Christmas Cookies Going to Waist

Well, the season of complete gluttony is now past, and I am left with a barely dwindling pile of Christmas goodies. Chocolates, nuts, cookies, candies are piled on the counter to attract my eye at inappropriate times, especially at 10 PM when I'm watching Northern Exposure (I feel like I need the extra calories to protect me against the cold Alaskan winters). They call out to me too during the day. Although I really, REALLY love them, I am sort of anxious for them to be gone. Honestly, I have clothes warm enough to get me through the winter, I don't need the extra layer of fat. Thankfully we also have 26 steps up to the apartment, and I usually go up and down several times daily. We are also continuing our walks around town. Yesterday we walked to the dry cleaners, the Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Shop, and ventured down to the VFW to inspect the tank in their front yard. I also discovered Chocolate Mint Tea at Giant Eagle, which has plenty of caffeine from the Assam and Congou black tea leaves in it for that late afternoon crash, and also spearmint to perk me up and chocolate to calm the cravings. Mmmmm...lo-cal chocolate, who would have thought?

Warm thoughts...T

Merry Christmas!

I have some really, truly free time this afternoon, so I thought I'd post a quick note to wish every one a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

For lack of any thing really amazing to blog about, I can offer a few movie reviews. We have found ourselves these past few weekends with no home repairs, no packing or unpacking, and no yard work to do, so with bad weather and luxurious laziness to revel in, we have been crashing on the couch!

PRINCE CASPIAN

Without ruining it for those of you who may not have seen it, I'm not sure that the screen writers read the same book that I did. The movie was quite interesting and well done, but they took MANY liberties in the story, including a long fight scene which never occurred in the book and the return of the White Witch.

X-FILES, the movie

One of my "bad habits" back in the day, was faithfully watching X-Files every Sunday night...Hubby and I were quite hooked! If you aren't familiar with X-Files, you can still watch this movie and it will make as much sense to you as it did to me. I was excited to hear about another movie, and disappointed after watching it. It felt contrived...they tried too hard to make a sequel.

HANCOCK

Usually I don't care for Super Hero movies, but this one was interesting (short too...just 1 1/2 hours). Will Smith plays superbly a Super Hero struggling with depression and alcohol abuse. It was a bit dark, but with a good and satisfying ending. It's worth checking out.

KUNG FU PANDA

I went into this one without high expectations, but all 4 of us were rolling with laughter. It is a fun take on being comfortable with who you are, but at an unsophisticated level.

KIT KITRIDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL

This one is my favorite of all the American Girl movies, about Kit, a 10 year old girl in 1934. It features Joan Cusak as a zany mobile librarian (one of the best characters in the movie). Kit and her friends learn that people can be much different than they appear on the surface.

and finally a TV movie: HEIDI 4PAWS

This one was on PBS this afternoon, featuring dogs dressed up as the characters from Heidi, including the goats. The girls loved it, I was mildly amused. I have never before seen dog yodeling.

T

BRRRRR.....

The thermometer is registering 8 degrees outside at the moment, and the wind has been howling all day. We thought something was scratching at our front door half the day until we realized that is was our Christmas wreath blowing in the wind and finally brought it in. The sky was so blue and clear today that I was hoping we could get out and stretch our legs a bit (the girls weren't interested yesterday), but the wind nipped that idea in the bud.

I'm finding myself feeling restless already...and it isn't even January yet. Restless and anxious. Why aren't the builders out there DOING something? We drove past our old house today and I felt some jealously bubbling up. They have room to MOVE, room to get out the Christmas decorations, the freedom to go in a room and be by themselves! Oh lordy, it's going to be a long winter!

We are making do with our tippy-top of a tree, donated to us by the Lions Club Christmas tree lot. I discovered recently that J is highly allergic to trees, so perhaps we shouldn't have one at all! The girls are SO excited, and J has been counting down the days for a couple of weeks. We are done with school for the next 2 weeks, so now we can put more time and effort into celebrating! We are planning to bake cookies tomorrow, and perhaps I can get the girls to work on the Christmas gifts we have been planning.

J's allergies, particularly to dust mites, gives me license to fulfill my obsessive-compulsive desires to clean, although Hubby has mentioned that it could be the reason she has issues in the first place. I think it's more likely inherited, as my brother has terrible allergies and asthma, but that's neither here nor there. Unfortunately the cleaning takes me 30 minutes at the most, so at some point I'm going to have to face the piles of photos that need to be put into scrapbooks.

Well, the noise level next door is escalating at 11:45 PM, so I guess I should retire to my bedroom, where I can't hear them, but hear the Greene Street traffic and the train very well. Ah...for a house in the country!

T