skip to main |
skip to sidebar
My sister-in-law, Stacy, emailed this to me awhile ago. Things got busy (imagine that!) and I haven't yet responded to her, so I decided to do so on my blog so anyone could see!
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper! I'm slow at it because I try to get as close to perfect as possible!
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial eventually. We will get a new tree when we have a new house to put it in! Wes requires artificial because of allergies.
3. When do you put up the tree? After Thanksgiving so it is up as long as possible!
4. When do you take the tree down? This is the worst chore! It is so deflating! Not until after New Year's!
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes! But not spiked! I like the nutmeg taste.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? A pair of James Avery earrings that I must have worn every day for at least a year.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My husband! He gave me no ideas! And all the ideas I had for him were clothes, which he wouldn't like.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Most any of the girls on my list - Mom, Kathy, Stacy
9. Do You have a nativity scene? Yes, two, but only one is up this year.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I'm not good at that yet!
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't remember
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Miracle on 34th Street, the remake from the 1990's
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Summer time
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes for gift exchanges
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cookies
16. Lights on the tree? Yes
17. Favorite Christmas song? I have lots that I like: Carol of the Bells, O Holy Night, Do You Hear What I Hear?
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Traveling
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen and Rudolph, the most famous reindeer of all!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Bow or star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Whenever I'm with family, so it will be lots of times!
22. Most thing annoying about this time of the year? Not sure
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Dark red and shades of green
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Turkey and dressing or prime rib and mashed potatoes
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? To live in the moment with family and friends, ever thankful for the many blessings in my life and those I'm sure the Lord will send this coming year!
Today I didn't have to go to work exactly. I went to two library meetings with a nice lunch in between. The first meeting was to discuss the deadline for spending the construction funds to buy books for my library at school. The deadline has been moved up two years to June 30, 2009. This means I have a very large and daunting task ahead of me! I have to spend about $140k by then. I have about $98k to go!
It may sound easy to some. I mean I'm a librarian! Shouldn't I be able to just buy books? (It should be like being a kid in a candy store! Right?) Yes, but it is buying the right ones! It takes time and sometimes there just aren't good ones out there on some topics. Every year there are thousands of books published. But think of it in terms of layers. The top layer is the best books and is very thin, with only a couple hundred. Then there is the second layer, which are really good. There are a few more books in this layer. The third layer is books that are pretty good. But I don't want to have to go any farther down than the third layer. I also have to narrow it down to what is good for my middle school library. I can do that for the past few years, but I don't want to have to buy old books. Anything earlier than 2003 in non-fiction wouldn't be good. They would be six years old by the end of this school year.
But back to today! We went out to a neat place I'd never heard of before called Bonnie Ruth's Cafe. It is such an unusual name, I've had trouble remembering it all day! Lunch was good and then we went to a place called The Cupcakery!
http://www.thecupcakery.com/
Click on the "Our Favorites" link to see the cupcakes! Very cute! Some even had edible glitter on them! I had a mini-Southern Belle. It was red velvet cake, which I don't think I've ever had before! Very yummy and just the right little amount!
The second meeting of the day was 17 librarians meeting at a book store! We had a field trip! Very fun! And yes, we were productive too! It is an independent bookstore, not a big chain. I think it is very interesting to see stores that actually want to go head to head with Barnes and Noble and Borders.
http://www.legacybooksonline.com/
This is a photo from my trip to the Texas Book Festival, my first! First Lady, Laura Bush began the festival many years ago when she was the First Lady of Texas. It is a long weekend of talks by authors, book signings, and book buying of course! There is stuff for adults with any interest and kids too. They even have a cooking demonstration tent where you can see authors of new cook books cook!
The festival is held on the grounds of the Texas State Capital in Austin, Texas. It is a beautiful setting, with lots of green grass, tall trees and long walkways. Some sessions are held in the capital, with those most likely to draw large crowds held in the House and Senate chambers where the law makers do their work. Here is a picture of the capital rotunda. It was a beautiful day!
The picture below is with the author I went to see, Heather Fredrick Vogel. She wrote a neat book I read last summer called The Mother-Daughter Book Club. I enjoyed the story and hope to someday be able to share it with a daughter. So I bought my own personal copy to have autographed and surprised myself by having a fellow fan take my picture with the author. Her newest book is Much Ado about Anne, which I bought too because my name is in the title and I can't wait to read it!
This weekend I went to visit my parents in Wimberley, Tx. Mom and I went to Market Days, held on the first Saturday of the month. It is a fun collection of new stuff, homemade stuff, food and junk as Dad likes to call it! (Some of it is! He's right!) Some booths look like a garage sale inside. You can find old square CorningWare dishes with the blue cornflowers on them and one book has old hard back suitcases with old mis-matched silverware.
The pictures below are of one of the booths I always like to go see! They have neat signs with both funny and heartfelt sayings. Some are perfect for a nursery or little kid's room and some would be great for a porch or just the 'perfect' place if you had one in your home. I like the sign on the bottom in the first picture and the one on top in the second picture.
These two pictures are just typical of some of what you can see at Market Days. I used to go often, but I think this was only the second time I've been able to go this year!
I've had writer's block for a few days, thinking I didn't have much to say that other's might want to read. And maybe I don't. I guess this is for myself as much as those who want to read it. For those others, it is a chance to see what catches my eye, amuses me, bothers me, or makes me happy.
Today I stopped into Pier 1. I had been a few weeks ago and asked when their Christmas things would be out. I was a day early then, so today there was lots of stuff out! I am really looking forward to Christmas this year! I'm not sure exactly why. Anyway, I looked through all of the ornaments and decorations. It made me happy just to see everything all sparkly and shiny! Wes thought I would be torturing myself, but I liked it even though I didn't get anything. Sometimes just looking is fun and makes me feel happy. When it comes to Christmas things, I think it is just the anticipation of the holidays and seeing all of my family! (I have lots more now that I have Wes!)
The other night, Wes and I were at Starbucks. We go every so often to have a little drink and just sit and talk. Amazing as it seems, it is easier to focus and relax there. (Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they don't have a TV!) Anyway, we were sitting on their comfy new couch and I was looking across the room at the bulletin board. I saw a poster with Undy 5000 written across the top. Being the wife of a car guy, I knew it had to be a play on the Indy 500, so I went over and read it. The Undy 5000 is a walk/run to raise money for colon cancer. They give away boxer shorts instead of the 'boring' old t-shirt, thus the name.
Here is the link to their site so you know I'm not making it up!http://support.ccalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=undy_landing
I was amused by someones creative play on words and neat give away! So I thought I'd share!
