You can also check out my wedding blog, Tara Getting Married. It has lots of DIY wedding information!
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas 2011 is done!

And woweee it was a big one.  Philip and I are so spoiled.  We got movies and books and games and clothes and gadgets galore.  And, we had Skype dates with our families.  Unfortunately, Philip had to work Christmas night, but we still had a good dinner beforehand.  Again this year, it was just the 2 of us (and our four pups, of course!).  

Friday night, we opened presents with my family (it was the only time that worked with all of my sister and her bf's Christmas events).  Highlights: I got a Cricut (yayyyyyyyyyyy!) and Philip got some expensive Star Wars Legos that have been discontinued.  We had gotten my parents a laptop for Christmas (which they used to Skype with us) and we went in half with my parents on a tv for my sister and her boyfriend.  Everyone was super happy, I think!  :)

After we finished with my parents, we decided to keep on opening gifts.  Highlights: Philip got an iPad from me (several weeks ago) as well as a baseball autographed by Mariano Rivera and I got a Kindle Fire and new pearl earrings from him.  :)

Saturday we did a little shopping and picked up a case for his baseball.  Then on Sunday we opened gifts with his family.  Highlights: Philip got a new drill (he really needed one; our old one was terrible!) and I got new pots and pans.  :)  

Our movie collection is just insane at this point.  We've got something like 550 movies, over 100 tv shows, and I don't know how many documentaries.  Philip's video game collection grew quite a bit over the weekend, too!  

Yep, we are spoiled.  But, I think I'm okay with that.  ;)

Monday, December 27, 2010

Santa must've put me on the "nice" list!


I had a fantastic Christmas. I was depressed for weeks beforehand about not being with my family on Christmas for the first time ever. It turns out that it wasn't so bad.

I got to spend several days with Philip (who is wonderful, always). We also had Skype video dates with both of our families so that we could see people open presents and just "be" with our families for the holiday. It worked out really well. I still missed my family and wish that I could be with them, but I was content in my situation. I really am very fortunate.

Also, Santa brought me a TON of awesome gifts. ;) There wasn't really anything in particular that I was asking for (besides the treadmill that Philip got me in November), so I wasn't expecting a whole lot. I was in for quite a treat! I got a bunch of books and movies (which are always great presents for me!) and I also got a breadmaker and a Kitchenaid mixer (I'm going be a baking Queen!). On top of all that, I also got 2 hockey pucks autographed by Matt Duchene (my favorite Avs player -- GO AVS!) and a new Avs jersey along with an Avs Mr. Potato-head (complete with mullet and toothless grin!). Philip and I also got a new camera from my parents. It is a spectacular camera; we both love it! It's a Canon PowerShot SX20IS 12.1MP Digital
Camera. It takes great photos and I love, love, love the zoom capabilities. :) We also got some new Halloween decorations (only 308 days left!).

The dogs got each of us a new knit cap to keep our heads warm... they, of course, are cute Avalanche hats! Here we are in our new, beautiful hats:


Phew! That's a lot of Christmas gifts! We are definitely spoiled. I don't mind though. ;) I hope that Santa brought each of you everything that was on your wishlist... unless you were naughty. In that case, try to be a better person this year! XD Happy holidays to all!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Not Home for the Holidays

This will be the first year that I will be unable to spend Christmas with my family. It's depressing. I am staying in Colorado with Philip. He can't get any time off work for Christmas, and my family is over a thousand miles away from here. So, getting home for the holidays is not an option.

I really do want to spend Christmas with Philip. I love him and he is my world. However, I've been homesick recently and not being able to go home for Christmas is really getting to me. I haven't seen my parents and sister since July. I haven't seen the rest of my family since May.

Before we moved here, I was about 700 miles away from my family. I still managed to see them every month or two. To be fair, during that time, I was unemployed. However, when I was working, I still managed to see them every 2 to 4 months.

And even when I wasn't seeing my family as often, I was surrounded by friends and roommates. I've had difficulty finding friends in Keenesburg. All of our neighbors have families. And, I work in downtown Denver with 3 other people; my boss and 2 maintenance guys, one who does not speak English. I really like the guys I work with and my neighbors but they aren't really best friend material.

I love the holidays. I love baking, shopping, giving, receiving. I love the decorations and the love. I love the happiness that the holidays bring. I'm just having more trouble than normal getting into the holiday spirit this year. When I'm buying presents this year, I am having them shipped directly to my family. I won't get to see their faces when they open presents. I won't get to have dinner with all of them.

I am incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful man to spend my holidays and every day with. He is loving, supportive, smart, funny, and just perfect. I love him so much. I just wish I could have the best of both worlds and spend the holidays with BOTH my family and Philip. Hopefully next year we will be able to take some time off work to see our families for the holidays.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Movie Collection...

Philip and I have an enormous movie collection. And, Christmas only lengthened our list. Brandon says that soon, we'll be rivaling Blockbuster. And, if any of you would ever like to borrow something on our list, just let me know. ;) Some of these are DVDs, some are HD-DVDs, and some are Blu-Rays.

8MM
12 Monkeys
28 Days Later
30 Days of Night
50 First Dates
300
3,000 Miles to Graceland
The Abyss
Aeon Flux
Alpha Dog
Alexander
Alien
Aliens
Alien 3
Alien Resurrection
Alien Vs. Predator
Alien Vs. Predator Requiem
Along Came a Spider
American Gangster
American History X
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Anger Management
The Aristocrats
Assassins
Bad Boys II
Batman Begins
Dark Knight
Beerfest
The Benchwarmers
Beverly Hills Cop
Billy Madison
Blade
Blade 2
Blade Trinity
Blades of Glory
Blazing Saddles
Blow
Bob's Big Break in Monster 3D
Bolt
Boondock Saints
Borat
Braveheart
Bridge to Terabithia
Brothers Grimm
Bruce Almighty
Burn After Reading
The Cable Guy
Chasing Amy
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Riddick
Cinderella Man
City of Angels
Clerks: 10th Anniversary Edition
Clerks II
Closer
The Color Purple
Coming to America
Constantine
The Count of Monte Christo
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dances with Wolves
Daredevil
Dawn of the Dead
Deathproof (Grindhouse)
The Departed
Defiance
Dinosaur
Dirty Dancing
District 9
Dodgeball
Dogma: Special Edition
Domino
Don't Say a Word
Dragonheart
Dragonheart 2
Dreamgirls
Dukes of Hazard
Elektra
Eragon
Eurotrip
Road Trip
Exit Wounds
Face/Off
Failure to Launch
Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest
Family Guy Presents Something Something Something Dark Side
Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
Family Values Fall Tour '98
Fantastic 4
Fast & Furious (4)
Fearless
The Fifth Element
Fight Club
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Flight of the Phoenix
Flushed Away
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Forrest Gump
Jeff Foxworthy: Totally Committed
From Dusk Till Dawn
From Dusk Till Dawn 2
From Dusk Till Dawn 3
From Hell
Fun with Dick and Jane
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters 2
Gladiator
The Girl Next Door
The Godfather
The Godfather 2
The Godfather 3
The Golden Compass
Gone in 60 Seconds
Goonies
Grandma's Boy
Groundhog Day
Hancock
Hannibal
Happy Gilmore
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Hard Candy
He's Just Not That Into You
Hellboy
Hero
The Hills Have Eyes
Hitman
Hocus Pocus
Homeward Bound
Homeward Bound 2
Hostel Part 2
Hot Fuzz
Hot Rod
House of 1000 Corpses
House of Flying Daggers
How To Lose Friends & Alienate People
Hulk
I Love You Man
The Incredible Hulk
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
I, Robot
Ice Age
Ice Age The Meltdown
Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs
The Illusionist
The Incredibles
Independence Day
Interview With a Vampire
Insomnia
Iron Man
The Island
James Bond: Diamonds Are Forever
James Bond: Goldfinger
James Bond: The Living Daylights
James Bond: The Man With The Golden Gun
James Bond: The World Is Not Enough
James Bond: Die Another Day
James Bond: License to Kill
James Bond: The Spy Who Loved Me
James Bond: Thunderball
James Bond: A View To Kill
James Bond: Casino Royale
James Bond: Quantum Of Solace
Jarhead
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Joy Ride
Kicking and Screaming
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Kill Bill Vol. 2
King Arthur
King Kong
The Kingdom
Kingdom Of Heaven
The Original Kings Of Comedy
Kiss of the Dragon
A Knights Tale
Knocked Up
Kung Fu Hustle
Labyrinth
Land of the Lost
The Last Castle
The Last Samurai
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The Life of David Gale
The Little Mermaid
Little Monsters
Little Nicky
Live Free or Die Hard
The Longest Yard
Lord Of War
Lost in Translation
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Love Actually
Madagascar
Madagascar Escape 2 Africa
The Majestic
Mallrats
Man on Fire
Martian Child
Matchstick Men
The Matrix
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
The Animatrix
Meet Joe Black
Million Dollar Baby
The Adventures of Milo and Otis
The Mist
Monsters INC.
Monsters vs. Aliens
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Moulin Rouge!
Mr. Deeds
Mystic River
Napoleon Dynamite
The New Guy
Night at the Museum
Not Another Teen Movie
The Notebook
The Number 23
Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Twelve
Old School
The One
Open Season
The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Patriot
Pay It Forward
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Planet Terror
Point Break
Predator
The Prestige
Primal Fear
The Princess Bride
The Professional
Public Enemies
Pulp Fiction
The Punisher
Punisher: Warzone
The Pursuit Of Happiness
Remember the Titans
Reservoir Dogs
Resident Evil
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Resident Evil: Extinction
The Ring
Poad to Perdition
Robin Hood Men In Tights
Robocop
Romeo Must Die
Run Fatboy Run
Sahara
The Sandlot
The Sandlot 2
Saw
Scarecrow
Scarecrow 2
Scooby-Doo's Creepiest Capers
Scooby-Doo's Original Mysteries
Scooby-Doo's Spookiest Tales
Secondhand Lions
Secret Window
Semi-Pro
Serenity
Shaolin Soccer
Shaun of the Dead
The Shawshank Redemption
Shooter
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Shrek 2
Silent Hill
Sin City
Sling Blade
Smokin' Aces
Sleepy Hollow
Spawn
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Star Trek
Starsky & Hutch
Star Wars The Phantom Menace
Star Wars Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars A New Hope
Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Return of the Jedi
Step Brothers
Stranger Than Fiction
Superbad
Super Troopers
Swordfish
Taken
Taking Lives
A Tale of Two Sisters
Talladega Nights
Team America: World Police
Tears of the Sun
The Terminal
The Terminator
T2: Judgement Day
Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines
Terminator: Salvation
Three Kings
Tin Man
Trading Places
Training Day
Transformers
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Troy
U-571
Ultimate Avengers
Ultimate Avengers 2
Unbreakable
Under Siege
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
Unleashed
Up
V For Vendetta
Van Helsing
Varsity Blues
Waiting
Wall-E
War
Watchmen
Way of the Gun
We Were Soldiers
The Weather Man
Wedding Crashers
The Wedding Singer
What Dreams May Come
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Without A Paddle
X-Men
X2
X3: The Last Stand
X-Men Origins Wolverine
Young Guns
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
24: Season 1
24: Season 2
24: Season 3
24: Season 4
24: Season 5
American Dad, Volume 1
American Dad, Volume 2
The Andy Griffith Show
Arrested Development: Season 1
Arrested Development: Season 2
Arrested Development: Season 3
Band of Brothers
Carnivale: Season 1
Carnivale: Season 2
The Dallas Cowboys 1960-2003
Deadwood: Season 1
Deadwood: Season 2
Deadwood: Season 3
Dexter: Season 1
Dexter: Season 2
Dexter: Season 3
Family Guy: Season 1
Family Guy: Season 2
Family Guy: Season 3
Family Guy: Season 4
Family Guy: Season 5
Family Guy: Season 6
Firefly
Futurama, Volume 1
Heroes: Season 1
Heroes: Season 2
Heroes: Season 3
How I Met Your Mother: Season 1
How I Met Your Mother: Season 2
How I Met Your Mother: Season 3
How I Met Your Mother: Season 4
Invader Zim, Volume 1
Invader Zim, Volume 2
Invader Zim, Volume 3
Planet Earth
Earth: The Biography
Rome: Season 1
Rome: Season 2
The New Scooby-Doo Movies
What's New Scooby-Doo: Season 1
What's New Scooby-Doo: Season 2
What's New Scooby-Doo: Season 3
The Simpsons
The Sopranos: Season 1
The Sopranos: Season 2
The Sopranos: Season 3
The Sopranos: Season 4
The Sopranos: Season 5
The Sopranos: Season 6
South Park: Season 2
True Blood: Season 1
The United States of Tara: Season 1

Christmas

Wow. Christmas was a blast. We had several Christmases. With one to go. First, we went to Pennsylvania to have Christmas with Philip's mom's side of the family. It was just for the weekend, but we had a great time. And I can't believe how many presents we got. Santa was really good to us this year. lol

Then, we had Christmas with our friends from Catawba. It was wonderful. We decorated sugar cookies and goofed around and smoked the hookah. We were jolly. :)

Then, we went to Indiana. We got there on the evening of Christmas Eve. We went to my Uncle Randy's Christmas dinner that night. That's the redneck part of my family. We had fun... but I'm sure it was interesting for Philip. ;)

That night, we opened presents at my parent's house. We seriously made out like bandits. And my parents loved their blu-ray player. And my sister was definitely amused by her Hope Chest. She kept saying, "Now all I need is the house!" That's a hint to her boyfriend. lol

Philip had to leave on Sunday. He flew back that morning so that he could get to work that night. I stayed through New Year's. I spent some time with my family and with my pups. I miss them like crazy.

I drove back the evening of the first. It was a really pleasant drive. I wish the rockslide would get cleared up soon though. I don't like the detour around the North Carolina/Tennessee line.

I had to get back the night of the first (I made it in about 11 hours) because we had another Christmas with Philip's friends from high school yesterday. It went really well. Everybody seemed to like what we got them and we played a bunch of games. It was fun.

And today, we let Brandon open his presents from us and we opened his presents to us (since he couldn't make it to the Catawba shindig). We got him a season of Family Guy, a classical music CD, the new Fast & Furious DVD, and the Hulk Smash board game. I'm not really looking forward to having to play it with him. lol

We got a TON of books, movies, and lots of other cool stuff. I shouldn't be bored for a good, long while. :) Thank you to everyone who made this probably the best Christmas EVER. Oh, and thank you, Santa. :D

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Christmas

You'd think that I'd update more, since I have loads of time on my hands... because I'm still unemployed... but, I don't. Probably because, I don't actually have a lot going on right now. But, for those of you who are interested, here's what actually IS going on in my life:

1. Thanksgiving was awesome. I made a delicious meal and I got to meet Philip's mom and stepdad. They're pretty cool people. :)

2. I went Black Friday shopping for the first time this year. I had a great time! We got a lot of really good deals and got a big chunk of our shopping done. :)

3. Shopping. Oh, shopping. I've done so much shopping recently. I have my family (mom, dad, sister, aunt, cousin, etc.), Philip's family (mom, stepdad, dad, stepmom, grandma, grandpa, nanny, pappy, aunt, uncle, cousins, etc.), friends, and Philip. Phew. It can be exhausting! Mostly because since I am unemployed, I have to really find the DEALS. haha... and boy have I! I get paid on Monday and I'm broke by Tuesday, but this Christmas is totally worth it. I'm pretty proud of what I've got to show for it. I'm really excited for my mom and dad's "big" present. I'm not going to say what it is on here, just in case my mom actually reads my blog... but, it's AWESOME! And, they're going to love it. :)

Philip actually gets three "big" presents because we are have 3 or 4 Christmas gatherings. One of them I ordered on eBay. I got an absolutely AMAZING deal on the gift, but it didn't arrive in time for him to open it at our first Christmas gathering in Pennsylvania tomorrow. I'm really upset about it. It was supposed to arrive before now. Oh, well. I'm just switching the presents for Indiana and Pennsylvania because the present should be here in time for actual Christmas in Indiana. :) Since I know Philip never actually reads this, I'll go ahead and say what it is. It's a Sopranos Complete Series Gift Set. He has wanted one for a while. It's normally REALLY effing expensive, but I got it for less than a quarter of what it would have cost at Best Buy. :)

I also got a great deal on his other present. I ordered it on Amazon when they had a Christmas deal going on... over 40% off, baby! :) I also have a free trial of Amazon Prime (I highly recommend this if you buy from Amazon frequently!), so I got it in 2 days with FREE upgrade to UPS 2nd Day Air. :) It's a D-Rex Interactive Dinosaur. If you haven't seen this, you definitely need see it. It's pretty cool. Philip really wants one. He mostly wants to scare Jack with it... you're really surprised about that, right? lol

And, finally, I am getting him a road trip. hahaha... we're taking a road trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana at the end of January. It's for a concert. Three of Philip's favorite bands are playing: Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, and Flyleaf. I'm also a fan of all three. Plus, we can stay at my parents for free while we're there and we can see my puppies for a while. :) I really miss them a lot.

I also got him some smaller presents as well. It's going to be an awesome Christmas. :)

4. As I said, tomorrow, we are headed to PA to visit his mom's side of the family. We were in PA visiting his dad's side of the family just over a month ago. It was nice. :) And then, we'll be in Indiana for actual Christmas. And, we're having 2 Christmas parties with friends. One will probably be before Christmas and one will be on January 2nd. Phew. I'm going to be Christmas-ed out! :)

5. I will be in Indiana this year for my parent's New Year's Eve partay. :D I'm pretty excited. I haven't been able to go since high school!


I think that about sums everything up for now. Any questions?

Monday, December 29, 2008

Christmas

First of all, I want to say that today is Cody's birthday. He turns 2 years old today. :)

Christmas was good. Our drive to Indiana went well. We ran into some heavy rain for about an hour, but other than that, no problems. We got there about 3:30 AM. It took about 10.5 hours. Not bad. There was snow on the ground when we got to my parent's house. It was covered with ice though, so we couldn't actually play in it. The next day there was an ice storm. Lots of accidents. My parents took us shopping and out to dinner at my favorite restaurant (the day after Christmas).

We went to see 2 movies. Yes Man and Seven Pounds. Both were pretty good. Other than that, we pretty much just lounged around. It was relaxing.

We opened one present when we arrived very early Christmas morning. Then we went to sleep for a few hours and then got up and opened presents. I got the Twilight Saga collector's edition box set, Edgar Sawtelle, and a beautiful, huge purple vase from Joe. I got a bunch of movies, books, candy (as if we need any... I still have the candy from Halloween!), games, and a Roku Netflix player from my parents and my sister. Joe got a toothbrush sanitizer, bongos, a rain stick (musical instrument), movies, candy, and a beard trimmer from my parents and sister. I got him the Absolute Batman Hush book, a tea infuser with loose tea (he's been on a tea kick lately and he thinks that the loose tea with the infuser is better than the bags), and a handheld sudoku game for his traveling (he likes to do Sudoku while on planes and while he's waiting).

While we were at my parents we also played Trivial Pursuit and Mad Gab. Trivial Pursuit or at least the edition we played, is much harder than I remember. They were a lot of really obscure questions! I had never played Mad Gab but it was a lot of fun. My mom is insanely good at it!

We had a good time, but it's good to be home. We sleep in the spare bedroom there and it's just a full size bed so it's smaller than we're used to and also, my parents keep their house a lot hotter than we keep ours so it was hard for us to sleep. My parents heat their house with a wood burning stove, so the air is really dry. I got laryngitis. I still can't really talk. I'm just glad that it's all I got. I haven't been sick in over two years. However, I forgot my vitamins and my parents don't drink much juice (no vitamin C) and I wasn't eating very well because my parents don't have a whole lot of vegetarian food on hand (they normally stock up when they know I'm coming, but it was a surprise, so no food for me!). And all of that combined with the dry air, my defenses were down. My nose and mouth were dried out so there was nothing to stop the cooties from coming in and then I wasn't taking very good care of myself, so my body didn't fight it well. I'm already getting better though, so I don't think it's going to go anywhere other than my throat. It didn't make it to my nose or my chest. Isn't that weird? I'm still going to insist that because I didn't get any worse than what I did, it's because I'm not poisoning my body with meat. :)

Well, it's back to work today. It's quiet though. We have the day off on Thursday for the New Year. Joe said we might only work a half day on Wednesday or have the day off on Friday if it stays slow. Unfortunately, we won't get paid for that, but a day off is a day off! And the way it's looking so far today (only one phone call all morning), we are likely going to have a day off. :)

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Pet Peeve + Christmas

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people are hipocrites. It drives me nuts. With MySpace and Facebook, it's especially easy to spot some of these hipocrites.

Allow me to explain. One person who shall remain nameless has photos up on their MySpace page of them getting wasted, kissing people of the same sex, and doing vulgar/sexually suggestive things. In her interests are listed, "getting wasted," "partying," and "sex, drugs, and rock and roll." Not very many things after this is listed, "and I love my lord and savior Jesus Christ." I come across this sort of thing all the time. Christian references and then references to sinful things. Don't get me wrong, I know that people aren't perfect. It just seems to me that the people with pages like that one aren't even trying. Why would God choose to save people like that and send some of the best people I know straight to hell simply because they didn't believe that Jesus was divine and died for their sins? Does this make any damn sense to anyone? Why would God be so ridiculous? I could never believe in that God. But, I am a Unitarian, so I don't believe that Jesus was divine. And, if I did believe in heaven or hell (which I don't), I would certainly be a Universalist... God would send all of God's creations to eternal bliss, not eternal damnation. But, who am I? Nobody. I just would like to think that God would save good people before God would save people for simply believing that Jesus was divine and died for their sins. Anyone can say that they believe, but how many of those people live as if they care about those beliefs?


Okay... I'm tired of rambling on about that. I have good news. Joe and I are leaving for Indiana tomorrow. :) We are going to Joe's doctor's appointment tomorrow morning (he's having a wart on the bottom of his foot removed), and then we're going to his Uncle Joe's house for Christmas dinner (they always have it on Christmas Eve). And then, as soon as we're finished there, we're going home, packing up all the boys in the car, and headed to Indiana. :) Unfortunately, tomorrow is probably not going to be the best day for driving. There is supposed to be rain during the day, and then snow that night. Which means ice covered by snow. I'm hoping like crazy that they have plenty of salt and plow trucks out so that we don't have to worry about accidents along the way. :S

My mom and dad have no idea! I'm so excited. My mom tried to send all of mine and Joe's presents to us yesterday. My sister and I planned for it and she intercepted the package. It's now in hiding in my sister's closet! :) Tonya (my sister) had to give her a phony tracking number. She's wondering why it isn't working, but the lady who did the shipment told her that it's probably because there are so many shipments going out right now for the holidays (it's one of my mom's coworkers who is in charge of shipping -- she's in on it as well). I was worried that my mom would end up finding out and then ruin the surprise, but so far, so good. :) I think we're actually going to pull this off! And I owe my sister big for jumping through all sorts of hoops and such to make sure that we can do this surprise!

My mom is upset because this will be the first Christmas that we haven't spent together. Well, I can't wait to see her face when she realizes that it won't be the case! She's going to cry... she has cried for much less. It's going to be awesome! :)

Wish us luck!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Good News, Bad News...

I always like to start with the bad news.

I have always been a fan of Frosted Mini Wheats (the cereal). I recently found out that it has gelatin in it (for those of you who do not know, gelatin is made from crushed up animal bones and ligaments, etc. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin). Some vegetarians choose to still eat gelatin, or at least not go out of their way to avoid it. I am very firm in my vegetarianism. I don't eat anything which required an animal to be killed in order for that item to be made. So, gelatin is out.

I religiously check the ingredients in food to make sure that there is nothing in it that I can't eat. I have no idea how I missed it on the Frosted Mini Wheats ingredients this whole time. I'm guessing that I just thought I had checked it before and then never checked it again. So, I was a bit ill about that when I found out. And, now I will no longer be buying or eating Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats. :(

Also, Joe and I went to this Italian restaurant near where we live. I ordered a vegetarian dish. Several bites in, I thought I got a tiny bit of meat, probably sausage. I spit it out just in case, but I wasn't completely convinced that it was meat, especially since I had already eaten quite a bit and there had been nothing in it. I also didn't want to ruin the meal for Joe. Well, I took a few more bites and sure enough, I bit down on a piece of sausage. I almost threw up. Joe wanted to send it back and get me something else. I didn't want to cause any problems, so I didn't. Maybe I should have. I'm sure that someone just used the wrong spoon or something. I probably would have said something, but I forgot to tell the waitress beforehand that I was vegetarian (As I do quite a bit of the time to make sure there aren't any mistakes). If I would have told her when I ordered, then I would have sent it back and had them take it off of my check. So, that ruined that meal.

More bad news (but this leads to good news!), my parents are officially not coming down for Christmas. They told me that a few weeks ago. I was disappointed, but I am determined to spend Christmas with Joe. And, Joe has a tradition in his family of spending Christmas Eve at his Uncle Joe's house. For those of you that know Joe, you know that he doesn't have a whole lot of family left (that he likes/speaks to) and he certainly doesn't have any other real family traditions. So, I am not about to make him miss his only real tradition. Therefore, I would be spending Christmas with Joe and his family and without my family.

I wasn't moping about it so that Joe wouldn't feel guilty, but he apparently knew that I would be disappointed about it. So, he offered to pack up the boys and go to Indiana with me right after we finish at his Uncle Joe's house on Christmas Eve. That is usually done about 5:00ish, so when we finish there, we will pack the boys into the car and drive to Indiana (roughly 11 hours away). It will be a long night, but I will get to surprise my parents. :) I know that my mom will be especially heartbroken that I couldn't be there for Christmas, so she will be ecstatic when I show up on her porch at 4:00 in the morning on Christmas Day. :) I'm so excited!

Also good news, I re-read Twilight to get the ugly movie images out of my head. It's much better now. I started re-reading New Moon just for the fun of it and then I realized that I don't like the book as much because Edward leaves and Bella is heartbroken. That got me to thinking though... They're making a New Moon movie. The movie should have very little of Robert Pattinson in it. Therefore, the New Moon movie still has a chance of being decent. :) lol... anything to keep my hopes up!