An early Christmas present

Today was so quiet at work that I was able to be home by noon! I appreciate the holiday pay and all, but if there's no work to be done, I'd just as soon be home. Ken and I will make a few phone calls soon, then open our presents. We had a great time with my family last night, and Dad showed the slides, so it was fun to see all the old pictures. A couple of people were unable to make it because they didn't feel well, so here's hoping they feel better soon.

I hope everyone is enjoying the day, and all your blessings.

And later, after Christmas presents....

I'm listening to the Nutcracker while Ken naps. Lots of fun stuff--I went heavy on the DVD's and CD's for Ken, along with a book or two (one of them is Barack Obama's first book, one is about the Pacific Coast Highway, which we've traveled together a couple of times), and I got some cool Lucy shirts, and the prettiest, softest pink robe, with Lucy hearts on the front and on the rear end...it's so cute and so pretty! I might have to get some white sunglasses to wear with it around the house! Other cool presents, like my I Love Lucy cap...Ken knows me very well!

I also got some great kitchen gadgets. I know that's the last thing some people want, but I LOVE kitchen gadgets. I got a chocolate melter thingie--I foresee chocolate dipped strawberries in our future! I also got a cooker that can be used as a deep fryer/steamer/slow cooker. I think I'll mostly use it for a deep fryer, because I don't have one. I foresee Crab Rangoon in our future! My other gadget is an electric garlic baker. Yahoo! We're currently using a little terra cotta garlic baker that works well (especially when you remember to turn on the oven!), but this will be much easier to clean, and it will also do THREE HEADS of garlic instead of one. I foresee roasted garlic dressing and mashed potatoes and bruschetta--and anything else you can think of with roasted garlic--in our future!

I got a beautiful book from Kim and Steve--an Audubon Life List Journal, where you write about when and where you saw various birds. It's just gorgeous, and I'm looking forward to writing about my bird sightings!

We're listening to Chris Isaak's Christmas CD now--it's one of our favorites. Mele Kilikimaka!

One of the silliest presents from today was one of the stocking presents I got for Ken. It was just a joke present, but it turned out to be kind of cool! It's a USB glitter light. Just plug it into your computer and let it do its thing. I find my eyes drawn to it a little too often...ooo...pretty colors....

Hope you all had a great Christmas!

A little later

Now we're listening to Harry Connick, Jr., and the song that is playing is "This Christmas." I love this one. We saw Harry a few years ago, and he's one of our favorites. Now it's his New Awlins version of "Silent Night," and this makes me cry...it makes me hope and pray that New Orleans will heal...soon. We'd like to go down for a visit next year.

Speaking of music, I forgot to mention that Ken got me DVD's of most of Elvis's movies. I asked him, "Do you realize how bad some of these are? And that you're going to be watching them with me?" Ha! But they are so cool and so cheesy! I love 'em! One that isn't in the collection is "Viva Las Vegas," and we'll get that one soon.

My sis Diana made us all egg and sausage casseroles for today--thanks Di! It's warming in the oven, and what a nice thing to not have to worry about cooking today!