The Holidays--AKA I'm not ready!

Okay, usually I'm that person everyone hates around the holidays: all presents are purchased and wrapped well before Thanksgiving. Decorations are up, tree is lit, and nothing left to do but enjoy.

Except this year. This year, I'm a HOT MESS. I have, like, half my presents purchased. The other half I still have noooo idea what to get them. LOL. No Christmas tree up yet. No decorations. My mom is going to poop a chicken if I don't get on that. Uh, don't tell her I said that.

Anyone else in the OMG-I-HAVE-SO-MUCH-LEFT-TO-DO haze like I am? Or am I going to be super-envious of you this year?

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

And all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse (which isn't much smaller than my baby daughter, by the way).

Not a creature was stirring, except for me, of course. As a new mom, I'm paranoid to sleep. It's 5 am and I'm on the night shift. Mr. Brice watched the baby and did some work from 8:30 pm to 2 am while I slept. Now it's my turn.

I can't believe it's actually Christmas Eve. CRAZINESS! Seriously, where did this month go? Oh wait...I know exactly where it went. Sadly, Mr. Brice's grandma passed away the day after Thanksgiving, so we went out of town for the funeral the first weekend of December, which meant a long car trip down to Tennessee.

Then when we got back, it was off to work the first two days of the week like normal. But what came after that was anything but normal.

I left work that Tuesday afternoon (December 8) around 4 pm so that I could meet my friend (and frequent Fictionista blog reader) Jennifer up at the Capitol Building. She was visiting from Atlanta, and was staying with her cousin, and even though being 8 months pregnant was keeping me from doing all the sightseeing and whatnot with her that I would have liked, I had tickets for the Capitol Tree Lighting Reception at the Botanic Gardens after the lighting, so we met up for that.

I was feeling completely fine. I ran into smoe people I knew and they asked me how I was feeling, and so of course I gave the standard throwaway answers that any 8-month preggers lady gives:
"I feel like I'm about to pop any second"
AND
"I'm so ready to not be pregnant anymore."

Which wasn't exactly true. I didn't literally mean I was about to pop, and I had way too many things still to do to get ready for the baby first. But, well, those answers are pretty much expected. I don't know. Whatever.

Except, it ended up being true. When I got home from the reception, I went with Mr. Brice to walk the dog, then I sat down to get some writing done. Did significantly more writing in one session than I'd done in months. I was feeling pretty good about myself, when all of a sudden it hit me that I hadn't felt the baby move in hours.

I drank some juice and laid down. Several hours later, at about 3 am, I got up to walk around, drank some more juice, ate some string cheese, and came back to bed. In tears. Because I couldn't feel anything.

Mr. Brice told me it was time for me to call the hospital. The midwife on call told me to come in for observation.

I was admitted around 4 am, and they immediately got a heartbeat. Yay! What a relief. I figured they would send me home with the typical giggles they reserve for any other clueless first time mom who panics over the slightest thing.

They ended up sending me home 4 days later, and lo and behold, I was no longer pregnant. My baby, who was 5 1/2 weeks premature had to stay behind in the NICU.

But Merry Christmas to me! Baby Amber came home yesterday!!!!!!!! Santa brought us a very special early Christmas present this year.



It's our first Christmas as a little family, and I couldn't be more thrilled. so my wish for all our readers is that you and your family have as joyous a holiday season as I am.

Happy holidays!

Christmas Lolcats

Over at my blog, I'm doing a few days of Christmas Lolcats. They totally crack me up! Here's today's:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

do you hear what I hear?

*crickets*

Yeah, that's about what I expect to hear tonight when I give my first ever author talk at the Benton Library.

The good news is, if I bomb, I get a chance to make it all better tomorrow at the Bryant Library!

I guess it's not really my "first" talk because a few weeks ago I met with 35 members of the Bryant High School reading club and I spoke to those guys. But they made it easy because they asked questions and all I had to do was sparkle.

What if nobody asks me anything tonight?

What if I lose my sparkle?

Tell me what you think I should talk about that will engage a crowd mixed with kids and adults. What would you want to hear that would keep you interested and maybe even inspire you to ask a question?

BTW, I can't believe Christmas is just a few days away. Happy Holidays to all my 'Nistas and all our friends in the interwebs. Thanks to all of our readers...we feel very blessed to have you guys in our virtual lives.

Best Christmas decoration ever!

Apparently, this set up only lasted a few days because too many people didn't get that the hanging man was a fake. I think it's a riot!

Entertain yourselves

I'm heading out to finish up my Christmas shopping today with a friend. It's an annual tradition and I wouldn't miss it for the world. While I'm gone, try your hand at Reindeer Roundup. I suck at it, but that doesn't stop me from playing! And hey, where else do you get to shoot blow darts at reindeer?

Have fun! Play Game.

Christmas Burnout!

I was gonna post about Thanksgiving since it's tomorrow, but I decided to mix things up a bit and talk about what's on my mind right now. And that's Christmas Oversaturation, which has been getting increasingly worse every year. Signs of Christmas Oversaturation include:

--holiday items in the store on October 1 (or sometimes earlier)
--Christmas CDs put out by every freaking artist ever known to mankind
--bombardment of Christmas music on the radio right after Halloween

As you can tell from my tone, haha, I'm super tired of Christmas being shoved down our throats so freaking early in the year. Whatever happened to enjoying fall, and Thanksgiving (hah, see, I did tie it in!), and then moving into Christmas? Why is 1 month of celebration before Christmas not enough anymore?

Now, don't get me wrong--I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I think it's magical, and I adore that this is truly a season for giving and sharing and caring about others. But the commercialism and oversaturation of the season is just too much for me to handle anymore.

I don't know about you guys, but by the time Christmas actually arrives, I'm totally suffering from Christmas Burnout. Symptoms include:

--avoiding all Christmas aisles in stores (which is increasingly hard to do)
--writing snarky blog posts (hahahaha)
--not wanting to hear any new Christmas CDs (I'll stick to the classics, thanks)
--turning the station away from Christmas music (I don't want 24-hour Christmas songs!)

So, am I Uncle Scrooge here, or do you feel the same way too? Do you too suffer from Christmas Burnout, or do you dig getting started on the holiday celebration as early as possible? Share!

'Twas the day before Christmas...

It's Christmas eve, and I'm one of a handful of people in my office today. In some ways, it's cool--hello, RUN WITH SCISSORS while the bosses are out! In some ways, it sucks, though--I'd much, much rather be home. haha. So, for those of you who are stuck at work with me and have access to a computer, here are some online fun and games to check out:

--You can download the classic Elf Bowling game and wow your coworkers with your amazing ability to knock elves over!

--Into Mah Jong? Here's a Christmas Mah Jong game for ya.

--If you're an evil heathen like I am, you can watch the Ding Fries are Done guy on YouTube and laugh, laugh, laugh your work cares away.

--And last but not least, check out the picture that I found on funmunch.com (this pic made me snort out loud):

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!!

A Twist on Chrismas Songs

Here's a fun version of a old favorite. Have you heard this one yet? You might want to listen to it twice to really get the whole thing. Pretty awesome.


What's your favorite Christmas song?

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Every year, Christmas seems to come earlier and earlier. They put up the ginormous 4-story Christmas tree in the lobby where I work two weeks weeks before Thanksgiving this year. I think that's just a little excessive, doncha think?

(And it's definitely a "Christmas tree" this year, despite it being a federal government building. Normally it's a "holiday tree" and decorated in such inclusive colors as blue, silver or gold, but this year it's distinctly a Christmas tree with red ornaments, but I digress...)

I mean, okay, I understand that the economy sucks this year, and people are trying to make consumers head to the malls to spend, and what better way to do that than to remind people that the holiday season is here (even earlier than usual!). But a tree up 2 weeks before Thanksgiving? For crying out loud, I'm barely over Halloween by that point.

But fine. We're now a full week past Thanksgiving, and well into the holiday swing. I get that. I'm okay with it. But why must you play all my favorite classic holiday shows SUPER early?!

Case in point: "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." Best. Christmas. Movie. Ever. I just love that little dentist wannabe Hermie the Elf, and the doll on the Island of Misfit Toys. And when Rudolph says "Ready, Santa!" at the end, it just tears me up inside.

Well, I hope you were able to watch it last night on CBS, because I was not. (I had dress rehearsal for "The Nutcracker.") Because according to this list, that was the ONLY time all season that it will be on this year!

http://tv.spreadit.org/christmas-tv-specials-movies-schedule-2008/

What the heck? We're still 3 weeks away from Christmas, but no more Rudolph. Oh sure, if I'm interested in watching "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" (Dec 10, Dec 11, Dec 13, Dec 24), "Rudolph & the Island of Misfit Toys" (Dec 11, Dec 15, Dec 21), or "Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July" (Dec 13, Dec 24), then I have plenty of other options. And those are fine in a pinch, but they're not the true Rudolph.

So now I'll have to wait another 365 days to get my true Rudolph fix. It just doesn't seem right.

Cheap Gifts

No, this isn't a tirade on $5 Rudolph sweaters or half-price ties that play Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. It's a few suggestions on some less expensive, but great, gifts to give this year. With things being tight all over (and I'm not talking about my pants), homemade gifts are a fabulous way to feel extravagant without spending massive amounts of cash.

If you're good on the computer:
* A CD of family pictures set to music and edited with one of the movie maker programs complete with a custom label.
* An offer to build a website
* An offer to teach someone how to build a website, make a movie or whatever other computer skills you have

If you're crafty:
* Homemade bath salts - I make a lot of these
* Homemade body scrubs - ditto
* Jewelry - I even opened my own shop, I got so good at this.
* Hand-painted items - this category is endless. Example: Paint a flower pot and fill it with some seed packets and gardening gloves.

If you sew:
* Reusable grocery bags - you could even monogram these or dress them up with iron on transfers
* Make ties (see here for instructions)
* Sew a custom stuffed monster!

If you cook:
* Make cookies/cocoa/soup in a jar
* Offer to teach someone how to cook!
* Make a recipe book with pictures.

For more crafty gift ideas, Google is your friend - just type in homemade gifts. The ideas are endless! Or check out this blog: Craftzine. Christmas doesn't have to be expensive. Get some friends together and make a day of gift-making. How much fun would that be?! Have you ever made your own gifts before? What kind of stuff have you done?