The Bungalow

Got home late last night after spending all day out at the in-laws and my parent's places. Got some cool stuff: new printer from hubby is the HP Photosmart Premium! It's the one with the touch screen on the front and super HQ photo printing. Awesome. Got some gift cards and other small things. We got a Blu-Ray player from his family. I need to go re-buy Star Trek now... LOL His family just got money from us because they're all so quick about getting everything off the lists that were sent around. That's OK. They don't mind. :-) Parents liked the gifts I got for them. Clothes. My mom has lost about 85 pound over the last year so she doesn't really have a lot of clothes that fit anymore. That's what she wanted, so that's what she got. Got my brother a new game for his Wii (Destroy All Humans!) and a set of those egg rings that you can fry eggs in. Ya know? But, I had to be the annoying sister and employed hubby to super wrap the present in one of every type of wrapping paper we had, hermetically sealed in tape. Then put it in a small gift bag in a bigger bag stuffed full of tissue paper! Hehe. It was funny. :-D Dinner was delicious. Mom made prime rib. Sooooooooo yummy. The Bouche De Noel tasted delicious, too! Yay! :-)

Hubby has now left for skiing and I am alone until Thursday evening. I might go back over to my parent's house or they might come here. Play some more Wii, maybe go see Sherlock Holmes. I also have the new Doctor Who downloading. I'm hearing good things about it! :-)

ETA: Or perhaps none of us will be going anywhere with the heavy snow that is now falling. Ugh...

Catch y'all later! I need breakfast....

I had two goals this morning - finish Christmas shopping and get a new tree. I am happy to report that we were successful!

First stop was Target. We only had a short little 4' tree from when we were in our apartment. Now that we're in a house and have a little more room, I wanted a bigger tree. I stopped by a couple weeks ago, but they were a little too expensive. I decided to wait and see what kind of Christmas bonus I got and perhaps get a new tree with that money. Bonus was good so it was off to Target again! They don't have much left (obviously), but they did have the one I was looking at last time. And for 50% off! Woot! So, got a new tree, new skirt, Nintendo DS game for my mom and a couple little pressies for hubby. Yes, he was there. So, not exactly surprises. Oh, well.

Next stop was a local "high end" shopping center for the Williams-Sonoma store and Gap. My brother wanted a set of those cast iron rings that you use in a skillet to get perfectly round eggs for sandwiches and stuff. W-S is the only place that apparently sells them. Found them! Woohoo! Also saw this while there. Which is cool, but a little too expensive for hubby.

After that was Gap to spend a 20% coupon I had that was expiring. Picked up a couple more things for me. I needed something to wear Christmas Eve and Christmas. Got two new shirts plus a maternity puffy vest for $49!! Which is amazing cos I think the vest was originally about $80 by itself. Score! :-)

After a quick stop by Coldstone for a little break (had another coupon) it was a quick stop at Best Buy to find a Wii game for my brother. Sadly, the did not have it. :-( But, we get home, find the number for the local GameStop and they do! It's used, but that's OK. Hubby runs out to get it while I start decorating the tree. He comes back, we get the tree all decorated and my other measly Christmas decoration sitting around and Presto! Instant Christmas home! LOL

So, yes. All is done. I just need to order what I want to send to my other brother out in CA. And we're all set! Now I just need to see about taking some time off on Wednesday to do the rest of the baking. *fingers crossed*

Had a good day, yesterday. Started off quiet with just me and hubby. My family went down to Disney World. We were supposed to go, too, but he couldn't get the time off work, and I didn't really have enough time either. So, we're left up here in the freezing cold. Brr. Anyway, we ate the coffee cake I had made. From scratch. :-) My mom usually makes them, but since she wasn't here, I attempted. And succeeded, it would seem.

As for the loot, I got a new small digital camera. One that can be easily tossed in a purse for a night out and stuff like that. It's the Fuji FinePix. I like it! Hubby got a book and some RAM (that he picked out for me to give him. LOL), but then I also got him a new tie. One of his favorite ties had gotten ruined a few months ago, so I got one to replace it.

So, after breakfast and our little gift exchange, it was off to one of the aunts for dinner. There were 45(?) people there. Yeah, it's a big family. But it's always fun, so that's good. Dinner was delicious, yummy turkey and mashed potatoes. Then from that side of the family, I got an MP3 player (the Zen, very nice), the newest edition of Scene It!, gift cards for J Crew and Banana Republic (shopping spree!!) and then for both us, his mom framed these two old map reproductions we picked up in Hawaii. I'll have to take a picture of them to show you guys. They're very cool.

So, I'm working today, but probably only for another hour or so. Then we're going to see a movie. Oh, and we're waiting for our new TV to get delivered! Yay! That was a present to ourselves with our work bonuses. New LCD flat screen to replace the old space console that's about 30 years old in our den/office type room. Yeah, it's time that one went.

Hope everyone else had a great holiday, for those that celebrate it, anyway. Bring on New Year's!! :-D

Shopping is done. Just need to wrap tonight. And now, I am doing breakfast at my place. With all the stuff going on with my grandma, my mom doesn't need any extra stress. So the boyfriend and I volunteered to do breakfast this year. At least it's only breakfast for 5. We should be OK. And the BF's mom invited my family to dinner at her house. There are 37 people coming already, so what's three more, right? :-)

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be skiing in the UP (that's the Upper Penninsula of Michigan for those non-US folks) next week. So, I haven't disappeared off the face of the planet. Just stuck on a mountain with no internet for a week. *SOB!* How will I manage? I'll miss you all so much! {{{HUGS F-LIST}}} I guess this will give me a chance to get a lot of writing done. I'm not sure how much skiing I'll be doing with the knee acting up like it is. I guess we'll wait and see.

The scrooged fics have been posted. There's some good stuff up there. There's a really cute Gus fic about discovering Santa doesn't really exist. Very well written. Haven't read thru everything yet. Not sure when I'll get the chance. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish my work a little early and maybe have some time this afternoon. That would be nice.

OK. I should go now and finish the work I have to do before we get dismissed early. At least, we better get dismissed early....

Later!