Christmas

So Christmas has come and gone. It was amazing! Hands down the best Christmas I've had in years, maybe ever. Mostly thanks to one man. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you know him as that lovable former deejay, but those closest to him just call him Shaun. See how cute he is with my niece?? She's all decked out in her princess bling that she got from Santa (a.k.a. Grampa Steve). Joey got the toy he wanted the most, a Dyson vacuum cleaner. Don't ask. It's too complicated to explain. All I know is that the kid really loves to vacuum. He's an aficionado of vaccums, if there is such a thing, and Shannon and Daniel were having some trouble finding one for him (apparently the bidding on ebay hit something ridiculous like $150 -- for a toy vacumm), and then mom's friend said, "Well hey, I have one!" And he *freaked* out when he opened it up. Santa and Mrs. Claus saved the day on that one baby.

I think everyone had a good Christmas this year. We sent Mom and Dad to Green Bay so they can go visit her sisters over New Year's Eve (they left this morning). My Uncle Greg got my Aunt Georgana's wedding ring fixed (it's been broken for probably 7 years). I got Shaun tickets to go see Coldplay in February and he was genuinely surprised since he didn't even know they were coming back to town. And he gave me a beautiful necklace with a heart-shaped diamond pendant, a blue topaz ring, some goodies from Victoria's Secret (for his eyes only!), and he started a photo album for me with pictures of us in it. He even went to one of those scrapbooking stores to get the little decorations for the pages! (He found miniature Scrabble letters and spelled out our names!!! How great is that??)

My mom gave Shaun some new towels (thank God) and some cool beer mugs. He gave her a framed picture of himself with our dog that we took at Thanksgiving. Hilarious! It's sitting proudly displayed in the kitchen next to the telephone.

On Christmas Eve Shaun and I drove out to Romeo to have dinner with his mom and his sisters where the feasting and gift-giving continued. I think everyone liked all the gifts exchanged. I got some cool gift certificates to Borders and Starbucks and a *beautiful* beaded purse from his mom that I love! Christmas was spent at his dad's place with his side of the family which was also really cool (first time I met all of them). We ate and ate and ate some more. It was pretty much a weekend of major pigging out. But good pigging out. :) Why else do all that driving if there wasn't so much great food and fun company at the end of the car ride?

All in all I have to say it was a great Christmas. So full of fun and love and hugs and good food and family and friends. I couldn't have asked for more. Thanks everyone!

Exact Contents of My Purse

Lately I find myself rather uninspired when it comes to this blog. So this is an itemized list of the contents of my purse:

1. my cell phone
2. my keys
3. my tortoise shell sunglasses from UO
4. 3 CDs:
--Coldplay "Parachutes"
--System of a Down "Hypnotize
--Black Eyed Peas "Behind the Front"
5. my wallet
6. my checkbook
7. an unopened pack of Big Red
8. my Comcast ID badge
9. 2 nail files
10. a copy of The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, dog-eared at page 201
11. lipgloss and lipstick in 6 varieties and colors
12. 2 letters from the law firm of Rancilio & Associates, one of them certified the other regular
13. one toothpick from some random restaurant, still in its cellophane wrapper
14. some Robitussin Cough & Cold liquid-filled capsules
15. Krazy Glue
16. travel size bottle of Pantene Volumizing hairspray
17. my 3 prescriptions
18. some hand lotion
19. 2 bottles of clear nailpolish
20. a mirror from Estee Lauder
21. 2 pens
22. my photo badge from Gap with a pic of me and Nik in it
23. 3 paystubs, 2 from Comcast and 1 from Gap
24. 7 bobby pins and 2 hair thingies
25. my watch
26. another cellophane wrapped toothpick
27. two silver rings, usually worn on my left thumb
... and last but not least,
28. some trash

Now, wasn't that interesting?

I know, I know, not really. Sorry about that. Let's try this instead. Shaun and I went to Meadowbrook Mansion to take the Christmas walk with his mom and this is a postcard he bought me from the gift shop:
It was sooooo cool. Shaun couldn't believe I'd never been before. The house is called an American castle, and rightfully so! Just look at all the damn chimneys on that roof! It was beautiful though. Thanks baby for taking me!

Complicated Congrats

So, Reader, as you may already know, I have a friend named Stephanie (she comments here with more frequency than most) and she has a boyfriend named Brian. The story does not end there, oh no! For in fact, I was friends with Brian long before he became Steph's main man (well, her only man really, she's a one man kind of gal). I modestly credit myself with their having gotten together. And don't question the grammar of that last statement, sometimes we can bend grammar for the sake of style. Ahem, I digress. So Brian and I became friends long ago, in a land far, far away, when we were still in high school and he began dating another of my friends, Kira (who you may remember from various and sundry previous entries, especially in August and September, since that is when she married her husband, Jeff, see photos by clicking the link at the right). At any rate (really Reader, I will try to stay more on track from now on), Brian and Stephanie are together and living in the Pacific Northwest and I miss them both tons and am excited to see them over the holiday. But last week I got a rather excited call from Bri because he is now an official member of the PGA (go Brian!!), which is an accomplishment he has been working his ASS off for since, well, for quite some time now. So here are some congratulatory pics of Brian, in HAWAII (on a business trip, real bummer huh?), playing golf on a golf course that was probably ridiculously AMAZING. Way to represent the Dirty D with the Lions hat Bri, good to know they have loyal fans, in spite of their incredible suckiness. You stupid HAW!

Tearjerker

So I am sick again. Bronchitis. Again. This time, by the mercy of God, it is not nearly as terrible as it was last March, when I wishing death upon myself on an hourly basis. So I stayed home from work. Watched some TV. Took a nice hot bath only to fall asleep in the tub and wake up chilly and wrinkled, which probably didn't help the bronchitis situation any. I watched a lot of movies today. "The Interpreter" was pretty good, but then again I almost always like Sean Penn (except for the fact that he spells his name the 'funny' way). I also watched Dennis Quaid (who my mom loves -- along with Kevin Costner) in "In Good Company" which was good -- especially since it didn't have the warm fuzzy ending I think everyone was expecting. It had a different warm fuzzy ending. But the kicker, as always, was a good, old-fashioned tearjerker, and one that I've seen about fifty times at that, "The Notebook."

What is it about those movies that will always seem to make you cry? No matter how many times you've seen them, you know what's coming, but it's still heartbreaking. I think there are five movies at this point in time that I can honestly say will always make me cry.

1. The Notebook
2. The English Patient
3. Braveheart
4. Legends of the Fall
5. Message in a Bottle

That Nicholas Sparks. Boy does he know how to make a woman sob! I wonder if he's married.... But back to the point. The point is that tonight, while lying in our big chair sniffling at the end of "The Notebook" I decided to call my baby, and even though he was playing cards with The Guys, he still got up to take the call and go, "Awww baby...." when I mumbled out, "I'm watching 'The *sob* No-hotebooook' *sniffle*!" Hahahaha. Could I be more of a chick or what??

I Just Love This Picture:

Of me and my Shaun. From Kira's wedding. He's making, "The Maria Face." I mean, how us is this? It just doesn't get any better than that!!

Christmas Lights

So today while I was getting ready for work I heard my dad call out, "Hey Big Girl (one of his many nicknames for me), come here and look at this!" Curious, I put down my hairbrush and came to the computer to see what it was, and it's crazy! (By the way, if you are at a speakerless computer, don't bother clicking the link. It's pointless without the sound.) Clark Griswold would be spellbound, humbled, utterly appreciative of such a spectacular light show, and its encore.

But can you imagine being old dude's neighbors?? Hope they get into the holiday spirit as much as he does!