Well, I got a grade back on my Statistics report that I risked life and limb for last week. I got a 95%!!! Ha! Take THAT crazy wind storm that tried to squash me to a pulp!
The semester seems to be winding down nicely. I only have one last exam to take, and it's an open-note, open-book exam that I can take online from home. Yeah. I'm kind of thrilled about it.
I finally finished the project that I was making for my little sister's birthday. The poor soul was actually born on Christmas Day. She's never been too thrilled about sharing her birthday with Jesus though. Understandable. However, my amazing parents have always made a great effort to separate her birthday from Christmas.
Just in case you come across someone who was born in the same predicament as my sister, here are a two very important tips:
1) DO NOT TRY TO PASS OFF A CHRISTMAS GIFT AS A COMBINED CHRISTMAS/BIRTHDAY GIFT. They will hate you and think you're a cheap, tight-wad of a jerkface. It's an insult of the worst kind. You buy everyone else separate birthday and Christmas gifts every year, and these poor Christmas Day born people deserve the same treatment.
2) After you've purchased the aforementioned SEPARATE birthday gift, WRAP IT IN PAPER THAT IS NOT CHRISTMAS RELATED!!! Always.
Here is what my family does on Christmas Day to keep the two important events separate: Simply put, Christmas Morning is all about Christmas. Everyone opens their gifts and says "Merry Christmas." After lunchtime, the Christmas mess is cleaned up, and then it's all about MN. "Merry Christmas" becomes "Happy Birthday to MN". She chooses her own birthday dinner, just as everyone does on their birthday in our family. After dinner, she opens her SEPARATE gifts and we all sing "Happy Birthday" and have cake and ice cream. Then we play games or watch a NON-Christmas movie and at the end of the night, we all go our separate ways.
See? Much better than trying to combine the two celebrations. That's just mean.
Anyway, this year, I decided to give MN a homemade crocheted blanket, AND a book. Oh yeah, go right ahead and give me the "Sister of the Year Award".
Yes, yes I did make that. I've actually become re-addicted to crochet lately because of it. I've been obsessively looking up new patterns and different things to try and make. I have a VERY long list of blankets, shawls, wraps, and sweaters. I'm either going to have to get more picky, or get a full-time job to pay for all the yarn I'll need to do these projects.
Oh, and one more thought: I'm pretty sure my daughter thinks of me as a human iPod. Every time I go to put her to bed, I have always sung her a few songs to help her calm down. Recently, she's decided that she has some favorites. Now, as soon as I sit down with her in that rocking chair and we're finished reading stories, she immediately starts making requests. She will always ask for the same song first:"Jasmine song?" (This is her term for "A Whole New World" from Aladdin.) From there she will shift to "Ariel song?" (This, of course, is "Part of that World" from The Little Mermaid.)
Yeah, do you see a pattern here?
She loves the songs from Disney Princess movies. Even though she hasn't seen all of the movies, she loves all of the books, and she loves the princesses. So as soon as she realized that they all have their own songs, they're all she wants to hear. So she'll start with Jasmine, then she'll go to Ariel, and then I can be right in the middle of that song, and she'll ask to switch back to Jasmine, and then Rapunzel, and then Cinderella...All that's missing is the touch screen and ear buds. I'm a walking, talking MP3 player, folks!
Anyway, I've kind of got a headache, and I've run out of things to ramble about.
By the way, my 100th post is coming up fast, and it looks like I'll be doing a video blog. (Eeek!) It should cover just about everyone's requests. Doug asked for anything embarassing, and I can't think of anything more embarassing than sitting in front of a video camera, rambling for a few minutes, and then posting it online for the world to see. I'll talk a little bit about my writing for Charlie's sake, and I'll even address a few of my pet peeves for Chanel. Any other topics you'd like me to talk about, let me know. I'll try to squeeze as much as I can into a nice, short clip.
Okay, that's it for now. Have a nice day!
As someone with a birthday on the 23rd Of December I totally agree with all you said about making it separate. If I am going to have a combined present, it better be fabulous
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the excellent mark and your rug looks beautiful. You are very clever doing that
Mynx: It's a tough time of year to be born, that's for sure. I pity anyone that has to deal with having a birthday in December.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliments, I've always liked to crochet. It's fun, and the blanket has really turned out. It's warm, and pretty. Perfect combination, right?
That is a very pretty blanket you crocheted. Congrats on the excellent grade!
ReplyDeleteThe girl that I am currently dating was born on December 26th. She has talked about how her family always made sure to separate her birthday from Christmas too.
George: Thanks! I'm rather proud of them. (The blanket AND the grade, that is.)
ReplyDeleteDecember 26th? That's gotta be a bummer, but I'm glad her family has always kept things separate for her. It's pretty important, and from what I understand, not all families will put in the effort. Just make sure that as the guy that's dating her, YOU never fail to make a big deal out of her birthday! :)
Good job on separating the birthday and Christmas. It is how it ought to be done. I'm also impressed with your singing abilities. I know moms find skills they never knew they possessed but there is no way I'd be able to remember all those songs. Just not my thing. :)
ReplyDeleteJenna: I was a music/choir geek in high school, and I come from a very musical family, so remembering a lot of songs is sort of a gift, and sometimes a curse. :)
ReplyDeleteMy family seems to have a lot of birthdays in November and December. Throw Christmas in there, and I am ususally broke by January. Always a good way to start the year :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome post title, by the way. I approve.
ReplyDeleteDoug: We have most of our family birthdays in June, with a few scattered through July and August. Needless to say, Summertime gets expensive for us, not to mention the cake withdrawal that we all go through when birthday season is over. It's tragic, really.
ReplyDeleteWOOT! I have the official Doug stamp of post title approval! Who knew that laziness could pay off so well? :)
My birthday's in the beginning of February, just outside of the dreaded holiday zone. My daughter's birthday is Dec. 12th. She doesn't make out too badly though (It helps that she's an only child, I think.)
ReplyDeleteBryan: So long as you and your wife always make an effort to keep your daughter's birthday separate from Christmas, there will never be a problem. No matter how many siblings she does (or doesn't) have. :)
ReplyDeleteI shudder to think about Christmas birthdays. Oh man. Birthdays are awesome because they break up the year, y'know? Sounds like that's the perfect way to separate the two. I hope Meredith had a happy birthday =)
ReplyDeleteAnd you crochet?!? I LOVE CROCHETING!! I'm a full-blown yarn addict.
Nicki: You're a yarn addict too? How come I've never seen you at the annual conventions? ;)
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I didn't see this post...
ReplyDeleteBad, Channelle!
Your blanket puts my scarves to shame. Even if I had the patience to make an entire blanket, I can't do patterns like that. I can make afghans with the diamond patterns, but it's different and not complicated at all like THAT blanket looks.
I'm envious that you can do things like this.
I'm almost sinfully proud of my work on that blanket. The pattern wasn't all that complicated. I bet you could do it without too much difficulty. It's actually possible to make a scarf with this pattern. You just have to stop after one section is completed, rather than doing the whole blanket. :)
ReplyDeletePretend I didn't accidentally write my real world alter ego name in that comment up there...must maintain my secret identity!
ReplyDeleteI'd probably have to alter it a little bit, because one section of that blanket looks too wide to be a comfortable scarf. But I imagine tweaking it out numerically would be the least difficult part of that.