Monday, December 7, 2009

And the fun continues....

Happy Monday everyone!!

There are 18 shopping days left until Christmas, and I've bought one gift. YAY!!!

Yikes.

Actually, I'm not at all worried. I'm totally one of those people who will go out with a well-organized plan and get everything done in a day or two. No biggie. :-)

We had a VERY busy weekend, and unfortunately never made it to TWO different 'events' that we were hoping to attend. Darn it.

That being said, we had a fun weekend.

Friday night while Jim was getting his hair cut, I headed off to our church craft fair. It was exactly what I expected (lots of tables set up, filled with all sorts of crafts, baked goods, raffle items, etc.) and was full of all sorts of excited folks in the holiday spirit. It was quite nice. There wasn't anything there that I was particularly interested in buying, so I just bought a few raffle tickets and a cookie - and was on my way! I met up with Jim and Charles (Charles was cutting Jim's hair at his salon) and then we headed out to dinner, followed by 'Bear Night' at the local (and only) gay bar. that's right - from the church fair to 'Bear Night'!!

Dinner was very good, but when we arrived at the bar, we found out that it wasn't 'Bear Night' as scheduled but 'Tata Night'. Apparently there was a change that no one told us about!!

Ummm - really?!?!?

Instead of bears, we got boobs. Talk about a disappointment. (no offense to my female readers, of course.)

As it turns out, we had a really good time anyway. Charles knew a few guys there so he introduced them to us and we all hung out together, so it ended up being fun.

Saturday morning we got up, showered and immediately headed up to NH to meet with my friends Kerry and Guy. We met at their house and then were joined by our friends Leah and John. From NH we then drove (actually, John drove) to Deerfield, MA to go shopping at the Yankee Candle flagship store. We've been going for a number of years now, and we ALWAYS have so much fun. Jim and I don't usually buy a ton of candles - every year we buy one 'Medium Jar, Christmas Wreath scent' and then a few votives and some tarts. We tend to buy lots of ornaments and some fun and festive holiday/winter decorations for around the house. This year we behaved and didn't spend a ton of money. We all had coupons for 30% off our entire purchase which was HUGE. Jim and I saved about $65!!! We have lunch at the restaurant there every year (part of the tradition) as well - if you're ever there and are hungry, I HIGHLY suggest the clam chowder. We all get a bowl of it...that's right...a bowl...don't judge...and it's amazing. So good.
This year while we were shopping, it was snowing like crazy, so by the time we packed up and left there was an inch or two of snow on the ground. It was very pretty - but it made the ride home a bit longer than we'd planned.

This is what the car looked like when we left:







(Jim and I haven't loaded our pictures onto the computer yet, so I don't have ours, but Kerry sent me that one.)

We got to Kerry and Guy's house and as we do every year, we showed Kerry's mom and dad all the fun and fantastic things we got. It's one of my favorite parts because Kerry's mom gets SO excited about everything, and we get to see what each of us bought. Things get a little hectic at the store, so you don't always catch what the other couples are doing...so it's nice to 're-cap' the shopping trip at the end of the day.

Here are a couple of things we got....one is a votive holder (gingerbread people) and the other is a tea light holder (snowmen)

Both are CUTE!!!











After all that, Jim and I hit the road for our trek from NH to MA.

We ended up getting home at about 11:30 and went RIGHT to bed. For those of you who are concerned about Scooter, we had our nieces and nephews come over during the day to feed him and play with him while we were gone. :-)

Sunday morning we got up, Jim made a YUMMY breakfast and then we did this:













It was N-I-C-E. Not only was it nice to sit and relax in the hot tub, but it was great to sit in there and look around at the pretty, snow-covered back yard.

That is when having a hot tub is the best. And no - you don't freeze. Yes, it's chilly getting into it, but by the time you get out, you're all warmed up and it's not bad at all getting dried off and into your robe. Fun.

After the hot tub, we each showered and went off to church. We've decided that we're going to 'officially' join the church, so we talked to the Pastor after the service. We're going to set up a meeting with her within the next week or so, just to talk to her for a bit and get to know her a little better. It's kind of exciting. They seem like a really fun group of people and I've really enjoyed going to the services there. Don't worry, I'm not going to go all religious on y'all - it's still the same old me writing this - but now it's a 'church goin' me. :-)

After church we went grocery shopping, had some lunch and then began the Christmas decorating process. Jim was outside stringing lights on the house (white icicle lights on the gutters), while I began unpacking the village. Jim needed to head out to the store and buy more lights since we had several strings of lights 'die' on us at the end of last year. While he was at the store, I continued unpacking.

After several hours and another trip to the store, Jim had all the lights done around the gutters and it looked GREAT. At that point, I'd unpacked all the village so we decided to 'call it a night'.

In the middle of all the unpacking and light hanging, we took advantage of having our brother-in-law's pick up truck and went to buy our tree. We usually go to Home Depot because they always have great trees - BUT when we got there, they said they were closing early because it was the employee Christmas party that night. Have you ever heard of anything so STUPID??? In the time that Jim and I were there, trying to figure out what the hell was going on, we saw at least four or five people turned away from the store. Needless to say, we ended up going to Lowe's (their major competition) getting an AMAZING tree and spending a lot less.

In case you were wondering, I do plan on sending an email to the Home Depot Corporate Headquarters letting them know all about the great deal I got at Lowe's and all the business they lost last night. I don't know whether or not they really care - but I'm telling them!!

Once everything is up and decorated, I'll post pictures of the house, the village, etc..etc... don't you worry!

Have a GREAT day everyone!!!

P.S. - Jim just sent me this picture and I kind of like it, so here it is. :-)






3 comments:

cb said...

Woof on the jacuzzi pics! And I have also not done a lick of shopping!

Ur-spo said...

lovely photos all

yucko! I haven't started any shopping.

RG said...

I want that jacuzzi. Gimme, gimme, gimme....

What is this Christmas shopping you speak of?