Last post of 2008

I felt like I had to just write something down for the last day of 2008. We aren't doing anything terribly exciting. We're in the middle of 2 weeks off from work (yay!), and every year during this time we usually do a LOT of cleaning and organizing in the house. We make a list of each room and what we want to do, and slowly make our way through, hoping that one year we'll actually finish every task. Every time my mom calls, she asks what J is doing and I say, "cleaning and organizing". She says, "That's what he was doing yesterday!" Yep, it's a long list. But we've finished up a few rooms already, and it's so nice to walk in and feel good about what we've accomplished. That kitchen wall (the one where I bought paint for it 2 years ago) is finally painted. The bathroom cabinets are organized. Dumb stuff, but it feels so good.

I'm feeling a little under the weather today, and it's cold, windy, and snowy outside, so we're staying put for NYE. I plan to knit into the new year, since it's a good comfort activity and I have a ton of projects I feel the need to either start or finish.

Work on Monday is going to stink after this...

I wish you all a happy and healthy 2009. Be safe tonight and have fun, whatever you do to ring in the new year!

Christmas at our house

Since my family lives far away and because we're so spread out, we pick names for Christmas. Gifts had been flying back and forth across the country, so we thought it would be best to unwrap everything after we got back from visiting J's family and raided the mailbox one more time.


A pile of presents for my husband!


I finally get a picture of my nephews! Thanks little bro!


J checks out the corn griller he got from my mom (his Secret Santa)



I participated in an online Secret Santa with some girlfriends. Don't you just love the paper my SS picked out? And her gifts were so thoughtful.



Hobbes checks out the shredded paper that came with one of J's gifts.

Christmas in pictures

The tree at J's grandmother's house


All the great grandsons got Nerf guns from Maw.


Chaos ensued


My husband makes potatoes for Christmas dinner


My mother in law, pretending to be excited about a box of rechargeable batteries. It's OK--they went with the digital camera we got in the big box on the left.

Ice ice baby

Ah yes, these are the reasons we were late for Christmas Eve celebrations!

Christmas finally stopped at our house

Since we had a snow day, we finally had time to put up and decorate the Christmas tree.

The baby tree in the entry, which is decorated with Winnie the Pooh characters that J has had since forever.

The big tree. I've never had to assemble an artificial tree before, so it took a few tries to get the branches in their assigned spots. But now that it's all together, it looks great.

We're the lame people who seem to do nothing for Christmas. Before today, we had a candle in 2 windows and that was our only nod to the holiday. Now we have a big ribbon on the door, and you can see our tree in the window.

This was the first time J and I have been able to spend a lot of time on a tree and put on the ornaments together. I LOVED it!

Snow day

Yes, we were part of the seeming majority of the country that got snow today. We knew it was coming for days--my boss even showed up in my office yesterday morning and said, "Stay home." I had a conference call this afternoon, and he wanted me near a phone, not on the road fighting ice, sleet, snow, and other drivers. Hey, what can I say? He had a point.

The weather folks were predicting the snow to start between 6 and 9 am. They were only off by a half hour--the flurries first came in our area around 9:30. They didn't stay flurries for long.

For whatever reason, I always use the evergreen in our yard as a snow indicator. This was late morning.

And a nice video of the snowfall. It was SO quiet...

This was about 2pm, before the plows had arrived.

I love these shots. I accidentally left the flash on, so it caught the snow falling. GIANT flakes!

By noon J was home as well. Hobbes had been chomping at the bit to at least look outside. Must be the Siberian in him. We decided to give him a shot at the great outdoors.

Still thinking about whether this snow thing is a good idea.

Scurrying back into the house after eating some greens and prancing in the snow.

An action shot with the snow on his head.

It was a good day :)

The snow had ended, and J even hit the driveway with the snowblower. All is well.

Hallelujah

Very few songs really touch me, but Jeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah" is one of them. Check out my blog link to Whispers in the Loggia (it's over there -->) and look for his entry on "Hallelujah x 2". You'll be treated to a live video of the song. Go ahead, I dare ya.

Better yet, check it out here:

Pssst...wanna buy a house?

After 2 months of cleaning and prepping, our now former rental is on the market in the lovely town of Trappe, PA. Here are some pix:

The lovely view of the front

The sparkling kitchen

The living room, complete with fireplace

It's beauuuuuuuuuuutiful! Almost makes me want to move into it myself ;)

On a clear day, you can see forever

I swear, the dumbest things make me happy...

I have an old car with a lot of miles on it. It still had the original windshield, despite 2 jobs that required hour-long commutes on highways with tons of debris. Especially I-80, my lovely commute to New Jersey. Believe me, New Jersey has its charms. It gave me a job that I like, and the western half of it is gorgeous. But man, it has a lot of junk on the road.

Last year I got a particularly lovely divot in that windshield, courtesy of one of the semis I share the road with. And it held up through 2 inspections. But last week we had a hard freeze, and the divot turned into a crack. At either end, it was trying to decide how much space it was going to take up on the glass. It was time.

So while I was on travel last week, I got a new windshield. A brand-spanking, no-divot, clear-as-a-bell windshield. I am in heaven.

Until that next pebble heads my way...