Savoring What's Left Of The Holiday

I don’t know how I ever lived without an iPod. Not only can I have my favorite music with me all the time, I have photos! Whenever I start missing Emily or Reece, I just click around until I find their picture and just like that, I’m all happy again! Of course, I have no idea how to actually find the photos, I just move the wheel around and click a bunch of times and somehow get lucky and find a photo. Same goes with downloading the music. I’ve added about 200 songs to it this afternoon and by pure luck they got downloaded into the Nano. Read the instructions? What? That would take all the fun out of it!

And now for a recap of my three-day weekend, the last one I’m getting for a long time:

Auntie Linda was my date for New Year’s Eve. We ate sushi, then went for a latte and then went to see “Fun With Dick and Jane” and laughed our heads off. I’d read all the negative reviews, but I loved it. It’s one of those movies you have to decide you’re going to enjoy beforehand and then sit back and be entertained. Afterward, we ate caramel cheesecake then went to Wal-Mart and wandered around until about 2 a.m. Jealous? I thought you might be.

New Year’s Day was great. I had the family over for cake and ice cream and we had a fun afternoon. David connected Emily’s video camera to the TV and we watched all the videos she’d made over the holiday with her new camera. David took Reece and her to the Deer Camp** earlier in the week and she made a “documentary” about the outhouse. It was hilarious. I think she might want to think about film school.

Today, Dawn (sister-in-law) and I went to see “The Family Stone” but when we arrived the movie theater was closed. There were several other people there and they were trying to open the doors, also. It was advertised in the newspaper that they were open this afternoon but they lied. They’ll be hearing from Aunt Vanessa tomorrow. We licked our wounds and headed to Target for the 75% Off Leftover Christmas Crap Sale and spent two hours there filling our basket. I now have enough Christmas cocktail napkins to keep me in the drinking business until I’m eligible for Medicare.

Now, right this minute, I’m singing to the Beatles and Abby is wishing I’d shut up so she can finish her twenty-hour nap. After this post, I’m going to take down the Christmas tree. I don’t want to!

**Deer Camp = a rugged cabin in the hills of Arkansas where my dad and his old croanies have some land and go to “hunt” during the year. (I’ve spent one night there and will never return.) The cabin is really, really rugged. Full of bunk beds and all the manly stuff you could imagine. It also has a rickety front porch that is covered with chairs and the finest gas grill you’ve ever seen. They have their priorities straight, yes they do. The surrounding woods are beautiful, however, and it’s fun to go there and enjoy the scenery and complete silence. (And ride four-wheelers - you have to be Southern to appreciate this, I know.) Emily and Reece loved it. Well, Reece loved it, and Emily liked it. They were there for three days and I think Reece only brushed his teeth once in that time. It was paradise for a seven-year-old boy!