Celebrating

The thing I love most about Christmas is the endless celebrating. I guess in this the Mommy out-does the Metal, as my celebrating these days consists of pleasant days or evenings with friends instead of heading out the door to some rocker party armed with black eyeliner and a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Wine. And Hallelujah to that, is what I say. Can't say I miss much about those days...well, except maybe being able to get away with that black eyeliner.

Some of the best celebrating comes at impromptu times, like hanging out with Steph and John as Nathan and Vivian hung downstairs and watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, newly acquired on DVD. A jug of wine, (decent wine that is, not Boone's Farm...) Marcona almonds and thou--it rocks.

And of course it wouldn't be the holidays without the church Christmas Play. No matter what they do with it each year, it always brings to mind the Peanuts and A Charlie Brown Christmas. (especially when you have a narrator that sounds very much like Linus, which we actually do) And it never fails to bring a tear to a parent's eye, I can tell you that. What is it about adorable kids in these hokey costumes up there picking their noses and belting out about the Baby Jesus so horribly out of tune that itjust warms the heart?? Then in true Minnesotan-style it's time for the church buffet. Plenty of meatballs and ambrosia salad for everyone.
Speaking of buffet, I'm still trying to plan out what I'll do for the Christmas meal around here. I don't know exactly how many I'll have yet, but I guess that's kind of the fun. How many of you do turkey for Christmas? Or ham? Or neither? Inquiring minds want to know. I have a hankerin' for some deviled eggs, I think I'll have to make some of those. Deviled Eggs on the Lord's birthday. Now that's metal.

Let Them Eat Cake!

And eat cake I shall, apparently, now that I am going to be living in a new 'uppity 'burb. I didn't grow up here in Minneapolis so it's all Greek to me, but I guess anyone who lives in my new zip code is given the lovely term 'Cake Eater'. It's beyond me as there are definitely enough well-to-do people where I am currently, but there it is. I guess it started way back in the high school sport world, where fans from Edina would shout to the others, "your dad works for my dad", and things like that. I suppose I can see why people that grew up hearing that hold a grudge, but ah well. I'm sure those things aren't said anymore, not in this PC world we live in now. (at least not out loud. eeek.) All I know is we found a bigger house with more space around us for LESS money in both house and taxes than we are paying here. So why wouldn't I eat cake?!

Life has been crazy crazy around here lately--first trying to find a home, then finding one and getting all of the details sorted out. Then there is the fact that the kids will be in a new school district, and all of the rigamarole that goes with that. And that needs to be sorted out in all of a week! Both Vivian and I need to get our heads around the fact that at 6th grade in this new district she will be starting Junior High. eeeek! Neither of us are prepared for that! She'll be jumping right in. She's a bit nervous (of course!) and sad about missing her friends (of course again!) but she's also excited for her new adventure.

Meanwhile I'm a busy party girl with my new Silpada Jewelry business. I have to say, it is a blast--and where else could I make over $500 for a few hours' work?? Gotta love that. I get to sport lovely jewels, hang out with women at parties and make good money. Nice!

In all of this craziness the Coreman and I managed to squeeze in a date--the other night we attended this cool benefit called 21 For Kids, a dinner and auction put on by Wild hockey player Mark Parrish to benefit local charities that help out kids in need. It was a blast, and I was all ready to plunk down some serious ching for an autographed poster from the latest Harry Potter movie, "The Order of the Phoenix". Oh man, when I saw that I was freaking out, knowing how much both Vivian and I love the books and movies. I was totally caught up in the hype of it all and before I knew it I was writing down $550 on the line. Yikes! Probably lucky for us, we didn't win it...it went for $900. Whoa! Coreman kept joking that I'd be giving up my new washer and dryer in the new home for the poster. I suppose he was right! We've got to sort out our priorities, after all. (in the wise words of Ronald Weasley.) The event itself was a blast--amazing food, hob-nobbing with the stars (at least star hockey players, not that I knew who anyone was) and listening to a fun band called The Zoo. All in all it was fun to get gussied up and go out with my man. These days those evenings are few and far between!

And tonight, gussied and out with my peeps Stephanie and Kim! Those lovely ladies are taking me out for a pre-birthday dinner, I am so excited! I haven't given one thought to my birthday coming up, honestly. But I am so happy for any excuse to spend time with my lovely friends. So much has been going on in our lives and we've been too busy to dish about it! Maybe I'll order a nice slice of CAKE for dessert....;-)

A Troubled Bridge Over Water

I'm sure most of you have heard about the 35W bridge that collapsed here in Minneapolis. What a tragedy! Imagine going along at rush hour, sitting on that bridge, all of a sudden you are dropping 35 feet. I guess the whole thing went down in about 4 seconds. The only saving grace with that is that no one had time to think or panic, it just went down. Of course they are still checking the river below, I'm sure many cars are in there. Very scary. Vivian's first comment when I told her was, "Voldemort is back!", referring of course to Harry Potter's nemesis, who's return brought chaos to the Muggle (non-wizarding folk) world by destroying things all around, including major bridges. Whereas this event here certainly isn't anything to joke about, the fact and reason that it happened is just as un-explainable and bizarre. Luckily, so far no one I know has been effected by it. My heart goes out to anyone that has been.

And speaking of Harry Potter, I'm about halfway through the last book, "The Deathly Hallows"! Not bad, considering my daughter had it with her at camp for a week, and in between reading I've been frantically trying to get our house ready to put on the market in ONE WEEK, packing and gearing up for our vacation, and preparing for my first jewelry show up there as a new http://www.silpada.com/public/ Representative. whew. Life is busy right now, to say the least. But it's all good! I am certainly not complaining!

In all of my running around to prepare for everything I've mentioned, I had to sneak in a little personal shopping and ran into Steve and Barry's, a clothing store which just so happened to be conveniently in a location I needed to go. I myself have never heard of this store, but I knew that it carried Sarah Jessica Parker's new clothing line, "Bitten". My Friend Kim had checked it out and came back with a couple pair jeans--jeans that fit wonderfully, no less, and cost next to nothing. huh. I have to say I wasn't impressed. I tried on some jeans, and they sure didn't fit me well. Granted I wasn't spending a lot of time and only tried on a couple of styles, and of course jeans fit everyone differently. But the overall look of the clothes is just 'eh'. If you need t shirts, polo shirts, that kind of thing, than I'd say it's definitely worth a look. But I guess I expected the funky and fun style that goes along with SJP--at least as Carrie Bradshaw. And c'mon, can SJP be anyone else?!

Off to vaca tomorrow! Boy, do we need it. I can't believe when we get back we'll be school shopping. Whoa! Time does fly.