And the Winner is...

Hannah Banana from All is Well In My World!

Congratulations! I'll be contacting you either through your blog or through GoodReads to get your info.

I'll also post some Christmas updates tomorrow as well.

Last Call

So the ornament giveaway wasn't the runaway hit I hoped it would be. I only got three entries. So I'm giving it another couple of days. The winner will be selected Christmas eve. C'mon, it's cute! Leave a comment, I'll draw a name Christmas Eve, and announce the winner the day after Christmas.

Some Updates

I've made it pretty far on my Christmas to do list. But we had a couple of sad interuptions to the usual Christmas joy.

My beloved Busia passed away a week ago Monday. I didn't post a whole lot about it because I didn't know what to say and I wasn't looking for a flurry of sympathy. But she was very important to me, and I'm going to miss her a whole lot! She turned 90 this past May. I made her a beautiful pink blanket. She loved it. Thankfully, she passed in her sleep.

We headed to Indiana between snow storms for the funeral. I was selected by everyone to deliver a eulogy, so I summoned everything I learned in 4 years of college and 2 of grad school to attempt to do her 90 years justice. Then, as we were leaving the cemetery... we got the call that Craig's grandmother had also passed away. Double whammy. I feel awful that I can't go and be there for Craig... I really liked his grandmother. She was such a sweet woman and always had smiles and hugs for Alex. So pray for more safe travels for us the next week or so.

Raising the Bar

I feel like I've raised my own intellectual bar the last couple of weeks. In my old job, I had to scan many local news websites, including the small community newspapers here, looking for stories of relevance to the non-profit organization I worked for... either about us or about our industry. It helped feed my need for news while keeping me informed about the industry in which I worked. Over lunch, I would then peruse People.com or UsMagazine.com. Guilty pleasures, but not exactly stimulating.

Now that I've changed jobs I've had to adjust my reading material. Once or twice a week I will have to prepare headline reports for executives, which means I REALLY need to understand my new industry (retail) and what would interest these executives. So now I'm reading the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Women's Wear Daily, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, LA Times... all online of course. But I'm absolutely wallowing in these publications like a pig in mud. It feels so good to be on top of current events again and be reading these hallowed publications. I feel smarter reading these.

The new job is challenging me on an intellectual level. I want to learn everything about my new company so I can represent it well. I need to be an expert on it, after all. I'll be representing the company in media interviews eventually, so I need to know my stuff (er... their stuff). I'm getting more excited the more comfortable I'm getting with my team. I still have a long way to go in terms of getting up to speed, but I'm definitely off to a good start!

Need Music Suggestions

Does anyone have any good suggestions for songs about friendship? If so post them here. I'm not going to go too far into detail, lest I ruin what I want to be a surprise. Just post your ideas for friendship songs. No questions asked. Any genre will do, even country. I can't believe I just posted that. (shiver) Thanks in advance!

Sydney's Christmas Left To Do List

1. Christmas Cards.

2. Send Christmas Card photo to Walgreen's to print.

3. Finish getting out Christmas decorations (ceramic Christmas tree that lights up, Grinch lava lamp, Nativity Scene)

4. Wash Christmas dishes recieved 3 years ago as a gift so you can finally use them.

5. Finish buying Christmas presents.

6. Wrap Christmas presents.

7. Make Christmas cookies.

8. Start searching for your sanity, because if you make it this far down the list in the next week, you will certainly have misplaced your sanity.

The Joy of Giving

While hanging up my ornaments this year, I came across one that I think needs to find a new home. So I'm going to host my first giveaway. If you would like to win this ornament, leave a comment on my blog.

There's nothing wrong with the ornament. I think it's very cute. It's made of Fimo-type clay. It is dated and has my name on the back, but whoever wins it will always know where it came from. I just picked an ornament I wasn't hugely emotionally attached to and this is the one.

If you post this contest on your blog, and link back to mine, you'll get one extra entry (just be sure to let me know that you've put up a link on your blog.

The contest closes at 10PM (Central Time) Friday, December 19. It probably won't get there by Christmas, but it's the thought that counts, right?? Good luck!

Christmas is Coming

Last weekend we started decking the halls at our house. I finally put away all my pumpkins and Halloween decorations. Now, I don't normally leave the Halloween stuff up till AFTER Thanksgiving. This year it was just too crazy with changing jobs and life in general. I simply didn't get to it till last week. We took Alex to see Santa, bought a Christmas tree, built a fire in the fireplace and started decorating.

Let me preface this by saying I LOVE Christmas. I love decorating for it. I love sending and receiving cards (especially ones with letters or notes updating me on people's lives). I love going to church this time of year. The songs, the symbolism, the preparation for the birth of Jesus. I love the how Alex is starting to get it... that if he's really good Santa will bring him presents. When I was little I loved getting presents. Now that I'm older, I have truly discovered the joy of giving.

Starting from the year we were born, my parents bought us Christmas ornaments. We could look at our Christmas tree and trace our path in life, our interests, activities, what was important to us each year based on the ornaments on the tree. I'm not talking just one ornament a year here. At least two ornaments or more each year, every year (3+ ornaments a year x 33 years= hundreds of ornaments). Some were homemade, some are from catalogs, mostly though, they are Hallmark ornaments. After my brother, my sister and I each moved out, we each got GIANT boxes containing our ornaments. So we never had naked Christmas trees. It's actually fun to pull the ornaments out each year and tell the stories behind them, because each one truly has a story! (for those of you already reading this... I hit publish too soon... so I'm finishing this now!!)

I have ornaments I made as a child. Ornaments that say "Daughter," "Sister," "Granddaughter," and now "Mom." I've carried on the tradition with Alex. He has a handful of ornaments as well, but I limit it to two a year from us, because of course, my mom gets him 2 ornaments too.

Here are some ornament close-ups:

This picture shows a penguin I bought for Alex last year, a glass ball hand painted by one of Craig's former co-workesr, a bear on a swing that is mine, a shell ornament we picked up in St. Thomas on our honeymoom, and snowman that was just cute and needed to live on our tree.

This is one of my favorites! I took French for 6+ years, starting with my freshman year of high school. So there are a few Eiffel Towers ornaments on my tree, as well as some "Pere Noel" ornaments.

This one is also special... a gift the year we found out we were pregnant with Alex. If you notice the crayola ornament too, I collect the series of Crayola ornaments from Hallmark.

Oh heck, they're all special! This was another gift for Craig and I. My mom and I have this long running thing with Pink Flamingoes. It's a long story.

I'm quite certain this was my first ornament, though it might have been my second. It's a glass Santa covered in that sugar-type glitter. This one has to hang on an interior branch, so if it slips it might be cushioned from falling. The baseball is from Craig's trip to cover Bob Uecker's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. This one got misplaced one year... put in the wrong box. We thought we threw it out with the tree. It resurfaced last year.

This Bob the Builder is Alex's. Bob is still a favorite of his.
As you can see every ornament has a story. There are hundreds of ornaments on my tree right now and each one has a story. I have a box and a half of ornaments that didn't even make it on the tree this year that also have stories. Christmas is all about memories... new and old. I think that's why it always make me feel so warm.

Readjusting

So the new job is amazing. I'm learning so much about my new company and what my new responsibilities will be. It's a HUGE change from working for the local arm of a major non-profit to a major national business. But it's very cool too.

It's taken some adjustments. I realize now that I was very spoiled in my last job. I was able to exercise at work. I haven't worked out all week and I'm getting cranky. I'll be heading to the gym first thing tomorrow morning. I'll now join the ranks of everyone else trying to plan time to workout into their day. I'm just going to have to pick a day or two during the week and either go before work or after work.

I parked in a ramp at my old job. It was covered. And it took me maybe a minute and a half to walk into the building. Now, I park in a giant parking lot. It snowed twice this week and now it's bitterly cold. I believe that parking ramp fee was worth every penny.

My time in the evening is even more valuable. While I'm working the same hours, I'm still not even close to being in a routine. I had to run errands nearly every night this week, after being out of town last weekend. Groceries were needed and I had to get some Christmas shopping done. I haven't had any time to blog. And I'm not allowing myself to check personal email or surf my favorite websites at work anymore. (Trying to cure myself of some bad habits.) So I am so behind on reading blogs and checking my other favorite sites.

I also learned that my internal alarm is set for 6:30 a.m. Twice this week my alarm didn't go off. I flung back the covers at 6:30 a.m. screaming "What???" I need to be more careful when setting my alarm. I had to go into work early today and when I went to reset my alarm... it was set for 5:30 p.m.

So bear with me as I adjust to this new job (which so far, I LOVE!!!). I'm sure I'll get into some sort of rhythm and hopefully I'll be able to keep up with all my friends in real life and online.