Have you ever gone through your address book thinking, “who in the world is this?? ” Or . . . “so where is the rest of this person’s contact info? ”

Well, it’s that time of year for me to clean out my address book of all the people I don’t remember because I only met them in passing once, or somehow we crossed paths but don’t really keep in touch.  The time to find out where all of our friends who are still in school or moving are (hopefully) before you send them a Christmas card, to find it returned to you sometime several weeks after the new year has passed.

Our Christmas cards arrived neatly packaged, ready for addressing and signing today, and go out with my mailing and shipping assistant tomorrow morning-ish.  Well, as I write this at 2:23am, today later-earlier-morning-ish 🙂

Either way, we are very proud we are getting them out on schedule . . . well, on our schedule, so hopefully our fabulous recipients will receive them Before the 25th.

Thank you postal and shipping employees, your job is much appreciated!

Yes, I think almost every year Gary and I exchange or at least give our gifts to each other early.  Gary got his from me about a month ago . . . a PS3 plus the new Grand Theft Auto IV game.  Well, he’s been working hard, and he can play with it more now instead of the day he gets it, and we will be at the beach 🙂

I got mine from Gary a couple of days ago (my birthday gift from him at the beginning of the month -haha).  Anyway, Gary has always been good about giving me themed gifts that are around a larger gift.  For example, the first birthday/chrimstmas together, he gave me a book, The Taming of the Shrew.  While I thought it was a nice-ish gift I was wondering if at some point I had mentioned that I liked that particular book because it was kind of an odd gift, but I smiled and said thanks with as much enthusiasm and with as little confusion as possible.  Almost about to put the book down, I see a slip of paper peeking out . . . opening to the first couple of pages are two tickets to see the play The Taming of the Shrew with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. We stayed at ‘Dupont at the Cirlcle‘ Bed and Breakfast in the Plum Suite 🙂  Definitly go sometime if you are looking for a nice bed and breakfast in the DC area.

ANYway, that was longer than I was expecting 😛

So for this Christmas Gary had two bags.  In the first was the movie ‘Sex and the City‘ in the second bag was an opera on CD.  Both themed around New York.  So the gift was actually for when we go up north next year to see Gary’s family . . . we are going to swing by New York for a day and see an Opera of my choice (dependent on what is playing when we go)!

Next year is already starting off fabulously!

Thanks everyone that thought of me and share the love on facebook, all the people that sent me e-cards, and all the lovely people that sent me cards in the mail!

Also, thanks in advance to Amanda and Katharine for taking me to lunch on Saturday to celebrate, my parents on Sunday, and thanks again to Gary’s parents for dinner and to see Broadway Series South’s presentation of Annie a couple of months back 😀

While I don’t usually voice my thoughts on a lot of issues, whether political or news related here on my blog, I would like to ask you to at least be aware of issues directly and indirectly related to the health and welfare of humans and animals alike.

Many people do not think about how their food was treated before coming to the table for food.  Partially by the way we are conditioned about food, and how meat is such a main ingredient in many dishes.

My husband knows how I feel about animals and while listening to NPR this morning heard about the possible new standards for organic milk.  Allowing cows to graze outside more instead of being secluded and confined to concrete feed lots.

Please read the article below:

And while milk is only a small part of the overall picture, it’s a start.

You can send in your thoughts and comments for or against the issue (at regulations.gov), but the deadline is December 23rd

Any thoughts and comments would be good, doesn’t have to be anything long and fancy, just speak from your heart 🙂

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=SubmitComment&o=0900006480776e33

10 days until Christmas!

Gary and I went to my parents’ house to help decorate the big tree today.  We have a few more gifts to get this week and then we should be done with shopping, and thank you’s to all of our friends and family that we have received cards from already!  We should be sending out ours this weekend, so friends and family, expect to get yours in the mail next week!

😀

On Thursday, Gary and I attended the Jingle Ball in downtown Raleigh.  Each person attending brought one gift valued at $20 or more and all the gifts were donated to the Salvation Army.  We also met up with our friends Sean, Amanda, Elizabeth, Katharine, Meredith, and a few friends of Katharine showed up.  Food and beverages were provided by Rocky Top Hospitality.

This was our first year attending and it’s a great cause, there were so many toys donated and collected.  I hope we are able to attend next year 🙂

Actually it was in the 60’s today but here on my blog it’s snowing!  A very cool feature wordpress is offering, but expires sometime in January, so just a little something for the holidays.  My blog background is white, so you’ll see it more on darker images and lettering, but hopefully the people at wordpress will have an year round option like falling petals or rain drops (hint, hint) 🙂

This weekend, Gary and I went holiday shopping on Saturday at two malls.  I found my dress for the holiday ball this week, got a new working battery for my watch from the Dakota Watch Company, and saw some cops patting down a few teens at the Sunglass Hut.  Gary got to drool over games at Game Stop, and then we picked up some Lindt Chocolate before heading to our friends house for a wine tasting, where we sampled about 3 white wines, 2 or 3 reds, and a sparkling wine. A portion of the proceeds go to homelessness in Wake County by ‘Wines for Humanity‘ (there were also a lot of yummy things to nibble on that everyone contributed to).  It’s a neat idea if you want to plan a get together with friends and help a cause.

My birthday isn’t for another couple of weeks, but Gary wanted to give it to me early a few days ago and I’m so glad he did!  A co-worker of his  who plays tennis and knows about rackets and such helped him pick out rackets based on grip and size for myself and Gary got one as well as a dual case for the rackets and balls (some of which were pink in support of breast cancer research as well as my racket which for some reason looks more purple in the photo, but it is more pink 🙂 )

I had been mentioning how I wanted to get back into playing, and I thought he would enjoy it as well.  Indeed he has!  Tonight he said that he didn’t know he would truly enjoy it as much as he does!  We have tennis courts right down the street from us, so we have been playing every night so far.

We’re looking forward to playing more and getting better 😉

What is your favourite food tradition at Thanksgiving and what are you Thankful for?

Almost everyone has a certain dish or dishes they look forward to each year for Thanksgiving.  Mine would have to be the sweet potatoes or mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a pie of some sort.

For those of you who are looking for recipes or ideas, check out http://www.foodnetwork.com.  A great resource any time of the year, but they have a page just for thanksgiving recipes:

And don’t forget your vegetarian friends, there are soy turkey alternatives out there (thanks mom and dad) and lots of yummy side dishes 🙂

And I would have to say, I am thankful for everything in my life, my husband, my pets, a caring family, and fabulous friends, most of you, we will hopefully be seeing next month and during all the Christmas Parties we have on the calendar 😀

Added afterwards:
I check out the blog http://www.ecorazzi.com, its in my RSS reader, and they have a post with links from other blogs with Thanksgiving recipes for vegetarians and vegans out there