Thumpety-Thump-Thump...

Friday, Nana came over with a box of odds and ends... one of those odds was a ham! I can't even remember the last time we even had ham. She was happy to see the place was decorated. So I'm glad she got a chance to see it, since she was the one who suggested to Mom that I do it.

I know I said I'd watch two or more Christmas movies, but I only watched one movie. The Nativity Story (2006). I don't think I've seen previous versions, but I did enjoy this one. Actually, I think I liked it more than I thought I would, and I'll probably watch it every year they decide to air it. I also think I should have snagged it, when I saw it at the store on Sunday.

Saturday, I woke up half an hour earlier than my alarm... leaving my "Vampire Diaries" (2009) dream cut short. Now I'll never know what happened to Elena and Stefan. Ah well... Waking early gave me extra time to be productive before my plans with Issi. :)

Issi Claus came with gifts for all. :) Assorted coffees for the coffee addict in the house, Mom. And while she felt bad for lack of gift to return, she loved the gift. I believe she said she was anxious to try one the next day, but I wasn't there to see if she did or not. :P And I got an awesome Mickey jacket (that I wore that night and the next day :D ) and a cute Mickey purse. I imagine both will get lots of use. :D And her parents gave me a beautiful tapestry throw, which I am still debating on hanging or using. Either way I'll have to keep it out of reach of furry bratlings. Maybe I'll take a pic of the jacket and bag later, but I found this pic of the image on the throw online. Isn't it pretty? And with the woven tapestry texture it looks even lovelier.

After a long drive, we finally made it to Disneyland! Two things... Wow, was it packed! And... OMG! They let all the looneis out or something! People showed up in one piece pajamas... the kind with the feetsies! But the majority of the wierdos showed up in what looked like a box of crayons threw up all over their clothes along with arms covered in bead necklaces. It was crazy! Still as busy as it was, we were able to make it onto It's a Small World.  I only had enough sense to take a couple pics inside the ride, and it was with my cell phone camera instead of the digital camera I had in my purse. :P Unforntunately, only this one came out. But before we left, we did stop to take pics of the lit up Small World and Castle. Dunno how good they turned out, but on the camera they looked beautiful. :P

While we were only there briefly, I was able to get my holiday Disneyland fix. :D Besides it being way too packed to stay and play, we had to go and fight traffic to get to a concert! Yep, yep... We went to the tobyMac's Winter Wonder Slam Concert. :D So, I got to listen to B. Reith, Stephanie Smith, RelientK, and TobyMac. They played some of their songs, covers to some mainstream songs, and some holiday songs. All in all it was good music and great fun! I even bought a CD. :D I got Stephanie Smith's CD. I may have to borrow CDs from Issi, as she got one from each of the artists. :P Anywho, we grabbed a quick bite before heading back home. It was a fantastic night.

Sunday, I made Dad a Bob Rivers CD while I got ready to go play with him. We went to eat and then braved Wal-Mart...on a weekend....before Christmas. It was a mad house, but I was able to get most of what was on my supply/grocery list. And after we survived that trip, we went back to Dad's house to watch movies. :) Since I missed the TV airing of Frosty the Snowman (1969 TV), we watched it on his holiday classics collection DVD. I don't think I'll ever be too old for that one. :D And we also watched Igor (2008), which was just a good, funny movie. :)

We took the scenic route home... :D And the scene was all about Christmas lights! We drove up and down streets looking at lovely displays. :D There was ALOT of work put into some of these. And I'd HATE to see their electric bills. :P But I am so glad we got to see them. And before going home, we picked up some Pioneer Chicken. Yummy! :)

Soooo.... Since I didn't have time to watch a whole lot of my Christmas movies, I made up for it yesterday (Monday). :P I watched ALOT of movies.. Well, alot for one day, anyway. :P Let's see, I watched Unlikely Angel (1996 TV) on TV. I finished watching Crazy for Christmas (2005 TV), which I'd actually started Friday night before bed. I watched A Christmas Carol (1984 TV) with George C. Scott, one of many versions I have. And finally, after midnight, I watched Christmas in Canaan (2009 TV).

There's more I was gonna babble about, like Sarah's getting Married! o.0 But I must get to bed for a "nap". Got stuffs to do before Target Tuesday. And it is already way past the time I thought I'd be asleep. :P Oops. :P

Dreaming....

Last night, I dreamt of my brother. It was weird, because it was him but not exactly. He was healthier looking, more like he was when five or more years ago. We were looking at pictures of he and I, which was odd for three reasons... A- He was actually IN the pictures. B - He was smiling or laughing and generally happy in the pictures, as he was pretty much throughout the dream. And C- He was wearing color in most of the shots! We were at Nana's house, and he was sitting in the dining room socializing rather than hiding in some room with music or the TV. The whole thing was so strange. But in the dream, he and I talked and laughed like we used to every now and then. But he seemed happier. At some point, we were going to an amusement park, Disneyland I think. Which was also unlike Josh, since after working there he didn't like going there or always resisted the idea.

Anywho.... I finished my book today and started the latest book in the series. Hopefully, this one won't take me as long to get through. Or at least, hopefully, I finish it before the new one comes out and Mom reads it. Ah, so many books to read...

I watched the Christmas episode of "Accidently on Purpose" (2009) yesterday. I started like a bunch of Christmas movies, but I'd get so far and get bored with them. :P Cleared alot of tapes that way... Today I watched/listened to On the 2nd Day of Christmas (1997 TV). I think I've watched this movie every year they've aired it. :P And it's not even one of my favorites! Heck, I haven't even watched my favorites yet! I've yet to see any of my DVD/VHS holiday movies. :P Gonna have to start watching two holiday movies a day in order to see everything by the end of Christmas day!

The Halls Are Decked! :D

Come on in! I didn't put up lights, as there isn't enough to be worth it and we lack a ladder and I don't really know HOW to hang them properly. :P So there's not much to look at outside. :P

Poor lil angel lost her fingers in one move or another. I'm not really sure why I took a pic with just the angel... I mean you can't even tell it's on a surface just big enough for that one item. :P Yeah, the architecture of the entryway is all weird. But the  I'm not sure why I took half of these pics... or why I'm putting up every single one of them. :P

Alas, no mistletoe... Just this pretty lil thing. Actually, I don't think we've ever had real mistletoe.

This is hung outside my bedroom, so I get a smile when I go to bed. I love Peanut. :D He's just so cute.

Even my computer got decorated! :P And I shake that lil snow globe just about everyday. :P

Anywho... That's my home right now. :) It's actually pretty tame. In Christmas' past, I used to hang those strings of tinsel ALL over the place. I mean if it wasn't moving (and sometimes if it was, Oreo) I'd hang the shiny stuff on it! :P And of course, there's no tree again this year. Mostly because I don't know where to put a tree here. Well, we could get a smaller tree and put it on one of the end tables. But meh, I don't feel like testing lights again this year. I tested ALL my lights last year. Hung some on the window, then rarely remembered to turn the dumb things on. :P I think I'll skip the hassle. I just asked Dad to take me to a tree lot so I can just smell that lovely tree smell at least once this year. :P

Oh! I took a pic of the masks. They coulda been put up a bit better, but oh well. They look nice enough and at least they're up. :P  As I cheated and used a poor pic to guide the hanging process, I thought I should take a better pic for the next move. This way, I can see it better and, hopefully, remember NOT to clump the bottom masks too much. Hopefully....

I've kept up with a Christmas movie a day thing. :) Sunday, at my Dad's house, among other movies, I watched Four Christmases (2008). Monday, I watched most of Holiday Switch (2007 TV), most cuz cable cut out for a minute or two....grr.... And today, I listen/watched The Family Holiday (2007 TV). And I may watch something else tonight...maybe... Unless I go to bed early....ish.

Today was Target Tuesday. I saw a book we borrowed from our cousin. We don't usually buy hardbacks, as they're more expensive. But she couldn't wait to read it, so she bought it. When she finished, she let us borrow it. Anywho, they have the paperback there, and I felt silly for wanting it, even though we have a copy we can read at home. Like it was silly just to want it, just to have a copy of my own. I mean I haven't even finished reading the previous book enough to get to that newest book! Maybe it's cuz I just love getting books?

Anywho.... I'm hungry again... And I'm dying to see how the dancers of So You Think You Can Dance are doing. Off I go. :)

Fa la la la la!

Soooo.... The week didn't go exactly as planned. Didn't watch stuff when I said I was gonna.. Didn't do stuff on the schedule I'd wanted. But everything eventually got taken care of. :)

Holiday movies watched:

Tuesday
I put on Christmas in Connecticut (1992 TV), to go to bed with noise. I like the classic version. But like a train wreck, I kept watching this awful version until I fell asleep. AND then proceded to finish watching it when I woke up. As it was Target Tuesday, I didn't watch anything else after the shopping fun, KFC eating, visiting, and net stuff.

Wednesday
While writing out Christmas cards, I watched three movies: A Boyfriend for Christmas (2004 TV), Undercover Christmas (2003 TV), and Mrs. Miracle (2009 TV). And because I was so into the movies it took me allllll night to finish those few cards. :P

Thursday
I went to sleep that morning to some HGTV special on Disney World's decorations. Holy cow! There's SO much there. They have people working on making or maintaining Christmas decorations ALL year long. I want THAT job! Anywho... When I woke up, I watched The Ultimate Gift (2006). That was a good movie... Spent the afternoon/evening hanging masks, the evening cleaning, and the night decorating. Some time during the decorating, I watched Christmas in Connecticut (1945). :) Okay, I mostly just listened while I was busy working. But still I enjoyed it MUCH better than that awful remake.

Friday
Dad came over and we had dinner and hung out for a while. :) After he left, I was too scatterbrained to focus on any movies. I tried watching Toys (1992). Okay not EXACTLY a Christmas movie, but I like it and the holiday song at the beginning.

Saturday (today even though it's past midnight cuz I keep stop starting this)
Uh... Yeah... Scatterbrain-ness continued. I started Toys over this morning. Play/paused ALL day long and only just finished it at like 1:20am (Sunday). :P Between one of those breaks I watched Holiday Affair (1996 TV). Oddly enough, I like this remake. Some work, some don't, I guess. :P I recorded Holiday Switch (2007 TV) for tomorrow or whenever.

Let's see, I think that covers most everything... Well there was some other unpleasantness, but nothing to get upset over again by retelling the story. I'm over it now. :P And well Mom's not overly happy I decorated.... But she's going to be depressed either way, so I'm not going to suffer. I'll put up pics later. Oh, was worried my digital camera mighta been broken for good. Thankfully it started behaving again. Whew.

Anywho.... Supposedly, Mom and I are going to attempt our supply run to Wal-mart again tomorrow (it was raining too hard this morning), and she wants to leave at 7am... Which means at the latest a 630am wake up for me... and I still have dishes to wash and litter to tidy and the whole bedtime routine..... Eeeps! It's almost 2am! Toodles doodles!

Toto, where are we?

Well the rain was short lived. Bummer. Woke up this afternoon to crazy winds. Glad I don't have to go outside today. The wind's been banging against this old lil house all afternoon and evening. It sounds so loud, like one good blow will knock the house over or break the windows. It's crazy. But me being me, I still like it. Y'know, cuz I'm safe inside. :P I might not like it as much if I were out and about. So I hope it's tamer weather tomorrow.

Haven't talked to Mom yet about how she'll feel about me decorating, well now that Nana's suggested it. Which is fine, cuz I still need to do pre decorating cleaning. But by this weekend I hope to have a Christmassy house. :) I'll TRY to keep it to a minimum, but no promises.

Looks like everyone had an unhappy morning for one reason or another. Dad with work stuff. Nana went to the hospital (she got dizzy and worried, but it was nothing but a simple inflamation in her ears. whew.). For some reason, customers were especially grumpy for Mom, but then that could have been her perspective as a lack of sleep victim. And me.. Well I got attacked on my game! Lost land and couldn't retal as we were surrendering. Okay, so my morning wasn't as bad as everyone else's. :P

I kinda watched/listend to Unaccompanied Minors (2006) while checking my net stuff. Wasn't plannning on it, but it was on for noise. Later tonight I'll be watching A Boyfriend for Christmas (2004 TV) and possibly Undercover Christmas (2003 TV) while finally filling out Christmas cards. :)

Tis the Season...Sorta

Christmas movies watched this weekend:

Friday

• The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
• Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

Saturday

• Holiday Affair (1949)
• Recipe for a Perfect Christmas (2005 TV)

Sunday

• A Dog Named Christmas (2009 TV)
• Holiday in Handcuffs (2008 TV)

Annnnnddd.... I recorded others, which I'll watch on days when there's no holiday movie or special I care to watch.

Friday and Saturday, I kinda just half watched the movies while trying to keep up with reading the new posts at an RP forum of mine. I'm not sure why, but while I can read a book for hours, it takes me forever to read text on the computer. I hate holding my RP partners up, but what can ya do. Between all the reading and movie watching and attempting to do Christmas cards, I didn't have the creative energy to write a post myself. Ah well...

Spent Sunday with Dad, so those movies were watched at his place while drinking some eggnog (the non-alchol kind :P ). Handcuffs I'd seen before, but it's still funny to watch. The Dog Named Christmas was a good movie that touches the heart and brought a smile to my face. The rain was nice enough to wait til Dad and I finished all of our stops through out the day. Which is good, I didn't want to have to wear my noisy rain jacket.

On the way home, we passed quite a few houses with Christmas lights. Dad said, closer to Christmas, we can take scenic routes to find more festive neighborhoods. :D I can't wait. Even this very street, which had few homes lit up last year, has quite a few lit up this year. It's nice to see.

Sunday was a good day. Had a good breakfast at a charming little restaurant. Ran some errands and goofed around. Watched those two movies. More errands, which included a hilarious moment at the gas station (see, Dad, I'm not telling.... Well not blogging it anyway. Told Mom. :P). Then came home. So yesterday was a good day. :) Thank you, Daddy!

After Dad left, Mom told me Nana asked if I was putting up Christmas lights. I guess she told Mom that maybe I should decorate a little. I'm not real sure why, whether it's because she wants to see it or because she thinks I/Mom/we need it. So Mom told me and said she was leaving it up to me. So I dunno. I wanted to for me. For me it's extra sad without my inner Christmas elf locked in. Ah! Possibly the reason why I couldn't fill out cards on Saturday.

Anywho, dishes to wash and a nap to take.

When Christmas Comes to Town....

I watched (well mostly watched) The Polar Express (2004) today. It's a beautiful little movie for being a cartoon. The elves are a bit on the creepy side though. Seriously.. When one of the elves is trying to get one of the kids to give back the present so they can put it in the big bag of presents, he says, "trust me" in a very creepy, might be a pedo, kind of way.

Thanks to it getting darker so early, even with driving around for quickie errands, I get to see more and more Christmas lights. Some good.. Some bad... but almost all of the houses lit up put a smile on my face.

I started thinking about the silly holiday newspapers I made a couple years ago. They were fun to make, and I'm debating on making a few issues again. :P We'll see....

Bumbles Bounce!

Tonight's holiday movie: Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964 TV). Gotta love the classics. :)

Yukon Cornelius: This fog's as thick as peanut butter!
Hermey: You mean pea soup.
Yukon Cornelius: You eat what you like, and I'll eat what I like!

Anywho.. I was gonna put up a pic of the squirrel from yesterday's Target Tuesday adventure, but it was too dark and the cell phone camera didn't take a good enough pic. Ah well. The lil bugger was cute too. Brave lil bugger. It was sitting in the middle of the alley we were trying to drive down. Dad was driving slow so as not to spook it, but the bugger was watching us rolling towards him. :P Next time, I'll bring my actual digital camera.

Last night's movie was cute. Two families, now blended through the parents marriage, were both struggling to find a way to celebrate Christmas, each one having very different traditions they didn't want to let go of. I suppose we were lucky. We never really had that problem. I mean, yeah, at one point both my parents remarried, but our Christmases didn't change that much. But then I don't recall ever having set-in-stone traditions. Well, other than Mom exhausting herself for three days to bake her special variety of holiday cookies, enough to feed an army! I kinda miss that, but I SO don't miss the kitchen clean up. Mom and Josh baked.... I was left to clean since I tended to burn or screw up the recipes. :P Yeah, the only thing I ever made successfully during the holidays was fudge. Three or four ingredients mixed in one bowl and cooled in the fridge....not exactly rocket science. :P Although there was that one year I made truffles for no reason. Nummy...

Santa?

Last night, I had a number of odd dreams. The last ones were the typical strange and cool dreams I always have. (I love my Doctor Who dreams. :) ) But those weren't the ones that stood out the most this time.

I don't think I ever believed in Santa Claus, not even as a child. When I was young, my parents took us to church and so we weren't raised to believe in him. I like him well enough in Christmas movies, but then I also like movies with superheroes and elves and unicorns. So having a dream with him in it was a bit weird.

I dreamt Santa showed up at my house for a visit, dressed in normal clothes. I think he asked about the lack of decorations or maybe just noticed it, because when he returned, he had a bundle of Christmas lights. Santa, himself, proceded to put up the lights! He asked if I had any more hooks and I started going through the Christmas boxes.

At some point Mrs. Clause and Mom were there, Mrs. Claus beaming over her husband's work and Mom unsure whether she wanted this or not. Soon enough we were all taking part in the decorating.

Sadly, I woke before we went outside to see the lights, but from what I could see through the door, they looked amazing.

I'm not sure why Santa and Mrs. Claus were there. I know I was thinking about Christmas lights and wanting to see some nice displays. I myself haven't bothered to do nice light hanging in ages (they always fall or I give up). And I probably had decorating on my mind because I usually start on the first week of December if not the 1st. But Sants? Um, okay? It was a nice dream anyway.

I've decided I'm going to watch at least one Christmas movie or special everyday. I have several on DVD, VHS, and recorded tapes already. And there's always plenty to choose from on TV all month long. Today I'm going to record Our First Christmas (2008 TV), since it's on soon and I will be out on my usual Target Tuesday adventure! :)

On a completely unrelated note, I've lost a total of eight pounds since that first weekend I got sick. Not bad considering I wasn't trying. It's the amazing Cold and Flu diet, yay. :P