Christmas gifts: I finished the last of my Christmas shopping this past weekend - woo hoo! And it's all wrapped and hanging out under the tree. My LiFE group's Christmas party is here on Thursday night, and since I'm leaving for home after work on Friday, I'll be packed (mostly) by Wednesday night.

Sunday: I was thinking over my schedule for the next few months (prompted by wondering when I'm going to be able to give a couple Christmas gifts) and realized that with our first Sunday service on January 7, I'm not taking any weekends away for a while. Guess that means everyone I know will have to come visit me. :-)

Ornaments: I think these are my favorite ornaments, ever. I bought some this year, but Pier 1 is one place I'm definitely checking out for post-Christmas sales.

Water: I really like living here, and I think my favorite thing about it is that I see water all the time. Its annoying when I have to deal with tunnel traffic (twice every weekday), but otherwise, I usually find myself smiling whenever I go over a bridge, no matter how many times I've seen it before. On my way out to my car each night, I walk over a catwalk that elevates me just enough to see the water a few blocks away, and all the ships docked there (when you see them in person, aircraft carriers are just unbelievably huge). I took a picture with my camera phone this week, though its not a greatest shot, you can get an idea of the gorgeous colors when the sun has just set.

Behold the Lamb of God: A couple years ago, Andrew Peterson (and friends) released Behold the Lamb of God, and I think this is actually my favorite Christmas CD. Its unlike any Christmas CD you've ever heard, first because nearly every song is an original, and second because it tells the entire story of Christ, starting not at His birth in Bethlehem, but with God's plan to deliver Israel from its slavery in Egypt.

I couldn't even pick a favorite song. The entire CD is powerful and moving, especially as a whole, and even its funny in parts (check out the song "Matthew Begats"). You can listen to the entire CD online here (click "Open Player"), if you're interested.

Thanksgiving: The holiday, and my trip home, was full of mixed emotions. I spent a ton of time with Jake - he spent the night with me on Thursday and Friday nights, since Katie and Mike were working crazy weekend-after-Thanksgiving hours. About the only bad part of all of that was sleeping with him. What is it about kids that makes them take up way more room than a full-grown adult? And, I finally saw The Polar Express, at Katie and Mike's, since they have the full home theater setup.

It seems like there's a lot of stuff going on in my family lately, a lot of which hit that weekend, hence the whole mixed emotions thing. In a way, I was ready to come home and get back a little to my everyday life.

Christmas: Christmas is seriously my favorite time of the year. I love it - I love the decorating and the entertaining and the gift-giving - the whole thing. I was going to go out to dinner and a parade at the beach with friends, but I was having too much fun decorating a new house for the first time. My tree is up and so full of ornaments, I don't know where I could put more. And I've got a whole list of other stuff to buy, too.

I've been listening to Christmas CDs (I have tons, and buy more each year). My favorite, so far, as weird as it sounds, is a Victoria Secret 2-Cd set I bought last year. Hate the cover, but love the CDs.

Thanksgiving: I drove home to Frederick to spend Thanksgiving weekend with my family. Not a super pleasant trip, because it was raining literally the whole way, but it didn't take too much longer even given that and the massive number of cars on the road. I've decided, though, that people as a whole get more stupid when they drive in rain and/or traffic. I mean, really - everyone is trying to get to the same place, why do you need to drive on the shoulder?

Since Katie had to be at work at 3:30 this morning, I'm babysitting Jacob. We picked up some Starbucks, then visited Katie (after noon, when things had calmed down considerably). Tonight I'm making dinner, and probably watching Jacob again Saturday morning/afternoon. Then, in the evening my parents and I are going to the Container Store. Then, back home on Sunday night!

Find your spot: Ever tried this site? FindYourSpot.com is this neat little online quiz where you answer all these questions, and it recommends the best places for you to live given your answers. It's pretty comprehensive, as you answer questions about everything from the climate to the size of a city, to whether you like large hospitals nearby. I completed it several years ago, before I ever thought about moving to southeastern Virginia, but I looked up my results recently:

1 - Norfolk
9 - Chesapeake/VA Beach
13 - Hampton

Guess I've found my spot! (insert cheesy grin here)

Firefox: Just got to say, I love the new Firefox. I'm a bit overwhelmed with the way to customize it (still exploring), but my very favorite thing is the built-in spell checker. Now I don't have to remember to spell check my blog posts and emails.

Festival: It's Sunday, and our community festival is over. It was a good day and the event went really well, but by the time it was over, I was so tired. I think I slept for 11 hours last night, and today I'm taking it easy and spending all day at home.

Political Ads: I am so sick of political ads, that I really don't want to vote for any of the candidates. Right now, I'm watching the second commercial break with at least three ads. I can't wait for November 7 to be over.

T-3 days: The festival is in just three short days, less if you consider the time I'm writing this (no wonder I have such a hard time getting to work on time in the morning). Nick and I met to go over the last minute details - what's left to be done, what things we need to communicate to the group tomorrow night, etc. I'm amazed at how little there really is - I expected to be overwhelmed and absolutely frantic by now. But, we've covered everything we can think of. I'm sure there are things that will crop up, but there's not much point worrying about what I don't know. I've been over all the parts to the festival in my head several times, walking through each piece and trying to capture the little things - trash bags for the food tent, posts to actually hang the signs being created, the benefits of handing out bags at the registration table vs. the Bridge Church table.

One thing I will say - I knew this type of thing would involve a ton of little details, and I wonder sometimes if others know just how many it includes. But I've really enjoyed the process - I could see myself doing event planning someday, as a side business. Though it might need to be something that I was personally invested in, in order to be interesting.

Another thing - thank goodness Nick has the amount of available time during the week that he does. He's busy, I know that, but trying to remember to make the phone calls that I need to while I'm in the middle of the workday is just a general pain.

Cooking: I've been on this cooking kick lately, which means that most people in my life are guinea pigs. I've even been trying new stuff on my own, which is not a common thing. No real flops yet, though there are couple things that I haven't enjoyed so much myself. I think its more of an issue of personal taste than anything else.

I made these Lasagna Rolls tonight, and they were so good! I think I would use it more for entertaining than just for me, because it's a lot of hands-on prep time and a lot of dishes just for me. I'd love to make it for Mom and my sisters sometime, if there's ever an opportunity for that when Dad isn't eating with us (he wouldn't eat it, because he doesn't like spinach).

Friends: My friend Kate is visiting this weekend from Delaware (Dela-where?). It's fun to have her visit, because I don't need to plan anything ahead of time. We just slept in yesterday, and did whatever we wanted when we woke up. This morning we're checking out a church service I've been wanting to go to, then I'm not really sure what we're doing after that.

Festival: Our first annual Bridge Community Festival is less than a week away, and I think we're probably moving through the things to do pretty well. I need to spend some time this week brainstorming and making sure that we've got all of the small details covered. The biggest thing we need at this point is help - there's enough to do that we'll be going nuts if we're all doing it ourselves.

I'm excited about it, but also a little nervous. It's a huge undertaking.

Hockey: I went to a hockey game tonight. The very first game I ever went to was while I was in college, and the only thing I really remember about it is the disappointment that there were no fights. Well, there were some good ones tonight!

Work: Work has been absolutely ridiculous, not because it's been busy - just the opposite. Because of contract and security issues, I've been virtually unable to work for the past two weeks. I could read and send email, and I could access most websites - except the one I needed to do all of my work. We finally got things straightened out at the end of the day Friday, so Monday should be much better.