Christmas Spirit Found

Just before Christmas arrived, I posted about how I was not ready for this holiday season. Time snuck up on me, I didn't have gifts prepared for anyone, and I was in a pretty bad "Bah, humbug" funk. I found a little bit of holiday spirit the Monday before Christmas, when my husband said, "Hey, let's run down to the mall and find some gifts for one another. Maybe we'll get some dinner and catch a movie, too." This idea shortly turned into a, "Hey, let's sit in Barnes & Noble until almost closing time and then pick out some books for one another" trip (which is actually a pretty good day in my eyes.) We then had a lovely dinner at Olive Garden. The only thing that would have made it better is if I'd had the opportunity to run into the Michael's next door and browse their stuff, as I haven't been to a craft store in what seems like eons. There's something about spending a day out with my husband that always lifts my mood. Combine that with festively decorated stores and Christmas music on the radio, and presto - instant holiday cheer.

It's good that I found my Christmas joy, because the next night, we picked up my mom-in-law, sis-in-law, and nephew and headed down to James Island County Park's annual Holiday Festival of Lights. The night could have gone better, to be totally honest, what with endless delays, getting a little lost on the way, and hella-bad traffic. When we finally got there, it was all we could do to keep my daughter from running off like a maniac. She was so excited about the Christmas lights, I think she actually forgot to look at them. It didn't exactly turn out to be the relaxing, fun family jaunt that I was hoping for, but nothing could beat the simultaneous "Wow's" and "Look at that's" coming from my little one and her cousin.

Daddy and Ciannon enjoying the Christmas light show!

Christmas came and was overall very good. My husband and I actually celebrated Christmas #1 and Christmas #2 this year. My mom-in-law, thinking that everyone would be celebrating on Christmas Day proper, decided to invite everyone over for brunch and presents on Christmas Eve morning. My aunt, quite separately, decided that she would have lunch and presents on Christmas Eve as well. I had already decided that I was going to attend Christmas Eve service at church, since I had missed out on the entire Advent season due to family illnesses. So, as you can imagine, our day was quite full. This was Christmas #1. After it was over, I quite enjoyed being able to relax that evening with some pizza and watch  The Muppet Christmas Carol with my husband, mom, dad, lil' sis, and her fiance. Pizza on Christmas Eve has been my husband's family tradition since he was a child, and since I love pizza, I gladly honor it. Watching The Muppet Christmas Carol has been my family's Christmas Eve tradition since the movie was released in 1992, and though my husband doesn't care for the Muppets, he allows me to carry on this tradition, mainly because he doesn't have a choice.

I knew Christmas #2 was going to be a good day when my two-year-old woke up and the first words out of her mouth were, "Christmas? Presents?" She actually got into ripping open the presents this time, instead of letting the adults do all the work. I believe her favorite gift was a tie between all of them. We then sat down to a nice breakfast of grits, eggs, sausage, bacon, and biscuits prepared by my mom. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and enjoying our gifts until dinner, when Dad and Mom grilled up the not-so-traditional Christmas dinner of steak, mac-n-cheese, baked potatoes, and corn-on-the-cob. It was good enough that I almost want to make it our usual Christmas dinner from now on. (I guess that will depend on where we end up living, because no one wants to grill out if there's three feet of snow on the ground.)

And speaking of snow, we didn't have a white Christmas, we did get snow all day on the 26th. None of it stuck, but snow in SC is a rarity in and of itself, so I happily watched it fall and thanked my lucky stars for such a miracle. So, as unprepared as I was, Christmas came and went, and I find myself all the happier for it.

Not now, Christmas.

I love Christmas; it's tied with Halloween as my favorite holiday ever. That's saying a lot, because I LOVE holidays. Not this year though. Christmas is less than a week away, and all I want to do is curl up and hide. I haven't bought gifts, made holiday treats, or anything. I've been forcing myself to listen to Christmas music, and Tuesday we're even going to see our local Festival of Lights, but I'm not really excited. And I don't know why. I guess someone forgot to pass the holiday cheer my way. Go away, Christmas, come back when I'm ready for you.

Cataclysm!

Oh, Blizzard, you have done it again! Just when I was starting to think I could live without World of Warcraft, you introduce Cataclym, and my passion is rekindled. Since December 7th, I've been playing during pretty much every spare moment. Both new races are fun to play and follow interesting story lines, I like the newly incorporated cinematics in the game, and I especially enjoy the music. The new zone Vashj'ir is graphically stunning. You get a sense of vastness there that wasn't in previous zones. Actually, all the new areas seem more broad, like they really are part of a larger world, as opposed to being their own closed off little zone. Vash'jir especially feels like this to me, because it seems you can literally see for miles down there under the sea.

Think I can solo this bad boy?

And now, I have something very serious I want to talk to you about. I may not have ever discussed it here, but I am a die-hard Horde player. I love the warrior-clan culture - the emphasis on blood, glory, and honor. It moves me on a primal level in a way that the more "sophisticated" Alliance culture could never do. Now the Shattering has occurred, Thrall, our beloved warchief, has left to help the Earthen Ring mend the world. This fills me with great sadness and great pride simultaneously, but what I really want to talk to you about is this: I've always known Thrall was epic, but after seeing him in his new role in Cataclysm, I think we should vote for him as our next president. If you need evidence, here it is:

Thrall holding the frickin' planet together!

There. Thrall is using his shamanistic might to keep Azeroth from ripping in half! We need someone like this leading the country. In the wake of recent disappointments, there has been a lapse of confidence in our leaders' abilities to get things done. Were Thrall our commander-in-chief, I know our country would recover. The economy would pick up, healthcare would be affordable, and no terrorist would ever think of attacking us again. A vote for Thrall is a vote for America!

Cheaters Never Prosper?

Ha! I did it! For a week now, I've been banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to make the content wrapper on my blog transparent without making the text and pictures inside transparent as well. I would be lying if I said I understood coding at all, so I've been scouring the internet for an easy tutorial. I learned random facts about parents, children, inherit opacity, and CSS, but I really couldn't find anything that would help me. As I was sitting, staring hopelessly at my blog wondering if I should scrap the whole transparency idea, it hit me. I hit print screen, opened the image in paint, cut out a portion of the content wrapper and saved it as an image. Then, I set that image as the content wrapper's background, and erased the opacity codes I had put in. Presto! A transparent looking background without the transparent text. So yeah, I cheated a little, but it achieved the desired effect. ::Weeps:: I'm so happy.