...uhg....

So, now I am sick. Which is just boring, and stupid. I had things to do today... not the least of which was starting to put away the Christmas paraphanelia. I mean, I love it, I do... but I also love the clean-ness and space you find when you put it all away. Sometimes I like to leave it up until the 6th (Epiphany) but this year I was just ready to clean up. Well, mentally ready. Obviously, not physically ready. Hubby is still sick. Of course he refuses to go see a doctor. 'Cause he's a guy. Argh. Men are dumb sometimes. Lots of times. But, I digress.... I don't want to be sick. It's boring. Poor Kiwi is really bored, what with having both parents sick.... ahh, poor kiddo!

Well, someone still has to take the dog out to potty.... crud. That'd be me.

...and so it begins....

2010 is not beginning in a very good way at my place. Everyone (but me) is still sick. Urgh. Which means sleeping late, laying around, and watching waaaay too much tv. Which to me is kinda like... Hell. Seriously. I am a "need to get OUT" kind of person, and this is driving me crazy. So, I may have to bail on these people pretty soon! I can't believe my husband had 3 1/2 days off work and we got to do... absolutely nothing. I despise that!!

At least I have to walk the dog - that's something. It's OUT. She is loving the snow - she stops to eat big, crunchy mouthfuls of it - like it's a snowcone or something! Silly girl. The cat is trying to scratch his way thru the glass panes in the office door so he can go out, which he would change his mind about if he knew how cold and windy it is out there... think, "blustery".... in fact, I should probably go pick the swim noodles off the balcony so they don't blow away. Yeah, the pool toys are still out there.... in the snow.... so sue me. Lol. It's called "no storage in this crazy apartment".

Happy New Year!!

Wow...2010. When you're "old" like me, that just sounds weird. Almost science-fictiony, huh? Lol.

I watched the Rose Parade this morning... it starts so much later when you live on the East coast! The Parade is such a tradition for me... I grew up in Southern California, and my grandparents lived right there in Pasadena (in fact, my parents actually met while attending Pasadena City College! hehe) Every year we would walk over to Colorado Blvd. and watch the parade... sometimes dad and grandpa would bring a ladder so us kids could sit up there and see over the crowd (which wasn't quite so big in those days!) When I was a teen, I belonged to the "Petal Pushers", which was a group sponsored by the Lutheran Church ( The Lutheran Hour has had a float in the parade for years). We'd get farmed out to all sorts of groups, whoever needed help decorating their float. I've glued hundreds (probably thousands!) of flowers and seeds and stuff to floats in the past! Fabulous fun!! In "lucky" years, if our particular youth group got to work on the 31st, we'd spend the night in some church gym and go to the parade in the morning. A couple other years, I and some similarly crazy friends spent the night right on the sidewalk, staking our claim for a good viewing position the next morning. And yeah, even in sunny Southern California, it gets pretty dang cold overnight when you are in just a sleeping bag!! Once I remember waking up to feeling kinda squished in my sleeping bag - and some people were sitting on me! Absolute strangers! Didn't want to get dirty by sitting on the sidewalk I guess... I think that was the same year I foiled a purse-snatcher.... Good times, good times!

The downside, of course, is that every year it looks so absolutely beautiful there in SoCal, sunny and warm, and all those folks freezing in the gray and snowy midwest would pack up and move there.... it got so crowded my family had to move to Idaho!! Where it's gray and snowy.... huh....


Anyhoo ~ HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!

Missing the Blizzard

So this probably seems silly, but even though I am quite happy to be here in Idaho spending Christmas vacation with my family, I am kinda bummed that we are missing the craziness back there in Virginia! I've never been in a blizzard, and tho I am sure it's a big pain in some ways, I wish it had waited until we were back home for New Years!

It's probably not going to be a White Christmas here... right now it's just gray, with a 'slight' chance of snow for next week. Oh, well, at least we can leave the house, huh?!

If I don't get back here before the big day....

Merry Christmas to you all!! Be safe if you are in Virginia or other areas affected by the "Blizzard of '09".... and remember -

Christ the Saviour is Born!!

Traveling....

Two days and 300 loads of laundry to go before we leave on our Christmas journey....

Snow!!

Woke up to this view this morning.....

And it's getting thicker......

and yes, I went out on the balcony in my barefeet.....

...'cause that's how I roll.

So...it's December

The stockings are hung... sort of...

The Nativities are set out... (well, the bookcase was empty anyway... the books are all still in storage) There was more greenery and a really nice Hurricane lamp on the top corner of this.... but I cleaned up the shards of that this morning about 6am... apparently the cat tried to investigate up there....

The cat is still getting in on the action....

How is it that Christmas can sneak up on me when it comes at exactly the same time every year?? Like...duh. We are leaving in one week to go to Idaho for Christmas, and of course I have more than a week's worth of work to do first.

The place is all decorated, and looks pretty nice despite having a cheesy fake Christmas tree. I swore I would never have a fake tree, but since we aren't actually going to be here for Christmas, and will be unable to water the thing, and wanted to put one up early and take it down late (I mean, I will be gone for 2 weeks, so I want to enjoy the thing I spend so much time decorating!!) well, having a bone-dry fire hazard in an empty apartment just didn't seem like a good plan. Of course we are financially strapped so we could only afford a cheap artificial tree - so, bonus good!! Yay us. It looks alright though. Actually, it looks pretty nice. Huh. Whooda thunk it.

It started out pretty awful.....

But it turned out looking presentable!