Christmas Time..........

Here are things to note about my Christmas:
1) My boyfriend gave me a pair of Seven jeans which is good for three reasons: 1- I've been wanting them for 2 years because I am a firm believer that good jeans make your butt look better and you skinnier, 2- he has been telling me for two years I am crazy for wanting jeans that cost that much and him buying them shows he does really care about what I really want, and 3- when I tell people who don't know what Seven jeans are what he got me for Christmas they think I'm saying he bought me a size seven jean, which is not a size I wear.

2) My Dad got me a dog for Christmas, a 5 week old miniature Schnauzer. This is interesting on several levels, including but not limited to- I didn't ask for a dog; I have never made it unclear to anyone I know that if I ever got a dog it would be a pug named tator tot; did I mention I didn't ask for one? I told them I would have to think about it, but I will admit it is quite cute- I'll post a picture later.

3) Apparently my Dad was going to buy me a plasma flat screen tv, but decided to buy me a dog instead.

4) Yesterday while shopping at a furniture store I realized I was shopping right next to Jeff Francouer, who is the right fielder for the Braves for all you non-Braves fans!! It was quite exciting. I unfortuantely didn't get a picture because apparently I am really dumb and kept taking pictures of my hand with my phone...

5) It was a very nice day- hope yours was, too!!

Salted Meats

So, the first thing that you need to know is that my boyfriend is loud. When he talks, he can be quite loud. Goodness forbid you ever go to a movie that has a poop joke in it, because I guarantee he will be the one laughing the loudest and longest. It can get quite embarassing for me who doesn't necessarily like people looking at her for the sole reason she is with loudy. The times that can be really embarassing are any sort of sports function, or anywhere in public with his friends as I have noticed that his loudness increases by 500% when we are around his friends. Never watch football with him- just a tip. The good part of this behavior is that when we are at a bar or a party, I can usually find him. Which brings us to Saturday night:

Saturday night we stopped by one of his friends' annual Christmas party. It was a fairly small house so people were inside and outside hanging out since there were a lot of people there. Due to the fact that I had on my high heeled boots (very cute, but not so comfy) and the fact I hadn't been to the chiropractor in a month, I found the most comfortable chair and parked myself in it. It was the perfect situation because I could see the tv with the football game and everyone I knew there was standing or sitting near me. We hung out for awhile and enjoyed the baby quiches and small talk and I finally talked him into leaving a few hours later. By then it was past my bedtime and the quiches were gone, the game was over, I had started the water drinking process, so to me the night was over.

So, we head inside and I squeeze past the girls who had not started the water drinking portion of the night and were instead dancing to Fergalicious with all the left over food on trays in their hands (think ham, carrots, celery, dips, etc- but mostly ham). I finally got past them and made my way to the front door only to turn around and boyfriend was nowhere to be found. I looked in bathroom, the room with the coats, the kitchen and he was nowhere......then I stuck my head into the "dancing room" and find him still standing at the door staring with his mouth open and eyes dancing. I looked at him and gave him the "we were leaving, my feet hurt" glare to which he yells (especially loud so I could hear him over fergie), "BABY, I'M SORRY BUT THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN DRUNK GIRLS DANCING WITH SALTED MEATS." We finally left but I am still hearing about girls dancing with salted meats......and I don't even like ham.

Keep the Home Fires Burning...

So, I recently moved for the second time in 3 months........but its a good thing- once I get all my boxes unpacked. One of the things I love about my new place is that it has a fireplace that works! The previous tenant even left a lot of firewood by the back door. The only thing I was told about this fireplace was that sometimes if the fire got too big you had to crack the living room window so smoke wouldn't build up. (Now, I've never had a non-gas fireplace but I thought the point of a chimney was to allow the smoke to go outside and not "build up" inside, but what do I know).

The other week my boyfriend decided to test out the fireplace and got some firewood and built a fire. It was really fun but I did learn something that night (and by watching Survivor) and that is that it is a lot of work to build a fire from scratch. I decided then and there I might need those logs you can get where you light the paper and it lasts for 3 hours. The next day I went and got some.

So, last night I got home from work late and thought, "Hey, I'll turn on the Christmas tree lights, start a fire and prop my feet up." It sounded like a great plan. I put the log in the fireplace and lit "at the arrows" as instructed and in 2 minutes had a great fire. I went into the kitchen to start cooking dinner. After about 15 minutes it was time to drain the pasta. I poured the pasta into the colander in the sink and as the steam started rising up my smoke alarm went off. Now, this was the first time I had cooked in my kitchen so I thought, "Wow, that is one serious smoke alarm." I went and got a broom and waved it in front of the smoke alarm and it went right off. One minute later it went off again- but this time my brain started functioning and I realized it was my beautiful fire in the fireplace. I waved the broom again and this time cracked my living room window. Two minutes later- beep beep beep beep beep. I wave the broom and crack the window a little further this time. I then prop my feet up, sit back and get ready to enjoy my pasta, my tree, and my beautiful fire.

Now, I'm sure you can guess what happened two minutes later- smoke alarm. I waved the broom in front of the smoke alarm and this time open my living room window as high as it will go. (Keep in mind my couch is directly in front of this window, so the chilly night air is starting to blow right onto me- yes, totally defeating the purpose of my beautiful fire.) I felt satisfied this would work and it did- for about ten minutes. It went off again. This time I waved the broom, and then turned on the ceiling fan in the sunroom. This seemed to work pretty well, albeit I was freezing. So, for the next hour and a half the smoke alarm only went off about ten times.

Around this time my boyfriend calls to check in and I fill him in on my night with my now not-so-beautiful-but- more -liked- a- damned fire. To which he says (in not the most supportive of tones), "Why didn't you just take the battery out of the smoke alarm and put it back in before you go to bed?"

Duh. Why didn't I think of that? The good news is I got a great arm work out by fanning the broom.

Its a small, small, world

Ok, I know we all have our "Its a small world" stories, but here are two that have happened recently at my job that have somewhat freaked me out.
1) The receptionist at my office the other day (she is a volunteer and in her 70's) stopped me and asked me what my address was. I told her and her response was, "I thought I saw that in the rolodex. Is it a brick house on a hill?" She asked me a few more questions about it and after I told her all of that was true she said, "Yeah, I lived in that house 57 years ago." How weird is that? And my work is not in the same part of town as where I live which makes it doubly crazy.

2) A woman at the office stopped me the other day and asked, "Did your family live anywhere before they came here? Like Tennessee?" Well, I thought she meant my ancestors so I go into a long diatribe about how my father's family was from South Carolina and my mother's family were from Atlanta, etc etc. Finally she says, "Well, this woman saw you the other day and said she swore she knew your parents in Tennessee." Finally my brain started working and I yell, "OH yeah, my parents did live in Tennessee before I was born." But, that was 35 years ago so I was not convinced this woman talking to me knew what she was talking about.
Later, I called my mom to ask her if she knew the people who had asked about her. And her response was, "Oh yeah! We were friends with them before you were born!" Now what especially weirded me out was that the woman had not talked to my mom in over 35 years, had no idea I was ever born, but she just saw me and knew I was their daughter. It finally occurred to me that I am only a few years older than my mom would have been when they had known each other so apparently I look ALOT like my parents.

Its a SMALL world.

Holiday Idea....

Ok, everyone might already know this, but this is a great Holiday decorating idea: If you need a festive runner or table covering- use holiday wrapping paper. Its easy, cheap, and really fun. I used this at an event I did with kids the other day where they were doing crafts and the tables needed to be covered and we used fun paper instead of the usual white or brown paper. We also used nice red wrapping paper for a runner under the punch, etc and it looked really cute!
Just my idea for the day.