So much for the holidays…

So I said I would update for the holidays, but it is Jan 3, and if I wait to sit down and update with that, I will never update again. So suffice it to say that we had a great time. So how was the stash this year? Pretty damn good:

The LotR Trilogy Extededed DVD’s (may parents)
LotR Monopoly (parents)
SmartGlove – to relieve pre-RSI pains (parents)
Altec Lansing portable speakers for my iPod (juan)
Roomba (his parents)
Audubon Marine Mammals book and a Kitten bookmark (juan)
A nifty dollar origami book that I had laid my eyes on a few months before (juan)
wireless optical mouse for my laptop (juan)
lapdesk for said laptop (juan)
Purse and scarf (sister-in-law)
Make-up bag and tons of awesome make-up and brushes from The Body Shop from my sister

The day after Christmas, we took my sisters to B&N in the evening, so they could shop around (they had money, and giftcards, and I still had mine to spend). So when we left, I had Memoirs of a Geisha, the two Paolini books, Wicked, Scene It! Harry Potter, the Lumos light (that sounds redundant to me, I wonder if it sounds like that to anyone non-hp), and two desktop calendars for myself that I had wanted for a couple of years already: Origami and Kirigami (with a page a day to fold/cut). Too bad they only had the Easy Origami one there, not realizing they had a regular one too, just not then and there. I find this really funny though, because norus was just talking about geeking out over origami earlier today, and I have been in a hands-on crafty mood lately (which includes origami). When I was a kid, I checked out all the origami books they had in the library at the time – not that that means there were too many. But it was fun, and is always something that I enjoy doing. I tend to make cranes from candy wrappers when I am bored, and it makes me laugh how people always seem to want to keep them. I guess if someone made a kawasaki rose from a piece of paper that was lying around, I would want to keep it, but there is an enourmous gap between a crane and that. But anyway, geek away Nor, I’ll be right there with you. Infact, I have this really cool blue whale marked as a favorite on my Flickr account. There is some amazing talent on there.

And now going further into the depths of crafty doom, I have stepped into the wondrous world of digital scrapbooking. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Thanks to accio_padfoot for her wonderful set that she made thinking of me and my unused wedding photos (and by “unused”, I mean all of them). I have been having a great time. I can’t wait to finish my album and print it out!

On New Year’s, we went to the new Montoya home and had a BBQ. They are the first in the chusma to sign their lives away and say they have a mortgage to keep. Congrats guys! They have this really cute two-floor house with vaulted ceilings and lots of windows. I am really happy for them. Thanks for hosting! We had a lot of fun, not only during the awesome dinner, but when we played Scene it! TV edition. I wasn’t so hot at the TV edition (they seem to really like Dallas and The OC), but she also brought the movie edition, and we had a blast going through the questions on that one. =)

norus says:

January 4, 2006 at 10:59 pm

“But it was fun, and is always something that I enjoy doing. I tend to make cranes from candy wrappers when I am bored, and it makes me laugh how people always seem to want to keep them”

Me too! I once spent an entire session of ‘supervised prep’ (kind of like study hall, er, but english) making tinier and tinier cranes, until I made one out of an inch-square bit of paper, and my friend Lizzie ate it.

Er, that was it, mostly. Yay for good christmas!

anitza says:

January 4, 2006 at 11:05 pm

Speaking of tiny cranes, check out my faves on flickr! I fave’d a crane so tiny, it is on our smallest US coin for scale, and even then it is tiny! If you continue from there, I think there is one on a measuring tape so you can get a real feel for size.

Did you ever read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes? I remember that as a kid and it really left an impression on me. Impression, I say, because I can’t remember too much about it, other than the general feeling I get when I think about that story. =)
1. anitza says:
  
  January 4, 2006 at 11:06 pm
  
  It’s better when I actually close the tags. *headdesk*
2. norus says:
  
  January 5, 2006 at 12:09 am
  
  I think I had it read to me as a little girl at primary school, though I don’t really remember except she meant to make a thousand before she died, and she didn’t…
  
  Is that the same story? I remember Tree bringing that one up around the time of her wedding when we were all folding the cranes for that.
  1. anitza says:
    
    January 5, 2006 at 12:14 am
    
    Wow, I missed that. I don’t know what you are talking about with Tree’s wedding, but yes, that is the story I was talking about. Post WWII era.
    1. norus says:
      
      January 5, 2006 at 12:16 am
      
      Oh – Tree’s wedding theme was ‘a thousand cranes’ and Canute and I, and I think Ginger and Pincey and some others helped out and made some cranes for her… you don’t realise how many a thousand is until you have to fold them all yourself. I thought you were one of the folders… but I guess that was in like October 04, when we were a bunch of newbies.
    2. anitza says:
      
      January 5, 2006 at 12:37 am
      
      Aw… that’s so cute!