More on Christmas

We're home! I'm so happy! We went up on Saturday morning--although we arrived sometime later than our departure time would indicate.. as we were in Lexington (or, a third of the way there) when M suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to turn off the coffee pot. So, back we went to turn it off, thereby making the trip take an hour longer than necessary. Anyway, we stayed two nights with my parents, which they seemed to enjoy. We would have come home last night except that M and my dad decided to fix M's car today. And, as we really really need to have two cars in order to do the nasty work thing, we kind of figured that would be a worthwhile reason to stay. Sooo.. today was really not what I had planned but the car is fixed and that's the important thing. I can't handle the stress of another week of not having a car. But I'm not going to write anything else about that.

Something else that M bought me that I forgot to mention was this CD, Pickin' on the Counting Crows. And, I kind of wish that I could say that he found it all on his own because it is clearly a perfect gift, but it was a last-minute addition to my wish list, as I was doing a quickie search to make absolutely sure that the other CD that I asked for, which was The Himalayans (pre-Counting Crows group containing Adam Duritz) wasn't available at Amazon. I was already pretty positive that you couldn't but then I found this, and so the boy ordered it for me. (Hi, blue_eyed_girl, you know I'm writing this for you.) We listened to it on Thursday night, post-finger-mutilating, and it is so, so pretty! Of course, you'd have to not dislike bluegrass to enjoy it, and it's not at all a true Counting Crows type of CD, but it's lovely and jazzy and mellow. When I added it to my list, the listen feature wasn't available so we had no idea what it was going to sound like, but it's available now so go listen to it. It's nice. (As a sidenote, I didn't get the other CD. As I have been asking for it for longer, I asked him about it later. He said he bought this one because he was pretty sure he would like it better.. he really hates my obscure CC mp3s.. hehe.)

I also mentioned that he bought me a pearl ring. Here it is, if you're interested. (For the bargain shoppers, we didn't pay that much for it, but I don't know why I'm telling you this.) I think it needs to be sized, though.. I passed M on the highway on the way home just to be a brat and was waving wildly at him and the thing slipped off my cold fingers and landed with a thud in the backseat. I was lucky that I found it as easily as I did because it was stuck between the seat and the wall in the back.. if it had fallen through I'd have been singing a different tune right now! I have wanted a pearl ring for a long time, for reasons unknown, but they tend to be God-awful tacky. I am a little odd with rings, though, because I have tiny hands and large rings look totally stupid on me. This one is actually pushing it more than I realized when I found it. I picked out my wedding ring (which is the one that everyone here would call an engagement ring but the beauty of having a multi-cultural relationship is that when traditions and locations and money collide unfavorably, you can just make shit up. In this case, it was that we got engaged in Sweden and totally didn't see the point of trying to pay for a diamond solitaire there, so we bought the bands a la traditional Swedish engagement (so they say) and thus the American engagement ring came second--and at the wedding.) Anyway, the point was just that my mom and aunt lectured me severely because I refused to pick out a larger ring when I had the chance. I've tried on their rings, though, and they just look dumb on my hand. I am really fortunate in that I am married to a man that likes to buy me jewelry, and who actually can share and appreciate my slightly odd tastes. Am not big on the frilly stuff.

Let's see.. what else went on while I was gone? Oh, I got to hold my cousin's new baby, who is chubby chubby chubby. I couldn't get over just how chubby, as he was four weeks early and is only six weeks old now, and he was super thin when he was born. I also actually managed to keep my mouth shut during Major Willpower moments at my dad's family Christmas (which is apparently an optional event now, which.. I didn't get the memo on that.) Several persons were sick, including Elizabeth, who I couldn't resist playing with anyway, so I'm anticipating beginning the new year with a cold. I guess I deserve it, but I swear, she is so sweet. There was way too much junk food prepared and hardly any of it eaten, but my candy went over well.

Okay, now I am rambling. I hope everyone's Christmas was excellent if you celebrated it. I suppose I should get to bed since I have to work tomorrow. Yuck. But poor M has to be up at five so I guess I can't really complain too much. He's moving to a new schedule (again) where he works from 7:00 to 3:30. He'll be home before me! Yay! Barely, but still. We're still used to him getting home at seven at the earliest.