M A xx W Cimetière de Bracieux L L

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

A Kitty Christmas Adventure

I stayed up until about 12:30 am last night folding clothes and packing my suitcase. And today, after I leave work and do about a million errands, Patrick and I are going to pack up the truck and head to Houston, then a few days later, to Arlington. I can't wait to see family and friends, especially ones that I haven't seen in over a year.

It will be interesting travelling this much with two cats. We've done it with one a couple of times, but riding in a vehicle with two cats can be a little much. They feed off each other. One will meow, then the other, it almost sounds like they're talking (or yelling) to each other. I guess it's just another thing to prepare us for having kids, kind of like what happened last night...

To get them all pretty for Christmas, we gave the cats a bath last night. Well, I helped with Calliope, who didn't complain too much, and then while the bathtub was filling up for Chloe, I started dinner. Then, a good friend who I hadn't talked to in awhile called, so I was a little distracted. Even though the bathroom door was closed and I had closed the door to the bedroom, where I was on the phone, I could hear Chloe meowing pretty loudly and even Amy could hear it over the phone. Finally, Patrick walked out with a swaddled up Chloe and I eventually hung up with Amy. A little while later, he told me that Chloe had done something she had never done before while giving her a bath. She peed on him. I guess she wasn't too happy about getting in the water, or maybe she was just that excited.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

A Gift from Me to You



We only have three more small presents to buy, two of which Patrick is taking care of this afternoon. Patrick's goal was to be done with Christmas shopping in September, which was a little more lofty than my goal, which was to have them all bought by Thanksgiving. So, we didn't meet our goals this year, but we seriously did better than any year before. Thank goodness for Amazon and other websites that have free shipping and even better, no taxes!

Also, I have been loving all the wish lists out there, especially the thethingsiwant.com ones. I love being able to hit the "Reserve" button and go find the exact thing that person wants, it makes me happy!

I think this has also been the Christmas that I have been the most organized. Creating an automatically updated spreadsheet on Google to track gifts to purchase, ones already purchased and our spending budget has made things so much easier. I don't have to worry about using a jump drive or emailing myself the latest version and it's accessible on any computer that has an internet connection. I wish they had had this when I was doing spreadsheets for our wedding because then I could have even added viewers and collaborators, hmm... actually, maybe that's a good thing. What's the saying? Something about too many cooks in the kitchen...

For next Christmas, we're going to try to get a major jump on things and start right after the New Year. I hope no one minds getting a 2007 The 365 Puppies a Year Calendar and 1 year old Christmas candy - how long do m&m's last anyway?

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Wrapping Up for Christmas

In two weeks, Patrick and I will be heading to Houston for our annual Christmas Triangle Trek. We spend a few days before Christmas in Houston, celebrate with his family on Christmas Eve, then drive to Arlington early Christmas morning, celebrate with my family that day and spend a few days after Christmas in Arlington, then drive back to Austin. It can be exhausting, but I can't wait!

I can't believe that there are only two weeks left. I still have a number of things to order or buy and right now, everything else is piled up in our closet ready to be wrapped. Growing up, my mom was always the expert gift wrapper and bow maker. She always creates beautiful presentations for gifts, always topped with a handmade bow. She tried to teach me a number of times, saying "You can do it, it's so easy! All you do is..." But I usually just stole one of the gently used ones she had already made because I was too busy, lazy or preoccupied with something else to sit down and learn. It wasn't until I worked at The Container Store a couple of years ago that I finally learned how to make a decent bow (but nothing compared to those my mother makes) and some variations of it as well (the Aster bow is my favorite.)

Christmas seems to be the only time I sit down and wrap presents and actually look forward to it, every other time of year for birthdays, I'm just a bag and run type of girl.

Friday, December 01, 2006

TGIF

It is five minutes till five and I'm itching to get out. Mexican martinis are waiting.