christmas

Thanksgiving 2011

1 December 2011 / atlanta, christmas, family, food, pictures, thanksgiving

As promised, here is the long-awaited (tee-hee) entry about my Thanksgiving, only 1000 years after everyone has posted theirs! 🙂 To be fair, I did have an extended holiday, starting off Tuesday evening when Aidan arrived! He spent that night here playing and playing. Then he spent Wednesday playing and playing. Good times.

Thursday, we headed to our friends Jeff & Deborah for our annual Thanksgiving meal. Good food, and good times. Even when Aidan didn’t eat the yummy Yukon Gold potatoes. Hmph. After dinner, we went for a little walk, and I modeled my new coat:

Deborah and I also looked cute for the camera.

THEN it was off to the airport. It was SO NICE to fly on Thanksgiving evening during dinner time. The airport was so quiet, and the plane MAY have had 50 passengers total on it. It was so peaceful and smooth, and we arrived in Atlanta 50 minutes ahead of schedule!

Because Adam and I flew in Thanksgiving Day, we held off until November 25 to celebrate…..

THANKSMAS
The epic holiday combining Christmas,
Thanksgiving, and Family Portrait Day.

This happened. You’re so jealous. Just admit it.

Adam’s dad doesn’t look too proud of this turkey,
but HE SHOULD because it was DA BOMB DOT COM.

Good food was consumed, along with wine. Games were played, conversations had. Then it was PICTURE TAKING TIME!

After pictures, we sat around and talked until the sun went down. Then it was time for Thanksmas to start!

Thanksmas was awesome. I got some really neat things. But I had to leave them there because we flew Airtran and had our carry-on bags already packed to bursting (too cheap to pay baggage fees, ha). So Adam’s parents will ship all the big stuff to us.

His statue says “Best Person.”
It came from the Tacky Gift Exchange.
Aidan likes it.
I wanted the Justin Bieber toothbrush
but my cousin Annie got it instead.

Next day was stocking stuffers, naps, a morning of THIS cuteness:

and a visit to see……

Woooo!

Oh, and more pictures.

Gotta love that Atlanta in November is warm enough to go coatless. Back in Chicago now–we got back Tuesday afternoon. Another awesome Thanksmas!

Til next time! 🙂

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Christmas Bucket List | Free Download!

25 October 2011 / christmas, crafty, download, yay

I know it’s a little bit early. But honestly? I freaking LOVE Christmas. It’s my absolute favorite holiday. I kind of wish it came later in the winter, though, so that the rest of winter didn’t suck so sucktastically once the awesomeness of the holiday season is over. But I will work with what’s been given.

Several weeks ago, Katie @ Loves of Life made the cutest fall bucket list. I was totally inspired by her but completely clueless as to how one would go about making such a thing. My Photoshop skills are limited to enhancing photos and using actions if I’m feeling patient enough to deal with them (I never am). I used to make graphics from scratch using Paint Shop Pro back in the day, but now that I’m a Mac user, that option is now dead to me. But then I won the My Memories digital scrapbooking software and thought “Hmm, maybe I can create something cool with this.”

And I did! Well, at least I think so. So, thanks to Katie’s inspiration, and Jill for hosting the giveaway, I came up with this!

Do you like it? I’m kinda proud of it. That MyMemories software is fantastic. Who knows what else I might come up with!

If you’d like a printable of this, then click here! 🙂 It’s totally yours. Also, please feel free to share this on your site, Pinterest, whatever. All I ask is that you link back to this post (http://anywhere-is.net/2011/10/25/christmas-bucket-list-free-download) so other people can get it too.

And I suppose it’s not that early. Christmas is only two months away. Eeeek!

Enjoy!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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I’ve Been A Bad, Bad Blogger (Pictures, Long)

28 December 2010 / christmas, life, ohio, pictures, yay

It seems that blogging once or twice a month is going to be par for the course for me, which makes me kind of sad. I still read everyone’s blogs, but when I sit down to blog myself, I just kind of get overwhelmed with a sense of non-motivation and non-inspiration. I’ve been working a lot–a ten hour day is pretty much the norm these days (except today was pleasantly slow and I got out on time), and we’re short handed, with people out for the holidays. It’s tiring, but the money is good. And tomorrow I get a half day off, I am off Friday-Monday, and Tuesday I get another half day off. I’m looking forward to all the resting and the extra time with Aidan!

Lots of stuff happened since I last made a *real* update. I’ve fallen out of my yoga practice, which I am regretting. I REALLY ~~want~~ need to get back into it ASAP. I can’t wait until the work hours lessen so I can do so. Just walking into the studio is good for me. I attended WindyCon, and got to see S.J. Tucker perform (and also bask in some s00j love). I also met some new friends there and heard some good music.

And oh! Check out the hair fall I made!

I’m working on a mate for it so I can have two ponytails, but I need to find my materials. I’ve misplaced them. Hmm.

Yeah, that’s a bad thing about working so much. I can’t find anything. I make huge messes that I have no time to clean up, and I get overwhelmed with the lack of free time to do much besides bathe and sleep (hence the lack of blogging/updates). I also didn’t get to go around and take pictures of the Christmas trees, visit Chriskindlmarket, or see the big tree in the Walnut Room at Macy’s. No time, or just too freaking cold to go out. Thank GOD for Amazon Prime. I did a lot of my shopping online this year. It’s fun getting packages!

Aidan arrived December 17th. It was really cold, his flight was delayed but we didn’t care. We decorated the tree as soon as we got home!

The next day, I’d planned on just staying in all day, but I decided we should pop into the Moksha Yoga holiday party. I am so glad I went. I got loads of hugs, and all three of us attended an acroyoga workshop. Check out Aidan flying!

Anywhere Is turned ten at the end of November. I’ve had my domain for ten years, y’all. I used to have a huge following. Not so much anymore. The site has seen its share of drama, slow times, layout changes, and migrations from blogger to greymatter to b2 to wordpress. I was around in the heyday of the Internet Girl World, and I’m one of the few who is still hanging around, and hanging on.

I remember the trends back then. All sites had a basic format: Me, You, WWW, Site. Under all of those links there were tons of stuff to explore, if the site was good. Cliques, cjb.net, pixels, woogoo, being “hosted” (I remember how awesome it felt when Dara asked me if I wanted to be hosted!), UBBs, gbook.nu, virtue.nu, banners, link buttons, blinkies… tons and tons of things! I can’t believe how much the Internet world has changed and simplified!

Moving on from that trip down memory lane, I HAD A REALLY AWESOME CHRISTMAS. We began celebrating December 21st, on the Solstice. We opened our presents to each other and watched Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. It was REALLY NICE to be able to spoil people like I’d wanted to for years. And Adam got me a really pretty Tiffany necklace! 🙂

After a couple more nights of opening presents and eating Ivy’s delicious cookies, we set out for Ohio just before 5am on the 24th. Thank God we had clear weather. Even though the car needed a $323 repair during our travels, I was less concerned with the cost and more concerned with getting the thing fixed so we could make it to our destination. And we did! We went to Columbus first to drop Aidan off at his dad’s, then to Aurora to spend the holiday with my mom. My sister, who I hadn’t seen in years, was there! The food was excellent, my mom LOVED the record player I got her, and Chris surprised us by bringing Aidan up Christmas night instead of waiting until December 26th. There was also a Doctor Who marathon on BBC America, and I got to see Doctor Who at the Proms. Awesome.

I had an OK birthday. It started off great, but I ended up working late and I got a migraine. Still, I got a couple of cool gifts and they threw a small party for me at work. It could have been worse, so no real complaints. Plus, Aidan is here, so who cares about everything else!

Thanksgiving was weird. Adam and I usually have Jeff and Deborah over, but this year, they wanted us to go to their place. It turned out to be a relief because I was just too exhausted to clean or prepare for guests. I’d worked so much that week, plus I hadn’t been feeling well at the beginning of the week, so it was rough. It was nice to go and relax, eat, hang with friends, and watch Doctor Who. 🙂

Aidan turns eight in two days! I know, right? Last night, Adam and I surprised him with a trip to the LEGO store, where he made three LEGO guys for 9.99, and I got him a LEGO City sports car that was only $5. He’s obsessed with LEGOs and video games, and drawing.

I’d better wrap this up. I’ll try to find time to do the end-of-the-year review. I get four days off, plus a half-day off tomorrow (apparently, I have accrued .50 days of PTO that I HAVE to use before the end of the year–I tell you what, it can’t be every day that your boss calls you and says “I need you to take half a day off this week so you won’t lose your PTO”–so I’ll be using that tomorrow. Yea!), and I am taking 1/2 day off Tuesday. So looking forward to the time to relax and be with my family.

Life is good.

Til next time! 🙂

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Holiday Wish Meme

1 December 2010 / christmas, meme

My favorite time of the year is here again. And in 2010, I have so much to be excited about and thankful for!

– My awesome Aidan. He’s now seven years old, in second grade, and he is officially “gifted.” He is soooo cool, you guys. You have no idea.
– My husband. It’s amazing to have someone so supportive of me, so ready to defend me, and willing to do anything to make me happy. Well, he draws the line at spending too much time in Target….
– My family.
– Finally landing a job. On October 31, 2008, I put this into the Universe: I want to work full time at Schawk. I want to be a permanent employee. Everyday I go in and hope that they see something in me that makes them say “You know, this girl is good. Her attitude is awesome, and we can really tell that she cares about and likes the work. We’re going to offer her a position here because we know she’ll bring value to our team and our company. The Universe listens. Just sayin’. I mean, this is just about exactly what they told me when they brought me on, almost two years to the date after I put that out there. So now, I am a full-time proofreader at Schawk, and now that fourth quarter is over, life is much easier! I have regular income and benefits now. It is well.
– Meeting new friends, like Jill, Meiya, Shika, the wonderful huggy people at Moksha Yoga, and the online friends I found on random communities.
– Also meeting loads of well-known people (mostly authors) like Jerry Spinelli, Barry Lyga, Ann M. Martin, Carrie Ryan, and Susane Colasanti. Oh yah, and George Hardy, star of Troll 2 and Best Worst Movie.
My little orange girl, Helena. She is so super cuddly and sweet now! She hasn’t peed on furniture/clothing/floors etc. in several months now. 🙂
Getting to see S.J. Tucker sing many times.
Discovering yoga.
My Plurk crew. They are hilarious and fun. ♥ them!
Discovering Doctor Who.
The abundance and blessings that have been and keep being rained down on us.
My awesome friends. You guys rock!

It’s now time for the Holiday Wishes Meme. I started doing this in 2006, and I encourage you guys to do it as well.

Step One
– Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered… whatever you’re comfortable with) to your LJ/blog. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fun (”I’d love a Doctor Who icon that’s just for me”) to medium (”I wish for _____ on DVD”) to really big (”All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.”) The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.
– If you wish for real possible things, make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it’s your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.
– Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your entry, or link to this post (it’ll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two
– Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here’s the important part:
– If you see a wish you can grant, and it’s in your heart to do so, make someone’s wish come true. Sometimes someone’s trash is another’s treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don’t want or a gift certificate you won’t use—or even know where you could get someone’s dream purebred Basset Hound for free—do it.
– You needn’t spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn’t to put people out, it’s to provide everyone a chance to be someone else’s holiday elf—to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not—it’s your call.

There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just…wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you’ll have the joy of knowing you made someone’s holiday special.

With that said, here are my wishes for 2010.

1. A gift card, or for you to make donations to, DonorsChoose.org. DonorsChoose focuses on education. Teachers ask for classroom project materials. We donate. The kids learn. Most of these schools are high poverty, and the teachers are already doing all they can. Any amount is welcome.

2. Donations to Paws Chicago, the shelter where we got Helena. It’s a cage-free, no-kill shelter, and they are run completely on donations; they receive no city, state, or federal funding. It’s a great place. A shelter situation is stressful for the animals involved, and every animal I came in contact with there was happy and friendly. They have an extensive screening process to make sure you’re aware of your decision and commitment, and if somehow things don’t work out, the animal always has a home at PAWS.

3. Anything from my Amazon Party Time 2010 Wishlist.

4. Gift cards to bookstores, any bookstores. I love bookstores. And books. But you already know that.

5. I also wouldn’t mind gift cards to Old Navy, Nordstrom Rack, Target, Aeropostale, Filene’s Basement, or Kohl’s.

6. A mailbox FILLED with Christmas cards. Come on, guys. You know you want to indulge me. 😉 (comment with your email address if you’re interested in fulfilling this particular wish, and I will email you my address).

This is all I can think of for now. 🙂

And for the things that I’d like your prayers/happy energy for:

– My friends and family to be happy and secure.

– My mom to be as healthy as possible and to live a long time.

– A mild winter.

Happy Holidays! It’s December now, the season really is here! YAY!

*** If you do this meme for yourself, please make sure you comment with a link to the entry, OK?

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No Idea For a Title (Pictures)

7 November 2010 / christmas, life, pictures, work, yoga

Holy cow. Fewer than 20 days until Thanksgiving! That means fewer than 20 days until dressing and gravy and mac&cheese and homemade cranberry sauce and all sorts of delicious noms.

The past few days have been super chilly. Temps in the 30s when I walk out in the morning, not making it out of the 40s for the high. I hate it. Me and the cold? Not good friends. That’s probably why I have so many coats and hats and gloves and scarves. Now that my hair is really curly and sticky-outtie, I am not sure how to keep my head warm during the winter. Hats don’t really fit over my hair, and earmuffs and head wraps won’t be enough for long. I suppose I’ll just have to smash my hair down, and fluff it back up when I take my hat off. I’m all about comfort over style. I don’t play when it comes to keeping warm.

I’ve started seriously thinking about Christmas shopping, but haven’t actually DONE any yet. I already know one thing I am getting Adam, one thing I’m getting my mom, and a few things I’m getting Aidan. I’ll probably get to work on that stuff soon. I enjoy going out to the stores to shop, but I got another Amazon Prime membership, so I imagine I’ll be ordering quite a bit as well.

I’ll probably put the tree up… early December or so. I enjoy decorating for Christmas–it’s about the only time I’m any good at it, but I don’t like to do it too early. A lot of stores around are already doing so. Macy’s windows are done. I plan to look at them Monday during my lunch. I’ll post pictures, probably on my Flickr. 🙂

Work is still really crazy. I clocked 47.75 hours this week. That’s nothing compared to some people. But I did NOT have to go in last Sunday, thank goodness. They keep reassuring me that Schawk is not like this all year! Just a few weeks left of fourth quarter, but I’ll be sad because one of the temps will most likely be leaving (I hope they keep extending her contract if not hiring her altogether) because she makes work a *lot* of fun.

I dream of the Sears ads. I often find myself waking up and seeing a page, wondering how to make it better. That’s madness. I wonder if that will ever go away. I certainly hope it does.

I can tell Helena misses me. I don’t get to spend a lot of time with her these days. When I was home all the time, I’d lie on the couch and she’d lie on my feet or legs and purr and purr and purr. If I was sitting up, she’d butt up against me (like she’s doing now!) and just sleep. I’m gone all day, and when I get home, I hop on the computer, work, gobble down some dinner, take my bath/shower, prepare for work and go to bed. Yesterday morning, I took my time getting in (cause um, hello, it was Saturday), and she was sitting on the couch in her spot. I just pet her and cuddled her and she purred like crazy. She didn’t even try to bite me when I rubbed her tummy.

I love my little Helena.

Friday evening, I took a Fall Detox Vinyasa class. It certainly was not what I was expecting. There was amazing music which I loved, and oil. Lots of oil. Asanas. Some hard stuff. Some easy stuff. Some stuff I love like pigeon and double pigeon. I’m definitely getting stronger when it comes to plank and chattaranga, but those first down dogs are always so hard for me for some reason. When class was over, I felt happily yoga drunk, chatting with people, eating fruit, and drinking dandelion tea. There’s another detox right after Thanksgiving. I wonder if I’ll be ready for that. Especially for those hard moves…it’s for intermediate to advanced students, so maybe I’ll hold off until next year. I’m still pretty new to yoga.

I could be telling myself this because I know parts of it is hard and I have trouble keeping up. And I might be too scared/lazy to take the challenge.

But here was the funny thing. Friday evening was the first time I’d been to a yoga class since Amber’s class not last week, but the week before. It’s amazing how quickly the fast pace of downtown was in my blood. I keep mentally yelling at people to HURRY UP and GET OUT OF MY WAY and wondering why they were all moving.so.darn.slowly. But then I realized that *I* was the one not centering. My mind was in a million directions, and my body was following suit. I was impatient and irritable and fidgety. But then class started and I felt better once the Sun Salutes started.

It’s so hard to do make yoga a priority these days, when work/chores/responsibilities is taking up what feels like every free moment. But I HAVE to do it, for my sake.

I must make yoga a priority.

So, I’m planning on attending a couple of workshops in January, the kirtan on November 20th, and some weekend practices. My friend Cassandra, whom I met at Moksha, is now a certified teacher at P.S. Yoga and she personally invited me to take her Monday night class. So I’ll have to make sure I do that sooner than later. I love her teaching. She has such great energy, too. I watched her grow over the summer when she was teaching her karma classes; I attended one of her workshops. She said that she had a lot to teach me, and I’m eager to see how much more she’s grown, and what she wants to show me. 🙂

As a gift to myself for getting a job, I ordered an Ellowyne Wilde doll. I’d been looking at her for months, and I got a free shipping code from an email, plus the one I wanted is and end of edition doll (meaning she’s about to be sold out and retired), so she was marked down! Here is my newest girl!

I am in love with her. Absolutely smitten with this doll. Her clothes–the fabric is really good quality, and she comes with jewelry. But my favorite is her beautiful red curls and green eyes. I don’t plan on buying any more. She’s special, and I don’t want to overwhelm myself. (Says the girl with 12 American Girl dolls, all but four of the Monster High dolls, many Doctor Who and other assorted action figures, Barbie dolls, and more.)

So, I know she comes with the name Ellowyne, but I feel like I should give her a name that I choose. I haven’t decided on one yet, though. I know it’ll come to me. Or maybe it won’t and she’ll stay Ellowyne. We’ll see what happens.

At any rate, I’m tired. I’m going to head to bed with my ARC of Afterlife by Claudia Gray (ooo, aren’t you jealous?) and hope it doesn’t scare me awake! (I was reading it while taking a short break in the cafeteria Saturday, and the ice machine did its thang where it drops ice and makes lots of noise–yeah, startled me. I was all on edge b/c of this book!)

Anyway. *rubs eyes* Good night! I plan to sleep in big time. We’ll see if the cats/neighbors/weather will let me!

P.S. Oooh YAY extra hour! 😀

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