Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Christmas time is here...and gone again

I can't believe Christmas is already over. Like most, the season seemed to rush by in the midst of work, giving finals, grading, buying gifts, decorating the house, etc. At least I can say that I truly enjoyed myself this Christmas holiday and had so much to look forward to. (I know...improper English, but this is my blog...:)) For the first time, I decorated my table with my new-from-last-Christmas tableware. I love the look of white! I didn't want any red/green, which is incredibly difficult NOT to find, since my kitchen in red/white/black.This is also the second year I put up the smaller tree in the dining room. I love this tree! It totally reminds me of something my good friend Hayley would do. What do you think Hayley? :)
Of course, my "real" tree in the living room is full of anything and everything Disney. I'm afraid I scared Joon just a bit with my Christmas-y decor since neither he or his family have celebrated Christmas since they were kids. (I asked him about that, and he didn't really have an answer. They just don't make a big deal about it. Christmas is just another day to them. Well, I have news for him...) He did have fun putting together my new tree. He spent almost 3 hours (HOURS!) getting the tree out of the box and arranging each limb so it would look perfect. He said this tree business was an art form, and he wanted to get it right. Apparently, I've been just slapping my tree together for years now.

Before school let out for break, the teachers met at Diamond Bowl, a little funky modern bowling alley in downtown Independence for the annual Christmas party. Guess what? I WON a basket!! Each house donated items to be gathered for 5 or 6 different baskets, and if you wanted a chance to win one of the baskets, you bought tickets. (The money goes to our Benevolence Fund at school, which helps our homeless and needy kids.) I put in $20, and I WON! This is the basket--I figured there was about $150 worth of stuff. Not too shabby!


Let's see...2 bags of Twizzlers, 4 soup bowls, 1 soup mix, 1 brownie mix, 1 cupcake mix, 1 large tin of hot chocolate plus the cutest little whisk, a cookbook that will never get used, an Andrea Bocelli Christmas CD, 4 free movie tickets (I only can find 2 now for some reason.), 4 handmade coasters, 2 nice reed diffusers, the Apples to Apples game, 2 bottles of wine (1 white, 1 red), a giant bottle of Begium beer, and a gift set of Irish creme/2 small glasses. I made the soup last night, and it was delicious!

Joon and I had our Christmas the weekend before and exchanged gifts because he couldn't wait until Christmas. I think someone's Grinch-y heart is growing...
He gave me a 320 GB external hard drive for my laptop. I had asked for this b/c I don't want to use my laptop's drive for all my music and pictures. He also gave me a pair of gloves and a very nice dress coat. He received some cologne, the new Call of Duty game, and an electric razor. He really likes the game--he's playing it right now!

Soze loves her new much-needed big dog bed. It actually matches the rest of the living room decor and is so soft! Maybe now she won't spend so much time on the couch, but I wouldn't bet on it. She enjoys laying next to me too much!

Joon drove down with me on Wednesday to surprise my mother at her retirement party (another blog another day), so he was able to finally meet my family. They all loved him, as I knew they would. On the very first day at my mom's house, Joon came across this picture of me hanging on her wall, and he fell in love! He thought I was just the cutest little thing at 3-years-old, and I couldn't disagree.


Grandma spoiled her granddog, and Soze literally eats it all up...


One surprise that I had in store for Mom was a shadowbox of her baby clothes. After my grandmother passed away in February, Mom found several of her baby dresses. She knew she wanted to keep them, but she wasn't sure how to display or preserve them. I think I surprised her with this one!

My brother Cliff and his son Adam...it seems like just a few years ago that I found Adam sitting in his crib, diaperless, with poop smeared all over himself and flung on all the furniture in the room. Remember that one Mom?


One present that I actually asked for...don't laugh...was a Snuggie. My house gets cold, and I refuse to turn up the heat anymore than I absolutely have to. A Snuggie could be my solution! So here we are, my sister-in-law, Terri and me--Snuggie Sisters! :)


I know that even though I have such a good time with my family since I only see them all once a year, the time comes to say goodbye and come back home. This is what Joon and I returned home to--about 8 inches of snow! We couldn't even get in the driveway, and I didn't have a shovel! Joon borrowed one from my neighbor to get started, and I drove to both Home Depot and Sears in search of a much-needed snow shovel. Sears came to the rescue, and when I got back to the house, Joon was in shovel mode.



It has snowed about 2 more inches since this, but at least the main roads seem pretty clear. Joon and I were supposed to visit my stepfamily down in Memphis, but with the snow and ice, and even Memphis's bad weather, we decided to stay in and go sometime either this spring or summer. I can't wait for them to meet him, and I know they will love him just as much as the rest of my family does.
I've been working on catching up on my scrapbooks the past 2-3 days, and I hope to have some pics up on another post. Instead of being 2 years behind, now I'm only 7 months behind!

Thanks to Mom

Mom and I spent some quality Mother-Daughter time over Thanksgiving. I drove down to Springfield to visit, eat, shop, and go to a Branson show. Ryan's buffet fed us a home cooked meal (at least it tasted like it!), and we both enjoyed out time there because 1) we didn't have to cook a giant Thanksgiving dinner just for the two of us, and 2) we didn't have to clean up after ourselves! We also treated ourselves to a movie, but for the life of me, I can't think of what we saw now.

Of course, Black Friday meant SHOPPING! I am NOT one of those people who venture out early anymore after standing in line for 3 hours to buy a $20 DVD player a few years back. Who wants that? So now I just get up and go out on my own when I feel like it. This year it didn't seem like the crowds were too bad. Most of my shopping was done that day, and then I met up with Mom after she got off work that afternoon. We went back out for more shopping and finally finished up around 9 pm. Needless to say, that was one LONG day!!

Saturday meant lounging around the house and then heading for Branson later in the afternoon. Mom had bought us tickets (FRONT ROW...) to see the Baldknobbers Country Jamboree. I used to LOVE this show when I was a little girl. Now? Not as much...After seeing so many Broadway shows, this was just a small letdown. I mean, the singers could sing, the comedians were funny, but it just wasn't the same show from when I was a kid. Next year, I think we will go back to our favorite show in Branson--Pierce Arrow.


Back to Halloween

Since I hadn't blogged about Halloween yet, I thought I'd go back and put in a little blurb before Thanksgiving and Christmas. Joon and I met some friends at Ernie Bigg's Piano Bar, my favorite spot downtown. They were celebrating their two year anniversary with a big party and costume contest. Joon and I didn't win (we didn't enter, so I guess that takes us out of the equation), but we had so much fun just the same. I'll let you figure out which ones we are. :)

Monday, December 7, 2009

Thinking of summer

Since it is really, really cold outside (try 17 degrees or so...), I thought I would look through some summer pictures and reminice about the good ol' warm days. Joon and I had a summer pool party to bring both sides of our friends together. This was my first chance to meet his good friends, and I love them all! They are so genuine and seemed thrilled to meet Joon's "better half".
Sarah, Jill, me, and Kelly take some time to relax and enjoy our time off from school. Of course, I'm sure all we talked about was school during our time together (as always!).






I finally broke down and had to buy a new lawnmower this summer as well. The old one was really old, and I was done restarting it every five minutes. Joon helped me pick out my new shiny red one (see how technical I can get?). I love it!


Joon also helped me start my own little garden of tomatoes. I've never grown anything in my life, except maybe a Chia pet when I was in the 6th grade. Much to my surprise, the tomatoes grew! I had plenty of cherry tomatoes for my salads all summer, plus a few regular tomatoes for my world famous BLTs!