12.26.010

hello! i know i was undecided as to whether or not this blog was actually going to happen today, but apparently we're getting some big blizzard tomorrow, so assuming this actually happens, i will have ALL DAY to bake cookies and make peppermint patties and prepare for wednesday, and it felt wrong to abandon the blog for so long. i had a very weird, nice christmas. lack of complete participation from one of my brothers made it weird, but all other aspects were nice. christmas eve, my parents came over and we (parentals, sister, and myself) had chinese food (i ate a ton of garlic vegetables. SO GOOD) and exchanged gifts. my sister gave me a stylophone, on which i immediately played a terrible rendition of particle man, and an otamatone.



mine is black and looks less spermish. i gave her a bunch of crystal clusters, because she is into that sort of thing. my parents gave me two new penguin mugs to replace the one that fell down the stairs and broke a few weeks ago, and some cash. i gave them gift cards for ebay. (on christmas day, my other brother gave me a gift card to bull moose [which is always awesome, but doubly so now that they sell books too], and i gave him a gift certificate to ming's.) they left around 8:30. i watched it's a wonderful life for the first time ever, cried a whole lot, and had trouble falling asleep. i am embarrassing/silly.

yesterday, my parents and other brother came and picked us up around one, and we went to visit my grandmother in the assisted living center. it was a nice visit. as she gets older, i think she gets more funny. example: there is a christmas tree in the common room outside of her room. one of the other residents was putting tinsel on the tree in a fashion that upset my grandmother, so she took all the tinsel off the tree and hid it and now cannot recall where she put it. AMAZING. also, at one point, she said to my sister "you look younger!" and she turns to me and puts her hand on my arm and says "and you! you look beautiful! really beautiful!" it was very sweet.

after the trip up to bangor, i watched elf and scrooged and a christmas story and mostly figured out what i'll be making for wednesday. i made a rather inebriated and long list of things i will need, without really making clarifications on said list as to what i'll need for what.

today i went down to my parents' house to pick up the cookie tins for cookie storage purposes. we went on a drive to rockland where we saw some ducks and christmas lights and picked out houses we'd like to live in and discussed the hairstyles of male home improvement show hosts. i left immediately after we got back in order to go shopping for supplies for tomorrow.

i hate shopping with a list. because i don't write shopping lists in any sort of order that makes sense. for example: at one point on today's list i had listed

clementines
q tips
basil
hand soap
chickpeas

in that order. not even taking into consideration the layout of the store. i only purchased about half of what i needed, and still ended up spending $120. whoops. the problem is that spices and baking supplies are so freakin' expensive. a tiny little thing of ground cloves cost $8.99. THAT'S ABSURD. IT IS ABSURD AND STUPID. frustrating. i'll try to make my list for tuesday/wednesday morning better, because i kept going back to the baking aisle. over and over and over. it was at least five times. and i still forgot to get brown sugar (i think i have enough for what i need to do, but i'll be out after this). i also forgot to get another thing of tofu and also lemon juice for a dip i wanted to make in advance to taste and see if it's actually any good. i get nervous when i'm making things i've never made before for people. because what if it comes out awful! the cookies i am not concerned about, as there is only one new recipe that is being thrown into the mix, but most of the savory things that aren't crackers or chips or what not are things i have never made before. i get worried for funny reasons. and there's really nothing to worry about anyway, as i have enough things planned that aren't things i have to make, so if something goes terribly awry, it's not a big deal.

ANYWAY, I AM SO EXCITED. i am going to get so little sleep this week, it's going to be silly. i know i am going to have trouble sleeping tonight because of the blizzard. it has already started snowing and i love watching snow fall at night. tomorrow night i'll probably sleep alright, but tuesday night i doubt i'll get much sleep at all. eeeeh! i'm so excited to see julian and friends again. although i do have this terrible, rational fear that this blizzard will stall over new england and they'll be unable to make it up and then i will be so sad. hopefully the blizzard will stay on it's projected path and be out of here tomorrow night. also, it's so silly that wednesday night will be the first live music i've heard since last november. two days before the year ends. haha. i'm curious as to whether or not any area music tapes fans will come. i hope so. it'd be nice to meet some new people.

okay. all this being said, i will not be writing on wednesday, but i will be writing at some point before the end of the year. still not certain what 2011 will bring for this blog. really gotta figure out what i want to do with 2011 in the first place (outside of following around the holiday surprise tour for a month and a half, which will probably not happen). OKAY. i may be posting things re: wednesday night on my tumblr throughout the week, so you could check things out there, but know that if you do, you'll mostly see pictures of adorable animals. okay.

okay.

okay.



OKAY!