I hope your holiday…

has been full of happy surprises!

Santa Baby… not Baby Santa

Today the girl and I are driving around town to pick up a last minute gift. We’re listening to (commercial free) Christmas music on my Sirius Satellite Radio. (I LOVE my satellite radio)

I hear this comment from the back seat. 

“Mommy, I don’t like this song very much.”

“Why not? What’s wrong with it?”

“Well, I just imagine that he would keep getting hurt?”

“Huh?”

“You know… always going down chimneys… he’d get hurt!”

“Um, Sweetie, the song isn’t about Santa as a BABY… it’s about calling Santa ‘baby’ like calling him ‘honey’ or ‘darling’… you know, a nickname.”

<<long pause from the back seat>>

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

I don’t know about you.

But… at my house we like to lay under the tree with all of our baby dolls and our favorite blankie, uh, I mean, blanket.

And after today… I plan on joining her.

Because I’ll be ON VACATION!

What’s with the plastic bag?

Over the years when people see my Christmas tree, they often ask me about the plastic bag that is sitting on the branches. You can’t really see it when you glance at the tree; its only noticeable when you really get up close. This is the view:

The plastic bag is always situated near the Statue of Liberty centennial ornament (in front of a green light, of course) & the gold tree with the photo of my grandmother (Noni) swimming. (She didn’t learn to swim until she was a grandmother six times over – so it was quite the momentus occasion.) The bag is to the bottom left.

This is the bag outside of the tree:

Nice, huh?

I guess when I was about three or four years old, I decided to take a few clothespins (the fabulous 70’s green-orange-and yellow plastic kind) and a paper napkin in order to make a super-special ornament for my Noni’s Christmas tree. Even at that age I was doing some sort of crafting. 

Noni hung it up on her tree every year. I didn’t realize until I was older that she continued to do that. When it started to fall apart she put it in a ziploc bag and hung that on her tree.  

After she passed away in 1992, my grandfather gave it to my Mom who put it on her tree for a little while. Or did I get it before then? Hmmm… I can’t remember. Anyway. It must go on my tree every year. And in my mind, it makes perfect sense to put it behind the ornament of her swimming & the Statue of Liberty. (we’re from New York, you know..and it’s my most favorite statue.)

(Everyone has a favorite statue, right?)

It’s my small tribute to my grandmother who I miss very much… every day… and especially at Christmas.

Give-it-away, give-it-away, give-it-away now.

Wanna win something?

Head over to Serendipity Kits DT Blog & leave a comment. You might win some scrappy-ness made by moi.

These tags:

And this little guy:

A winner will be chosen Tuesday night so it can be shipped on Wednesday.

Go see!

How you know you should’ve stayed in bed

• While driving to work you spill coffee on you, not once, but twice.
• While walking up the stairs to get to the employee entrance, you trip and your NEW cup of coffee spills along with your small cup of yogurt. Ploop. Yogurt on the ground. Knee in pain. (my tears helped clean up the mess)
• While at work someone asks you, while looking at your hair, if you’ve been out walking in the rain. And you haven’t been.

Staying in bed would’ve been much, much better. (and safer. and I wouldn’t smell like coffee.)

sneak-a-peek

I don’t know if you know this or not, but I LOVE Christmas scrapbook paper.

(I also discovered that I LOVE Halloween scrapbook paper…aw heck, I love ALL scrapbook paper. A Lot. But especially Christmas.)

I was super-excited to get my December Kit from Serendipity Kits. Here’s a sneak peek at one of my projects.

If you would like to see the rest of this project in addition to two other layouts I did, then click HERE! You’ll also see some fab projects by other Serendipity Kits Design Team Members!

Check it out!

Guess where I am?

No really… take a guess… because I have NO IDEA where I am in relation to where I live – even though I drove here yesterday. Right now I feel like I am in the middle of  no where.

That’s not entirely true.

I’m actually just to the right and a little southwest of ‘nowhere’. I passed no where to get to this place. Somewhere in Georgia.

I’m here doing some training. I must say that ‘nowhere’ is a pretty, pretty place. There’s a river and some bridges and a sweet little park that plays Ray Charles’ music and has swining benches. I like it. It’s quiet.

And the people are super-nice. And there was wine and cheese in my room when I arrived. (this training gig isn’t so bad when there’s wine in your room)

After training this afternoon I sat on one of those swings and read a book. It was 66 degrees and breezy. Beautiful. And did I mention the quiet?

For all my photog friends… you should see all the cool brick buildings and bright colored walls. I sure wish I brought my serious camera… and some cute posing kids.

Although, if I did that I would have considerablty less quiet. (and I might need more wine)

Pros and Cons

Since I’m the Murphy Brown of HR Directors, I’m currently looking for a new assistant. Apparently, I’m really supportive and encouraging making it very easy for people to leave me and go on to bigger and better things. WHATEVER. I’m so not doing that anymore.

I’ve had three interviews so far & all of them have been really good. One more is scheduled for tomorrow and then I’m hoping to make a decision. (so that I don’t have to sort through the 170+ resumes again – thank you, President Bush)

Right now I’m feeling torn… do I hire the more experienced candidate who will bring a strong personality and background to the position, but might be here less time (see above “bigger and better” comment)… OR do I bring on someone with less experience, mucho enthusiasm and drive, become a mentor to and who will probably hang out a little bit longer?

At this point, I’m just not sure.

I am sure, however, that I will NOT be hiring this guy:

He sent me a cake, his FIVE PAGE resume, and a color photo… of HIMSELF. (with no discernable HR experience whatsoever, I might add)

If you’re looking for a job, please don’t do that. Ever. It made me even more confident of my choice to have a panic button installed in my office.

And so… the search continues.