Merry Christmas

I got a flip video camera for Christmas. Thanks Santa! You can see my first video attempt at http://sassyandalley.blogspot.com/

I hope you've all had a very Merry Christmas!

Dreaming of snow days

I'm jealous of everyone's snow pictures. It seems the Northwest, Midwest and East Coast were covered in white fluff this past week. (Of course, by now it's probably turned to brownish, yellow layers of ice.)

It was 70 degrees here in Columbus. I'm glad it wasn't freezing, but I do miss playing in the snow.

I remember being a kid in Indiana and waking up on cold winter days to peak out the window hoping the yard would magically have transformed into a winter wonderland. My sister and I would listen to the radio, fingers crossed, to hear whether school would be closed for the day. My mom would listen, too. Her fingers would be crossed, but I don't think we were hoping for the same announcement.

I remember the absolute joy of hearing classes were canceled. Mom could barely get a bowl of cereal in us before we'd run out in the yard to make forts and plan snowball wars with neighbors.

We'd come inside for a break when we'd lost feeling in our toes and fingers and we were convinced our noses had turned into ice cubes. Mom, sister and I would drink hot chocolate and eat mom's famous jam-filled thumb-print cookies.

After warming up, mom would bundle us up again and take us to the park where we would sled down Snow Mountain, in hindsight it was really more of a steep hill. All the kids would be there. We'd have races, try out different tricks and attempt to run into each other as we headed down the hill at top speed. It was all fun and games until someone got hurt, never seriously, thankfully. And then we'd go home.

That night we kids sadly watched our dads shovel the snow into piles and trucks clear the roads. We drifted off to sleep with our hopes of another snow day melting faster than the icicles hanging from the roof.

One week until Christmas

How can Christmas be only seven days away? I'm not done shopping. I haven't baked any cookies. One row of lights is out on my tree.

Oh, and Jeff and I are hosting the newsroom Christmas party at our house on Saturday. Yikes!

When am I going to wrap presents, clean the house and finish hanging the lights?

Remember being a kid? When Christmas meant a hard-earned break from school, playing in the snow and eating cookies while sipping hot chocolate? I don't remember any stress. I can't remember rushing around convinced I'd never get everything done.

Maybe that's because the only thing on my to-do list was to have fun.

I need that to-do list now. Instead of stressing out about when I'm going to finish all my self-inflicted tasks, maybe I should just lay on the couch and watch "Love Actually." Perhaps I'll even have a cup of hot chocolate. That should get me in the Christmas spirit.

'Tis the season for crowds

All I want for Christmas is to avoid the crowds. It seems every store and restaurant in Columbus is packed.

Aren't we facing tough economic times? Someone forgot to tell the shoppers and diners.

Last night Jeff and I went to the Olive Garden. (I know the big, bad chain, but hey, this isn't New York) Picture it: A quiet Tuesday night, an 8 p.m. dinner for two, a glass of wine, some Christmas music playing in the background.

Sounds serene, huh. The perfect way to relax after a busy day at work.

Wrong. We struggle to find a parking spot and then we can barely squeeze into the restaurant's door because so many hungry people are crowded around waiting for tables.

The wait is 25 minutes... on Tuesday! Yikes. We try our luck at the bar (first-come, first-serve policy there). And there is a family with a 9- or 10-year-old daughter sitting at the bar. Not at a table near the bar, at the actual bar. She could reach over an pour herself a beer. Not that she was, it was strictly sweet tea for this family of three dressed in their finest sweats. When did it become O.K. for kids to sit at the bar? Don't you have to be 21?

After 10 minutes and some elbow-throwing, we snagged two seats at the bar and proceeded with our meal. It wasn't exactly the quiet, relaxing dinner we'd been hoping for, but hopefully the crowd signifies that Olive Garden is doing well financially. People need their breadsticks, especially in hard economic times.

Don't forget to vote

I was lucky to have only an hour wait at my voting spot in Columbus, Ga. I arrived at 10:30 a.m. and was driving away at 11:30 a.m. Folks were friendly and the volunteers were organized and efficient. Kids were out of school, so there were quite a few bored little ones running around, but no one was crying. The volunteers were passing out water bottles and had plenty of chairs near the line for elderly or tired voters.

They didn't need any chairs at my mom's voting spot in Terre Haute, Ind. She had no wait at all when she arrived at about 10 a.m.

My sister, in Atlanta, waited two hours. She arrived at 8 a.m. She just missed out on the doughnuts that were delivered as she was leaving at 10 a.m. People there brought their own lawn chairs and were quite chatty in line. Check out her twitter updates. She's Augustanne09.

Time to collect free stuff. Free Chick-fillet sandwiches, coffee from Starbucks and Krispy Kremes are available! Have fun!

Merry Halloween

The drugstore by my house is ready for Christmas. Stockings, toys and all things santa line at least half the aisles. Thankfully, two aisles are devoted to candy. You know, for that other holiday.

It seems like Christmas gets started earlier every year. Some folks wish stores would wait until the day after Thanksgiving to decorate. How about waiting 'til the day after Halloween?

I can't say that I mind much. I love the Christmas season. Filled with holiday parties, shopping and gift exchanges, it's the season for fun. Oh, and the season for giving, of course.

Looking at Christmas decorations makes me happy, even if it's before Halloween. It makes me think about spending time with my family, watching feel-good movies while stringing popcorn and racing to the mailbox to look for Christmas cards.

With store shelves stocked with so many holiday items, at least I have more choices. Maybe I'll pass out Chocolate santas for Halloween.

Chocolate is for kids

Jeff turns 40 Tuesday. Forty. That seems old. I remember my friends' parents being 40. I guess it's one of those things that you think only happens to other people. It's hard to believe it's happening to my husband. This is the man who jumps over the couch, leaps onto my desk at work and has never seen a banister he didn't want to slide down. Don't 40 year olds have joint problems or at least bad knees?

After going through the stages of birthday grief (denial, fear and acceptance) Jeff decided to greet his fourth decade with a gin-induced stupor. Since friends don't let friends drink alone, we had a party. A martini party. We had cucumber, Kit-Kat, chocolate, pineapple, apple, Sapphire and dirty martinis. Yum!

The highlight for Jeff was the impromptu gin tasting (thanks, Anne) which certainly seemed to help him achieve his gin-induced stupor. The highlight for the rest of us was probably the chocolate fountain. Yes, a fountain of chocolate. Makes those water fountains seem pretty silly, huh.

Guests dipped strawberries, cookies, pretzels, marshmallows (and yes, their fingers) into a cascade of melted chocolate. Their faces (some young, some not-so-young) showed childlike joy while watching their treats get soaked in chocolate.

It was a magical experience, and I guess even a 40-year-old couch-jumper deserves some birthday magic.