christmas

Christmas Time & Christmas Meme (Pictures)

12 December 2007 / christmas, meme, pictures, survey

Put up the tree today. 🙂 There’s something nice about small trees. They’re so easy to decorate. I hadn’t even taken the thing apart really. Just stood it up and fluffed it out a bit. Plopped on the garland and the lights, and when Aidan got here, hung the ornaments with him. Good times.

I’ve been playing with the manual settings on my camera (FINALLY, after having it for 20 months!), and while I still have a lot to learn, I’m excited about how much more flexibility I have with photography. I’m also scared that I’ll screw up pix a lot more. :O Like those sparkle things on Aidan’s face in the above picture. What the hot banana is that all about?

Festive Experimentation

And time for a survey! 🙂

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Both! I like to wrap, but gift bags are pretty and reusable! 🙂

2. Real or Artificial tree?
Artificial. I have a cat.

3. When do you put up the tree?
Usually the first week of December, but I got sick this year, then went to NYC. So, today.

4. When do you take the tree down?
Whenever I get around to it. I try to do it soon after the new year.

5. Do you like Eggnog?
No.

6. Favorite gift you received as a child?
Oh man, let me think! Barbie Dolls, and the Hanging’ Tough Live video. 🙂

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
I think I do? I do have an ornament that I keep up all year round.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
My stepfather.

9. Easiest person to buy for?
Aidan and Adam.

10. Worst Christmas gift ever received?
Dunno.

11. Christmas Cards?
Yes.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I LOVE The Christmas List. After that? Hmm, A Christmas Story. A Christmas Carol.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
A bit before Thanksgiving.

14. Have you ever ‘recycled’ a Christmas present?
I may have for a white elephant thing.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
My mommy’s dressing, greens, and mac & cheese. And raspberry chocolate chip cookies!

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Clear.

17. Favorite Christmas Song?
We’ll start with Transiberian Orchestra ones first:
Christmas Canon
Christmas Canon Rock
Wish Liszt (Toy Shop Madness)
Next, Harry Connick, Jr. songs:
Parade of the Wooden Soldiers
I Pray on Christmas
… and these randoms:
– O Come O Come Emmanuel – Carter’s Cord (It’s FREE on iTunes right now—’til 12/18/07—so go get it!)
– Emmanuel, God With Us – Amy Grant
– These Are The Special Times
– God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (the 98º one)
– Agnus De, the Michael W. Smith version. It’s not really a Christmas song, but it fits.
– Christmastime – Michael W. Smith
– The Prayer
– Angels We Have Heard on High (the Joan Osborne version)

And and…. of course, You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch. 🙂

Oh, and I like the ones Mariah Carey sings and Sarah McLachlan and Jewel and Nat King Cole and … OK, you know what? It’s going to take me too long to answer this question. I have 218 Christmas songs on my computer That’s 13.4 hours.

HEY, I also like the I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas song. Anyone have it and want to share? 🙂

18. Travel at Christmas or Stay Home?
I’m the young, unmarried one, so I’ll be traveling. Adam, Aidan, and I are going up to see my mom.

19. Can you name Santa’s Reindeer?
A few of them.

20. Do you have an Angel or a Star on top of your tree?
Angel. Always an angel.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
It depends. This year, I opened some on Thanksgiving!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
It goes away so quickly.

23. Shopping…Mall or online?
I like to go out and shop. No paying for shipping that way. I remember when they were really trying to push online shopping, back in 1999. EVERY place offered free shipping, and I didn’t have a car. It was the best thing ever. But then, online shopping caught on, so it’s not as much fun anymore.

24. Do you decorate outside for Christmas or just inside (or at all?)
I have an apartment, so I only decorate inside.

25. Favorite Christmas cookie?
Raspberry chocolate chip. I need to get some raspberry chocolate chips and a new cookie sheet so I can make them!

26. Do you own Christmassy clothing or jewelry?
I have a couple pairs of socks. 🙂

27. Do you believe in Santa?
Santa rocks, dude.

‘Til next time.

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Happy Mail!

10 December 2007 / books, christmas, friends, yay

I got my mail today, and there was another surprise package from Amazon!

Thanks, 1of7mikey, for the Leven Thumps book! You should have seen how excited I got when I opened the package! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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UNCynical

5 December 2007 / christmas, friends

Okay, random packages from Amazon can really help a girl’s mood.

Thank you so much mandibaby for the CD and the book for Aidan! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Hope you feel better soon.

**luffs**

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Happy December/Holiday Wishes Meme

1 December 2007 / christmas, meme

The first day of my favorite month is finally here! This is the month of Christmas, my birthday, Aidan’s birthday, getting to see Adam twice, NYC, good food, family, presents, songs, pretty decorations, pictures, and all sorts of other happy things.

The Broadway strike is over, which means I am definitely going to get to see RENT! How excited am I? Oh, you just can’t even imagine. I’m going to see RENT!!

I’m ready to put up decorations. Unfortunately, I’m going to be doing some MAJOR digging to get them out, and some rearranging to get them in place, but it’ll be worth it, once my place is all festive and pretty-like.

I love December.

Time for the annual Holiday Wishes meme.

Step One
– Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered… whatever you’re comfortable with) to your LJ. 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 Snape/Hermione 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 LJ, 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.

1. Southwest Giftcard(s). Anything to help me see Adam more often is a GOOD thing! 🙂

2. Anything from my Amazon wishlist

3. A 35mm zoom camera. I lost my old one sometime last year, and I miss taking film pictures.

4. Telephoto lens for my Canon Rebel XT DSLR camera.

5. And finally…. Who can’t use extra cash? 🙂
(lilrongalATaolDOTcom)

Happy Holidays, everyone! 🙂 They’re upon us! YAY!

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…And So This Is Christmas (Multimedia)

25 December 2006 / christmas, family, pictures, videos

Merry Christmas, for those of you who celebrate it. For those of you who don’t, I hope you enjoyed your day off! And for those of you who had to work, I hope you had a decent and easy day.

My weekend was pretty busy, and I plan to take tomorrow to CRASH. Or maybe get stuff done around here. The place is a mess because I came in, dumped gifts on the floor, and went straight to bed. Finished reading Confessions of a Shopaholic for the millionth time, and tried to doze off. I was lying there, with Lucy curled into a donut on my chest, when my cell phone rang. I didn’t get to it in time, but I did get to talk to the person who called (♥) a bit later.

Yesterday, I drove up to Cleveland, well, actually Aurora, with Aidan in tow, to visit my mom. Andy (crimsonghost_oh) came over and hung out for a bit. It’s always good to see him, plus he was wearing cologne that smelled really good. But he has no idea what the name of it is–his friend Joyce buys it for him. Ha. Boys.

I learned something about being on the road. First of all, minivans tend to drive like assholes when in the city, but man, on road trips, those things FLY! I tend to always find myself doing the “stalk” to a minivan. The stalk is when I pretty much follow someone who is going 85-90MPH. That way, I can go 80-85MPH, knowing that if they see a cop, they’ll brake, thus giving me enough warning to brake as well. But here’s the weird thing. I did not see ONE cop on the road on the trip to and back from up north! And I made great time, alternating between Newsies and Christmas music on both drives.

Aidan was very cute, opening his gifts this morning. Everything got an exclamation such as, “Ohh, flash cards!!!” “Ooh, Spongebob!” That boy is the cutest little boy I’ve ever seen. He was adorable! And he was just in shock at all the packages for him. “Oooh, thank you! It’s what I’ve always wanted!”

I guess it’s time for me to do the requisite haul list, huh? Let’s see if I can remember everything:

From my mom:
Vacuum cleaner
Vacuum bags
Towels
Colander
Basket filled with beautifying goodies
Fleece throw
Cute little pink hangers
A sign that says “I only have a kitchen because it came with my house.”

From Chris & Aidan:
Longaberger stuff like whoa
Gift card to Payless
A Christmas village
Scrapbooking kit

From Josh & Kelly:
Bath & Body Works shower gel, lotion, and bar soap

From Mom & Dad Davis:
Entire bag of 3 Musketeers minis (!!)
Mickey Mouse slipper socks
Gift card to Napster
Cool flexi-pen
Stickers

From Leah (my sister):
That pasta maker thing that they show on infomercials.

And I guess there are more things coming…? YAY!! Even though I’ve hit the big 3-2 (eeek), I still love getting presents. Almost as much as I love giving!

Of course, I have pictures!!

Aidan playing with TMX Elmo!!

My sister is weird. No. Seriously.

Aidan loves Grandmommy. She loves him, too.

Aidan likes to do things wearing only his underwear. That includes opening gifts.

Darth Aidan. (The kid finally put on some pajamas!)

Aidan and Grandpa play with their Buzz Lightyear toys.

Dinner today, at John & Liz’s. I should have gotten a picture of the homemade apple pie. OMGBBQ it was so good.

And a couple pictures of me…

This was me, Christmas Eve night, before the drugs kicked in. HA.

This is me, this morning. I look a LOT like my sister here.

A couple of quotes:
Aidan: GRANDMOMMY! I’m about to blow up your toilet!
Mommy: What?
Aidan: I’m about to blow up it!!
(Aidan had been having serious poops due to his oatmeal consumption).

Dad Davis: See look, it says ages four and up. And I’m UP!

Just thought that Ivy (swankivy) would like to know that I am OBSESSED with my Newsies soundtrack! It’s so, so good. “Go get ’em cowboy!” Oh, and the pink fuzzy slipper boots, too. 😀

Aidan’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse did not come in time for Christmas, but he was happy enough with his other gifts that he didn’t miss it. That’s what makes him such a great child. Me? I would have said “Where’s the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse?” LOL. I’ve done it. Except it was “Where’s the Merry-Go-Round stroller?” So I will give it to him Saturday, on his birthday. Provided I get it in time! 🙂 Man, kudos to the people working at the Beechwold post office, here. They are so busy, and still, my mail carrier is perfectly nice and pleasant, all the time. He’s a great guy.

Anyway, last but not least, here is a video I took today of Aidan’s TMX Elmo. This thing is insane, people. Hilarious! Enjoy!

See ya! 🙂

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