Santa's ethnicity plus an oven install

Argh. I haven't blogged since Sunday. I know. Inexcusable. It's my usual defense: I've been a busy bee.

AND - here's what I've been doing:

Sunday, not much. I just spent the day being worthless. I woke-up around 8 a.m. and it was raining. That set the tone. I bummed around and caught up on DVR. I watched a new Celebrity Ghost Story and several Criminal Minds episodes.

And, as you know, I had planned to go to the youth symphony concert that afternoon but it didn't pan out. We were going to get our new stove (more on that later) and I also had to clean the house (my super fun favorite thing to do on the weekends ... not - "my kingdom for a maid!"). I did do laundry. I did clean but didn't make it to the concert. I heard it was AMAZING though.

We grilled steaks (poor J was outside in 45 degree whether with 20 mph winds - my little trooper). I spent the rest of the evening wrapping presents for the Auburn Club's family (who I still haven't met by the way...no one's fault really - I've been busy. They've been busy. We're aiming to get together now after the first of the year). I had six presents each for the kiddies: Jessica and Jeremiah. They were little things (toys and some cutey Old Navy clothes) but I think they'll likey. I wrapped them. Jessica's were in candy cane style paper while Jeremiah's had a green background with Santas. Cute right? I thought so.

Only after I finished wrapping little Jeremiah's last gift did I come to the realization: The Santas on his gifts were white. He is black. These gifts are supposed to be FROM SANTA. Now, I know some of you would be like: He's five ... he won't notice/care. But, seriously, if I were five and "Santa" gave me a bunch of gifts wrapped in "his image" but they were not MY ethnicity I'd be a tad bit confused/suspicious.

So yeah. I re-wrapped ALL of his gifts. This time I went with snowmen. Snowmen have no ethnicity. Thank God. Ho friggin ho.

Monday - I did NOT want to get up. It was Monday, my hip hurt (again) and it was cold. Like brrr....

But I downed some Ibproferen, sucked it up and went to work. Cold. I was a total popsicle all day. On the bright side, it definitely FEELS like Christmas.

I worked really hard at work --- I have to have my stories done A WEEK in advance if I'm going to be able to go on vacation for the holiday. At lunch, I went to the gym for two elliptical miles and shoulder work. (HIP STILL HURT - BOO!!!)

Once I got home, the real work out began. I had to help J unload our new oven (courtesy of my Daddy). It is awesome. Looks great. Works great. But, and there are no surprises here, it's an incredible bitch to maneuver. We finally got it inside (up our steps to the front porch - it sucked even though there are only two steps) and removed the old oven....only to discover it didn't come with an adapter. Wonderful. Thankfully I'm married to Macgyver - he snatched the old adapter from the former stove and wired it to the new one. Brilliance.

Here's the result:

Loves! Especially the extra warming "eye"

After that, we were both pretty wiped. Granted I didn't do nearly the amount of work that J did but stilll.....

I made chicken enchiladas (our new appliance worked beautifully) and then we chilled. I also booked our New Year's Eve trip - to Orlando. Universal and Disney. Oh yeah.

It's so funny. Last week, we planned to stay home. Now we have these over the top plans. Or at least, over the top for us. I think it'll be great though - what a fun way to ring in 2011. I'm SO excited. Harry Potter World here we come.

(Disclaimer - if you're a sketch ball planning to rob us whilst were gone take heed...our casa is guarded by a gang of mutant ninjas and a pit bull with AIDS).