A Christmas weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEANNE!

Hey, a weekend birthday! That's something, right adiasplat? *grins*

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We received six more Christmas cards on Saturday (notice that I never made a post about cards on Friday, and you'll figure out how sad I felt that night *sticks out bottom lip*), including one from fuzzytrouble - thank you! We also received two big boxes full of presents from my mom, and in them she'd left one of my gifts unwrapped, intending for me to begin using it right away. It's an adorable set of candle holders; they resemble the PartyLite Crystal Trio in that each is a different height, but the stems are felt-bottomed silver instead, and rather than sporting clear cups for the candles, these hold tealights which shine through frosted snowmen bodies and twinkle out of snowflakes etched on the sides. They each sport a silver top hat and red fabric bow as well, and I was so excited to open them and set them up! (I'll try to remember to take a picture soon.)

I bought some eggnog yesterday.

I was cold for a large part of today (think: hours), and so I ended up here in the office with my winter coat on. As a result, when I did finally warm up enough, I ended up shedding it right here in the office chair as well. And I've been lazy since that point, and rather than hang it up, I just continue to sit on it.

And it's not very comfy.

So. Dang. Lazy.

Last night was Annie's Christmas party, and it was massive amounts of both relaxing and fun. (Well, until her doggies came in to visit for a bit - and in those moments, I tried to crawl backwards into the couch, mucho-puppy-scared wuz me - but then they went away again, and I could breathe normally once more. Hehehe.) She made an awesome homemade minestrone soup that was to DIE FOR, and I think it was my first minestrone experience - we'll call it the "ministrence," for short. She'd also made this yummy new treat - Cornflake Candy - and I sat and gobbled obscene amounts of it.

After fooding, we drank apple cider and munched on soft oatmeal cookies on the couch. I was introduced to the time-honoured (yes, I wanted a 'u' in that word tonight) tradition of Christmas "crackers." We each pulled a cracker, and mine had a gold paper crown, a silly joke and a whistle in it. The group of us looked adorable in our paper crowns, and we laughed hard enough to bring tears at the super-corny jokes included in our crackers. I guess you could say we "cracked up."

*groans at bad pun*

Janiece had driven us to the party, and we were talking so much on the way home that we accidentally went on the interstate instead - oh noes! It was her first time ever driving on the interstate, but she seemed much calmer than I would have been, especially because it was late at night and hard to see. My babysitter Rachel had been fantastic with the boys, and she was relishing the computer time after the boys had gone to bed. Janiece gave me an adorable snowman bell, and I was so touched. Funny story: I had just told a bell ringer at the commissary earlier that afternoon that I thought I should start collecting bells - my mom had had an extensive collection when I was growing up, and I always loved them. Of course, Janiece didn't know this, yet she surprised me with my very first bell only hours after I'd decided this - how cool!

The children had their Christmas program today during church, and I dressed the boys in matching red sweaters and khakis for their appearances on stage (even though their different Sunday School classes performed at different times). Neither of them ever managed to find us while they were singing, but we had good views of them. Jack and his friend Dave (Janiece's son) hammed it up onstage together, dancing around and bouncing. We'd guessed that they'd do that if they were staged next to one another. A.J., on the other hand, looked straight forward and sang his song perfectly. He looked past us several times, but he never did see us that we could tell.

I intended to take pictures, but when I held up my camera for the first shot of Jack, I was greeted with the "Change batteries" message. Oops. Ah, well - good intentions and all that, and regardless, I have the memories from today inside my little pea-brain, right? :-D

We all ate lunch at the fairly-new Varsity Sports Bar/Roman Coin Pizza. It was good food, but the restaurant was crowded (it WAS a football Sunday, after all), and so our service left a little to be desired. Still, if you try it out, make sure you order the Parmesan Sticks as an appetizer - mmmmmmm!

Welp, I think I'll go hang up this coat now...