The entry in which we re-cap the holidays, and bow down to the awesomeness of current technology.

I hope everyone had a joyful and merry holiday.

I haven’t been able to write much, mostly because I decided to make my pre-holiday preparation that much more difficult by making most of my gifts. I always make my own Christmas cards, but this year I decided to use the skills I learned in the beading class I took this fall and also make necklaces and bracelets for the women I know. Just call me a glutton for punishment.

Production on the cards was delayed a week due to a vicious stomach flu my nephew gave my whole family, that was far worse than any I’ve ever had in my entire life. My sister, her husband and my father all had it at the same time as me. The only two spared were my mother and Steve; my mother because she’s been a preschool teacher since 1984, and has built up a tolerance for freakish flu strains, and Steve because he enjoys my nephew, but doesn’t necessarily ever touch him. Since my mother was busy nursing her husband and grandson, Steve’s mom had to come to my apartment and save me, with a combination of homemade chicken soup and sage words.

Anyhow, we all recovered well before the holidays, which ended up being quite restful. Steve’s family had their party on Christmas Eve, and mine had theirs on Christmas Day, so there wasn’t any running around between the two homes and having to cut any party time short. I got very nice gifts, too, but not too many, which was nice because lately I’ve been trying to de-clutter my life by trying to have less stuff. It seemed like even less because my parents and sister started my Christmas village for me this year, but unfortunately I don’t have any place to put them, so they are headed up to my parents’ attic until I live in a place that would have enough room for me to put them out. It was sort of sad, really, to just take the houses out of their packages and then put them right away again, so I took a photo with one of them just for kicks. Please ignore my super-hot pajamas and bedhead.



The best gift I received, though, was probably my iPod Shuffle. I already have an iPod Mini.

This photo makes me sad, since it makes the Mini look ginormous and totally archaic. I still use the Mini when I’m in the car, though, and there’s really nothing wrong with it that would warrant upgrading to a Nano. I just wanted something that’s small and compact to (hopefully) kick-start me into walking more, and (maybe) working out.

But the best part of the Shuffle is just how damn cute it is. It’s so small! And even though it’s small, it’s still so stylish! I feel like I’m holding the future of technology, and folks, it is beautiful.

Some other things:

1) I honestly wouldn't have even known that Gerald Ford was alive, if I hadn't seen that he died.

2) Since I gave Steve a DS Lite for Christmas, I inherited his older DS, and so far, Cooking Mama has totally enraptured me. So cute! So Japanese! So engaging! Ingenious!

3) Having Christmas Day on a Monday is awesome. Four-day work week (or five, if you're me and took yesterday off to recouperate), and then ANOTHER four-day work week next week! Spectacular!

4) I turn 26 next Tuesday. Where did 25 go? And where are these alleged "carefree twenties" that everyone talks about? I feel jipped.