The Loot.

When I was young, I would immediately get on the phone following Xmas and compare what presents we got from our parents.

It was a completely juvenile trivial discussion...and at some points turned into a small competition with which nobody was in control...but it's what we did, and we did it well.

Looking back at those days, I can't believe I actually spent my time bragging about the gifts I received....kids!

This year people were very generous to both myself and little man. From coworkers to my own parents. I wish I had unlimited resources to shower those around me with gifts of gratitude...but I don't. All I have is my actual gratitude...and a phone for me to dial them and thank them non-stop.

I hope you were spoiled this holiday season...be it with love, friendship, family or fun little surprises!

Christmas Bells Are Ringing.

I love Christmas. I really really do.

Being the single mom that I am, and having a child who is just under the age of caring what I buy at the store...90% of my Christmas shopping was completed with little man in tote. I doubt he'll really realize, but to be safe I managed to take a solo trip to Target last night and buy some Lightning McQueen wrapping paper, cool bows, some candy canes and a special ornament for myself and little man...to make the morning a little more special. I truly hope he is surprised, and cannot wait to see the look on his face on Christmas morning.

In the next five days, I will be hosting two family Christmas parties, making a boat-load of chicken wings, and putting on my first Christmas Eve dinner. There's so much to be done, but this time of year I hardly mind.

I don't know what it is, but Christmas is magical to me. A time to get together, laugh, eat and be merry. A time where, with a little bit of work and an insane amount of creativity, I can make little man's tangible dreams come true.

I'm TOO EXCITED TO SLEEP!

Hello.

Wow...The holidays sure did keep my head spinning the past five days! Here's a quick mini recap:

Festivus party = everything I wanted it to be. Family, food, chilling. It was great!

Christmas Eve = not so great..but it was just one night, and what's done is done.

Christmas Day = Busy. a lot of running here and there, and culminating in a late night trip to a casino with my cousins...rounding out with a trip to the bar just down the road from the casino, meeting two hot random guys who were McFeely, but a TON OF FUN.

Friday = day of recovery, followed by brief appearance at a fun annual fiesta party...ending at my mom's house to hang out with my brother and his buddies for the night.

Saturday = drove my brother to the airport, cried at his departure but tried to tell myself that everything was alright. Ate breakfast at Mickey's Diner (DELICIOUS), and spent a sizable gift card at Target. Took an amazing bubble bath.

Sunday = Movie with little man and Grandpa, cheered on the Vikes, napped, and hung out.

See? I've been a busy bee. I hope everyone had a lovely Xmas!! Was Santa nice to you? Many more silly stories to come!!

12

Although I don't really know what the 12 days of xmas stand for, I thought I'd write up a little list of 12....in honor of the 12 things I've learned in the month of December

1. Family is more important to me than I ever thought it would be...SO, tonight is my first annual Family Festivus party...minus the negativity. Lord knows, my family needs more optimism and less negativity

2. Hosting an event is a lot of work! Especially when you are like me, and don't regularly clean.

3. Snow can be awesome. I took little man sledding for the first time, and was reminded of what it felt like to act carefree and enjoy the snow.

4. Snow can suck.at.life. MN (as well as other parts of the country) has received above average snow storms this December. This translates to horrible traffic conditions, and doubling commute times to and from work. (don't be jealous, really)

5. Friends truly are the family you get to choose. I may not be married, heck, I may not even be dating someone...but I honestly have some great friends...both in real life, and those I've met through the blog world. It's pretty sweet, and I'm more thankful that I could ever put into words.

6. Kids can be so simple, it's completely mind blowing. For example, two 12 cent goldfish were THE BEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED to little man in 2008. I haven't introduced them to the net yet...since the last time I introduced fish, they died the next day...stay tuned for the introduction of David and Goliath (said gowiath...and yes, little man ACTUALLY NAMED THEM...haha)

7. Burning the candle at both ends always ends up burning me. With the holiday hustle and bustle, combined with a heavy workload this past week..I would up with a sight impaired migraine. I only get migraines when my body tells me "SLOW DOWN LADY". This time, I only appeased my body in the smallest way possible...by taking a four hour nap. Did I get a goods night rest last night? Of course not! I had too much to do to get ready for today. Do I have a nap in my future today? Of course I do!

8. Keeping a line drawn between your personal and professional life is important..no matter how cool you think your coworkers are. I recently experienced some drama with a coworker...it snowballed into a pile of nastiness.. Thanks to a Christmas gift, the ugliness was squashed. I learned my lesson, albeit the tough way...co-workers and personal lives do not mix....nor should they mix.

9. As much as I love and yearn for mantention, I don't need it to be happy. I have my health, a job, a warm place to sleep at night, little man and the list could go on. I agree with those out there, who believe a man should add to your life, and not complete it. It's taken me a while to get there...and I'll never forget my journey to get this far...

10. Communication can be extremely powerful. I recently reconnected with an elementary school friend. Well, in elementary school we didn't get along with each other, come to find out our dislike for one another was because of poor communication on both of our parts. I'm so happy that we've become friends, and it makes me wonder

11. As fun as splurging on yourself can be, all of the money in the world cannot buy happiness. I tend to overspend in general. I function with the believe that you can't take money with you when you die, so you might as well spend it while you have it. However, I've come to realize that if you aren't happy with yourself before you buy something nice to share with others...you probably aren't going to be happy with yourself AFTER your big splurge. This is a lesson I'm really going to focus on in 2009.

12. My most favorite quote, and words that everyone should live by: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift...that is why it is called the present. I heard this saying on a Disney cartoon...no lie. It struck a deep chord with me, and although I've heard variations of this quote, I like this one the best. It is simple advice, and extremely powerful.

Happy Christmahaunikwanzika!

Whoa Update.

In an hour and a half I've managed to:

Did one load of dishes (only one more to go...)
Decluttered my kitchen counters
Hand-ground pepper to fill the snowman pepper shaker because I was too cheap to buy ground pepper since I had an entire pepper mill full of it!
Took out the trash
Put my blue ray player in my tv stand...only to find out it didn't quite fit (grr)
Decluttered my end tables
Moved cleaning supplies under the sink

Realistically, I know I can do this. On my agenda for tomorrow:

Laundry and organizing my room, including but not limited to decluttering my desk
Moving my tv and other electronic equipment into my newly clean room
Wrap gifts
Move my shoes to my room, and away from my front door

On my agenda for Tuesday:

Clean the bathroom
Cook
Vacuum
Dust
Have a tall glass of wine

Honestly, I don't mind the work. Most of it is stuff I should be doing anyways...and what a better time to get things done than the holiday season!

Whoa.

First things first...My last post was a bit brash. I have been swamped at work, and dealing with coworkers acting like they're 15 years old. I used to work in an ugly environment, and what I deeply appreciate about my current company/position is I thought they were different...well, it turns out one person is VERY juvenile, and felt the need to spread very nasty rumors about me to other coworkers... so when I was busting my ass at work, I had to deal with a copious amount of frustration towards this ugly behavior. I've dealt with it. It's squashed. My professional life can return to normal (I hope!).

Onto bigger and better things...right?

My family is coming over this Tuesday for my own personal version of a festivus party. I ran to the grocery store tonight, and the menu I've planned only set me back $75. I think I did a pretty darn good job.

I have been swaying back and forth on my menu. Thanks for all of your awesome ideas. For whatever crazy reason, I settled on making a yankee pot roast with carrots, and serving cheesy hash browns. I also picked up some spinach dip and Hawaiian sweet bread, some candies for an awesome new candy dish I had received from a coworker, and I have a few cheeses to cut up and serve with crackers. I'm suppling some diet coke, sprite, Pepsi, milk and eggnog (which will be served with the option to spike it with rum). I also have three bottles of red wine and a bottle of white on hand. That combined with a pot of coffee should be enough to appease the crowd.

I feel like I have a million things to do before the 23rd. I'm very thankful I am done with work at noon that day!! Yes, I'm being a baby...but here's my list (and I'm holding myself to it.

do the dishes
declutter my kitchen
move cleaning supplies under the sink
declutter and clean my bathroom
laundry
put away clothes in room
do three loads and put them away
reorganize my room
declutter my desk
swap where my book shelf and dresser are
move my old living room tv to my room
move my old dvd player and vhs player to my room
vacuum
sweep
dust
throw out new tv box
declutter my living room end tables
figure out a way to move my blue ray player into my tv stand
cut up cheese
wrap gifts for the kids
wrap xmas presents in general (since little man will be home all day on Wednesday, and I won't have time to wrap on Tuesday night because of the party)

Damn, why am I even blogging right now? Oh yeah, it's because I'm the worlds BIGGEST PROCRASTINATOR! At least I have the grocery shopping done. I've also taken a moment to clean out my fridge...but now it's time for me to take out the trash, and start crossing things off of my list. Looks like there's a lot waiting for me in my future!!

Happy Holidays..and if you're bored you're MORE THAN WELCOME to come over and help me cross things off of my list!! :)