How I love my 4-day weekends! I can be super-busy Saturday and Sunday and still feel like I have a weekend. :)

Thursday Hailey and I went on a crazy Christmas shopping expedition. (I was actually looking for Guitar Hero 1 and 2 for my boyfriend, and ended up shopping for everyone else!) We also made a stop to visit Martha's section @ K-Mart and pick up all our tree trimmings. (we fought over colors b/c I wanted purple and silver and she wanted the blue and silver. She won--mostly because there were very few purple ornaments left. *pouts*)

After running to a few stores in that horrible Friday night weather, I went on a mad cookie spree. I only got through Oatmeal and some double-chocolate w/ Christmas Kissables ones before calling it a night, but it was a LOT of cookies!!

Yesterday my ex-step-daughter came over and we decorated the Christmas tree. (Okay, I set it up and she and my daughter Hailey did all the fun stuff!) They did a great job, as you can see here:





And one of them from last year...damn, kids grow so fast!


^^Little red-eyed demon kids at that!! :)

Then my parents came over for pizza and to hang out w/ the kiddos for a bit (which was just surreal in itself, as I don't believe I've ever actually had my parents over for a real visit before).

Today, I am making some yummy Italian wedding soup (which I have never actually tried before, so wish me luck!) and just hanging around the house. I think more cookies may be in order later, too. :D

Wondering why I feel compelled to cook and bake when it gets cold out. Is it an Italian thing or an old age thing? lol

If anyone knows of Penny Arcade, you probably know that the guys created a charity called Child's Play a few years ago.

Well, Children's Hospital has finally gotten in on it. Here's a link to their wish list:

Check it out. :)

Just in case anyone was interested in donating their body for Plastination...

After reading of (e:theecarey) 's terrifying mid-November Christmas music run-in, I thought I would post in regards to my own unavoidable Christmas horror.

I walked into work on Friday evening to find "The Blondes" (2 girls i work with) had spent the entire day listening to Christmas music and over decorating our office. (We have a bi-national office consisting of 5 Americans and 2 Canadians...Canadians have already had their Thanksgiving.)

There was a small decorated Christmas tree twinkling away and windows sprayed with fake snow, but most notably, our ENTIRE wall of windows had been defiled with a snowy scene of Santa and his eight tiny reindeer (and Rudolph) prancing across it.

I'm sure you could imagine my horror and disdain.


Fast forward to this evening. I'm working my beloved midnight shifts this weekend, and after spending an hour or so alone with the window scene I decided it needed some improving. (Seeing as us Americans haven't even gotten to our Thanksgiving yet.)

After a quick clip art search this is what I came up with:

Before (partial wall taken with my camera phone...sorry for the crappy quality)




And after I got to it.....



(Reindeer Turkey)


Now I will sit back and see if anyone notices. :)

Hope everyone got off their buns and voted yesterday!! I had to go to traffic court and had to drive right past the polling place, so I had no excuse! :)

Glad I did, though! At least I feel like my vote counted for something this time around. :)