friends, trying to figure out what was going on in my life; all during that odd, awkward adolescent stage. Additionally, in late November we decided to move from the house we were in to an apartment building in Caserta, moving farther away from Gricignano and Pinetamare and Lago Patria and all the few friends we had made since.

This Christmas was also different because my father was assigned overnight-duty at work from December 24-25. Having always lived in Europe and never been around relatives for the holidays, it was normally my parents and brother all together for Christmas Eve, having a special dinner and watching movies and playing board games - only once was he ever away on a ship for Christmas, but I was too young to remember it. For the first time that I could remember, my dad wasn't going to be there.

Everything was set up to be a devestating Christmas for a 9-year-old girl: no friends, no dad, changed routine, most of our stuff was still in boxes. We hadn't even done St. Nicholas day that year! (Apparently it's celebrated differently and on different days in Italy.)

But that Christmas is actually one of my favourite memories.

We made do with what we could; we set up a small, sparse tree behind the couch in the middle of a bunch of boxes. We turned on the TV to any english-speaking movie we could find (it was Wizard of Oz). I remember my mom wrapping some of my dad's gifts, sitting there watching with my brother and I. And I especially remember the bean bag game my mother had made stitching pieces of felt together with beans in the middle. We used an empty Tide box and spent hours tossing the bean bags into the box across our massive living/dining room area, making up games and challenges. My mom said we could stay up, even though Santa was coming, because we could wait for dad to come home. Santa would work around us, it was no problem.

I don't remember what gifts I got that year, I don't remember playing with toys, I don't remember all the things a kid would probably remember about their Christmas. I do remember falling asleep way before dad got home, and way before Santa came to the house. I do remember waking up at 8am to the sound of my dad coming home from work, and my brother and I running out to the living room to wish him a Merry Christmas and being delighted to see a mass of presents magically under our tree. I remember having breakfast together as a family, knowing that I made it through my first Christmas in Italy, and it was different--but wonderful. Because my family makes it so wherever we go, whatever circumstance we're in.

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

apologies for the rudimentary "colouring" going on in this - i only have the touchpad mouse, so Photoshopping for colour was a bit...harrowing.

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Do I even need a title for this?

Notes For the Past Few Days:
- Must remember to transfer Photoshop over onto this laptop.
- Putting on thigh-high socks is much more difficult than I imagined.
- How is it almost 80 degrees here while the rest of the world has a snowstorm? Conundrum.
- Target at 11:30pm is a sad place.
- Watched a rerun of the TV show Bones today, and Tom Wilson was on it (Bif from Back to the Future). Still very weird to see my friend's dad on my tv screen.
- Still considering doing my MA in London (or around there). Would love if someone just told me the answer.
- My closet is no longer accessible, as a very large pile of gifts have taken root in front of it.
- Am super psyched to read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer because it has been so highly recommended, but am also terrified since it deals with 9/11 and the aftermath. I don't think I'm ready to face that past, but I don't think I will ever be, either.
- Been craving Starbucks for the past 4 days. Resisting, but feel it's making it much worse.
- Google Reader is evil. Should never have clicked "Popular Items," because that is 4 hours I will never get back.
- On the upside, however, I discovered this gem: A Pictorial Guide to Avoiding Camera Loss. Funny, adorable, and incredibly useful.

Let's get on with the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge, shall we?
Day 20: New Person. She came into your life and turned it upside down. He went out of his way to provide incredible customer service. Who is your unsung hero of 2009?
This is incredibly difficult because I've just realized I met the Italians this year. What a whirlwind, having met, befriended, become so close, and said goodbye to them all within a seven month span. I was incredibly close with Michele, Alberta and Endria, and they are probably my favourite new people from this year. They're such intelligent, kind, interesting people with hearts much bigger than they realize.

In terms of an "unsung hero," though, please refer to this post.

Day 21: Project. What did you start this year that you're proud of?
NaNoWriMo. Start and finish (hooray!). Terrifying, intimidating, insane, exhilarating.

Day 22: Startup. What's a business that you found this year that you love? Who thought it up? What makes it special?
Disney Expo.  Obviously I know Disney is not a "new" business, but this year was the Expo's first year, and I was lucky enough to go. The choice is a bit random, I know, but it was actually a pretty good time - if you can get past all the screaming tweens (Wizards of Waverly Place forum), haughty Disney lovers (Pixar Forum), and obnoxious teenagers who think they're too cool for a Disney convention (even though they're there, sans parents. Think about it). Yes, Disney is pretty overrated and has such an influence on today's culture it's an abomination, but the Expo was pretty fun despite it all. You can't help but get caught up in all the excitement of seeing your beloved Toy Story characters or special previews of Toy Story 3 (June 18, 2010!) and Prep & Landing (now aired, but back then it was the big reveal).

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Christmas Stats

3 of 27: Christmas cards done
2 of 4: mini Christmas trees set up in the house
3 of 4: stockings hung
5 of 5: mini-stockings hung
1 of 9: people I'm finished buying Christmas gifts for
2 of 7: garlands hung
0 of 12: presents I currently have in the house, wrapped.
3 of 3: TP rolls decorated in my bathroom with ribbon. yeah, you read that right.
3 of [x]: bags of Christmas candy I have bought with the intention of giving them out but have opened and eaten some of already.
4 of 4: gifts ordered but not arrived.
3 of 4: wreaths hung
0 of 5: strands of lights hung, tree included.
1 of 1: main tree set up
0 of 1: main tree decorated
1 of 4: mini trees decorated
0 of 2: pies to bake
0 of 10: batches of cookies to make
0 of 2: Christmas party invitations i have yet to respond to.
3 of 18: boxes I can't find that have decorations/Christmas paraphernalia in it.

...it's a slow start, but I'm gettin' there.

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December Nights in Balboa Park

One of my favourite things of the holiday season is December Nights in Balboa Park. It's basically the official Christmas kick-off of the San Diego holiday season. What's amazing about it is that not only is everything Christmas-ed out with lights and trees and santas, or that there's tons of vendors and sales merchants and all the artist's open their galleries; it's that all the museums open up to the public for free and you can walk in and out of any and all as much and as often as you please.

In general, Balboa Park has always been one of my favourite places in the entire world. All the museums are breathtaking, the botanical gardens have a mystical quality rarely replicated, and the park itself is absolutely beautiful. The architecture continually stuns me. So when it's all covered in bright lights and tinsels and stars...it's pretty much my own personal heaven.

I went first in 2004, and returned last night for the first time and I'm glad to report that it is every bit as awesome as it was the first time (and a lot more crowded). One of my favourite parts has to be the opening ceremonies...the speeches are boring, but the singing Elf choir is spectacular. The Elf Choir (I should probably find out the real name of the choir....hold please as I Google.) is comprised of a bunch of elderly men, and their voices are pretty damn amazing. Plus, they tell cheesy jokes and dance. Who could want more than that?! (Thank you, Google: the Elf choir is the Sun Harbor Chorus.)

Because of the open museums, I went into the Museum of Art, which was pretty damn cool.

I'm not generally a fan of Asian-inspired art, but I did enjoy their exhibit of Oceanic (specializing in art from the Pacific Islands) and Asian art. It's pretty stunning seeing original Picasso works and walking upstairs to see an original Monet (one of my favourite artists!), then walking across the entryway into the Italian Renaissance room (my favourite kind of art). And, there was another choir inside the Impressionist room singing traditional hymns and songs (hmmm...should Google again...hold please). We missed over half the museum, but I definitely want to make my way back there again. I even think it is worth it to pay the entry price. (Thank you, Google, Part 2: the choir is Pacific Camerata.)

I feel the need to add a special shout out to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, whose Interactive Science exhibit is the coolest place EVER. Totally worth it to spend over an hour in that room, and we didn't even get to hit all the experiments! Really, who could ask for more than experiments you're allowed to touch and play with and move?

It only goes on for 2 days (the celebrations and vendors, that is...the rest of the month has all the decorations), but there is no question to me why so many people make it out to December Nights. It's free AND fun.

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Christmas Time is Here...

I was bothered that my last entry was so negative and mean, so I thought I'd add a bright, cheery one on top of it.

Exactly 24 days until Christmas! I cannot believe that. Where the hell did all my time go?! It feels like just yesterday I was living in my Irvine apartment, being like ptsh i have all the time in the world to find a job, it's cool. Yeah, that's not true. Time is a-tickin' for sure.

So, come Thursday morning, all our Christmas boxes will be taken in from the garage and my house gets to be my canvas. And...ok, I'm a pretty over the top person. It may not seem like it, but to completely bastardize a line I heard in a TV show, everything I love I love too much. And Christmas is something I absolutely, totally, 100% adore. So I take care of EVERYTHING decoration and Christmas in my house. I set up the regular tree and put up the stockings and garlands and line the windows with the shimmer garland and hang the wreath and put the Christmas ribbon on various things in bathrooms to bring Christmas cheer to every room and put fake poinsettias in objects that are not for flowers (real or fake) and place the mini-wreaths on door handles and set down the Christmas floormats and the holiday tablecloth/tablerunner and
(deep breathe)
put up the M&M themed mini-tree and the non-themed mini-tree and the present-themed mini tree -- and this year I will be adding my own personal 2' mini mini penguin-themed tree -- and bake holiday cookies/sweets and coordinate all the giftings between my immediate family, my friends, and my extended families and i wrap every single gift (boxed, wrapped, sometimes double wrapped, always ribbon-ed) and write out Christmas cards to tons of people and set out the holiday figurines and conveniently place all 50+ of our Christmas CDs at the top of the CD case pile.

Seriously, if I could get a snow-machine in this house, don't even think i'd think twice about it.

It's kind of weird, because this year I was a bit lethargic about everything (I didn't even decide who I was buying gifts for until the drive over to the stores at 4am for Black Friday--usually by the beginning of November I've gotten presents bought already!), but my dad keeps insisting I put everything up and decorate soon. Usually he sits at his computer and bah-humbugs as I annoy him with all my bells and shimmers and curls. This year, he's bugging me to get a move on.

Weird.

Buuuut not complaining. I am extremely excited for Thursday when I can drown in baubles and bells!

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It's official

I have broken out the Christmas music.

I know, I know. It's not even Thanksgiving yet, it's still November, we've got 8 days. I am completely one of those annoying people who is blasting Christmas carols way too early and effectively ruins the holiday by starting too early and putting on the pressure and taking the fun out of it.

First, at least I waited until now. Most stores had their Christmas shit out before Halloween, and even I think that was WAY too early.

Second, this is definitely later than I have previous years. I chalk it up to bad experiences these last few holidays.

But also...I couldn't help it. My brother has Black Friday off for the first time since we've been old enough to go out and brave the insanity together, so we've been talking about which stores to go to and searching for the best places to go. Which, inevitably, leads to discussing Christmas presents since our goal of Black Friday is to purchase several, if not most, of the presents for our friends/family. I am cleaning/clearing/organizing my room and the rest of the house, and it happens that we are also rearranging for the holidays (setting up the tree, hanging lights/garland, decorations, etc.). My mom and I are starting to plan out the holiday meals and food for the various family get-togethers, parties, and friend gift-exchanges we have in December. And my bank account is definitely crying at the prospect of having to purchase so many things. Everything is kind of setting up and gearing up for the inevitable holiday hell.

Mostly, though...I've been really sad lately. As evident by the last entry, and more things going on. It's just kind of a weird time, and the only thing that usually cheers me up is Christmas music. Ever since I was little, I've been in love with the holidays. Of course it was because I got things and was allowed to be greedy, but it was because I loved the holidays around wherever I was at the time. In every country and city I lived in, Christmas was pretty much the "same": decorations, gifts, spirit, cold weather (of varying degrees), parties, family, stress. I love being cold, bundling up, drinking hot chocolates (or peppermint mochas, as Starbucks has continued its world domination). It was also the one time I was guaranteed to have my dad be home from work. Christmas music embodies all that I love about it, and has some awesome memories attached to it all. It just cheers me up like nothing else can.

So, yeah, I know, I'm early. I'm probably annoying to everyone else. Everyone around me will tire of Christmas much earlier than Christmas actually approaches.

And I will continue to play it.

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