It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
I have wasted time this morning--well, on lots of things (got downtime at the day job and have been playing)--but I've been working on making my master list of holiday movies and shows that I want to DVR. Hubs and I missed a lot of them last year, so we wanted to be prepared. There are those we already own like The Polar Express, all The Santa Clauses, White Christmas, The Grinch. And then the TV specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph The Rednosed Reindeer (can kids these days appreciate claymation?), and more modern movie favorites like Snow and the other assorted ABC Family original movies on their 25 days of Christmas.
I've been feeling very Grinchy this year as I saw Christmas stuff popping up before Halloween was even past. I'm serious, in like ten years, we'll be shopping for Christmas in July. It gets earlier and earlier every year. Our neighbors put up Christmas lights at Halloween.
Money is tight, as usual, but DH seems to FINALLY be embracing the concept of sticking to a budget at Christmas. We even tried to get the family to agree to doing a Christmas drawing, though that didn't fly. We're going to discuss it with the fam this year and if everyone agrees, we're going to go ahead and draw for next year before everybody leaves. Then nobody can say "but I already bought stuff for so and so." As always, I am giving some gifts from my kitchen. This year I'm focusing on cookies, which is something DH can help with. I've already picked up tins at the Dollar Tree, and I've got several recipes I think I'm going to go with. Peanut butter seems to be the theme.
I love these Nutter Butter santas, and these peanut butter Rudolphs, and then of course there's the classic of making peanut butter sandwiches with ritz crackers and dipping in vanilla almond bark. I'm going to make some truffles for the actual gathering. I opted against those, as they have to be refrigerated. And I want to come up with something for my friend who has a nut allergy, so she may be getting bread. God I need to remember to start my sourdough starter!
Anyway now that it's post Thanksgiving, I'm starting to get in the mood. I've got on holiday music and I'm thinking about the tree. We're going to decorate ths house this weekend. I did my office here at work on Monday (as the stuff was already here). I'm really ready for the break from the day job. It's not much of an actual break, as I"m in the midst of designing an entirely new course to teach in the spring, so lots of lecture writing going on, but at least I can do that from home.
The writing has been going slowly. I haven't finished anything this year, which is disappointing. I finished my last book in September of 07, began a new project, Til Death, which I worked on for a few months until I got hit over the head with a great way to rework my last book, so I worked on THAT unti April, when I came to a grinding halt due to a premise issue (that I have since solved). I went back to Til Death, and worked on it for several months before realizing that it didn't have anywhere near enough conflict and starting over on that. I've been working on it ever since but it's been SLOW. I have to keep reminding myself that I have a lot more on my plate that require brain power than I did the year I finished HOC. I'm about to start my third job in January (technically am now since I'm writing the course) and that doesn't always leave a lot of time or energy for writing. I'm just trying to take it one day at a time and do SOMETHING every day.
I should get back to real work.
Today on
Pots & Plots: Roasted Red Pepper Bolognese Sauce
Frugal Intuition: Rebirth of the Mix Tape...Er CD
Murder & Magnolias: Bloggy Procrastination
I've been feeling very Grinchy this year as I saw Christmas stuff popping up before Halloween was even past. I'm serious, in like ten years, we'll be shopping for Christmas in July. It gets earlier and earlier every year. Our neighbors put up Christmas lights at Halloween.
Money is tight, as usual, but DH seems to FINALLY be embracing the concept of sticking to a budget at Christmas. We even tried to get the family to agree to doing a Christmas drawing, though that didn't fly. We're going to discuss it with the fam this year and if everyone agrees, we're going to go ahead and draw for next year before everybody leaves. Then nobody can say "but I already bought stuff for so and so." As always, I am giving some gifts from my kitchen. This year I'm focusing on cookies, which is something DH can help with. I've already picked up tins at the Dollar Tree, and I've got several recipes I think I'm going to go with. Peanut butter seems to be the theme.
I love these Nutter Butter santas, and these peanut butter Rudolphs, and then of course there's the classic of making peanut butter sandwiches with ritz crackers and dipping in vanilla almond bark. I'm going to make some truffles for the actual gathering. I opted against those, as they have to be refrigerated. And I want to come up with something for my friend who has a nut allergy, so she may be getting bread. God I need to remember to start my sourdough starter!
Anyway now that it's post Thanksgiving, I'm starting to get in the mood. I've got on holiday music and I'm thinking about the tree. We're going to decorate ths house this weekend. I did my office here at work on Monday (as the stuff was already here). I'm really ready for the break from the day job. It's not much of an actual break, as I"m in the midst of designing an entirely new course to teach in the spring, so lots of lecture writing going on, but at least I can do that from home.
The writing has been going slowly. I haven't finished anything this year, which is disappointing. I finished my last book in September of 07, began a new project, Til Death, which I worked on for a few months until I got hit over the head with a great way to rework my last book, so I worked on THAT unti April, when I came to a grinding halt due to a premise issue (that I have since solved). I went back to Til Death, and worked on it for several months before realizing that it didn't have anywhere near enough conflict and starting over on that. I've been working on it ever since but it's been SLOW. I have to keep reminding myself that I have a lot more on my plate that require brain power than I did the year I finished HOC. I'm about to start my third job in January (technically am now since I'm writing the course) and that doesn't always leave a lot of time or energy for writing. I'm just trying to take it one day at a time and do SOMETHING every day.
I should get back to real work.
Today on
Pots & Plots: Roasted Red Pepper Bolognese Sauce
Frugal Intuition: Rebirth of the Mix Tape...Er CD
Murder & Magnolias: Bloggy Procrastination