And whee!

I'm up at a ridiculous hour, made to appear more ridiculous because I don't change my timezone on Blogger when I travel. For the record, it's just before 7:30 a.m. in St. Louis.

So after bunches of fretting, I made it here just fine. There was some running while at the Denver airport involved, and my levels of loathing for that airport continue to grow, but I got here. The glitch with getting a rental car was easy enough to deal with, AND it ended up meaning that Dad bought Megan and I lunch that day, so who's complaining? :)

Of course, it didn't feel much like Christmas until yesterday, as I had only received sporadic gifts to that point. Not that I was super worried about gifts for myself, but the sporadic receiving was accompanied by sporadic giving, which meant that I still had a box of presents in my suitcase. :) I know that several of my gifts were pretty well received, but the overstimulated children who had stacks of presents two or three times bigger than them didn't quite get to look at all of what they got. My cousin's sons, who had smaller piles, were pretty pleased though. :)

I also managed a pretty good haul for the fairly limited gift giving that we did among the adults in my family. More exciting is the fact that due to some initial miscommunication with that, Sarah had already picked out and bought what she wanted me to have. So I knew which gifts to pull in one gift exchange (Tin Man on DVD, a book about Serenity, and a video game), and I made a very last minute trade in the other gift exchange to end up with Rummikub, which looks very much like a game that I played with my Grandma Vogel as a kid. And who doesn't like more board games? :)

Today, after Christmas with my dad and then painting all of the bedrooms in my mom's house, I get to make my trek to Carbondale. Even though I was there only 2 months ago, I'm still super glad to be heading down there again. Because though I've been wishing I was back in Seattle already, especially amidst the chaos of the childrens' present opening yesterday, it'll be nice to spend some time just relaxing with my friends at my other home.

Recap and such

So it's only the short version of the recap, but here goes:

1) I saw pretty much everyone I wanted to see, and didn't run into anyone who I didn't want to run into. This made me very happy, especially when I ran into a couple of people I hadn't been expecting to see. I'm sad that I couldn't give Randy a hug (my tattoo had JUST gotten finished, and Randy gives big hugs that would have hurt me), but that's okay. :)

2) Tattoo. Yup, number 6. :) What was going to be the rest of my chest piece ended up on my upper back instead, as it didn't look right on my chest. So there's been a slight reworking of future plans, but I think they will all work out the way I want them to. I don't have a photo of it yet. It's in the yucky peeling stage right now, so I won't have a photo of it for a few weeks. And it's going to be worked on more whenever I see Candace next, as she definitely wanted to do some more with it, and I've already got a couple of thoughts about adding to it. :)

3) Present haul was pretty decent, though not quite as many gift cards as anticipated. Luckily, however, we were able to get all of our new stuff into my suitcase, and borrowed a bag from my uncle to use as another piece of checked luggage. Everything made it back intact, too! :) We knew we were going to have to check luggage when my gifts included a letter opener from Australia, pepper spray, and a big jar of homemade (and unlabeled) salt scrub. :) Oh, and everyone loved their handmade stuff, except for my brother, who hasn't gotten his T-Rex yet. :( (His gift was the only one that didn't arrive in time.)

4) Got a bunch of good family photos, on other people's cameras. Even though I took my camera, I never got it out. :) This is typical of me, and why I have so few photos from New Orleans (among other places). But my sister has already posted hers online, so I am gonna go pick through them for the ones I want, and put them on my Flickr. :) Here's one of them:


That's my mom and her brothers, my aunt, my siblings and their spouses (and, of course, Jerome), my cousin and her husband, my niece and nephew, and my cousin's two sons. Megan's boyfriend is the only person missing from the photo. :)

I find it amusing that my sisters and I all went with V-neck shirts that day. It was not planned. :) (We're the short ones in the all girl row, in case you were wondering. My brother is the shortest of the guys in the back row.)

Friday Five!

When was the last time you...

1. ...sent a handwritten letter? Ummm... wow... I don't usually write letters by hand, as anyone who has ever seen my handwriting (read: chicken scratch) will appreciate! Even when I write my grandma, I usually type it! :)

2. ...baked something from scratch or made something by hand? So making those pillows for Adriane with my sewing machine wouldn't count, I suppose... which means, in other words, I have no idea... :)

3. ...camped in a tent? May 4th, which was the last time we stayed at Benji's farm after Garou... hopefully we'll get to do so again next weekend!

4. ...volunteered your time to church, school, or community? Ummm... I guess that would be the Jaycee's blood drive... in January or February... can't remember...

5. ...helped a stranger? Well, I guess I kinda help strangers when they call my office, thinking that it's some other office. I'm usually nice enough to look up the right phone number and give it to them. I'd transfer them to the right department, if our phones were capable of that! :)

And the "End of the Work Week Wisdom"...

"It is said that the Devil has all the best tunes.
This is broadly true. But Heaven has the best choreographers."
--Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Good Omens

Special thanks to Jess and Chris, who sent me Good Omens, Neverwhere, and Stardust... as the Old Man can attest, I act like a small child when I get presents! :)

More later... :)