Around Here (December 2012)

Around here...

I love having the Christmas Tree up! After our "Charlie Brown" tree stopped working a few years ago, we borrowed my parents' tree. We no longer had an artificial tree and decided that this year was not the time for a real tree. For weeks, we had borrowed a truck to move our stuff from the apartment to the house, but we did not get a tree then. Instead, we learned that a 7.5 foot artificial tree does not fit into the trunk of a Camry. Bungee cords to the rescue! John had to go back into Lowe's after we purchased our tree to buy some bungee cords to secure the tree and trunk for the drive home.

We were still unpacking over the last two weekends. First we unpacked the boxes labeled "Guest Room/Xmas Decorations" that were packed by the movers in Texas. Beyond just Christmas decorations, we found some random items including John's softball glove, a plaque that I received while working at CFAC. Last weekend, I tackled the third bedroom, which is my office/craftroom and a guest room. I am happy to have it unpacked!

We made a fun trip to Ikea last Sunday buy some items for the house. It was not too crowded on a Sunday morning, and Alex did not melt down. He loves to check out all of the displays. He kept saying, "Follow me" as he led us to the next area.

I have wrapped up teaching my freshmen seminar course for the semester. I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach, but I did find it challenging to work more than one job this semester. Since I was grading papers, I feel like I got a late start on Christmas.

It has been cold in the Bay Area this week. There was even frost on my car yesterday morning! It has been over 8 years since I lived in Ohio, so I no longer keep an ice scraper handy. I think that I have one somewhere, but I just used my Safeway (grocery store) card to scrape my windows as I warmed up the car.

Now I am happy to be off work until the new year!