this year. Ryk, the kids and I had the parents, sisters and friends over Xmas eve for our traditional party. Dana, and I took the mob to mass, we met with Ray there, and Mass was beautiful.
We discovered, Ryk's boss last minute gave Ryk a hefty bonus, so we're out of the hole and can pay bills, thank god, we still have to do some hefty budgeting, but we're going to make it this month. Xmas is an expensive holiday, and Ryk and I were pretty darned careful without gifts. I did a lot of praying before and sometimes I think god really understands when you need help, not sure if that makes sense, but if you pay your respects,(whatever you do for whatever you believe in), even if it is giving to charity when you can't afford too, he/she/it comes though for you. At least, in my experience and faith it's God tossing me a rope rather than just good luck.
It was nice having mom and Dad at the house, even if it did keep Ray, Dana and I busy making food and setting things up.
The boys and V were delighted by their gifts, V actually squeed over her Hello Kitty Plush and the boys vanished upstairs to play with Mario Cart (given by SLrose).
Christmas, we spent the day at Maria's and Jeff's. It was different this year, and Maria was horridly stressed, being 7months pregnant, and the dynamics of Jeffs family mixed with ours. It was stressful for her, but fun. Both she and Jeff know how to toss a party, especially since they're foodies and know how to cook.
Zimmy is baptized tomorrow, so we're having lunch here. It should be fun, and we plan a quiet get together after with sandwiches and leftovers from Xmas. I don't have the energy to do more, but Ryk and I have a lot to be thankful for, especially with the kids and Zimmy.
And we actually have a white Christmas. Plenty of snow left over from last weekend and thankfully in my area it stays white (not that pukey grey you get in the city). It's a bit grey out and it's supposed to rain tonight, but we got our picture perfect ambience.
Just got back from seeing "Avatar". OMFG, what an amazing movie. The effects were so amazing and yes, while the plot was basically "Dances with Wolves in Space", I found myself rivited the entire time. I haven't felt so amazed by a film since the LOTRs trilogy. Yes, it's that good. If you haven't seen it yet, get yourself out to the theater ASAP. And yes, see it in 3D. Go on... get moving.
Going to veg out for the rest of the afternoon before I start getting dinner together. Chicken Corden Bleu. Yum.
And that last part has been often singled out as a favorite scene by my beta-readers; it's certainly one of mine, and I spent quite some time on it to make sure it said what I wanted it to -- much longer than I normally spend on individual scenes.
The one day dash of holiday shopping went off without a hitch...well one meltdown by me as I was trying to get around a bunch of people standing in the middle of an aisle at Broadway mall. I snarled they jumped and moved and I didn't feel too bad. After all the day of us spending it dashing in an orderly fashion I did my homework! We got dinner out plus our glass of eggnog!
Now I am boxing stuff so it can be wrapped and per usual I carry on my tradition of not being able to find one or two presents. I know they are in the back room...just wanted to get the stuff boxed and wrapped for stocking....boxed yes wrapped no.
Got a few more insanties like making the fish stuff oh and the octopus boiling thing...eeeewwww1
Happy holidays to everyone....may you find a bit of peace in all the madness of the holidays and may all of us have a safe and healthy 2010 (the year of the....(fill in the blank!)
And there's still MORE to come! (no, I have no idea why that last paragraph insists on being in a different font when all of it came from the same source...)
and had to rush CP off to school. Now I'm procrastinating in bed about getting up and showing and tending to the house work. It is.... Laundry day, as well as shopping day for Christmas Eve. We have a party every year. I am so not ready. I need to draw a picture (Don't ask) for a card, wrap presents buy booz (mostly stuff for Eggnog) and clean the floors.
Lots of stuff for mommy to get done.
Not to mention Zimmy care. She was up late last night.
Well I got mine back up and going right. I need a Firewire 800 to 400 converter. Found one on Ebay for under $10. I'm just waiting for it to arrive and I'm hoping before Friday.
Of course Kitten's macbook is giving her issues, the only way to fix them is reformat it. Nope took the other option. Got her a new one. So I get the old one. I found a store on Ebay that for $106 plus shipping I can get a new 500 gig drive. I'll order that once I get to my Quicken data on the external drive I can't connect right now. I'll replace the old drive, install a fresh copy of OSX and install what I need. Then I'll make a second account for Ronni so she can use it without getting to my stuff.
It is smaller...about 5 feet tall and about 3 feet around but the aroma walking into the living room this morning with coffee in hand was...so wonderful.
Got all hubby's presents for him am not going crazy and he is (I hope!) doing the same for me. I still want to spoil him...it is a habit of mine, but when he says I have spoiled him it is his turn...I half heartedly agree.
So here is the plan..he is shopping for me tonight and tomorrow we have about 6 places to go including the fish stuff...Thursday am wrapping and cooking, Thursday afternoon relaxing.
I hope.
I really want this NOT to turn into me being the spendthrift and him wanting to break the bank again.
I will nap on the train on the way home tonight...again. My sleep cycle is so screwed up! I want to find a couple of movies for him omg the movie I can't remember the name of it...rats!
Hock some gold to get the kids something nice. With all the crap going on, and the fact I can't sell my Dj and books until after the holiday, I guess we are putting a hold on more expensive gifts this year. I told Ryk not to get me anything this year. He kind of ODed on my for my birthday. Seriously, I guess the fact I nearly croaked inspired appreciation for Kathy Day... :) And between him, Ray and SLRose I was rather stocked with DVDs I wanted. Of course, I posted more crap this year. If you window shop amazon you can always find fun stuff. I went crazy on Dino-DVds and books again. But none of it is priority. The kids come first.
... Ticonderoga-class Missile Cruisers (CG), specifically 04 level deckplate area, AN/SPG-62 Illuminator (firecontrol radar) room, and the "intake bulkhead", whatever that is precisely. This is for another SBIR proposal I'm working on and these are apparently problem areas for this particular class of vessel that they'd like to monitor. failing that, I'd at least like to know WHERE on the ship these features are so I can envision ways to monitor them and understand something of what the main challenges are.
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