We had an awesome time with our Christmas party, 10 adults, 3 kids (including us), and a ton of tasty treats. We had cookies, meatballs, bread & spinach dip, pears (from Harry & David), Rice Krispie treats, veggie tray, chips, salsa, Coc-Cola, wine and beer. Highlights were Elijah growling and scaring one of the girls, playing Clue-Great Museum Caper, and everyone digging both the trees.

Pics of the event for you:

Elijah checking out the Christmas crackers we gave everyone.

My little St. Nick. (the hat didn’t last too long.)

This is Curt & Jan Jones, the wonderful people who have us over for holidays.

Shots of the guests.

The hosts with the most. 🙂

But I think it has my number.

*Thanks to Melanie & Mike for starting it*

Your Birthdate: January 11

Spiritual and thoughtful, you tend to take a step back from the world. You’re very sensitive to what’s going on around you, yet you remain calm. Although you are brilliant, it may take you a while to find your niche. Your creativity is supreme, but it sometimes makes it hard for you to get things done. Your strength: Your inner peace Your weakness: You get stuck in the clouds Your power color: Emerald Your power symbol: Leaf Your power month: November

No Reply At All – Genesis
Three Times A Lady – Commodores
Superstar – Easily Amused
Why Georgia – John Mayer
It’s Alright – Huey Lewis & The News
Monkey Wrench – Foo Fighters
Start Me Up – The Folksmen
Orange Crush – R.E.M.
The Future – Leonard Cohen
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – U2

With the weather take a turn for the yucky, and dealing with being annoyed/angry/whatever, it’s been an odd week.

On the good side of things…

Colin got a promotion at work! He’s pretty happy about that.
Colin & Dawn got Dylan a puppy for Christmas. They’ve been wanting to add a four legged friend to the family for a long time, and now that they have the house, it was time. He’s a little black pup (cross breed of poodle and Shi Tzu I think) named Snoop. Yes that’s right, Snoop Dog.

My mom got a kitten. He’s smoky grey with white paws and a white chest. She named him Snuggles. They are both very happy together. 🙂

Elijah had a good doctor’s appointment this week. He goes back in March. He likes the Christmas lights. I want to try to take a family walk around the neighborhood to check out everyone’s lights. I really want to take a picture of the house on the corner, so you can all see how they went ALL OUT!

Tomorrow is the Christmas party here. It looked like we might cancel, but then yesterday was the day everyone RSVP’d. Some people are even cutting short other parties just to come to our house. That makes me smile. It’s nice to be loved (and I needed that this week). I still haven’t baked my cookies, and Geoff hopes to bake tonight. That leaves me today to do it. Yikes!

Geoff put up the real tree last night, and I decorated it this morning. I’ll take a picture tonight or tomorrow for you all. It’s great to smell the pine all throughout the house. And Geoff was right, we do have enough ornaments for 2 trees. But I love adding new ones. He refers to Cornelius (fake) as the modern tree, and Irene (real) as the old school tree.

Getting married means trying to blend traditions, and one of Geoff’s is not putting gifts under the tree until Christmas Eve. I hate this, I love looking at the gifts. But I don’t want Elijah opening them early, so this year I’m okay with it. Actually, there is one gift under the tree, it’s Auntie Lisa’s to Elijah. It’s in a bag, and it’s flat. Elijah sorta plays with it, tries to look inside, but he can’t see anything. Then he’ll get distracted by Honey and move on to something else. It’s gonna be fun Christmas morning. 🙂

Well, I guess those cookies aren’t going to bake themselves. 🙂 I also need to go out to Rite-Aid, so I’ll bundle up Elijah and I and plow. I’m closing with a quote from A Christmas Story.

Narrator: In the heat of battle my father wove a tapestry of obscenities that as far as we know is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan.

I’ve been busy trying to deal with some issues I have, so I haven’t really been blogging. Been spending a ton of time on the phone with Lisa & Athena. And while I was able to vocalize to them & Geoff what was bugging me, I think I will ultimately decide to not blog about that.

I’ve been obsessed with the song No Reply At All (Genesis) the last few days, so here are the lyrics. Something about the song speaks to me. I just love it.

Talk to me, you never talk to me.
Ooh, it seems that I can speak.
But I can hear my voice shouting out.
But there’s no reply at all.

Is anybody listening – oh oh,
No reply at all…

Three screen names that you’ve had: Melissius, phil, Melissa_in_denver

Three things you like about yourself: My wit, my smile, my faith

Three things you don’t like about yourself: My body, pettiness towards certain people (I’m working on it), lack of motivation

Three parts of your heritage: Scottish, Ukrainian, Yugoslavian

Three things that scare you: Anything horrible happening to my family, insects, lizards

Three of your everyday essentials: Kissing Geoff & Elijah, watching the news, checking my email

Three things you are wearing right now: Jeans, Disneyland shirt, slipper socks

Three of your favorite songs: Return To Me (Dean Martin), Boogie Oogie Oogie (A Taste Of Honey), Sullivan Street (Counting Crows)

Three things you want in a relationship: Someone who makes me laugh, trust, honesty

Two truths and a lie: I get motion sickness, I never lie, I love my friends like family

Three things you can’t live without: Jesus, people I love, potato chips

Three places you want to go on vacation: Scotland, New Zealand, Italy

Three things you just can’t do: Play an instrument, cut straight, eat fresh fish

Three kids names: Elijah James, Patrick Hugh, Noelle

Three things you want to do before you die: See Elijah get married, go on a cruise around the world with Geoff, be in a movie

Three celeb crushes: Harry Connick Jr, Robert Sean Leonard, Will Smith

Three of your favorite musicians: Harry Connick Jr, Michael Bublé (he sings), Geoff

Three physical things about the opposite sex that appeals to you: Smile, eyes, pecs

Three of your favorite hobbies: Reading, playing games, blogging

Three things you really want to do badly right now: Eat some Ruffles, soak in a hot tub, get out of town

Three ways that you are stereotypically a boy: Hate clothes shopping, love MXC, enjoy playing sports

Three ways that you are stereotypically a girl: I like going to the salon/spa, I love children, I love romantic comedies

I went out and bought some supplies to make a Christmas craft. I probably should consider finishing one project before starting another, but that’s never been my style. The stocking is well on it’s way, and this craft I have in mind shouldn’t take too much. (insert laughter here) I also hope to bake some cookies this week. If they turn out, I’ll take a picture for you.

We took Elijah to see Santa yesterday. I posted their picture together on his blog.

Scrubs is coming back to tv on January 3! And we’ll get two new episodes. Whoo-hoo! The only problem I foresee is it may end up airing the same time as House, which means I’ll be using the VCR for the first time since we moved.

I would like to get out to the theatre to see a movie, but I’m not holding my breath on that happening anytime soon. It just seems like a lot of trouble to get a sitter and go out. We didn’t go out to movies often before Elijah, but the things we did do, were much more convenient by being so close to Cherry Creek. Aw, the downside of living in the ‘burbs.

Last night we watched Surviving Christmas (’cause I think Affleck is the bomb yo!), and it was alright. Geoff said he liked the parts that didn’t suck. 🙂 It was very similar to Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. But then Hollywood doesn’t really do original, doesn’t it? In any case, I liked both movies (but Dickie Roberts is better).

I was going to post about this a while ago, but then forgot, and then my friend Ashley did: I’m really disappointed that Nick & Jessica broke up. I had hoped they would have stuck it out. I feel there are only a few things that can’t be fixed in a marriage, and I doubt those issues were present. Marriage is hard enough, but then to add prying eyes and world-wide gossip, it must make it that much harder.

I’ll close with a quote from Surviving Christmas.

Drew Latham: Folks, my firm’s done a tremendous amount of marketing research and we’ve discovered two critical things, one; most Americans feel that Christmas is a time for family. Two; most Americans feel that in order to stand being around their family, for even one or two days, they need to swill as much alcohol as humanly possible.

Hopefully Elijah’s first trip to see Santa won’t be like this. 🙂

Kindness – Todd Agnew
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do – Neil Sedaka
Someday – Sugar Ray
Confessions II – Usher
Ladies Night – Kool & The Gang
Give Up The Funk – Parliment
Disappear – INXS
Hot In The City – Billy Idol
Rotten Apple – Alice In Chains
I Love The Nightlife – Alicia Bridges

Last Friday – Dylan’s birthday
Sunday – Dawn’s birthday
Today – Colin’s birthday

Happy Birthday You Guys!

I love you, I miss you, I can’t wait until I can see you again.