Spending And Giving And Eating, Oh My!

I haven't posted in, well, too long, and since today's chore plans are currently on hold for an undetermined period of time, why not post now!

What's new? Well, lots, I guess. I mean, most of a month and a whole holiday has gone by since I last posted. What couldn't be new?

Christmas was pretty great! At all three gift-exchanging events, I found myself looking forward more to the reactions of people I/we gave presents to, than to my own presents. Does make me a grown up? Anyway, everyone seemed to be genuinely surprised and happy with their gifts, which made me VERY happy! :) We also got spoiled, between three sets of parents! The two biggest items were a small Weber grill and a cordless drill, from Ryan's dad and my mother, respectively. Both are going to be very well-loved, I can tell.

The two days of Christmas was also laden with delicious food: Christmas morning at Kerry and Mary's (eggs, french toast, raisin toast, home fries, sausage, bacon, coffee, juice), Christmas dinner at Gail and Jon's (turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, squash, peas, gravy, pumpkin pie and ice cream for dessert), then day-after-Christmas supper at Mom's with Dad (hearty beef stew and biscuits, with pumpkin cheesecake, pecan-pumpkin-sweet potato pie, and chocolate chip banana bread for dessert) (Mom's house had more dessert than regular food, what a surprise).

Yesterday the gifting fun continued, between Ryan and I. We dropped my car off at Best Buy to get my new car stereo installed, then went off to Verizon to get Ry a new phone, and back to Best Buy to get him a music player. By the end of the night we were both rife with shiny new distractions that make pretty sounds and pretty lights :D

(Unfortunately, they didn't have the right spacers for my new speakers, but I can still listen to the stereo itself through my factory speakers until the new spacers get installed sometime next week. I actually kind of like this series of steps up: factory sound, Kenwood sound on factory speakers, Kenwood sound on Kenwood speakers. Comparing is fun!)

In other news, I'm still trying to keep up the exercise and diet routine. The past week was pretty rough, I had a few days where I woke up feeling kinda weak and underpowered, then the two days of holiday food and not moving a whole lot. Aside from those two days, the diet thing is going pretty smoothly. I eat a LOT of yogurt (mostly Greek), lots of fruit, I've gotten better about veggies and salads, and I'm keeping the big carb meals to dinner, to fuel the next morning's work out. After four-ish days of little to no exercise, I'm slowly ramping my way back up to Lots Of Hooping, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to keep it ramped once the holidays are done and the new year has officially started.

Speaking of which! This may be my last post of 2011, so I may as well talk about resolutions, eh? I have a few little ones, but they stem off of the big one:

Don't waste time.

Before Ryan has an aneurysm and Dad starts gibbering, let me explain what I mean by "wasting time." I DON'T mean writing, reading, taking pictures, playing with Photoshop, video games, socializing, or even staring at a screen or into space. Sometimes, I desperately need any or all of those things to decompress, to let some steam evaporate before it escapes as tears or whining. What I DO mean by "wasting time" is dithering about, going in circles, getting stuck in cycles, being frozen in indecision because I feel like any of the things I just listed IS wasting time and I SHOULD (dirty word!) be cleaning or organizing or erranding or some other Productive Thing.

I've got a lot of shit to do this year. I have quite a few trips to New York for my dress, a trip to Arizona for a wedding, I promised I'd go back to Indiana sometime this year, getting serious with my novel, getting serious with my shop, and, oh yeah, MY OWN WEDDING, plus working full time (possibly two jobs in the summer) and hooping my ass off and still being as social as possible before some of my friends fly off to other places. I won't have time to curl up into a ball and cry because I want to relax with Mario Kart but there are dirty dishes in existence. I have to re-categorize my mind so that anything that helps me relax and keep things in perspective and keep my physical and mental energy up is listed under Productive Things.

So. Anyway. That's most of the new stuff. There's a few other bits, but they mostly revolve around money and To Do lists and minor personal drama, so I won't get into it now, okay?

If you read this before the 31st, I wish you a fun-filled New Year's! May the worst day of the next year be equal to the best day of the last! Cheers!