Mortaine’s Blog

1. Do you enjoy the cold weather and snow for the holidays?

I don’t enjoy cold weather or snow, at any season, for any reason. That’s why I live in California. The phrase “drive to the snow” has to be the most beautiful phrase in the world.

2. What is your ideal holiday celebration? How, where, with whom would you celebrate to make things perfect?

Gather a bunch of my friends together for good food and quiet movie-watching, playing Christmas carols (like, with real instruments) and singing along with them. Opening presents and never having anyone feel like they’d under-given to everyone else.

3. Do you do have any holiday traditions?

Tons. On Christmas morning (which doesn’t have to be Dec. 25), we wake up with the Christmas stockings already on the foot of the bed. We open these before getting up. Items inside the stocking are usually wrapped, and cost around $15 total.

Then, we get up, pee and brush teeth and do those kinds of things before going out to the holiday tree, which is on a timer, so it’s already on. We sing Jingle Bells, with me in front of John (youngest goes first in my family), trying to nudge the dog to walk in front of me, while he keeps turning around in the hallway (the hallway which is too narrow for him to turn around in, really). We get to the tree, marvel at it for a moment, and then dig in. One of us plays “Santa” and hands out pressies.

A new tradition is that, on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24th), we drive around to our local friends and family members and drop off their holiday gifts and wish them a Merry Christmas. If we know they won’t be home, or if they live far away, we’ll send them in advance. This has the added bonus of releasing us from any obligation of actually seeing people on Christmas Day.

After the present-opening, we spend the morning making breakfast (usually cinnammon rolls), lounging around, and playing with our new toys (I’m almost 30 and there are always new toys). We make calls to our family members, most of whom celebrated before we were out of bed. In some cases, when the present was something really special, we’ve asked them to wait till we called before opening their present from us.

Christmas dinner, because it’s just the 2 of us, is Cornish Game Hens and some side dishes (usually rice and some kind of steamed vegetable). We hang around and watch movies or TV all day long and generally have a very quiet Christmas at home.

A family tradition I haven’t kept is that on Christmas Day everyone gets together to play Christmas music. Since I’m the only one in the house who plays an instrument now, it seems somewhat pointless.

Another tradition is that my sister has made handmade applique holiday stockings for everyone in her family; mine was the first she made, so it’s extra-special to me (I still need to finish Carol’s, bad girl that I am!) Also, she and I exchange holiday stockings with each other– it’s a special secret thing we do for each other, something our mom used to do with her sister. I hope her kids continue the tradition when they’re grown.

4. Do you do anything to help the needy?

It depends. Nothing traditionally. This year, I bought a book for a kid from one of those adopt-an-ornament trees. In previous years, we’ve donated money to Greyhound non-profits. One year, I donated my car to the local high school shop class.

5. What one gift would you like for yourself?

OK, this is bizarre, because it’s not very much like me to want this. But, I would like it if, someday, John would take me to Build-a-Bear and have me build a stuffed animal for myself. Of course, this is just adding to clutter, and I don’t need a bear, but I think it would be very romantic in a “knock-down-all-the-pins-at-the-carnival” kind of way.

This year, though, I’d really love it if John would agree to adopt a kitten with me. He’s balking for various reasons, all of them valid, but I still want one, even when ours have medical and behaviour problems. And the holidays are the perfect time for us to do it, cause I’ll be home for 2 weeks and able to help a new cat adjust to the household and vice versa.

Well, this morning started out poorly. I had cramps all morning, and was generally still kind of messed up from the night before. Got moving, though, in time to go out to the bagel shop for breakfast. 3 ibuprofen and a latte later, and the cramps are blessedly gone.

After breakfast, went to Walgreens to pick up a few odds and ends, including wrapping paper (too many pressies for kids) and some candy canes to use in a W.W. smoothie recipe that I learned last night.

Oh, a WW recipe that I’m looking forward to using:
1 box of spice cake mix
2 cups of pumpkin

Prepare as directed on the box, but use pumpkin instead of all the other ingredients. Sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar (makes good cupcakes). I can’t remember if Elaine said it was one or two points per small piece, but nonetheless; it’s a not-too-sweet holiday treat!

Yesterday was crap-tastic, with the highlight of the day being a 2.6 lb. loss for the week (YAY!!!), and the downpoint being staying at work until 8:30 to PDF and print the manuals, only to discover that one of them has the wrong footer on it (grrr.) I did manage to practice on the work piano, though, which is a Good Thing. I was, however, completely wiped out by the time I got home at 9:00, had a headache, cramps, and was so exhausted, I just wanted to fall asleep. Which I promptly did after dinner. I did get a good night’s sleep last night, for the first time in about 4 days.

I can’t wait for this weekend.

Today will involve more click-and-wait processing jobs, which means helping with the holiday decorations while my computer’s locked up during those jobs. These click-and-wait jobs are the next-to-last step in releasing the manuals and help files, so they’re really good to get done.

In other news, I got paid today, and now have enough PTO for 2 days of vacation. So, I have just enough PTO to go to Vegas for 2 days (not 3); I might take the 3rd day as unpaid time.

Ding dong the codes are dead
The invite codes, the invite codes.
Ding dong, the invite codes are dead!

That’s in case you haven’t been watching (shame on you– friend it– today!) or or any of the other official LiveJournal places.

What happens to your existing codes? You can probably trade them in for paid time for yourself or someone else in the near future. Kinda nifty.