merry and bright

All's fair in love and war, and this is a bit of both.
~ Ron Weasley, HP and the Deathly Hallows

Well, kids, it's my favorite month, and favorite time, of the whole year. I've got to wonder why I can't seem to get this thrilled about any other season, but hell, ya just can't beat Christmas. And you know, Hannakuh, and Yule, and all that good stuff. Honestly, I should be crying about my financial status right now (and maybe I will later, I've penciled it into my schedule), but mostly I'm just excited about being almost done with my Christmas shopping.

There was a time when I bought Christmas presents for all of my friends... back in high school and for awhile, in college too. How the heck did I manage that? This year I'm only buying for my parents, my brother, my sister, my boyfriend, and my cousin Emily (which I usually just go in on with my sister). Oh, and of course the obligatory Secret Santa at work, which should only cost $5 plus a few $1 gifts (hello, Dollar Tree). All in all, well under $100. Granted, that's still enough to make me wonder how I'm going to afford any of it, but... okay, I just realized this has become quite a long paragraph about money, and it's boring. The point is, Christmas shopping is fun-- I can't help enjoying giving and receiving.

My true gift this year is that things are getting shaken up at work, and I think it's going to be great. Plus, today I was handed an assignment that will have me writing articles about what the people in my department do. It will require some research and lots of talks with the psychometricians who work here, but it's a vote of confidence in me, and that's fantastic.

Plus, my new cube-mate will be a research assistant who only works 20 hours a week (and who really has no authority or, I assume, interest in what I do), so I'm pretty psyched about having a little more privacy around here.

Have I mentioned that my brother has mono? He had a terrible sore throat and some nausea over Thanksgiving, and he was having what we thought were pains from the kidney stone (his ninth!) that hasn’t dropped from his kidney yet—but those turned out to be liver/spleen pains from the mono, as was everything else. My dad drove to IC and picked him up because he was so sick by Tuesday he couldn’t drive himself. He has to finish his classes from home… major suck. He has more ailments than anyone I've ever known. Sprained ankles, food poisoning, appendicitis, chronic kidney stones, mono... you name it, he's had it.

Let's see, what else is new. As of December 1, I've been with the boyfriend for one year. Never had an anniversary before, but from what I can tell (seeing HP7 again and then talking about it for another two hours), they're my kind of thing. We had a very cozy weekend-- not only did the world get to wake up to a winter wonderland, on Saturday, we watched Christmas Vacation, Scrooged, and The Santa Clause, baked cookies, and went Christmas shopping at the mall plus two separate bookstores. I intend to make every weekend in December this fabulous!

Time to pack in and get ready to hit the gym. If I'm going to keep partaking in all these fabulous Christmas treats, I've got to burn some cals somehow. Christmas workout list, here I come!

Love,
Mezz

~