Presents Day 2012 - Done!

Another Christmas, aka Presents Day, behind us. It was a fairly nice one, aside from the amount of time I spent looking at excel documents for work. It's hard to have deadlines during the holidays, but such is life...

 

We had a mini Xmas at home with my foster girl, a big one at my sisters and then a small one at home with just Andrew and I. Then an extra one at his cousins house, where I completely forgot to take any pictures, but that doesn't indicate that it was any less special.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crafts, Crafts and More Crafts

This weekend was a planned craft weekend with my girls.

I had my regular foster girl visit - she's five and she LOVES crafts.

And my friend Alison is crafty - she and I have been talking about getting together to do crafts for ages.

And then there's my friend Jennifer and her daughter, Adrienne. Jennifer was born with no craft gene whatsoever...her daughter isn't as challenged thankfully.

Thanks to my decade of hosting volunteer events, I have more craft supplies than the average elementary school. You need googly eyes- check. Pipe cleaners- of course. Any particular color of paper and any thickness- yep. Mini clothespins? Cotton balls? Sculpting clay? Ink pads in various colors? Holiday stickers? Handmade paper from India? Polka-dotted tissue paper? Sequins? YES - I have anything you could possibly need.

Here's some scenes from our crafty McCraft-a-Lot day:


Busy bees!

Laughing while crafting is a must!

Hard at work!

Finished clay projects!

A child did NOT make this. It's rastafarian Elmo....

Who Are Your Friends and Family?

I have a grandfathered plan on my carrier which allows me to have 10 friends and family numbers added. With those 10 numbers, I can have ten numbers that Andrew or I can call and have them not count towards our minutes.

However, minutes to Verizon customers also don't count against our minutes. And most of the people we seem to know are on Verizon.

And we rarely ever talk on the phone anyway. We text them. Or facebook message them. Or email them. Or just see them in real life.

Which means we have very little need for this special friends and family plan. I'm not saying I don't want it. Just noting that we don't have a huge need.
I struggle to come up with ten names to even include on the list. I hope this doesn't provide an indicator of who my friends are....

The Love/Hate Relationship About Hotels....

I love picking out my breakfast the night before and having a nice young man bring it to me just after I've woken up.
But I hate waking up so early to eat breakfast before I begin a 12-14 hour day.

I love being upgraded to the executive level because the room you originally were given had an old-man-b.o. smell about it.
But I hate that the executive level in this particular hotel is only different in that they have a robe in the closet. (a robe I would never consider wearing)

I love not having to worry about anything. They'll do your laundry, they'll clean your room, they'll bring you fresh towels.
But I hate that I have to hear people next door at random times when I'm used to living alone and hearing no noises in the night.

I love having tv with cable-there's so many channels!
But I hate having to watch commercials.

I love having dinner downstairs and just signing my name and not having to worry about more receipts to expense.
But I hate the limited options in the hotel restaurant.

I LOVE staying in hotels!
But I hate being away from home.