Friday afternoon

I've been suffering from a bit of creative blahness again lately. So my journal entries aren't necessarily works of art, but it still requires thought of the creative sort, and I guess I haven't had much to spare lately. Also, Magnus has been home more than usual, with the holidays and the snow days we've had this week. Also, I hate to say it, but I suppose that my readdiction to the muds hasn't helped matters, though I'm idle enough that I don't think it's a major cause, at least.

Last night we slept longer than normal.. we spent most of yesterday complaining about how tired we were. My mom felt the same way, so I suppose it was the weather. I dreamed of Scotty and have generally been a little on the sad restless side today. We did some cleaning but I couldn't stay focused on it.. I did get the kitchen mopped, which has needed it horribly. My parents let me open a Christmas present yesterday.. my Clorox ReadyMop! They thought it was pretty funny that someone got a mop for Christmas, but I've wanted one and haven't wanted to buy one. Besides, I have their mop and haven't given it back in two years. I think she actually bought a new one.. oops. :) Parents are so neat.

Papaw is doing excellent.. he's still staying with the parents and is in better spirits than I believe I've ever seen him in. He's really enjoying all the attention he's getting, I think. :) We went up yesterday and put the parents Christmas tree up for them. We did it last year while they were out at an auction of some sort, and then left before they got back. They had no idea we were going to do it, and we left a little note from Santa's elves. Putting up the tree has always been a big fight at the house. First, Mom wants it done soon after Thanksgiving and Dad wants to wait until closer to Christmas. Then, God love him, my dad has this tendency to want to be extremely bossy about how things get done, which annoys my mother and me. Sooo, we decided to take care of it for them last year, and realized afterwards that it probably would be expected from then on.. :) Anyway. We got it up, and Whitley was there so she got to help. It took us easily three times as long to get it done as when we were working by ourselves in an empty, quiet house, but I guess that's alright.

Magnus is just getting out of the shower, and I'm not sure what the plan is for tonight. Maybe rent a couple of movies. We decided that the perfect thing would be to have chips and dip and watch the Tenth Kingdom, but Rae and Bart have it, so we can't. I wish they'd put a move on watching it.. they've had the thing for months. Yes, it's six hours long, but they're also big movie watchers, I believe, so pretend that it's three movies and get on with life! ;)

Anyway. We've gotten quite a bit of Christmas shopping done, but of course, we don't have M's family's stuff, which should be sent about now. I spent hours last night wrapping gifts and making pretty bows. I'm one of those people who has pretty presents... usually. The way I see it, if you care enough about someone to buy them a present, let them see that you've also put a little time in it, etc. I do, however, draw the line at pretty bows on presents for the kids. There are a billion of them, and I don't have enough free time to spend on bows that they won't even like, much less appreciate. (Pretty, sure, but they're harder to open.) The exception is Whitley. I always put frilly bows on her stuff, but she appreciates such efforts. In any case, I'm not nearly as done as I'd like to be, but I'm making a good dent. Also, I seem to be spending less than last year, which is always nice.. for us. ;)