Christmas Review by Bulletpoint

• Kids got great gifts and were surprised! #1 got an ipod (I'm sure you heard the screams!) #2 got a guitar (I know you heard those screams or certainly heard the strumming over and over and over, "Listen, I think I'm playing 'I Want My Mullet Back'"), #3 got a digital camera.


• The big Christmas secret was a Wii given to the girls by some folks at our church. We've never had anyone do anything like that for us before. They also gave me a REALLLY nice designer purse (I've never had anything like THAT before) and Hubby a new suit. WOW!


• We did not make it to a second church service. Youngest was exhausted by 7:30 and it just wasn't worth dragging her back to church for more churching. Hubby got home at 12:45 a.m. He hasn't had to do the late services in several years so I'd kind of forgotten how hard that makes Christmas morning.


• Ate tamales Christmas night. They came from a proper restaurant and were delicious. I kind of missed the feeling of taking my life into my hnds eating tamales that were prepared who knows where!


• I got some casual jewelry for Christmas (which I asked for) from hubby and my friend and my oldest. Cute stuff to wear with jeans and the like. My mom gave me my great great grandmother's engagement diamond as a necklace. That was a shock! Did not expect diamonds for Christmas! It is beautiful and rather LARGE!!!!! HEHEHEHe.


• Hubby also gave me an FM transmitter for my Ipod (So I can use my ipod in the car) and I gave him an FM transmitter for his ipod. I was expecting mine but I surprised him with his. hehehehehehe


• I also gave hubby a "BUTT-OUT" which is a very useful tool for field dressing a deer. And the look on hubby's face when he pulled it out of his stocking was priceless.




• Went to Dallas with my two youngest and my parents while hubby took oldest deer hunting.


• Stayed up until midnight with my brother the first night in Dallas having the most honest and indepth conversation I've had with him in probably 20 years.



• Took my girls to the American Girls store in Dallas with my mom and my neice. Aiyiyiyi. Very crowded. Insanely crowded. Don't need to do that again!

Returned home to lots of laundry and Christmas that needs to be taken down and put away. Got the laundry done last night but Christmas hasn't even been touched!

Church today, hubby coming home tonight.

• And that's the update!

The Final Countdown

So here we are on Christmas Eve Eve. I have donw my part to keep the economy going for one more year. I think I'm going tohave to brave Wal-Mart one more time tomorrow morning. My plan is to get up early and run, it's pretty chilly here now (probably in the upper 30s in the morning) so I shouldn't be too gross and sweaty and then hit Wal-Mart before 8 a.m. There's an accessory that we need for the double secret classified gift and I am hosting Christmas morning brunch for 15 people and realized that I probably ought to have some OJ to go with the rest of the food. We don't drink OJ so I don't think about it but offering water, milk and coffee is a little limited. I'm also on the hunt for some good tamales for Christmas Day dinner. I think this is the first ime in about a century that we don't have plans for Christmas Day dinner. Last year the big meal was delayed a day because of violent stomach virus that invaded my parent's house. We all liked having that downtime so much that we decided to delay Christmas Dinner until the 26th again this year. Anyway, I want tamales but I think I'm a little late in starting my search. (YA THINK!) There's a little tamale stand out in front of someone's house about 10 minutes from my house that I used to pass when I was going to the community college for my nursing school prereqs. It is worth a stop over there to see if they are open tomorrow. Of course, buying tamales from a stand in front of someone's house is also just asking for the violent stomach illness of '06 to return! I think I actually want the tamales enough to risk it!

Church starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. with the first of the children's services. Two youngest are singing in their choirs at that one so we will attend as a family. Then it is off to my mom and dad's for dinner. Then hubby has to assist at the 9 p.m. and 11p.m. lessons and carols services. I think the girls and I might try to attend the 9 p.m. service. I've never done that with the kids before but I think they are old enough now and it sounds kind of nice. I might take them to look at Christmas lights before hand in the really old weathy neighborhood. How's that for a christmas bribe: "If you will go with my to church at 9, I'll take you to look at Christmas lights on mansions." My kids wouldn't be able to resist!

So that's the plan stan...I'm feeling surprisingly serene given the time of year. It's kind of nice. I think I'll have a cookie.

Christmas secrets abound!!!!!!

Now, I certainly am not naive enough to believe that my children wouldn't happen to see my blog over my shoulder so I will not be divulging any secrets here but let's just say that I am excited because they will be sooooooooo surprised!!!!!!



The shopping is wrapping up. I'm making breakfast gift baskets for the staff at church. They'll get a homemade mix to make buttermilk pancakes, some gourmet coffee and a bottle of maple syrup. I've got lots of presents to wrap but I love to wrap presents so that will actually be fun. I'm not great at the present wrapping thing but I love the colors of the wrapping paper and picking a coordinating ribbon to go with.



Oh and have I mentioned that I have NO SCHOOL FOR A MONTH!!!! Don't get me wrong I really love nursing school. But it is really nice to be done and not studying for now. Oh and did I mention that I got all A's? I'm pretty proud of that!

Tomorrow, I'll assemble gift baskets, make cracker candy and finish up the shopping...

I'M DONE, I'M DONE, I'M DONE

I finished my last final this morning. Now I have a WHOLE month off of school. Yippee!!!!!!!!! So far I have three of four grades and I have A's in all of them! DOUBLE YIPPEE!!! Off to a Christmas party tonight. I am so relieved! Now to tackle Christmas shopping. Any suggestions for my 15 year old neice??????

Halfway there....

I have taken two finals and have two more to take. Not too worried about tomorrow's final. Thursday is going to be a bugger. Pathophysiology. Cumulative over the whole semester. 150 questions. There is a lot that can go wrong with the human body and that translates into a lot to learn, relearn, memorize, and remind myself about.

So far though, the grades are pretty good. I'm getting the grades I need on the final to get an A in the classes. Too bad the final analysis comes down to minimums needed for the all important A.

Study, study study....

25 minutes

I'm almost half way there. This is soooooo painful.

Back to the books....

Accountability

I hereby swear that I am going to study for the next hour. Without stopping to clean, run, talk, surfor calculate. Then I am going to leave the house to do both necesary and unneccesary errands! One hour. Starting.......NOW

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays: Are you offended?

So the season is upon us and with it comes the blooming controversy over Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas. My mother is horribly offended when someone in retail says Happy Holidays to her. She says she ALWAYS replies "And a Merry Christmas to you!"

I honestly don't get it. I don't really care what some retail person says to me. If they don't mean "Merry Christmas" as in "Hey sister in Christ, I'm so happy to remember that Jesus was born to take away the sins of the world", then why would I want them sharing a greeting with me that they find meaningless, when it is loaded with meaning for me? Isn't it a great sign that the holiday is becoming secularlized. Seriously, then those of us that actually celebrate Christmas have the amazing opportunity to standout a little and be a little different. Maybe that will put a little pressure on Christians to behave in a way that reflects our beliefs. MAybe if there isn't a meaningless, Merry Christmas everywhere you go, someone will wonder, what does that really mean, Merry Christmas? And once someone starts wondering....

I dunno. I just don't see how secularization, both of Christmas and of the larger culture, is really a bad thing. I see it as a way to draw a greater distinction between what it means to live as a follower of Jesus and, well, what it means to not live as a follower of Jesus. I see it as a tremendous opportunity for the Church and something we should embrace, not as something we should be offended by.

However, this was sent to me recently and I have to say it is pretty funny... Merry Tossmas

Procrastination

Things that I can do instead of studying...
1. Clean! Always a good productive use of possible study time. I swept the kitchen and den, vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen and folded several loads of laundry.
2. Run! I ran 4 miles this morning. Now generally I am a pretty slow runner but my 4 miles was pretty quick for me at 44 minutes.
3. Surf! There's always the internet to distract one from the books. I did pretty good not spending too much time on that because there's nothing to show for that time. Way too obvious of a procrastination method. Check out the clip of Jenna Bush calling her Mom and Dad unannounced on the Ellen Show. Pretty Funny!
4. Talk! Talked on the phone with Teri for about 30 minutes. I folded clothes at the same time. Excellent use of time!
5. Calculate! My favorite way to procrastinate from studying is to get out the calculator and figure out what grade I need to get on the final to make the grade I want in the class. For example, in my pharmacology class I can be a no-show on the final, take a zero and still pass the class. For my more high acheiving self, if I can squeak out a 64 on the final I'll have an A in the class. I think for my clinical class I need an 86 on the final for an A in the class. I can't remember the rest of them.

So there you see it. Now you know how I spend my time when I really outta be studying!