Santa Visits Cameron's Place

Cameron is somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico on a service ship.  I was told I cannot tell you the name of the ship...so let's just call it Big Ship.  She is on a rotation schedule as a new hire with her job and this rotation is on Big Ship.  She has limited internet and cell service so while in port the other night she called home.  It was comforting to hear the excitement in her voice as she told us all that she was doing and learning and experiencing.  She was even excited about spending Christmas on Big Ship...and said there were trees, lights and poinsettas around the ship.

For Christmas, she wanted drapes for her apartment.  Not so much for decor purposes but for darkening purposes.  Her huge windows face the Target parking lot and after 6 months of living there, she is tired of trying to get a good night's sleep in a well lit room. 

So before she left to get on Big Ship, she left us her keys and told us it would be great if Santa hung the drapes.....in fact, it was okay with her if Santa cleaned, vacuumed and even rearranged.  "Have at it." she said.  "But take before and after pictures."


Before:

Well...almost "before"...we had moved some furniture and unloaded our stuff so it's a little messier than we found it.  See Target? 

After:

Your bedroom should be plenty dark now. 

Merry Christmas, Cameron!  We "had at it!"  Vacuumed, dusted, windexed, ran the dishwasher, hung the drapes, rearranged the furniture...unloaded the dishes, loaded up the ladder, vaccum cleaner and toolbox and headed back to the parking garage.

We found this on the windshield...

Lucky for us, it hadn't been 30 minutes yet and our car was still there.  We had parked right by the elevator because we had a lot of stuff to unload.  We had no idea it was assigned parking.  But thanks to Miss Meanie's note, now we know. 

We thought Miss Meanie should have at least written down the time she wrote the note...since she had only given us 30 more minutes before she would have us towed away.

I say "Miss" because Chuck said only a girl wouldn't put the time down.  (Which makes no sense.)

Will said he thought it was a girl because of the handwriting. (I agree.)

We all agreed the girl had PMS.

And we got out of there fast!!!

In a Flash

Christmas has come and gone.  It was a good one.  We only had one child at home so Santa left clues for a scavenger hunt so the whole opening presents thing would last a little longer.  After a huge breakfast and a nap, my sister and her family came over for some more food, exchanging of gifts and a game of Apples to Apples.  After they left, we ended the day around the firepit.  It was lazy and comfortable...just the way I like it.

Chuck finished the annual jigsaw puzzle on Saturday.

This sweet angel was given to me by my friend, Fran...she will stay out all year.

My sister gave me this bottle of wine for my birthday. 

 Santa Julia. 

Catha is the best gift giver.

The camelia is in full bloom....must be Christmas.

Did I mention we are rat sitting?  These are Cameron's two rats

 and we are keeping them while she's away.

 I have to admit they are pretty darn cute...but the smell is horrible. 

This played all day long. 

Chuck laughs like it's the first time he's seen it.

9:20 am...waiting for the baby to wake up

 and open his presents. 

Jordan and Chris on Skype...

watching us open our presents. 

A new pillow for Will's apartment. 

So true.  Whatever you are, be a good one.

Since Cameron is out of town, we pulled in a look-alike.  ha. 

This is Mark's friend/co-actor in the play 

he is currently performing in.  She's from out of town

so she hung out with my sister's family on Christmas day. 

It was all fun and games until someone started digging

for grub worms in the mud. 

 So the party was over.

  A dog had to be bathed. 

The Art of Gift Wrapping

After all the gifts are found and purchased, there is a great relief.  Quickly followed by the overwhelming chore of wrapping them.  For someone as artsy and crafty as me, you would think this would be way fun.  But honestly, it's not.  I buy the cutest paper and ribbon and have all the supplies at hand.  I put on my comfortable house shoes and stand at my kitchen island.  The music is playing and there's a warm cup of coffee nearby.

In my dreams...

 www.weheartit.com

My reality...

The place ends up a wreck after one package....the scissors get lost every 5 seconds....the tape runs out...I can't for the life of me get the thought out of my head that all that cute ribbon will be going straight to the trashbag on Christmas morning so why bother...the music playing is suddenly The

Chipmunks...throwing me in a bad mood...the coffee is cold and I break out in a sweat.  I start wrapping things with a vengence and use rolls of tape where I tear the paper around sharp corners.  Throw a sticker in the middle over the ink where I tried to do a "Martha Stewart" stamp but of course, the ink smeared. 

Done. 

The packages are wrapped.

Pretend they are pretty.

Know they are not.