Bing.

Ok, so first off, I’m having some serious phone issues. I see missed calls hours after I apparently missed them. I’ve missed about 5 voice mails from people in and around the ‘Burgh… And I’m not sure texts are up to par either. My poor phone. It might be because of the drivers on random roads who cut me off lately, and my phone flying to the floorboards of my car… Just saying.

I love this song.

So Merry Kisses and Christmas to everyone I know. And I’m bringing you a NEW version by Jimmy Buffet! Woa!

What Santa does…

There has been a recent discussion on Twitter initiated by BurghBaby. Does Santa deliver to where the kid IS or where the kid LIVES.

A few days ago I sent a tweet giving my opinion.

There is also a discussion on whether Santa wraps presents or not. All I can tell you is MY Santa did both, but the BIG gifts? They were not wrapped. Dunno what this year willl bring, but even in the past 5 years, “Santa” has given both Lili and I wrapped presents. Hmm. Wonder who Santa is…

And now there is an actual survey on her site asking what you think about where Santa finds the kids… Please read what I have to say, and then go HERE and give your opinion. Help my friend out – if you read this? I guarantee BurghBaby or someone else that she and I are friends with have helped me 30,000 times over.  DO IT. I command you!

So, I’m going to start by telling Lili that she should be so happy I never took that scanner from her. Otherwise, there would be pictures of her and yours truly back in the day. (To be honest, those pics would really help right now…)

All holidays while Lili and I were growing up – Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving… were spent in Canada or on the way to Canada. Sometimes Toronto, sometimes Montreal.

I know I’ve told you all I *asked* for a little sister, and I got her. (Love you!) And I remember her first Christmas, and I have one other memory which are in my head as if they were yesterday. Neither one was ON Christmas Day. All were a day or two before. My parents had to do it because we were headed to Canada for the actual day.

So first Lili and I Christmas memory:

The thing I know for sure is that when I went downstairs, and The Nana carried Lili, there were a ton of wrapped presents. But there were also unwrapped, set-up ones. I’m pretty sure I got a huge-a** chalkboard that year. Wow, I loved that chalkboard!

All of the unwrapped ones were from Santa. All of the “big” requests on our list (to be honest, I made Lili’s list for the most part until she was old enough. She still wouldn’t see Santa at the mall, but sent me to see him with her list in tow. She’s so cute.) OOH! I wish I had that scanner or pic right now so I could remember everything that was there!!

Anyway, each year that we went to Canada, we were allowed to open and/or play with these gifts early, but then we had to select one or two to take with us on the trip.

So now we have memory #2. It was Christmas Eve, I think. We were driving through Erie (hi FatherSpoon! hi Woycheck!) and a monster storm hit. I remember being in the back seat of the car, playing with some kind of toy. While The GrandPa (who grew up in Montreal where the snow was taller than him! I have pics, I swear!) was digging our car out of the snow. Oooh boy, was he mad. As The Nana says, the air was blue from his swearing. We ended up spending the night in a hotel in Erie or somewhere near Niagara Falls. The Nana would probably faint from my memories from that trip… (How do I remember this crap and Lili remembers almost nothing?!?!?!!)

I could share more, but for family things, I won’t. All I can tell you is no matter what the other family members think, you should remember that Santa finds you at YOUR HOME. If you travel, this will help you with the “Oh, Will Santa find us if we aren’t at home?” questions. Hooray to The Nana and The GrandPa on that one. Somehow I’m sure my brain and that question are the reason that Santa always came to OUR house… And I know eventually Lili and NE will have to travel, and while I’d LOVE to see everything my lovely gets for Christmas, I know that can’t happen.

And if Santa doesn’t want to wrap up the big gigantic things like a chalkboard? I’m going to give the big fat man that one. I love wrapping presents, but I do not want to wrap something big like that.

(Also, some of my fave memories of Christmas in Montreal involve a certain Grandfather clock that is now dead and hanging in my “room” in Florida. Lili, I’ll fight you for it, but if The Nana tries to gets rid of it, I’d love you even more for holding onto it for me!!)

A better idea- no. A great idea.

So if you read this blog lately, you know I’ve made some super awesome things for My Little C for Christmas.

I’m very happy with them.

What I’m not happy with is not having a job yet that would give me a little more money to buy her something else. Or to buy anyone else anything.

Recently, I remembered something My Little C enjoyed while we wandered around Kohl’s at Thanksgiving.

And then, last week, while sitting on my couch, I looked up at something… Something that could very well be one of my most favorite presents ever. But I admit, I forgot that I owned it!

Ladies & gentlemen, I have found my dream present for My Little C, sitting on my own shelf.

And with some spit & shine, with the help of some rubbing alcohol and Q-Tips and other stuff, this thing WILL BE the perfect present. The perfect thing I’ve wanted to find for her since a long-ago blog post… Something I didn’t even think of during that long-ago blog post.

I’ve had this thing for quite some time… before I even lived in my current apartment!

I’ve already shared to all of you, and Lili, the rest of My Little C’s presents. And please bear with me until Christmas Day. I’ll post pics of it that day or the day after, I promise.

This one HAS to be a secret.

I have to figure out how to get it down to Florida. This could be an issue. But I’ll make it happen. No matter what.

Light.

Last night wasn’t too bad. I had enough warm blankets and fleece clothing to keep me warm. And I went to bed with my netbook and watched a bunch of Christmas TV specials on Hulu. I love that my netbook has a kagillion hours of battery life. Really. It worked all day yesterday, last night and this morning without being charged and without dying on me. It still had around 2 hours of battery life on it when I shut it down around 10am!

Since there was no power around 10am, I took a little (ok, huge) nap and woke around 2pm. And I have power again. I woke up and tried to charge my phone, it worked! Hooray!

I slept quite well last night, actually. My apartment is usually overwhelmingly warm in the winter. But last night when I was getting ready for bed? It was a little bit chilly… I swear this building holds heat like crazy, thus why I’m sweating my butt off in the summer.

I need to do some serious Christmas shopping/brainstorming for the rest of my family and others in the next few days. I don’t think my mom will accept a felt doll or fabric alphabet as a gift. Actually, I take that back. She’d probably love it since she loves what I made for Little C. But for me, that’s just not acceptable.

Thankfully, I discovered a gift for the hardest person to buy this evening. Whew.

Now for the rest of them….

Change of plans.

Way back in July I booked my travel for Christmas (along with Thanksgiving and my trip to Little C’s Christening in September.)

Since I had a job at the time, I had very few days to work with.

I set it up so I was flying out of Pittsburgh around 7pm on Christmas Eve and getting into Ft. Lauderdale around 9:30. And I was flying home on the 27th, getting back into town around 6:30pm.

Since July, my flights changed multiple times so that I would not be getting to Ft. Lauderdale until after 10pm on Christmas Eve and wouldn’t get home on the 27th until around 8pm.

As I now have no job and time restrictions, I made some changes. Since Little C was born, I haven’t spent any time alone at my parents place. Not that I don’t want Lili & Little C there, believe me. But I wanted some time with my parents. So my parents and I will leave Lili’s the day after Christmas and I’m flying home on the 30th from Tampa.

And since that post-10pm arrival time on Christmas Eve kind of sucked, I changed that flight too.  I’ll arrive in Tampa on the 23rd. Just enough time for maybe some last minute shopping and then packing up to drive to Lili’s early on Christmas Eve day.

And because all of my new flights were actually cheaper than the original flights, and even though AirTran charged us $75 for each change, we ended up spending only $40 or so for the new flights! Yay!

Something I have to see…

Michael Buble is going on tour for his new album.To the ‘Burgh. And many other places.

And I really want to see this show. I have no idea what makes me want to see it more than any other show, but I HAVE TO SEE THIS ONE.

God help my sister, because he’s supposed to go somewhere near or in Ft. Lauderdale… No exact location yet… But if he’s going to be anywhere near here, and I can combine that with a trip to see and/or babysit My Little C? Well, welcome to Christmas for Aunt AA. That’s all I’ll ask to have for Christmas. Me seeing Michael Buble live and to drag Lili and the Nana to see him.

The last I heard, the Nana isn’t to keen on him. She gave me his last CD she bought. IMHO, she’s nuts. But I don’t think she gave him enough time.

And I have no clue what Lili thinks.

But I’ve got to see him. Especially after this new album. I love it. And I’m sure I can convince them. Yes. Indeed. Right?

If the Lili & the Nana plan fails, I’ve got to see him here, in Pittsburgh, with some friends at the Pete. But I only know of 2-3 people who might actually tolerate him. Who’s going to join me????

Christmas in Florida

I’m back home from my trip to Florida. It really was a nice & fun time. I spent about a day with my parents, then my sister, NE and my favorite dog on the planet, D, arrived. D was so excited to see me that it made all the travel and delays worth it.

D has been trained VERY well. So before I could run out of the car and hug her, she had to sit and be good and wait to be allowed to come to me. And then it was mass chaos. Hugs, kisses, a doggie trampling. Oh, so much fun. D is a lover, not a fighter.

We went inside and I snuck D away to put her nice, new Christmas collar on her… it’s in the picture below, with the bell… along with her Christmas scarf and one of her toys (the red & white thing) that I tossed on her and she didn’t try to remove…

She looks very happy, doesn’t she??? At this point in my trip, my sister and NE had gone to visit the In-Laws and left D with my parents and I. When this happens, D gets very depressed. You’d think she was abandoned, lol. It’s really hilarious. She lays down with her head on the ground and gives you these big “poor dog” eyes. Fortunately, we can usually get her going by playing catch with her tennis ball (in the house, no less). She is such a sweetie.

I then gave D her other present from me. One of those random Petsmart stuffed toys. I gave her one last year and she demolished it in hours. This one took a little longer. She first chews it and finds one of the squeeky toys. Then she rips that area apart, removes the stuffing (doesn’t eat it, she pulls it out, turns to the side and spits it out. amazing) and removes the squeeky toy. She usually continues until it is just a shell of fabric. This year, it ended up (before I left) with stuffing in the head and feet, and nearly split into two pieces, held together by a strip of fabric about one inch by 1/4 inch. But this is it at its original attack…

Many thanks to my sister for helping to make this trip better. Have I mentioned that she is absolutely adorable pregnant? She is. She tried on a dress today for her friend’s wedding, and she looked gorgeous. I can’t wait till there is not only D, but this baby to be excited for me to come and visit. That will be AWESOME.

I will probably have more to say about my trip, but right now, all I have is my thank you to my adorable sister, and my immediate love of D in these pics because I’ll forget if I don’t post them now

Procrastination

I should be doing other things right now… actually this whole evening I had other things I should be doing… Like getting ready to fly to Florida. Packing, cleaning my fancy shoes for Christmas dinner and all kinds of other stuff. What am I doing? Surfing the interwebz.

And for what? Oh, new music. Well, it definitely isn’t new… Last Saturday at My Living Room we were entertained by some 50’s and 60’s “Golden Oldies.” Music I actually enjoy. We have a new jukebox, one of those psycho machines where you can download things from the internet via the jukebox. One of these days, Asshat will regret his choice. I guarantee it. Heck, he would have if he had been there Saturday.

So tonite, I checked out some old music and found a song I haven’t heard in a while…. a song that my mom used to have on 45RPM vinyl. I remember popping this tiny thing into the record player when I was little.

I’m actually excited for my trip tomorrow. I love seeing my parents. They really are stellar people. And within 24 hours of my arrival, my sister, NE and my favorite dog will be in the house. I can’t wait.

I still have one or two things to buy for my sister & NE, as well as my parents’ gift. I managed to convince my mom that I need to take the car on Wednesday morning for a few trips. And she agreed (first time ever now that they are living in Florida). Wow.

After I’m done buying things for mom & dad, my mom and I are going shopping for the dog and cat, C & D. We are buying C just treats, because D eats his toys. Not fair. My boy C rocks and he should have the best toys ever. So to make up for it, I’m buying D one of these:

~or~

NE might want to kill me, but D is such a cool dog, she’ll totally wear it for like 10 minutes. I’ll post pics if I can get ‘em.

We’re also getting my super dog this doggy dental toy… I dunno, my sister said she needs it…

And, same as last year, I’m getting D one of these. I’m going to go with red this year, if I can. She literally will have the squeeker removed in less than 8 hours. The stuffing removed within 16 hours and the rest of it torn apart, oh, by Christmas Night. I know it’s a small gift that gets torn to hell, but she has so much fun, and I thoroughly enjoy it.

And that will make my Christmas Merry.

My Christmas Rant

When I was growing up, we spent every holiday in Canada – Toronto or Montreal. There wasn’t a Christmas spent in Pittsburgh until I was in high school. The same was true for Thanksgiving, Easter and every other extra long weekend in the school year.

The holidays have been strange for me for many years. I actually recall having Chinese food for Thanksgiving in Niagara Falls. I remember spending Christmas Eve in a hotel, somewhere between Erie and Buffalo because we were snowed in. And Christmas Eve for us wasn’t always on the actual Christmas Eve. Sometimes it was a week early before we left for Canada. With only my parents, sister and I in the US, it was kind of hard to have that big family holiday that most of you know.

And now? Now Christmas has become a big pain in the ass. I don’t decorate. My apartment is just too small. But I have more decorations than you would believe. And Christmas now means I either spend it alone in my apartment, or I pack up and take a whilrwind trip to Florida… a trip that is so annoying in many ways, including the fact that I have to share it with the Evil In-Laws and their BS.

I’ve come to hate this time of year because it means I have to shop. With all the crowds. I avoid shopping like I would avoid the plague. But Christmas doesn’t leave you much choice.  And with the exception of the guy I dated last year*, I never, ever know what to buy anyone. Lately I can’t even get hints on what they want. This means I either claim & pay for something my mom has already bought for the person… or they get gift cards or subscriptions. What says Merry Christmas better than subscriptions to Men’s Health and Consumer Reports?

Oh, and then there’s the music. They force feed us this stuff starting long before Thanksgiving… With the expectation that it will make us happy, or “merry’ if you will… yet all it does is annoy 90% of us.

Yet amid all this BS, there is one, solitary song that brings a smile to my face and a bounce to my step. One song that I will voluntarily listen to. The song my sister and I HAVE to hear on Christmas Day.

Why? Because it isn’t the 3 millionth arrangement of Silent Night. That’s why.

* Said gentleman happened to mention that he wanted a garden gnome for his apartment. So guess what? He ended up with this little guy. And he loved it. He was kinda expensive, but OMG is he cute. He’s currently on said boy’s desk wearing a blue Winter Classic Pens hat. Win!