I have sent out 131 Christmas Cards this year. Dear god. And I might send more. I'm still trying to track down a few addresses. If you didn't get a card from me and want one (everyone seems to enjoy mocking my "annual essay" so I can't deny anyone who wants in on that), just email me your address. If you don't have my email address you can email me at my gmail account. It's AuntieAmanda.
Now I need to get back to baking and cleaning for my party tomorrow night. A Christmas Dork's job is never done...
Friday, December 15, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Woo!
I got my first Christmas Cards today! I am beside myself with excitement! Oh how I love the Holidays.
Parental Visit
My folks were here this past weekend and we had a lovely time. With a combination of the drama of flying standby and high winds delays at Newark Airport it took them something like 13 hours or more to get here on Friday. Dad joked that he thought it might take less time for them to fly to New York from Hawai'i. Poor things. So, sadly we did not get to go out and walk the neighborhood looking at all the Christmas lights on the Brownstones. But maybe I can con Muffy into that at some point.
Saturday Dad ran errands and raked leaves while Mom and I did some Christmas shopping. Neither of them have any stamina when it comes to shopping. I have no idea where my ability to shop for hours and hours and hours without fatigue comes from. I look too much like both of 'em to suspect a different father. Oh well. After all the running around, Vader came over to wrap more gifts while Mom and I baked cookies and made fudge and listened to Holiday music. And Dad and Vader acted as testers and bowl lickers and such. That sounded dirty. It wasn't. And after all the holiday fun time, Mom forced Vader to try Thai food even though she doesn't like it. And we all watched Ghostbusters. SUCH a good movie.
Sunday we all hiked out to DUMBO to go to the Jacques Torres store for gifts and chocolate for ourselves. They have really good cocoa and bonbons. It was quite a long walk, but fun and good for us. After that we got ready for TARCON, met Vader and headed into Manhattan for the event. I had a good time. We were not FIRST in line like we were last time, but pretty close. Though I think we were the only ones in line NOT talking about the show. Heh. The drinks were super strong and the food not bad. Sheena's ex, Bob, showed up before the show started and we all had a good time watching the race. I think my favorite part is watching the show with 200-300 other people who love it too with all the ooohing and aaahing and cheering and booing. Though I'm a horrible person and enjoy being catty too. Making fun of people and such. Some former racers showed up as well as the top three from the current season and Mom got good pics of 'em all. And then we headed home. Sadly the F wasn't stopping at Vader's place so we hung out with her by the bus stop before going home and passing out ourselves.
Monday almost killed Dad. Mom was up and ready to go way before we were, but we headed out about 11:15 anyway. First we went to Grand Central Terminal (it's not a station) and hit the MTA store. They always have cute gifts and I like the model train display they have every Christmas. Then we caught the 12:30PM light show. It's a Kaleidoscope show this year. Very pretty. Some of the light show was stained glass and such, but a lot of it was New York themed with MTA trains and cards and tokens in the kaleidoscope style as well as things like the Terminal itself and the Chrysler Building. We got lots of pictures and I really loved it. Then Mom and I checked out the Holiday Fair there. She found one thing she really loved and is thinking she might keep it for herself rather than give it as a gift. And I can't blame her.
After that we headed to the Bryant Park Holiday Fair. I'd never been and I wanted to check out the ice skating rink they have there in the winters now. It was pretty cool. And there were some cute things at the market. This time we left Dad with some cider and his cigar while we wandered. After that it was off to the Union Square Holiday Market. That one is my favorite of the three. Mom found a few gifts there while Dad went to Forbidden Planet to browse around like the nerd he is.
Then we headed to S'mac and it was awesome. We split five small pans of the Brie, Gruyere, Goat Cheese, All-American and Mozzarellla. So good. So very, very good. I do love that place. We noticed on the website they have a Happy Hour on weekdays from 3-5 and figured that was the best time to go. More to avoid the crowds than to get the discount, though that was nice. It was pretty dead at 3 on a Monday, just as an FYI. So the owner came out to see if we were enjoying it and we got to chat with her for a bit. She seems lovely and the place seems to be doing well. Mom then decided she needed to get a photo of her behind the counter. A few minutes later she came back and took a picture of us and said we might be on the website as the fans of the week. Right now she said it's mostly ended up being the fan of the month, but... keep an eye out for us on the site. :)
After that Dad wanted to check out the tree at Rockefeller Center. He's never seen it in person. So we headed up that way. He felt the tree was a little scraggly. Heh. Mom and I wandered around taking pictures of the tree, the cool snowflakes lights falling down along the building, the snowflakes on Sak's... I even convinced them to do the staged photos in front of the tree that NBC was doing. Totally goofy, but totally fun. I think I might even order some. Family portraits! We also did a little shopping up there as well. But finally we were exhausted and couldn't walk anymore so we came home to flop down for TV and a light dinner.
They left yesterday at noon after a morning of breakfast and hanging out. I was sad to see them go, but I'll be with 'em in North Carolina in a week, so it wasn't much of a tearful parting. And it too them much less time to get home than it did to get here.
Saturday Dad ran errands and raked leaves while Mom and I did some Christmas shopping. Neither of them have any stamina when it comes to shopping. I have no idea where my ability to shop for hours and hours and hours without fatigue comes from. I look too much like both of 'em to suspect a different father. Oh well. After all the running around, Vader came over to wrap more gifts while Mom and I baked cookies and made fudge and listened to Holiday music. And Dad and Vader acted as testers and bowl lickers and such. That sounded dirty. It wasn't. And after all the holiday fun time, Mom forced Vader to try Thai food even though she doesn't like it. And we all watched Ghostbusters. SUCH a good movie.
Sunday we all hiked out to DUMBO to go to the Jacques Torres store for gifts and chocolate for ourselves. They have really good cocoa and bonbons. It was quite a long walk, but fun and good for us. After that we got ready for TARCON, met Vader and headed into Manhattan for the event. I had a good time. We were not FIRST in line like we were last time, but pretty close. Though I think we were the only ones in line NOT talking about the show. Heh. The drinks were super strong and the food not bad. Sheena's ex, Bob, showed up before the show started and we all had a good time watching the race. I think my favorite part is watching the show with 200-300 other people who love it too with all the ooohing and aaahing and cheering and booing. Though I'm a horrible person and enjoy being catty too. Making fun of people and such. Some former racers showed up as well as the top three from the current season and Mom got good pics of 'em all. And then we headed home. Sadly the F wasn't stopping at Vader's place so we hung out with her by the bus stop before going home and passing out ourselves.
Monday almost killed Dad. Mom was up and ready to go way before we were, but we headed out about 11:15 anyway. First we went to Grand Central Terminal (it's not a station) and hit the MTA store. They always have cute gifts and I like the model train display they have every Christmas. Then we caught the 12:30PM light show. It's a Kaleidoscope show this year. Very pretty. Some of the light show was stained glass and such, but a lot of it was New York themed with MTA trains and cards and tokens in the kaleidoscope style as well as things like the Terminal itself and the Chrysler Building. We got lots of pictures and I really loved it. Then Mom and I checked out the Holiday Fair there. She found one thing she really loved and is thinking she might keep it for herself rather than give it as a gift. And I can't blame her.
After that we headed to the Bryant Park Holiday Fair. I'd never been and I wanted to check out the ice skating rink they have there in the winters now. It was pretty cool. And there were some cute things at the market. This time we left Dad with some cider and his cigar while we wandered. After that it was off to the Union Square Holiday Market. That one is my favorite of the three. Mom found a few gifts there while Dad went to Forbidden Planet to browse around like the nerd he is.
Then we headed to S'mac and it was awesome. We split five small pans of the Brie, Gruyere, Goat Cheese, All-American and Mozzarellla. So good. So very, very good. I do love that place. We noticed on the website they have a Happy Hour on weekdays from 3-5 and figured that was the best time to go. More to avoid the crowds than to get the discount, though that was nice. It was pretty dead at 3 on a Monday, just as an FYI. So the owner came out to see if we were enjoying it and we got to chat with her for a bit. She seems lovely and the place seems to be doing well. Mom then decided she needed to get a photo of her behind the counter. A few minutes later she came back and took a picture of us and said we might be on the website as the fans of the week. Right now she said it's mostly ended up being the fan of the month, but... keep an eye out for us on the site. :)
After that Dad wanted to check out the tree at Rockefeller Center. He's never seen it in person. So we headed up that way. He felt the tree was a little scraggly. Heh. Mom and I wandered around taking pictures of the tree, the cool snowflakes lights falling down along the building, the snowflakes on Sak's... I even convinced them to do the staged photos in front of the tree that NBC was doing. Totally goofy, but totally fun. I think I might even order some. Family portraits! We also did a little shopping up there as well. But finally we were exhausted and couldn't walk anymore so we came home to flop down for TV and a light dinner.
They left yesterday at noon after a morning of breakfast and hanging out. I was sad to see them go, but I'll be with 'em in North Carolina in a week, so it wasn't much of a tearful parting. And it too them much less time to get home than it did to get here.
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