Pittsburgh Girlie

One Down…

One to go!

I know I should have written this up earlier because I’m already forgetting. I haven’t even pulled the pictures off of the camera yet! The Kid came down last Sunday and we had Christmas!!! It was fantastic to watch him open stuff that he wanted, had asked for, hadn’t gotten yet, and (the bonus) is still interested in! Last year he asked for all this Pokemon stuff, opened it, and was all, “This is for babies.”

I got some really great shots of his face opening stuff. It’s the stuff that Christmas is made of and yes it made waiting for him sooooo worth it. He was very excited when he opened up a REALLY nice Indiana Jones leather jacker from his aunt and uncle in NJ. At first he thought it was a costume and was sad that there wasn’t a whip to go with it. I can’t wait to get some better pics of him wearing the jacket, it’s looks so sharp on him.

Most of the stuff we opened we both already knew about. Apparently The Boy had snuck out and bought more stuff for me, just as I had padded Amazon orders with stuff for him. He got me a battery grip for my dslr because I am spoiled! I was super happy and didn’t really care what the other gifts were. THen I opened a remote for the camera and a BAG!!! OMG I LOVE BAGS! This was a bag I had researched and did a lot of thinking about. Mostly thinking, “Man, I *really want* that bag!”

Anyway, I was really happy with the gifts we gave this year. I really enjoyed watching everyone open them. And I really made myself sit back and think about Christmas. Mainly because I had a small part in bring Christmas to a bunch of kids in various situations that may not have had anything.

Next up…

Christmas with my family. We’re waiting until after my nephew is born to save everyone from making multiple trips. Also, really excited to see everyone open these gifts too!

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The New Year

November was great for blogging for me, December not so much. Yeah I got busy, yeah I got lazy. Traveling and visiting got in the way of sitting stationary and anti-socially in front of my computer all the time. It didn’t help at all that I ended up taking a combination of vacation and holidays and haven’t been to the office since December 15. I know, poor me.

I made cookies to give around to people, except for the gingerbread. The Boy is in charge of gingerbread because the smell of molasses makes me yak. We cleaned, a bit. Sorted and packed up gifts to go out to The Boy’s family.

Christmas was great, the bit of it that we’ve done. I am an impatient child and we wait for The Kid to come down and have Christmas with us. It’s way more fun for us all to open gifts together, but I’m really bad at waiting. What’s worse is that I got a Kitchen Aide mixer and I can’t play with it because we’re re-wrapping it. If we didn’t re-wrap gifts from his family The Kid’s pile would take over.

I’d like to take a moment to bitch about how he’s been playing with the PS3 and has already beat one of the games it came with. I made two things of chocolate chip cookie dough dip for a NYE Party, BY HAND. Would have been nice if I had been able to play with my nice new expensive toy. This comment totally went over his head because he was busy with his game.

We’ve been butting heads a lot recently, mainly because I’m cranky and everything annoys me. Probably because I cannot have my Christmas yet. I am not looking forward to being mock surprised at things I’ve already opened. Whine whine whine whine.

Sorry, I know most people are doing their best of 09 posts and resolutions. I generally resolve, and fail, to be less bitchy to people. I’ve pretty much stopped making resolutions.

This time next year I will be entering (hopefully) my last semester of my undergraduate career. Worst case it’ll be my second to last semester. I’m still debating on walking for my graduation. I guess I have a lot of time to really not make a decision and stress about it later.

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Christmas Cards

I love getting mail, especially the kind with gift checks in them. But I always feel so guilty when we receive Christmas cards because we don’t send them out. I do try to send thank you cards for gifts, I’m about 72% good at that. Every year we try to find a place to display them, every year it’s somewhere different as we’re just not sure where they fit in. Part of me wants to hide them so I don’t have to feel that wave of guilt every morning before leaving for work. This also plays into the whole “I don’t do Christmas decorations” thing.

Sending cards is just such a huge thing of keeping track who has sent you one, making sure you don’t miss someone, sending them early enough but not too early, and then there is the whole what to write. I feel that I should write something personal, but not something so cliched and kitschy. Everything I write ends up being the latter.

Then there is the cost. Even before this stupid economic breakdown we were living paycheck to paycheck. There’s not much extra in there for extra stuff. Yeah, I know I can buy cards for super cheap after the holidays. This would require me to remember, put them somewhere safe, pull them out well enough in advance, etc etc. The time of year when cards should be sent I’m way to busy with work and school.

So, you see my dilemma. I can’t keep track of who sent what to me and reciprocate an entire year later. I will say thank you. I will give you a call, we can chat and catch up. Hey, let’s go grab a coffee or a beer. If we’re not in the same city, catch me online, or when I’m traveling through/near/etc.

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Christmas Crazy for Kids

A few weeks back (was it really a month ago!?) Our friend Burgh Baby was in a contest for Best Local Blog over at The Bump. We all worked our fingers down to bloody nubs vote vote voting for her. She really does have a fantastic blog and if you haven’t, you should go read through it. Also her kid; Adorable!

Winning Best Local Blog led to another contest that was bigger and ended up being really stupid. We all pretty much agreed that we wouldn’t stoop to the cheating ways of some of the other blogs (endorsed by the authors or not).

From the start Burgh Baby had plans for the winnings. The $1000 prize money was going to buy Christmas presents for kids in need. Since she dropped out of the contest to save our poor bloody nubs, among other reasons, and she/we/you/and I are raising that cash! Go read her post and donate $10. $10 is one day’s lunch. Bring a PB&J and give some kids The Christmas Crazy they deserve!

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