December 15, 2008

Happy Holidays from the Hylands!

I've uploaded a few pictures of our holiday decor to the Flickr album. I need to take a few more!

We've already gotten a bit of our Christmas. We exchanged presents when Mom, Mema, and Grandpa came up for Thanksgiving. So far our Christmas haul includes: drill bits, a box cutter, clothes, a heavy duty staple gun, a tripod for the camera, Yahtzee, Rummykub, playing cards and a playing card holder, new sheetmusic, scrapbook stuff, a new door mat, a nice pen, a neat radio/flashlight that can be cranked up for power, Santa burner covers, a Christmas bell, and a cutting board.

Then this past weekend, we went shopping for Jamie's grandma's gifts to put under our tree. We bought four new pillows, new sheets for our still new bed, pillow shams to match the new quilt for our new bed, a Playstation game for Jamie, new shoes and a new shirt for me, kitchen towels and washcloths, and a spacious camera bag for our camera and all its accessories.

Even with all the stuff we've already gotten, we still have a massive pile of presents under the tree!

I get two full weeks off of work starting next Monday! I haven't gotten that much time off during the holidays since I was in school! Awesome!!! (This isn't vacation time. This is free holiday time!!!) I have no idea what we'll do to while away the hours. I'm sure there will be much video gaming and even more lazying about.

At work tomorrow I'm looking forward to stuffing myself silly at our departmental Christmas lunch. I'm taking green bean casserole and a yummy cornbread casserole (is it tacky that I totally just spooned up a corner of the casserole for a taste and now there's a hole?!). On top of the food, I'll also be providing the musical entertainment with a co-worker who plays the guitar.

Merry Christmas!!!

December 11, 2008

I've been tagged!

I was tagged by Angie. Here are the rules:

1. choose the 4th picture folder on your computer

2. choose the 4th picture

3. explain the picture

This is it. Sadly it isn't half as interested as the one Angie posted (she's about three and sitting on a dead deer her daddy had killed!). It's our corner cabinet decorated for Christmas last year. It's not quite decorated like that this year, and I'll try to get pictures of this year's decorations taken and posted to Flickr this weekend.

On the cabinet from top to bottom: Two nutcrackers from my Uncle Don; my Noah's ark; a nutcracker pillow that Angie's family gave me for Christmas one year; a really cool clear plastic set of a fiddler, a caroler, and a light pole; a $1 nativity from the dollar store; a snowball; a handpainted Christmas ornament; a nutcracker nativity given to me by my Uncle Don; a lighted house; a snowglobe with a violin playing snowman; and the twin to the snowman on the middle shelf. This year the cabinet features even more nutcrackers and several Santas.

Please keep my mom in your thoughts. While her last chemo went pretty smoothly (her port actually worked like it was supposed to this time), she now is battling a viral infection. It could be the flu or something similar, but it's hard for a person who has a compromised immune system to fight off. My grandma called on Tuesday to let me know mom was sick and had gone to the doctor for some medicine. Mom didn't even feel like talking so I didn't get to talk to her on Tuesday, but I talked to her last night and she said she felt better than she did the day before.