Nuthin’ but an H thang, Baybay…

All is quiet in my house at 6am on the last day of the year. I shouldn’t be up this early, but out of habit, I am. I’m sort of excited to get this day behind me.

There are two times of year that never fail to get a rise of sentimentality and reflection out of me: the early fall season and the last day of the year. Every fall as the leaves drop, I examine my life and my choices in general. I look for areas to improve and analyze where I am and how I got there. I think about people who are no longer in my life. I obsess about the future. As for the last day of the year, these thoughts are much more pinpointed to the last 12 months and the next 6 months. Even in this blog, I usually write an end of year summary, describing line by line, what happened or what I accomplished. It’s a fun and usually therapeutic exercise. I’m big on goal-setting, so it also helps me take a look at how to organize my priorities and devise plans for the coming year. There, now you know another wonderfully boring thing about me that you didn’t know yesterday. Yay you.

Two things occurred to me yesterday that were slightly amusing and frightening all at once. One, time is speeding by. I cannot believe that come this April, my blog will have been up for 5 years. Where did 5 years go? Okay, so I can read the blog and figure that out…but why did it go so fast?  For the girl who wanted everything, it’s freaking me out. I need more time to travel all around the world and finish school and finish my master bathroom remodel and…take more leaps forward in my career and have a kid and…yeah. Okay, so the second thing: the more snow we get, the slower the days go. Is this contrary to what I just barfed all over this post? Sure! Welcome to my brain. Really though, the snow is making me feel like the days stand still. All this precious time I was whining about? It drags on as the snow piles up and I’m increasingly more frustrated that I can’t hang out in my backyard or go eat on a restaurant patio. So, it’s like I’m waiting for the time to get behind me…what a paradox.

I’m neurotic, yes. On that note, one of my goals for 2008 was to find a handful of things that bring my stress levels down. This might sound weird (in this post, it’s on par), but I’ve discovered that listening to birds singing early in the morning takes some stress off my head. In the winter, I miss it terribly. However…for some reason, right now, outside my window, there is a loudly chirping bird. I must have some good karma coming my way today.

A whole lotta nuthin’, that’s what.

After hosting Christmas Eve for 48 people, we hosted Christmas Day for 9. Both were wonderful parties, even better than last year’s.

On the 26th, I used my “floating holiday” from work. I slept half the day and cleaned up the other half. ‘Dama and I made it over to my mom’s for a bit to bring back several dishes she and others left at our place. I took out piles and PILES of garbage in anticipation of Saturday’s pickup. But that’s about it.

On the 27th, I continued in Clean Up Mode. I washed table linens. I moved things back to their rightful places. I moved piles and PILES of recycling from the garage to the curb. ‘Dama drove us to Kohl’s so that we could return a gift and get some new bedroom pillows. We also ended up with some new grilling utensils, since everything was on *sale*. For a late lunch, he took me to The Lone Spur in Hopkins, which surprised me with its delicious food. Later, we went to Byerly’s for a few staples that were running low to prepare for the coming week. It amazed us that all of the garbage and recycling was magically gone when we got home. I slept hard that night.

On the 28th, I did a lot of laundry. We met my Daddio for lunch so that, again, I could return the dishes he left at our place on Christmas Eve. When we returned, I finished posting my holiday photos. I watched a bit of the nail-biting Vikings game. During dinner, we watched the National Treasure DVD I bought Adam for Christmas. We even checked out some of the deleted scenes and such. I meant to get to the gym, even having a bag packed. It was not to be.

So, that’s it. I did very little with my Christmas vacation and I suspect it was just what the doctor ordered.

Well, last Friday feels like it’s million miles away. My friend Suze was in town and came over for a drink, so we chatted for an hour or so before she had to leave to visit more Minneapolis friends. It was nice to see her in person, as we usually communicate over the phone, email, etc. because she lives in Duluth.

The rest of my weekend was a whirlwind of snow, painting, fixing and cleaning. On Saturday morning, I commandeered Adam’s truck and blazed a trail in the snow. I donated some stuff to our local thrift store and then moved on to Bachman’s and Menards. The traffic on the roads and in the stores was minimal, making it easy to get in and out.

Upon coming home, I tried to repair the ceiling in the living room. When we remodeled the living room in 2006, we removed a decorative board from the ceiling that was attached to 3 wooden spindles (which were supported by the half-wall we took out next to the front door). At the time, we attempted to spray that popcorn ceiling crap up there to cover the bare spots left by the board. It never quite looked right, and because I used a bright white ceiling paint, it never quite matched the rest of the ceiling! I attempted to spackle the area to even it out. Then, I created a plastic tent around it and tried spraying that popcorn ceiling crap up there again. Now,  let’s just say that I can appreciate what I was trying to do…but it turned out to be an enormous mess. Adam doubled over in laughter when I came out of the tent covered from head to toe with popcorn ceiling crap.

Moving right along, I began a minor remodel of our upstairs guestroom. This space has now been formed into a Coat Check Room-in-waiting for the upcoming holiday events. I painted the walls a lovely warm khaki color and painted over an old stained spot on the ceiling. Adam helped me move the artwork around on the walls and we put up two freestanding garment racks for coats. I moved some plants and furniture around and wah-la, we have a whole new room.

That evening, we were invited to Holtz’s holiday party. Unfortunately, we couldn’t attend for 3 reasons: 1. Adam got stuck working on a business project, 2. I was up to my eyeballs in paint, and 3. the weather was a bit too blizzard-like for a safe drive to and from Chaska. We were very sorry to miss out on the fun.

On Sunday morning, I finished some painting in the Coat Check Room and painted over the troublesome area of the ceiling in the living room. My mom came over at 12:30 or so and we began Operation Christmas Clean. We scrubbed and decorated, scrubbed and decorated, all afternoon into the evening. It was a wonderful day: my house smells amazing and I got to have my mom all to myself!

If anything, the holidays certainly make my house look nicer.

I thought I was doing pretty well in my efforts to get ready for Christmas so far. That was until I woke this morning and realized I only have a week to go.

As for gifts, I’m about 60% done. Of course, that means I’m 40% not-done…and 40% of my wrapping is not-done.

We’re about to host 2 Christmas events and I have barely any food in the house. So that’s good. Note to self: there will probably be no food left in the stores if you keep procrastinating. However, I’d love to see you explain to the family why you’re serving Kung Pao chicken and wontons instead of ham and garlic-mashed potatoes. Dummy.

My mom is my annual savior when it comes to cleaning and decorating. We take a full day together before the holiday to dust, polish and vaccuum everything and hang decorations. I really look forward to that time with her.

So here we go – one week left. Wish me luck.

Friday:

Relaxed at home with Adam. Drank some wine, watched Heroes on the DVR.

Saturday:

Drove the the Lyndale Farmer’s Market to pick out a Christmas tree and wreath. It was FREEZING outside. Then met up with Linda and drove to Fireside Pizza in Richfield – an old favorite of Adam and Linda’s. Shopped at The Mix in The SLP, where they have some very cool antique Chinese furniture. Shopped at a very busy Target. Drove home, worked on posting some photos to Flickr while Linda caught up on her emails and wrapped a couple presents. Linda left, and we got ready to head to AdamV & Dena’s for the Somewhat-Annual Holiday Party. Partied until 12:30, when I had an allergy attack. Took a Benadryl, slept like a rock.

Sunday:

Adam woke me up at 9:15 with breakfast in bed. I was GROGGY and had just come out of a strange dream about FrogPeople. I laid around most of the morning, not getting in the shower ’til 2pm. Finished posting the remainder of the wedding pics and started laundry though. Went to Target again to exchange something and had a weird conversation about the Air Force. Adam made a wonderful pasta meal for us. Expected that we were going to decorate the tree…but we didn’t. We were too tired. Adam hung some new scarf hooks in my Super-Awesome Ninja Closet. Fell asleep at 10pm to the muffled sound of Dateline on TV.

Things I should’ve done but didn’t:

-Shoveled
-Painted
-Bought/wrapped Christmas gifts
-Decorated the tree
-Shot photos of the lovely snow
-Worked out