'Tis the season

That's right, it's two weeks before Thanksgiving, and I have already started my Christmas shopping. Don't look at me like that.

I'm not crazy; I just love the holidays enough that I try to avoid getting completely stressed out during the mad shopping rush. I don't mind braving the crowds once or twice; as a matter of fact, I enjoy the bustle, the caroling, the decorations, and the cheer of it all. I love to buy presents for the ones I love!

Trouble is, every year I get a mall job for Christmas, which means that once Thanksgiving is gone, my spare time is gone with it. I won't have the time to wander around on the Internet, hoping to find the perfect gift in time to have it shipped.

I know, I'm a wuss. Or a deranged, expatriate northpolian elf.

I started my mall job on Saturday, which is part of the reason I started the shopping. One day behind the register at Natural Wonders, and I remember just what it's like there on December 23. Many of the shelves will literally be stripped bare; the store doesn't have enough storage space in the back room to stock as much stuff as people will want to buy. Already I spent 5 hours listening to A Celtic Christmas, and Louis Armstrong and Friends Christmas Album on random repeat. Santa Claus will make his arrival next weekend.

Ho ho ho!

My family never starts getting ready for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. With the exception of gift-buying, I tend to adhere to that rule, myself. I don't start playing the Christmas CDs until advent has officially begun. That seems reasonable, doesn't it? We usually put up our tree and decorate our house the weekend after Thanksgiving, whenever we should chance to be at home together. It's a weekend full of cocoa, laughter, and pine needles, and I look forward to it almost as much as I do the holidays themselves.

Anyway, I find that it's difficult to keep my gifts a secret for so long! I almost blurted one of my gifts to Forest yesterday, just because I usually tell him *everything*.

"Hey, hon, I found the perfect..."

I stopped myself.

He started to laugh.

I reevaluated, and said, "You're not allowed to open any packages that come UPS for the next two months, okay?"

He nodded, "You, too."

Kirstin seems to have enjoyed her first slumber party very much. She managed to stay awake until past 12:30, which is a miracle for her, but paled against the efforts of her fellow party-attenders. On Sunday she ended up going to bed at barely 8 AM, though, and sleeping all the way through until I woke her for school. She's just not used to getting that little sleep!

I'm happy to say that I practiced my silly physical therapy stuff all week last week, and wonder of wonders, my knee doesn't really hurt at all anymore. We talked today about finishing this week, and then possibly discontinuing the therapy a few days early. I would be all for it; as long as it doesn't mean I have to start over from scratch if I have problems with it again.

Our roof has really begun to distress us; it has been raining a lot this weekend, and is predicted to snow all week. Forest and I have already hauled a few 10-gallon buckets of water out of the attic, where we have been trying to limit the damage to the dining room ceiling by catching as many drips as we can. Unfortunately, the water pours in quickly enough that it splashes around quite a bit, so a lot of things in the attic are just plain wet. We were lucky, and didn't lose any of our things that were stored up there; I had them all in Rubbermaid containers. (It pays to be a virgo sometimes.)

This morning Forest climbed up on the roof (which was extremely dangerous in the rain) and placed a large tarp over the leaky spot. I hunted down some large, heavy boards, which he used to hopefully pin the tarp in place. We hope this will be a good temporary solution, until we can get our contractor guy out to fix it. I mentioned all of this mess at Kris's housewarming party on Saturday night, and Dave commented that he can't help comparing our house to the movie Money Pit. I wish it weren't true; but for every penny I've put into the house, it has developed the need for another two.

My mom informs me that that's the way of home ownership.

I'm stubbornly clinging to the hope that there is a limit to how much money a house can possibly absorb.

I had an extended list of 'fixes' to do when I bought the house. Some of them I plunged ahead with, and completed. I got the furnace and water heater taken care of, and new appliances put in. I knocked out the lathe and plaster and installed drywall, and painted it. I replaced a bunch of light fixtures, and the bathroom plumbing. These things sounded like big accomplishments at the time, but I'm beginning to see that they are a drop in the bucket.

In my hallway are several boards of panelling, intended for use in our bedroom closet, which also needs a shelf or two, and to have the old plaster torn out.

In my bedroom are lengths of moulding which never got put on the walls. Without a miter (sp?) box it would require calculus to cut them correctly, and I just can't do it. This bothers me every single morning when I wake up.

In my dining room is the broken chandelier and the water-damaged ceiling and wall. I have no idea what to do in either case. I also have a nice new hole in the living room wall, where someone rocked the chair back too far, and broke right through. In order to patch it, I will probably have to repaint the whole room, because it's such a wierd color, there's no way I'll match it.

The front porch is still dry-rotting, and there are still no eavestroughs, and I still haven't been able to install the glass in Kirstin's window. The house also needs an exterior paint job and some siding. Then there's the leak in the roof.

As soon as I win the lottery, all of this stuff will happen. In the meantime it will annoy me endlessly. You know how I hate to leave projects half-finished.

Speaking of half-finished projects, Forest is pretty miserable about the state of his car. Due to illness and nasty weather, he couldn't work on it yesterday, and doesn't know whether his dad and brother did or not. He's decided that he's going to cave in and pay a mechanic to fix the Love Rocket (the Geo) right away, so he can drive that indefinitely until the Neon is repaired. It's supposed to be nasty all week, and it will probably snow, which pretty much means that working on the car is out.

I wish we could afford to just buy Forest a new car, nice and warrantied, but I know that's not realistic. We don't have a down payment saved, and with the engine torn out of the Neon, it's not worth much as a trade-in. The lowest payment I can imagine we would get on a new car would be a hundred dollars more than we could probably afford.

Mmmmm. I have discovered the true existence of mana from the heavens. Quaker French Vanilla Instant Oatmeal. It tastes rather like cookie dough; but it's good for you! I'd eat it three meals a day if I could.

Forest and I both closed the mall on Saturday, and then rushed over to Kris's house for her housewarming party. She had a small group, and we had a lot of fun, staying up until nearly 3 AM talking about this and that and munching on the plethora of goodies she provided. I wonder what it must be like for Kris, living alone for such a long period of time. I've done it in 6-month spurts before, and rather enjoyed the peace and quiet; but then I was immensely relieved to have someone move in with me. In some ways I envy Kris; no one's going to be leaving a mess for her to clean up, or using the last of the TP without replacing it, or leaving the sink to drip. She can have peace and quiet and solitude whenever she wants it, in an environment completely of her own choosing. Every sock, every lamp, every bit of everything in the condo is HERS.

I admire her for her strength and independence; but I'd not give up my honey and Kirstin for all the relaxing, peaceful, mess-free days in the world.

I also spent part of the day on Saturday with my mom and Kirstin, having lunch at Olga's, and then shopping a bit. It's fun to hang out with mom, and I don't do it often enough. Maybe one of these days I will have the presence of mind to change that.

Forest and I spent most of the day on Sunday laid up. We've both got this sinus thing going on. Mine's bothering my ears and making me dizzy, and his is making his stomach upset. For most of the day we were miserable, but we tried our best to be good to each other. I made him coffee, he made me toaster strudel. We took turns playing with the Playstation, while the other one snuggled under the same heavy comforter and read a book.

Toward the end of the day, when we were both feeling much better, he looked over at me, and smiled his sweetest and most loving smile. "'I love you' isn't good enough for you, sweety," he said. I knew exactly what he meant. I love him so much that it defies the english language.

We ended up staying up very late, since we both had naps in the early evening, and then he curled up beside me, petted my arm, and ssshhhhed me to sleep, using his near-magical ability to relax me with his voice, and his warmth.

The best part of my day today will be the 5 minutes I will spend with him while I drop off his taekwondo equipment to him before I head home to pick Kirstin up. Aww.