Third Ornament of the 2013 Buffyfest Whedonverse Ornament Swap Received

Rain from California sent me an envelope that was just a gift that kept on giving.  The envelope itself was made from some kind of paper with Angel on it.  

There was a post card with "The Scooby Gang" on it, with her wishes for me for a Merry Whedon.  She included two trading cards, a drawing of the firefly Serenity, a Buffy iron-on patch, AND my very own browncoat!!

Fantastic!

More Christmas Nails

Tree Nails.  They lasted a long time.

Snowman nails. They lasted not so much.

Random design. Snow falling and a tree on my ring finger.
All nails except ring finger have a matte coat on them.

Mustache tree nails

I offered to do some nails for my co-workers' wives before our company Christmas party.  Only one lady took me up on the offer and she drove from FAR away (at least an hour) on a Friday with her 5 year old daughter to my house to have pizza, salad an get her nails done.

We had a really nice time and I even did her daughter and Isabel's nails a-la Mincecraft

My co-worker's wife's nails

Isabel's Minecraft nails

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Christmas Time with the Fairy God Person.

I've been wanting this for years. It's been on our "I Reeeeeeally Want" list on the fridge since 2011. (We have a list stuck to the side of the fridge for us tho write, throughout the year, things that we decide we want.  This way, when birthdays, anniversaries or Christmases come around, we have an idea.  So like I said, on the "list" since 2011.)

FGP has heard me mention my want of this item for several years. It was just too expensive and I never in a million years expected FGP to get it.  I figured I'd just start collecting one by one until I got all 7.   This year, FGP asked what was on my list & I mentioned nail polishes, some movies, gift cards and this gift that I still have not gotten because I would never allow David to spend so much $$ on me.

FGP went and bought it for me. I about passed out.

What the heck am I talking about?

Click to make bigger!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have already listened to these 2 times each; from the library.  Fairy God Person could not understand why I would want to listen to them again and again, but got them all over me anyway! Ninety nine discs!

You have NO idea how excited I am!

Second Ornament of the 2013 Buffyfest Whedonverse Ornament Swap Received

This beauty came from Jennifer in New York.  When I opened the box, I laughed so hard!

 Don't get it? FOR SHAME!  I mean....here, let me explain.

In the very last episode ever of Buffy, "Chosen" Season 7, (SPOILER ALERT), the gang's in a school bus racing like mad out of Sunnydale.  Sunnydale implodes into a crater; goodbye Sunnydale.  

The gang stops to stare out at their lost city.

What an AWESOME ornament, Jennifer!

P.S. TODAY, Epbot posted my ornaments on their blog.  Cool!  See the post here.

Isabel's First Dance Recital

Isabel's been taking dance classes since the summer.  She did a mixed Jazz class in the summer (all ages) just for fun and then when the fall began, we signed her up for an age-appropriate Jazz Class.  Once she got over her initial worries, she's been having a great time.

They practiced all Fall for the Christmas recital. What a great show. She was a little nervous, but had a lot of fun.




There were over 20 acts, but they had it all down and we were out of there in less than 2 hour, including an intermission.

Here are a few clips of some, not all, of the acts.

PB&J, Thanksgiving & Christmas Nails

Peanut Butter & Jelly polish from Whimsical Ideas by Pam.  

Then I drew and little pb&j sandwich on my ring finger.

Gobble Gobble!  Thanksgiving nails.

Christmas Nails 1: Santa Hats

Christmas Nails 2: Santa & Elf coats

Remembering What It's About

Remember what it's about.

It. What's "it?"  The season. The reason.  Why we're celebrating.  We're not "shoppin' til we're droppin'," are we?

The Holidays make me loopy. I love the decorations, the feeling of togetherness, love, happiness.  I am a Christian. My reason for the season is Jesus.

What I hate is this DRIVE to shop, shop, shop.  I have asked, countless times, for people in my large family on my husband's side to draw names.  My sisters and I rarely exchange gifts.  If we do, we try to keep it small, and we tend to get for the kids more than our siblings. I do have some family members that go a little nuts on my kids and me, and it sometimes makes me feel bad because I did not spend enough on them as they did on me.

I love getting gifts and giving gifts. I just will not go into debt doing so.  My son's playing on a DS Lite he got Christmas of 2008.  There have been several incarnations of the DS.  Has he gotten one? Nope, cause his DS is still working.  I will not buy my kids the newest electronic doo-dad that will get replaced next year with the "new" newest electronic doo-dad.   Ask them (David & Jacob) how many years went by before I finally got them a Wii as a joint gift one Christmas?  I refused to buy at the same time everyone was going nuts for it.

I won't ever go into debt over Christmas. "But my kids deserve it."  Why, what have they done that demands you go into debt?  Know what my kids deserve? A clean house that we can live in and pay for, food on the table, electricity, nice clothes.  When we can afford it, we get passes to theme parks.  When we can't, we can't.  We take vacations when we have the cash.  Cash.  I'm not going in debt over a vacation.  We cancelled our 10-year-anniversary trip last year because Jake's lemon needed fixing.  It was either fix the car with cash or fix the car with credit.  Cash it was.

Wow, this post was supposed to be about something else.  

This post is about a little girl.  She is 8 years old.  I have never met her.  

Her dad delivers uniforms to my office for my shop guys once a week.  He's in his late 30's/early 40's.  Married, attractive, sarcastic, dry wit, funny, will bust out in Spanish (he's not hispanic) randomly at me to see my reaction.

He stopped delivering for a month or 2; we got a new guy for that time.

Then he came back.

I was listening to the Christian radio station.  He asks me "What are you listening to?"  I reply "Z 88.3, the Christian station."  He nods, hands me my invoice and walks out.

"What? What did I do? Is he offended that I'm listening to Christian music?"

The next week, I'm listening to Mumford & Sons.  He asks me "What are you listening to?"  "It's a band called Mumford & Sons."

"You kill me with your music," he replies.

"Why?" I ask.

"You don't know this.  Of course you don't know this.  My wife died two months ago after a battle with cancer.  Every time I come in here, I hear her music. I hear her in here."

"Oh, I am so sorry," I squeak, swallowing the huge lump that has lodged itself into my throat.

"It's ok," he replied.  "Or at least, that's what they keep telling me."  He hands me my invoice and walks out.

I run into the bathroom and sob.

It's been about 4 months since then.  He comes in, has started joking a little bit more, hands me our invoice and leaves.

Christmas.

His daughter is 8.  She loves My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic.  He saw me wearing a T-shirt from the show last week and asked me where I got it.  He wanted to get one for Christmas for his little girl.

She is 8 years old and will have her first Christmas without her mom.

I drove home in tears and baked cookies.  Isabel helped; for the little girl with no mommy.

I saw him today, our weekly sarcastic-fest meeting.  I handed him the cookies, along with some gingerbread people and other small cookies.

"For your daughter."

"You bake?"

"Yea. It's for her. Just...you know." I was trying not to cry.

"Thank you. This is so considerate. She's going to love these."  He hands me my invoice and leaves.

And that's what IT is all about.  Not me tooting my horn.  Just....remembering that there are people out there hurting and I have a talent or a gift, or whatever and I am going to make someone's day a little better, for a little second.

First Ornament of the 2013 Buffyfest Whedonverse Swap Received

My first ornament came from Sarah in Illinois.

Dr. Horrible wearing his goggles!  YAY!!

Thanks Sarah!

Beauty & the Beast, Random Design, I Love N.Y. and Present from Dad

Beauty & the Beast nails from "I Have A Cupcake" on YouTube.

This set below drove me crazy. I was trying some nail art tape (really thin tape used to make designs).  It was tricky working with the tape, and then the Sally Hansen gold I was using would NOT dry. I had to re-do four nails and I was pretty much over it.

I really liked this next manicure.  Several cool things going on here.  First of all, the "I Love NY" polish is a Whimsy polish created at home by Pam of  "Whimsical Ideas By Pam" on Facebook.   She has no store front, just her Facebook page with tons of pictures of her amazing polishes, plus instructions on how to order via her email and Paypal.  Here are just a few of her homemade polishes:

NOT my manicure. I WISH.

I purchased "I Love NY" from her 2012 Holiday collection.  It's a clear base with tons of fun glitter.  I layered it on top of white and black polish on my ring and pinky.  Then I used my Konad stamper and Cheeky stamping plate and stamped Lady Liberty on my middle fingers.  The other 2 fingers were just a random waterfall design using red, white, black and silver.   This is my first successful stamping and I am really excited about it.  

Finally, my dad posted a picture of someone's HUGE nail polish collection. I countered back with a picture of this nail polish stand that I wanted.   A week later, it was at my door. Early Christmas gift. THANKS DAD!!