Hodgepodge

Joyce came up with some interesting questions this week.



1. According to Oxford Dictionaries, the 2013 word of the year is 'selfie'. Your thoughts? When did you last take a selfie? Do you post them online somewhere? Do you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind the lens?

First of all I think that is a stupid word. Once again people do not recognize the brilliance of my own new words such as gunkified. I digress. I think they are silly and have only taken a couple of them myself. The last one was me on the Great Wall of China since I thought I should have a shot of that.

As you can see, not my finest photo. I prefer to be behind the camera but I'm not afraid to have my picture taken.

2. Will you send out Christmas cards this year? If so, are they ready to go? If not, are you glad or sad about leaving that tradition behind?

We haven't sent out cards for several years and I doubt we will this year. In fact when I was unpacking all my Christmas stuff I didn't have any boxes of leftover cards. So I would have to buy them this year and I don't think I'll do that. Last year we really didn't get many in the mail either.

3. Do you trust easily?

I think it depends on the place. I probably trust more in my personal life than in my work life. That seems backwards doesn't it?

4. Pine-cinnamon-peppermint-vanilla (as in sugar cookie)...of those listed, which one is your favorite December scent?

I love three of the four (no pine for me) and I just got some tremendously good smelling cinnamon pine cones at Kirkland's. Really these are the best ones I've ever gotten. So I'll go with that right now. Next week it may switch to vanilla.

5. Did you do more talking or more listening yesterday? Was that by choice or necessity?

I'm writing this on Tuesday so on Monday I probably talked more than listened. Especially at work when I have to explain stuff.

6. What's the last song that got stuck in your head? Sorry if it's back there now : )

Since is is the Christmas season, I'm listening to those songs all day long. So it has to be Heat Miser/SnowMiser.  My favorite cartoon song.

7. Which world explorer (in the whole history of the world) would you most like to have traveled with, and why?

This is the big thinker question of the day. Wow. Maybe Neil Armstrong going to the moon? Although I would be pretty scared about getting into the spacecraft.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

The tree is done and I'm off to help my mom set up her tree tonight. Things I've learned with the new tree is that we don't need to have it on the wooden box like the last one and the angel is super big. The tree isn't as big as our old one but all my ornaments look nice on it.

You can't really see the ornaments in the tree with the lights on but they are there.

December is Here

Well a four day weekend and back to work. And can I just say that I really need one more day to finish up the house. But alas I don't have that so will try and cram stuff into my evenings.

Thanksgiving started out at 32 degrees and bundling up for the Turkey Trot to benefit United Way long term tornado relief.

Having never done this before we didn't know what to expect and got there much earlier than we needed to. But we stayed in the car until the race started. It was chilly going but we warmed up. I had two layers on plus gloves and I ended up taking the gloves off at the end. I also ditched Dan within 100 feet of the start as we started weaving through all the people. But that's ok since we both had our music and hadn't really planned on walking together.

Turkey dinner was later than normal but we had good food and good company with both of our mothers visiting.

Friday I did nothing. Really I feel like I wasted the day. But we did learn a new game that my mother-in-law brought...Mexican Train. Its a dominoes game and pretty fun. Other than that...absolutely nothing was accomplished.

Saturday Whitney and I ventured to Walmart and it wasn't crowded at all. Loading my cart full of food seemed ironic after we had just had a big turkey dinner.

All of the decorations were pulled out of the attic.

I seem to keep expanding the box collection and then I still buy more stuff.

The snowmen have gathered together in solidarity. Mr. and Mrs. Claus have since been kicked out of their group and have moved on to a place of honor high atop the entertainment center.

After spending hours decorating the house I was tired and decided to put off the tree until Sunday.

Sunday was super foggy on the drive to church. In fact it was so bad that I would slow down everytime I came to an intersection because I couldn't see the stoplight until I was almost on it. It was a good thing that traffic was light.

Whitney went back to school and then I tackled the tree. I had forgotten how much fluffing you have to do with a new tree. After one hour I had the first section done.

I was getting worried I wouldn't get it done.

Another hour and all of the fluffing was done but then we ran into a big problem. My new angel was much bigger than the one we used to have. And it was too heavy for the top of the tree. Dan googled how to keep the toppers on and ended up calling the store we bought the tree at for suggestions. We ended up getting a dowel to add stability to the top and that seemed to help. And then we have to figure out how to get the angel's dress to lay right so you aren't staring up it and seeing the plastic cone. By now it is after 5 and I've been at this tree for three hours. I just couldn't work up the energy to finish the fluffing, unpack the ornaments and put them on the tree. So there it sits, pulled out from the wall and looking forlorn.

Tonight's task will be to shore up the angel a bit more and add the ornaments. I think we are skipping the garland this year so that helps.