Christmas has Come!

Hello! I know everyone is anxious to know what I got for Christmas this year. I thought I'd go in the order I received it (to the best of my memory since Mom is shipping me the stuff she gave me and it's been a while since I opened hers). So without further ado:

1. The America’s Test Kitchen Book.

2. The most current season of America’s Test Kitchen on DVD.

3. Magazine subscription to Real Simple

4. Smithsonian Membership

5. A lovely journal and a book mark and some beautiful pens

6. Boots

7. A new digital camera, the Canon PowerShot SD30 in a beautiful Rock Star Red

8. A new cell phone because I HATED MY RAZR. I love my new Samsung t619.

9. A new white down jacket.

10. The new Product Red iPod Nano

11. New Coach sneakers (brown and gold)

12. Beautiful Veuve Cliequot Champagne set in a beautiful cooler case with flutes.

13. Dual Membership to the American Natural History Museum

I gave Bruce the book that Dallas helped me make and he got really emotional about it. It was the perfect gift and I’m glad I could pull it off for him. I will actually be spending the holiday alone in my house with the boys, so it should be interesting. We have our first real Christmas tree this year and so far the boys haven’t tried anything more annoying than trying to drinks the tree’s water out of the stand. Also, Pyam sent me the first Christmas card sent to Bruce and I, so (if you are reading this) thank you for that. It was really uplifting and Bruce has decided he likes you even though he hasn't met you yet. I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday!

(I was trying to put pictures and links to all this stuff, but I haven't quite mastered that skill yet, I'm still learning how this works.)

Long Time in Coming

Hello again from the craziness that is my life. The last few weeks have been crazy and strange and most of it in a not so great way. In my last post, I mentioned that my Grandmother had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in her jaw. My Grandmother - Marie Hieser - died on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. My mother went up to IL to help her siblings make arrangements and do whatever it is people do when someone dies. I tried to get to IL for the funeral and ended up stuck in Detroit. Bruce managed to get to me in Detroit so I was at least not stuck alone, but it sucked a lot (I HATE DETROIT AND NORTHWEST AIRLINES) and I felt like I let my mom down. Somewhere around the second or third weeks of December (whatever two weeks ago was), Mom had surgery in Houston. It was going to be exploratory surgery but ended up being a hysterectomy. She was in the hospital for a couple of days and couldn't drive for a week. She came through it fantastically, however it was a little difficult for me. Times like this, I wish I had a sibling or two running around to help take care of some of this stuff. I did, however, get to reconnect with Pyam while I was home and that was fantastic. I was with Mom until she got out of the hospital and then I went to Atlanta where my dad met my boyfriend for the first time. I also got to go to the GA Aquarium (which was AWESOME!) where I got to touch a little shark.

I was really worried about my dad meeting Bruce for the first time. Bruce had no idea what Atlanta traffic was like, so he was actually like an hour late (of all the times to be late, right?!?) but in the end I think it worked out fairly well. My dad went from being adamantly against the whole thing to just wanting me to be happy and not get hurt. I especially loved the part where I was sent away for an hour like a child so they could have a man-to-man talk. I'm glad they seem to have come to some sort of understanding, but I'm really worried about my dad.

Come to think of it, I'm actually very worried about both of my parents. With mom's friend Tom moving to Africa, she doesn't have much of a close support group left and I worry about her. Daddy wants to be happy and doesn't know what it would take to be happy. They are so much more alike than they think they are. In case anyone wonders where I get that whole philosophy of "if you let people get close to you, they can hurt you" - it came from both of my parents.

The best things that happened since my last post if that the show opened and closed, I finally got to spend some time with my boyfriend in daylight, I got to see both of my parents and already got all my Christmas presents, and at my office people seem to have been handing out bottles of champagne like water. More on the Christmas presents to come in a few moments in a separate post.