You expected a lot of blogging?

My boyfriend is here, I didn't exactly plan on doing a whole lot of blogging :) Actually, right now he is dutifully looking after a closet shelf for me.

So, let's see. What's been going on. Leading up to xmas was pretty damn busy. The day John got here, we spent that evening relaxing and glad to see each other again. We rented 40 Year Old Virgin, and after all the build-up from friends, etc., it was kind of a let-down. I laughed, but it wasn't as funny as others had led me to believe. The rest of the week was filled with me working, John working away at his to-do list, and family obligations. Friday was the group xmas party, which people seemed to enjoy. I was pretty busy hosting that but also had time to open some presents. A big thank you to those I exchanged gifts with. Thanks for thinking of me!

Saturday was Christmas Eve and also good snowman snow, so John was able to make his first snowman. As he mentioned on his blog, playing in the snow *is* tiring. We headed to church for 4pm, which was comfortably full but everyone had a seat. I later heard of other masses that were more crowded than standing room only. After church we headed home for a minute, I wrapped the last of the gifts and packed up the presents for my uncle, cousin and grandfather, and then headed out to the valley to my uncle's house. Supposedly the annual xmas eve gathering was being hosted by my mom and uncle at my uncle's house, but my mom was nowhere to be seen. Another uncle said she had called and said she'd gotten "lost" (which is apropos for my mother) but as the night wore on and she was still "lost" it was obvious that she wasn't going to show.

On Christmas Day John and I got up and opened presents from each other before my brother came over. John got me a variety of gifts :) In my sock were some very Liz-useful items. My other presents were the Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection (watched 2 movies from it already, so happy to have gotten that), the Duran Duran live DVD, another cd and DVD. In what has turned out to be the funny thing about xmas this year, I received 3 copies of U2's Vertigo tour DVD. People seem to know what I like, I'll say that :)

My gifts from my Dad included a very special gift. It is a bear made out of my grandmother's first mink coat. My grandfather had it sitting downstairs in his cedar closet, and a relative of mine knew someone who made bears out of them. So my grandfather donated the coat to the cause, and Dad sent it away to be made. What a great present and keepsake.

[John is yelling from the other room that he'd better have a good write-up on this blog. I told you you rock. I meant it. Now get back to work on that shelf :P ]

My other big present from Dad was an XM Satellite Radio. With the 80s station. I've had it on quite a bit, and as soon as a song comes on I name it. So I've been walking around the house just saying the names of 80s songs. I also got Name That Tune 80s Edition, which is a DVD game, so it's been a very 80s Christmas for me. Now I just need Jay to come over and play the game with me :)

I received some other presents as well, but those are the highlights. The best present is having John here for 2 weeks. Thankfully only 1/2 through.

Boxing Day was spent in the laziest fashion possible. After driving my brother to the airport, I came home and we watched 3 movies. We watched Must Love Dogs (cute movie, we both like John Cusack), Being Julia (Annette Bening was great, the rest of the movie was meh), and Marnie from my new Hitchcock set. Then it was time for Monday Night Football, which on this coast starts at 10pm as opposed to John's usual time of 6pm. We were too tired to make it through to the end of the game, but by the time we turned off the TV it was pretty assuredly a New England win.

On the XM 80s station, they play 80s movie trailers. They just played one for Dirty Dancing. I love this radio!

Yesterday was a fairly lazy day as well. We hung around the house until mid-afternoon and then headed over to the Risk-a-thon. We stayed for a few hours and played a round of Kill Dr. Lucky, which is always fun. Need to try my Devil Bunny Needs A Ham game soon. Any game with ham in it can't be all bad, right? :)

Today I've been working from home, dealing with a few issues but not too bad. The biggest annoyance is that my VPN connection keeps dropping and no one can figure out why that is. Argh.

Tonight we are headed to Vito's and then a Seadogs game with T-L and Van. John's first exposure to live hockey. Should be interesting. Tomorrow night we have to stop by a retirement party for someone I work with, then off to Suwanna for dinner. Sometime this week we want to get out to see The Producers. Then Saturday night is New Year's Eve... already. The Holiday Season always flies by so quickly.