Are the holidays almost over?

Happy Christmas and almost New Year.

Neeko is wondering if the holidays are almost over. He, along with Echo, had a grand 'ol time opening up presents on Christmas morning. Ripping apart stuffed animals couldn't be more fun. We had a great Christmas this year. No stress, lots of hanging out with friends and family and it even snowed in Seattle. Wow! Bring on New Year's!

My pirate Christmas face.

Christmas self-portrait.

Etsy shop is almost set up!

www.seattlegrl.etsy.com

We got our new computer all set up and I'm in the process of setting up my etsy website for my jewelry sales. I don't have stuff up for sale yet, but should by the end of next week. I have to take pictures of all the earrings before I can list them. Oh what fun that will be!

White Elephant Party

We held our annual White Elephant/Bad Holiday Sweater party on Friday. We had a grand ol' time with friends, food and festive drinks (mmmm hot buttered rum). I was impressed with the White Elephant gift turn out, you all did a great job picking fun and awesome gifts. This year the coffee themed bag was the big winner. There were many comments from the non-coffee industry folks wondering why the coffee industry folks wanted the coffee soooooo bad. We can't help it, we NEED coffee, even at home!

Ryan checking out the coffee bag goods. Laura and Will were the proud winners of the coffee bag. I hope you're enjoying your morning coffee and chocolates!

Some of the gang checking out the next openers goods. Notice Brian's awesome Santa tie.

My beautiful Christmas sweater, I heart the Holly pin.

Creepiest Video Ever!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb5DkLd22Ic&feature=related

Sorry I had to share. This is Fergie when she was on Kids Incorporated singing "Say You, Say Me" with the creepy clown.

Three more weeks until 2008

I can't believe it's the middle of December already. It seemed like yesterday that it was June and I was looking forward to hiking the Enchantments and running the marathon. They sure are right when they say time flies too fast. I always have all these grand plans at the beginning of the year and then life gets in the way and I have to reschedule all the things that I really wanted to do or accomplish (like painting the house). So my pre New Years resolution is to not make any resolutions so I won't be disappointed when things don't happen or get done.

We had a great family dinner last night with my Uncle, his family and my sister and her girlfriend. Along with the no gifts theme Rob and I have adapted we held a craft night/dinner to celebrate the holiday. We drew wooden framed ornaments out of a hat and painted them for each other as our "gift" to the family. It was so much fun and we got to spend some quality time with each other with no TV, drama, or obligations.

Andee painted the snowman for Rob and Uncle Ray painted the penguin for me.

I highly recommend the no gifts idea for the holidays, it makes things so much easier. No stress, no shopping at the crazy mall, no disappointment when you don't get that thing you "really" wanted, easier on the pocketbook and most of all you can spend more time with the ones you love. WhoHoo!

Heaven Sent Christmas Cacti

I've been given multiple Christmas Cacti over the years and every one of them I've managed to kill. Don't know what I did, but they as a species don't get along with my semi-brown thumb.

Thus, I'd like to share with you my new specially handed down Christmas Cacti and note that they are healthy and blooming!!!!! Blooming I tell ya!

My Grandma Cameron, bless her, had the best collection of Christmas Cacti, she had all colores, red, purple, pink, white and I think even a yellow. Every time I'd visit she'd always want me to take some of her babies off her hands. She never threw the new growths away. Every time I'd have to tell her no because I would just end up killing them. The last time I saw her I had to give in though and now I have three beautiful healthy girls sitting on my windowsill. Grandma passed away just days after she passed these beauties on to me. She gave them to me I think knowing that she'd help me take care of them and help them bloom just in time for Christmas. Thanks Grandma and I miss you too!

WhoHoo Weekend!

WhoHoo, it's finally my weekend and there's so much to do. I started it off right with sleeping in until 9, stressing out about money, dropping off our adopt a family boxes and enjoying a wonderfully made americano from my work.

Speaking of work, I haven't really introduced my new place yet. Yes, you heard that right, new place. The rumors are true, I quit the south Allegro in October and started a new barista job at the tiny Cafe Bambino (www.cafebambino.com) in Ballard. It's a great little shop that has some yummy coffee, mighty o donuts, and free live music on the weekends out on the patio. I really like it there, I get to walk to work, I'm meeting abnormally nice and wonderful customers and my co-workers rock (though my co-workers and some customers at Allegro are just as awesome).

Don't worry, starting a new job hasn't put my overall plans on hold. I'm still aggressively pursuing opening up my own place as well as starting my own coffee roaster. As I've come to realize these things take a lot more time than I had originally thought. I was talking to a customer the other day about his 5 year plan for opening up his own restaurant, 5 years, holy shit that's a long time, and he's a certified chef who knows his stuff. So I'm not feeling too bad about my years adding up so far.

You think you're having a bad day...

Saddest little hedgehog ever. I vow that if I'm having a bad day I will just look at the saddest little hedgehog ever and feel better.

Rob and I did our 3rd or 4th annual (I can't remember) Adopt-A-Family shopping spree today. We've decided that giving each other stupid meaningless Christmas gifts is pointless, we already have everything we could ever need or want, so we adopt a family or two each year instead of giving gifts. It's one of my favorite shopping trips of the year, especially since I get to spend an hour in the toys isles for a good cause. There are some really cool toys out there. This year we adopted a family of four, Mom, Dad, Son and Daughter. Fun fun fun. We went to town and hopefully the family will love their gifts. If not, at least they should be grateful that they aren't the saddest little hedgehog ever.

Za Christmas Tree with the Boys

It snowed yesterday and what, I missed putting up the tree when the snow was falling, oh well, had to make due with rain. Here's our cute little fake-o Christmas tree with our ton of ornaments and the boys sitting nicely in front waiting for me to squeeze the ball. We switched to the fake-o tree after we got Neeko in the Greenlake house. It took a lot of convincing, really I just went out and bought one off of craigslist before Rob could say anything. We had to switch because Neeko had a abnormal obsession with drinking the water from the real trees and we couldn't keep the stand filled, then we got Echo who thinks that light bulbs are edible. Who knows what kind of trouble they are going to get into this year. Hopefully they won't try to open the presents as we put them under the tree.

Go See Enchanted!

Usually I'm not a movie pusher, but I have to recommend going to see the new Disney movie "Enchanted". It's worth the full price movie ticket, so much that I've seen it twice now. I haven't seen a movie twice in the theater in years, not since my teenage angst years when the Leo version of "Romeo and Juliet" was out, yes I saw it way more than twice in the theater, sad I know. But, Disney has come back to full form with "Enchanted", it's smart, funny, dreadfully cheesy and will keep you smiling through the whole movie.