Wow! I know the holiday season is busy, but this has by far been my busiest. It didn't help that Chris got paid only three days before Christmas, and my family grew exponentially. I have many more people to spoil and share the holiday with now.
Hell, we're still not done. Both Daisy and Tuxington are insisting on laying on me while I blog. It's making things interesting. Chris is working on setting up the WiiU my Mom got us for Christmas while I blog. It seems really cool so far. I'm excited to play some of the games she got us. I'm not a huge fan of open world games, or many of the newer games in general. I like the old fashioned side scroller games, Mario, Donkey Kong, etc. I looooove me some Yoshi. Chris is the bigger nerd of the two of us though, and I have some serious blogging to catch up on so he's earned the privilege of playing around with it first. We have to get more controllers for it.
This year for Christmas instead of my usual cookie assortment I made variations of chocolate crack and chocolate peppermint fudge. Both got really good. I found tons of coupons for the ingredients I needed which was helpful, and I made it at my Gran and Pop's house because they had more table/counter space and a bigger freezer. It took over ten hours to get it all done, but I made a ton. Over three-hundred pieces of fudge and who knows how much chocolate crack. I made up a tray of fudge for Chris to take to work, kept a tray for us, and gift bagged and tinned the rest up for family, etc. We did the shopping for ingredients on Monday after he got off work, and I got all of it made on Tuesday while he was at work.
While we weren't home we got lots of gifts! We apparently need to leave more often, hah. Our one neighbor left us a gift card and a bag of Pupperoni for Daisy. Chris' Mom stopped by with two tins of cookies, and Angie dropped by with a gorgeous blanket that she crocheted for us. It's so pretty I almost hate to use it. I can only imagine how much time that took. I got a few Christmas cards that I sent out back in the mail that I have to get in touch with people about.
I must have missed updating a few addresses.
This was the first year I got enough Christmas cards to fill our doorway. I actually got more than I could fit on our doorway, and we're still getting some. Hanging cards up has always been a fun family tradition. I always liked hearing every one's explanations of who the cards came from and how they knew them. Something we're continuing on with.
On Wednesday morning my Mom took me out Christmas shopping while Chris was at work. First we went to Wally World, and then we went to Berkshire Mall as they had pretty much all of the stores we needed still; Boscov's, Bath & Body Works, Aeropostale, Five Below, Hallmark, and a few others we browsed at. I spent the rest of the afternoon wrapping and gift bagging.
I was having a great deal of trouble with my MS and RA symptoms as I have been cutting back on steroids and doing so much. Everything was flaring up. I had such bad pain in my ribs. It's generally referred to as the MS hug because it's this tight painful feeling in your ribcage as if some one's squeezing you too hard. I upped my dose Thursday and Friday so I could enjoy the holiday without feeling too crappy. I'm back to cutting down again though. It's really not easy.
Thursday morning I spent getting caught up with chores and things around the house, and then Thursday afternoon began Christmas! Christmas Part One was with my Mom, John, Chris, Gran, Pop Pop, Aunt Sharon, Uncle Jeff, and Kyle. My Mom came over with Subway sandwiches and a cupcake cake that we nommed when Chris got home from work. I was going to joke around with him and tell him we decided to go to Wendy's for dinner, but I don't think he would have found it as funny as I would have. 50+ hours a week there is plenty. Although it makes me sad that he hasn't brought me a Frosty home in a really long time. We exchanged gifts which was mostly everyone giving Chris, my grandparents and I presents. We couldn't do much this year.
As I mentioned earlier my Mom got us a WiiU with lots of games (it's currently taking forever to update so Burn Notice is on and distracting me), and she got me a Humans of New York book. I was really surprised about that. I mention wanting the book occasionally on Facebook, and share and follow their posts a great deal, but it just caught me off guard that someone noticed. I haven't had the time to read any of it yet, but I can't wait! I also got some adult coloring books and markers. She got Chris a really nice South Pole jacket with sherpa inside, and a pair of Polo cargo sweats.
My Aunt Sharon, Jeff, and Kyle got me a stuffed Grumpy Cat which is awesome, a set of Olaf glasses, and a calendar for the new year. I spent some time already putting Chris' new schedule onto it and all of my appointments, some birthdays, and anniversaries. That took awhile. Tux keeps grooming Grumpy Cat. Maybe he thinks a bath will make him not so grumpy? We also got a copy of Baconopoly. Our game collection is slowly growing. Chris got a really soft pair of Star Wars pajama pants and shirt, a Cowboys shirt, and Star Wars Pez. He's probably going to keep the Pez closed as a collector's item, and he's already trying to live in his new Cowboys shirt. I tossed all the new clothes in the wash though first. Force of habit, just in case there's extra heavy dyes sitting in the fabric and who knows what else.
I still need to finish my organizing project with our wardrobe. It's a huge project though. I started by going through our closets and pulling out stuff for yard sale, and going through everything that got pack ratted onto the floor of the closets. I need to organize the clothes in the closets into a system now, and I want to put a great deal of the clothes in our bureaus into the closets as well. Chris has three drawers of shirts alone, and he hardly wears half of them because of the effort of digging through the drawer. They need to get hung up.
They got Daisy a new sweater. It's really cute. They also got her a Christmas cookie. They usually get her one for every holiday. She licks the icing off of them first and then she'll eat it. For some reason she was saving half of it and hid it in the bed and then would grumble at Tux and Chris if they got near it. She had an attitude all night about it. I finally took it and insisted that she eat it if she wanted it back. They got Tuxington some jingly balls. He's already gotten some serious playtime in with them, even the crinkly paper they were wrapped in. Cats, man.
My grandparents got me a new jewelry box. I've been wanting to get a new one, but I'd like to get a certain style that is enclosed inside a full body sized mirror. They're really cool, but pretty pricey. The one I have now was a childhood Christmas present and just doesn't cut it for a great deal of my jewelry. It has a necklace hanger which is cool, but I wear longer 32" necklaces that just don't work on something like that. The one my grandparents got me is similar, but a bit larger. I'm pondering using the necklace hanger for bracelets, and it has a nice section for rings, and drawers for other things. It's pretty, and thoughtful, just not exactly the style I needed. I've already figured out ways to make the best of its functionality though. That's going to be a project too. For someone that doesn't wear jewelry often I sure have enough of it.
They got me one of my favorite presents, a purple alarm clock. Our current alarm clock is beat to hell from me dropping it eight billion times in the morning. My hands don't always work like I want them to from the MS, and it's even worse when I'm half asleep, so the alarm clock gets dropped a lot. The new one is coated in a purple rubbery material that will absorb the shock of me dropping it all the damn time in the morning. The screen is really cool too, it shows the time, the date, and the time the alarm is set for all on one screen instead of having to flip through buttons. My memory's not the greatest and I'm always paranoid if I changed the alarm time for sure and had to switch through the buttons on the old alarm clock. From dropping it the buttons were beat and a bit sensitive. If you didn't have it slid back to just the right point the alarm wouldn't go off. It was becoming a problem. The back light on the old one was dull and stayed lit for like half a second, and wouldn't stay lit while you were trying to change anything. It was really frustrating. The new one has a pink light that's bright and awesome. Can you tell I'm excited about it? Hah. I love presents that make my life easier/solve problems. It not only lets me know that people actually pay attention when I talk about things, but that they care and thought about ways to solve something for me. Plus, Chris got to throw the old beat to hell one dramatically into the trash can and I no longer have to deal with it.
They got Chris a pack of socks, and a black thermal shirt. He's excited about the thermal shirt because it gets so cold at his job sometimes, especially if he's working the drive-thru windows. The only color they can wear under the management uniforms is black. So a black thermal is perfect for him. They also got a set of mirrors for us, to mount one in the bathroom shower for Chris. He'd like to be able to just shave in the shower while he's getting ready for work. Did I mention we love thoughtful gifts? Hahah.
Cupcake round two took place while everyone opened and tinkered with their presents and chatted for awhile. Shortly after that we all went home.
We were absolutely exhausted. We went to bed rather than set up our new WiiU that's just how tired we were. I fell asleep pretty much as soon as I hit the bed.
And I believe I shall end this blog here. I have much more to tell. Christmas Part Two, Three, and Four! Well, four hasn't happened yet, but still. It's coming.
This blog is getting long though, and I have much to do.
In my next post I'll tell you about our gifts to each other, and more of our Christmas shenanigans!
My Aunt Sharon, Jeff, and Kyle got me a stuffed Grumpy Cat which is awesome, a set of Olaf glasses, and a calendar for the new year. I spent some time already putting Chris' new schedule onto it and all of my appointments, some birthdays, and anniversaries. That took awhile. Tux keeps grooming Grumpy Cat. Maybe he thinks a bath will make him not so grumpy? We also got a copy of Baconopoly. Our game collection is slowly growing. Chris got a really soft pair of Star Wars pajama pants and shirt, a Cowboys shirt, and Star Wars Pez. He's probably going to keep the Pez closed as a collector's item, and he's already trying to live in his new Cowboys shirt. I tossed all the new clothes in the wash though first. Force of habit, just in case there's extra heavy dyes sitting in the fabric and who knows what else.
I still need to finish my organizing project with our wardrobe. It's a huge project though. I started by going through our closets and pulling out stuff for yard sale, and going through everything that got pack ratted onto the floor of the closets. I need to organize the clothes in the closets into a system now, and I want to put a great deal of the clothes in our bureaus into the closets as well. Chris has three drawers of shirts alone, and he hardly wears half of them because of the effort of digging through the drawer. They need to get hung up.
They got Daisy a new sweater. It's really cute. They also got her a Christmas cookie. They usually get her one for every holiday. She licks the icing off of them first and then she'll eat it. For some reason she was saving half of it and hid it in the bed and then would grumble at Tux and Chris if they got near it. She had an attitude all night about it. I finally took it and insisted that she eat it if she wanted it back. They got Tuxington some jingly balls. He's already gotten some serious playtime in with them, even the crinkly paper they were wrapped in. Cats, man.
My grandparents got me a new jewelry box. I've been wanting to get a new one, but I'd like to get a certain style that is enclosed inside a full body sized mirror. They're really cool, but pretty pricey. The one I have now was a childhood Christmas present and just doesn't cut it for a great deal of my jewelry. It has a necklace hanger which is cool, but I wear longer 32" necklaces that just don't work on something like that. The one my grandparents got me is similar, but a bit larger. I'm pondering using the necklace hanger for bracelets, and it has a nice section for rings, and drawers for other things. It's pretty, and thoughtful, just not exactly the style I needed. I've already figured out ways to make the best of its functionality though. That's going to be a project too. For someone that doesn't wear jewelry often I sure have enough of it.
They got me one of my favorite presents, a purple alarm clock. Our current alarm clock is beat to hell from me dropping it eight billion times in the morning. My hands don't always work like I want them to from the MS, and it's even worse when I'm half asleep, so the alarm clock gets dropped a lot. The new one is coated in a purple rubbery material that will absorb the shock of me dropping it all the damn time in the morning. The screen is really cool too, it shows the time, the date, and the time the alarm is set for all on one screen instead of having to flip through buttons. My memory's not the greatest and I'm always paranoid if I changed the alarm time for sure and had to switch through the buttons on the old alarm clock. From dropping it the buttons were beat and a bit sensitive. If you didn't have it slid back to just the right point the alarm wouldn't go off. It was becoming a problem. The back light on the old one was dull and stayed lit for like half a second, and wouldn't stay lit while you were trying to change anything. It was really frustrating. The new one has a pink light that's bright and awesome. Can you tell I'm excited about it? Hah. I love presents that make my life easier/solve problems. It not only lets me know that people actually pay attention when I talk about things, but that they care and thought about ways to solve something for me. Plus, Chris got to throw the old beat to hell one dramatically into the trash can and I no longer have to deal with it.
They got Chris a pack of socks, and a black thermal shirt. He's excited about the thermal shirt because it gets so cold at his job sometimes, especially if he's working the drive-thru windows. The only color they can wear under the management uniforms is black. So a black thermal is perfect for him. They also got a set of mirrors for us, to mount one in the bathroom shower for Chris. He'd like to be able to just shave in the shower while he's getting ready for work. Did I mention we love thoughtful gifts? Hahah.
Cupcake round two took place while everyone opened and tinkered with their presents and chatted for awhile. Shortly after that we all went home.
We were absolutely exhausted. We went to bed rather than set up our new WiiU that's just how tired we were. I fell asleep pretty much as soon as I hit the bed.
And I believe I shall end this blog here. I have much more to tell. Christmas Part Two, Three, and Four! Well, four hasn't happened yet, but still. It's coming.
This blog is getting long though, and I have much to do.
In my next post I'll tell you about our gifts to each other, and more of our Christmas shenanigans!
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