I am so blessed

There, after a week of not blogging I think that's a pretty darn good place to start. Everyone is looking back over the past year. I'm just looking back over the past week plus and I get a warm fuzzy feeling inside. (I wish it would spread to my outside. It's COLD out today LOL).

In my last post I re-capped Boxing Day but I didn't mention that I stopped at the post office. Actually, I have to go back before that. This is my mail box on Christmas Eve. It sucked to have to work all day but when I got home and opened my box to find it literally STUFFED full, that warm fuzzy feeling started. I had a bunch of Christmas cards including one from the Dierks Bentley Fan Club, a post office parcel notification AND a package from Melissa!!! (maddiesmommy123) for those of you on SS. Last year I had the priveledge of being her secret santa. This year she answered my plea to help me decorate my rather bare Christmas tree with a gorgeous penguin ornament!

On Boxing Day I picked up package that I got the notification for on Christmas Eve. It was a box FULL of goodies from Martha. Four adorable ornaments. Another penguin (by the way, for those of you who aren't my online friends, penguins are the mascot for one of the internet boards I visit. Flamingo's are the mascot for the other.) As well as boots to commemorate my 2007 trip to Texas (at least that's how I'm seeing them ;)) and a small Precious Memories plate. I don't even think she knows that I actually have a whole tree with mini PM ornaments on it. In the box was also a set of tea towels and a cool "Martha" paper album that I have assembled but need to pick a project for.

After Christmas the parties continued. I think I'm going to dub 2007 the year of the parties. We may have cancelled Christmas day but man have I been busy!

Friday, December 28th I attended the "Second Annual Sushi and Re-gifting Party". Note that's not a sushi re-gifting party ;) but a sushi AND re-gifting party. Last year one of my dear friends and ex-CMC sister Barbara hosted a dinner party at her home just after Christmas. It was such a success that we made her promise to do it again. I've had this party on my calendar since October. This year there were just five of us. All current or ex-CMC's from the same unit I was in. We've gotten together other times for retreats at Point Roberts and on the Sunshine Coast as well as a dinner party this summer when another of our "sisters" Jackie, was in town. This post Christmas bash is a blast. We all chipped in for sushi because we're all sick of turkey by this point and we brought along gifts that we received that we didn't particularly want to keep. The gift exchange is done in the typical "steal" way but BEFORE you open it so it's all based on the wrapping. We had fun stealing each other's bags and boxes but in the end, opening the "gifts" is what really made us laugh. I got some kind of cheesy Christmas themed serving plates. The best part? THERE WERE CRUMBS ON THEM! ROFL That made me laugh so hard. And, for any of you who were worried, I got rid of a dollar store glasses holder that I had "won" during one of our daily contests at the store. Cute I guess but not something I need or particularly want.

After dinner we also played speed Scrabble which is always a blast and mostly just caught up. I'm by far the youngest in this group but I love every single minute I get to spend with them and I truly value their friendship.

SaturDAY I didn't do much. That evening I worked at the store. 6 hours of mark downs. Yipee! Let the Semi-Annual Clearance begin LOL

Sunday was another party. This time it was my turn to host. The best part of actually hosting is it inspired me to clean up my apartment LOL I've been so busy that even though I was home every night, I really hadn't paid much attention to the place and you could tell. The get together was intened for my highschool friends. Due to previous commitments and illness we ended up with just three. Mike, Jenna and Melissa. Melissa brought her fiance Jevon along and at the last minute we also included Jevon's sister Rachel and her boyfriend Scott. So we ended up with a nice little group. It was a games night. Monopoly (which Rachel and I won), Scene-It DVD and a politically UN-correct version of "Whoonu" that Jevon had threatened to make and delivered to Melissa on Christmas day.

Phew! Is anyone else getting tired by this re-cap? Well, it serves me right. That's what I get for not blogging for so long.

Monday was New Year's Eve. The best part was I stayed in my pj's until 2pm :D Even then I only got dressed because I wanted to go to Walmart. Mike had given us girls gift cards and I took mine and bought a mirror that I've been coveting for AGES. I also "splurged" and bought a second floor lamp for my living room (it was only $14). Now I have more even light throughout.

Monday evening, as usual for me on New Year's eve, was split in to two. I started at the church where we had a finger food buffet and then headed out to my friends house where we welcomed the new year with more food and games. Mostly Charades and the like.

New Year's Day I would have been content to just stay home in my pj's all day but instead I coordinated with my parents and we went to see "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" together. I enjoyed the film for a few reasons. 1. It was fun, mindless action which was great for continuing with my "relaxation" trend. 2. I have been to a bunch of the places featured in the film now so I had a lot more context to reference. At one point two of the characters go "outside to see the ducks" in front of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. I leaned over and told my mom "I've seen those ducks! I have pictures of those ducks!" Then when they're in front of the White House I told my mom (yes I'm a talker during movies. She doesn't mind though) "We parked right there!!!" The movie takes them to Mount Vernon as well and it was so neat to see a place where I've been. Very cool and it definitely expanded the movie experience for me. Dad complained that Nicholas Cage didn't do a great job of acting but I told him "Dad, it's not his fault, it's a DISNEY movie. He didn't have great material to use".

After the movie Mom and Dad came over to my place for chili and corn bread and we had a rather morbid discussion regarding who gets my stuff when I die. Hopefully more about that in the future.

Anyways, after all that I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and a family that I like spending time with. So, here's to another great year full of happy times and warm fuzzy feelings.

~Heidi