I did it! I spent a couple of hours last night wrapping like a fiend.  Today I boxed it all up and headed to the post office.  Overall, the line wasn’t so bad.  Granted, I’m not so happy about having spent nearly $40 on top of the gifts to ship the box to my former roomie.  But whatcha gonna do, right?  If I’d been on the ball, I could have shipped it last week for probably half the price (damn that Priority shipping!)

But it’s done.  And that’s just half the Christmas battle.  Now I just have a few things to pick up for the nieces- and nephew-in-laws and I’m completely done shopping. Far from done wrapping, but hey, it’s a start and I do still have a week until I need to present the presents (hehe) live and in person.

Now if only I could find some elves to come and do my dishes and clean my kitchen.  Then I’d be a happy Christmasy camper!

I have over 300 blog posts to read!! *eek*  That’s not counting the few I’ve already read or the shopping/product related ones that I’ve already deleted!  I guess a lot goes on in a week.  Thankfully we’re no longer on daily posts, so it’s really only a couple posts from each person that I’m behind.  But still, that adds up y’all! (I feel so Britney today)

So hopefully, in between housecleaning and doing laundry (a butt load of sheets – thank goodness they’re all white!) I’ll catch up with everyone.  Though I can’t make any promises for witty or thought-provoking comments

While running errands this morning, I made sure to smile a lot and thank anyone that I spoke with.  I even shocked the guy at Borders when I wished him a great weekend.  Yay, for thanks!

Michelle – you can buy the Boots’ Olive, Almond and Sage Wonderbalm at CVS and at Target (both carry the Boots line now).  It’s a small jar over in the “Mediterranean” section.  Don’t be surprised if it’s sold out, it’s that good!

Well, I’ve decided, I’m just not going to bother with decorating this year.  While I’m still all for finding the perfect gift for someone, wrapping the presents and doing the card thing, I just don’t feel like lugging in all the boxes this time.  So instead, I’ve picked up a live little tabletop tree from Trader Joe’s.  And if the stockings are accessible I think I’ll hang those up.  But really, that’s it for me.

Funny thing, I was feeling a little, I don’t know, maybe guilty about not decorating (though we don’t have kids and we don’t really entertain at home, so really, no one but me would miss it) and I mentioned it to friends over the weekend.  It took the I-go-all-out-and-decorate-for-all-holidays friend – the one you can’t help but be jealous of because well, she decorates for all the holidays and come on, that’s just cool as shit – to admit to having those occassions where she didn’t feel like decorating either.  That’s when I finally took that breath and just admitted to myself that it’s just fine and dandy if I don’t want to decorate this year.  That doesn’t really make me Little Miss Bah Humbug.

Or is it just me?  I’ve noticed today that whenever I go to comment on a blogger account I can’t seem to find the “other” option.  So now I can’t link back to my own blog and well, that’s just not fair or fun :pout:

So I ask my blogger friends, did they make some design change in the commenting section?  Is it possible to change things back to the way it used to be?  Or will all of us non-Blogger folks need to create Blogger accounts an then RSS feed our real blog in and turn off comments or something?

Or am I just a twit and am somehow through user error just blind and missing the whole thing?

I have a birthday party for my friend’s first year this weekend (waves to M if she’s reading along). In lieu of gifts the parents are asking for something that represents his first year for a time capsule that they’ll open at his 18th birthday. I think this is a great idea, except for the fact that I’m stumped and totally clueless.

The hubby will be photographing the whole event, so on the one hand we’ll have photos to contribute, but I’d still like to have something giftie to include. I can be crafty and make a mean picture frame – but I can’t imagine an 18 y/o boy would want one of my frames. And if it comes down to it, I can write a wacky poem. But otherwise, really, I’m needing some help and a brilliant idea or three – Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

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On a related note, I still have to come up with something for my best friend from high school. I didn’t get him a birthday present back in October (it happens from time to time – on his end as well) so it can be bigger than a typical Christmas gift. Years and years ago he used to collect penguins, but like anyone that has collected anything at one point, he’s over that. He’s getting married in June, but they just got engaged on his birthday and nothing is formalized (no honeymoon plans yet, not registered, etc.). I’ve done wine in the past, and have considered a food gift this year, but is that too impersonal? So again, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

PS – is NaBloPoMo over yet?

And yes, I just now went through my friends over there and added a bunch of new blogs to my reader. I can’t wait! My reader says that I have 219 new posts to read.

And because half of the search terms here are usually for actual KitKats I thought I’d have my friend bring some back when she went to Japan.  While I’m not really a fan of the actual KitKat, I know a photo op when I see one – and I give the people what they want.  So here is the obligatory, wacky-flavored KitKats from Japan.  There was vanilla, kiwi, caramel and we think, hazelnut – could have been coffee since it felt very espresso-bean-y to me, but it was in Japanese so who knows.  They were definitely interesting to taste, that’s for sure.  And man, those Japanese can be crazy with their wacky flavors – Talk about obsession.

I finally got around to getting the Herbie pictures off my camera.  Sadly, since I wasn’t using flash, they all suck – but at least shrunk down to this itty bitty size you don’t notice exactly how blurry it is (or so I tell myself).  This was during the encore at the Tucson show since I only got to shoot a couple photos during sound check in SF (and that batch is even worse than this batch).  If only I could post some of the backstage or personal photos, but I don’t think his management would be too keen on that (especially considering I don’t have any sort of copyright or protections on my photos).  I’ve got one of love of Herbie an Carlos Santana and another with Herbie and my hubby.  Oh well.

I was hoping to join the masses for some Black Friday shinanigins at some point today. Let me preface things by saying first and foremost that I don’t do those insane AM hours. Ever. But in my defense, I worked retail quite a few holiday seasons in my not so distant past. And even when I wasn’t working retail, my best friend and roommate was a district manager for one of the mall chain stores, so I’d help her out from time to time during the holiday rush. I’ll be honest, I’m wacky enough to miss it.

Yes, I do indeed miss working retail during the holidays. Every year I say that I’m going to get a part-time holiday job. Every year, I let someone or five others talk me out of it – no flexibility, no parking, crazy hours, horrible customers, you name it. So since moving away from NM (and my former roommate – who no longer works in retail herself) I’ve longed for the craziness that is the holiday season at the mall.

This year is the first year though that I’ve not partaken in anything Black Friday related. Heck, we don’t even have leftover turkey to eat. My friend that was going to head out with me today stood me up. She decided that it was more important to nap and stay in her cozy bed than to go shopping. I guess that’s fine. I mean it’s not like I wanted or even needed anything (and what I do want I can just get online). And I can’t really be all too angry, she did spend the big bucks and get me a pound or so worth of Cadbury’s Fruit & Nuts (so much better than we can get here in the US).

But unbeknownst to me, I took part in Buy Nothing Day without even trying. Go me! Though, does it count considering we did have to buy our passports? Or doesn’t that count? Me, I say it doesn’t considering it was really the application process and I can’t really see how it would be feeding the consumerism monster.

Now let’s see how long I can keep away from ordering those two “family gift” things I was eying over at BestBuy.com (hopefully, the digital frame will still be there tomorrow since I need to see if the wine fridge is still at Macy’s before I try ordering one through BestBuy). Then again if they’re sold out, no harm no foul – We really didn’t *need* them in the first place.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that Black Friday was all that you hoped it would be – filled with bargains or a day without crazed shopping.