Weekend of Dec 9th - 11th, 2011 - What are your plans?

What will you be doing?

Tomorrow night is our staff holiday party. We will be getting our Christmas tree on Saturday. On Sunday I'm going over to my mom's to quilt.

Older son and I are going to get the Christmas tree on Saturday, and then I get to put it up, decorate it and see what the kittens do. Going to be great fun, I expect. Only using unbreakable ornaments this year!

Other than that... some Christmas baking and the Christmas cards, the usual chores, errands, and laundry, and reading.

I have a staff christmas party tomorrow night - a house party, snacks, drinks and conversation. Saturday I'm hoping to do some christmas shopping and also to do some training with the person hired to take over the books for the historical society - hooray at passing them on! In the evening is the ski club Moonlight Ski. The temperature should be good, but the perfect snow we had last weekend was wrecked by +8°C temps and rain on Tuesday, so I'm hoping we get a bit more fresh snow before then. The storm also brought down two more trees on the main trails, and a few others on side trails. I don't know if they'll get cleared before Saturday night :( The volunteers I usually call on are probably busy Saturday. Sunday - maybe I'll go looking for a tree.

Yule Ball on Saturday, dinner at a friend's on Sunday.

I mean to finish having a cold and start the new week clear.

My elder son and I are enjoying our lostcounteenth viewing of the complete extended-edition LOTR, one disc per night. Each of the three parts is two discs of about two hours each, so--six nights.

We haven't done this in a long while because he has been home only on short breaks since he took a job on the East Coast. But he's here for all of December, a real treat.

Luckily my holiday events were last weekend and next, so I can get away with being sick this weekend without missing anything. That's a pretty good arrangement if you ask me.

I'm singing at a wedding on Saturday. The couple are having Silent Night as the anthem, and carols for their hymns, which will be nice. Then I'm going to my parents' to decorate the tree, and we're having fondue for dinner. It's the only meal that my dad cooks (possibly because it involves burning meths!)

On Sunday I have church in the morning, then going to Brighton to see my sister and celebrate her birthday. She's booked lunch at a French bistro, so that should be yummy.

Cross-stitching like mad to finish a Christmas present for the in-laws.

Creating some Christmas cards for Mom and in-laws

Finish mailing out regular Christmas cards

Wrap niece and nephew's Christmas books

Christmas dinner no. 2. Only a couple more to go. !st one was yesterday afternoon at work, this one should be more fun, with a bunch of friends and probably lasting all weekend. It might be enough to put me in the christmas mood.

Have to shop for a formal xmas party. C wants to recreate the outfit Malcolm Reynolds wore to the ball on Firefly.

We have some working being done on our ceilings so the house is an absolute wreck and will be worse today when they start blowing popcorn. No plans other than to stay out of their way. Oh, and go grocery shopping. I'll probably hide out on our heated porch and read most of the time

#10. ROFL. Just don't you wear Kaylee's dress!

>12 majkia:
I would if I could find one like it cheap!

Weekend is start to extended days with no kid related obligations...need to make a list because there are lots of procrastinated chores... looking forward to alternating between accomplishing house related project/chores and reading Dance with Dragons. With real discipline and self-control I should be able to finish that puppy!

I`m going to try and convine DH that we should get our tree this weekend, rather than next weekend. I`m in the mood to have it up longer than usual this year. Also MUST make Christmas pudding, get some baking done and do my Christmas cards in order to mail them on Monday. So hopefully the weekend will be busy with baking, carols, decorating, energy, fun, grog, happiness, icicles, jingles, knitting...okay that`s enough ;)

I plan to try to get some cookies baked today. Want to mail a box of them off to my daughter so she can nosh on them during finals week. My ladies book group is having its holiday get together tonight. I'm making gorgonzola dip. We do a 'Yankee Swap' each year. This year I bought some handmade dark chocolates to give. The rest of the weekend will be spent car shopping for my son and possibly putting up our now 16 year old tree. It still looks fabulous, but it weighs a ton and takes a good hour to assemble. Still, it always stands up straight, it doesn't need to be watered, and the dogs won't attack it. :oD On the other hand, it doesn't smell like Christmas, and I suspect some of the lower limbs have residual cat pee on them.

Going to our first Christmas of the season. This one is with the in-laws. Have to try to figure when I'm going to get my paper written.

Sounds like my tentative plans are similar to several others here:

1. Set up Christmas tree
2. Bake cookies
3. Finish Christmas cards
4. Rest? Read?

:D

My oldest is testing for his Black Belt in karate today/tomorrow. It's an almost 24 hour grueling test and he's quite nervous about it. I think he'll do well but I'm still anxious for him. The kids get worked hard, the main goal for all of them being to persevere. As long as they work hard and finish the test they'll at least get a conditional black belt (black with a white stripe). My husband and I are going to take shifts at least being in the dojo to watch but we're not allowed to talk with him for most of it. Hopefully the sparring part happens on his shift. I HATE watching the sparring.

Tomorrow is the Black Belt ceremony and then we're going out for dinner to celebrate, #1's choice of restaurant, as long as he's up for it!

Sunday is house cleaning, reading and maybe even updating my Green Dragon reading journal.

A working weekend for me, however, the dreaded work Christmas party is over. Monday I will be trying to finish up all my Xmas shopping with a friend. We will also eat somewhere and watch the Muppet movie.

Our neighborhood is gathering Sunday evening for a party, theoretically, we are all supposed to have our outside decorations done by then. My personal mood is to skip outside decorations this year, but son said we were not going to be "Chucks" (the name of a grouchy neighbor), so I told him to go for it and decorate to his hearts content, but leave me out of it. :)

I won a huge and lovely poinsettia at our work Xmas party and would be perfectly happy if that were my only decoration this year.

Sandragon, I'm holding my thumbs for your youngster. Please let us know how he does, pass or not. He's a great kid and I hope he meets or beats his own expectations!

in half an hour I am going to try HardCoreball. I love coreball, but I will have to see how hard HardCoreball is.

Saturday starts with a brunch with some friends and in the evening some good food and wine with some other friends

Sunday is writing on my paper

21 - Thanks, Maggie. I'll pass that along. I've never explained about holding thumbs to him. I think he'll really like that.

Wow, that all sounds so lovely, Sakerfalcon! Looks like my Sunday is going to be quiet for once (I should be skiing/patrolling up at Mt. Hood, but I'm trying to kick a cold to the curb, so best stay home. But Saturday I'll be one of 10 authors signing meeting readers and signing books at Cover to Cover Books in Vancouver, WA. Other than that, I'll continue my crash course in XHTML and EPUB3.

Rest. Reading. House-cleaning. Trying to find some new Lego storage solution for son's room, hopefully. Also, I'm in the mood for some baking. I might make a panettone cake, it has been ages since I last made one, and perhaps a tiramisú.

--Madly Christmas shopping for family and making sure with an inventory that I've got everything needed!
--Baking cake for all the commuter ladies in my train station; that's the gift I'm giving to them.
--Picking up a bookcase for my upstairs bedroom from a friend who no longer wants it in her dining room
--Maybe watching 4 hours of Hamlet? The Kenneth Branagh version. While I continue to knit on the everlasting-six-foot-prayer-shawl.
--Singing Christmas Carols while I do all that.
--Making a hotel reservation for while we visit my family in WV just after Christmas

Happy stuff this weekend!

I'm working today, got a chiro adjustment, and there's the lunar eclipse tomorrow. :)

Oh, right. The lunar eclipse. Though 4:45 a.m. is a bit early to be stumbling out of bed. Not sure I've ever seen one. Would be amazing...

Oh, and when I finish sniffling, I am going to bake some cookies.

No plans for tonight, but I'll probably go to the high school basketball games tomorrow night. I may eat dinner with friends Sunday night. Seems like everything is up in the air right now.

Chatty chatty bang bang! Chat room opens at 8 pm, Green Dragon's clock.

I shall mostly be fighting off this annoying cold (you know the its-not-bad-just-annoying kind), attempting to catch some of the VGA's (although I think it means I'll need to but up at 1AM Sunday morning, so maybe I'll try and watch a re-run somewhere), and mildly panicking about not being ready for Christmas (which feels like it's only a couple of days away).

You know, usual stuff.

This week's picture was shot this morning whilst wandering around a nature reserve - it seemed seasonally appropriate :-)

Ooh, European Robin! My second favorite bird; its unrelated namesake holds top honors for me.

I need to start packing for the trip to visit my family next week, but I can't do that until after I do laundry...which I can't do until after everyone else in my building finishes doing their laundry, apparently. That's what I get for not starting the instant I woke up this morning I guess.

Otherwise, I need to tidy up my apartment. I always try to make sure my apartment is tidier than usual before I go away for awhile, because I hate coming home to a messy apartment.

Tane, that is so beautiful! I've never seen a European Robin!

Today, I got two of my chores done:

1. Set up Christmas tree (partly)
2. Bake cookies (nope)
3. Finish Christmas cards (yes, done)
4. Rest? Read? (not yet)

The dh wanted to put up Christmas lights on our porch this year, so I found some inexpensive sets with large colored bulbs, and we spent part of the afternoon attaching clips and then stringing the lights.

We also removed the air conditioner from its window, and put it away in the shed. It's getting a bit cold to have that in the window...

I have a new book The Meerkat Wars, so I'm going to probably start reading it tonight. :)

I've done nothing today, eat, read, open door for dogs, read, eat, read, take a bath and read, open the door for dogs, read....

#36: sounds like a near perfect day!

(37) Perfect for the dogs, anyway....

oh, but now they are begging for dinner and I am ignoring them. Does not fit my schedule, yet.

oh clam, those babies will be traded for and only the lucky #1 will get to have the last laugh!

I'm still getting over my cold and destroyed lumbar spine, so just went out locally with the camera. No robins like Tane, ours are all gone south by now and I'm not a birder by any means. There was frost this morning though and with my macro lens already mounted, how could I resist?



I did some scouting today though and found some awesome crops of pixie cup and British soldier lichens which will probably get photographed tomorrow. Squee!

Tane, that image reminds me vividly of The Hogfather. Poor Raven, the robin really is adorable and that photo frames it perfectly.

Bookmarque, that is so elegantly beautiful!

I watched my 10yo get his black belt with green stripe on Saturday. I am so proud of him. He's such a laid back kid, he doesn't always push hard for what he wants, but he worked hard for this. This dojo gives 3 conditional black belts as well as the full one. A white stripe means you at least showed up and finished the test. The green stripe means you've got work still to do on technique and strength but you worked your but off during the test. Then there's a brown stipe which 10yo will be working towards next, if not the full black.

Whew. I was exhausted just from being there to cheer the kids on.

Congratulations to your spawn! He must feel very accomplished, and yet, with work to do. A excellent position to be in.... Always more on the horizon!!

Give him my greetings of admiration!

Awesome sandragon! Give him a high 5 for me :-D Well done indeed!

Thanks, maggie, katylit. He's happy and feels pretty good about himself at the moment.

LT-wise, I usually think of my boys as the dragonets. But dragonspawn does suit them better some days!

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