It’s obviously that time of year again.

It’s time to break out all of the Christmas decorations. Time for your living room to be dressed to the nines for no other reason than because it makes you happy. The time of year that you forget in a month you’ll have to undo all of your work and you’ll complain that your house is so boring.

It’s our first Christmas in this house, which means I get to spend random amounts of time and energy¹ figuring out how to decorate this place in a way that makes me happy.

The fireplace is a good place to start, and is where the majority of the Christmas focus is.

This is the first time our stockings have ever been hung up “by a chimney with care.” And can I tell you, I want to force everyone to look at those damn stockings.

I made them, all by my self. I made the pattern, I knitted one up, I wrote down what I did and then knit a second matching one.

That alone would qualify as a Christmas miracle in my house.

But three years later, I’m still super stoked with them. I took my time with them, I blocked them out to look amazing, and it’s probably the highest quality knitting work I’ve got to display to other people and impress them with my skills.

The initials are a new addition this year. I was at a complete loss, after I finished the knitting, to figure out how to mark who’s is whos. I thought about embroidering our name. I thought about doing tags that hang from the back.

And then I saw the initial pins at Target, and I thought perfect. I wasn’t sure if the color was going to match the creamy white at the top, but my thought process was that half of the work was done. If they didn’t match well, I had enough yarn to re-wrap them to match.

But it looks amazing off the shelf, and now the stockings are marked so that Santa will put gameboy games in mine, and golf balls in his.

Tomorrow we bring the tree in the house so that Santa can put more gameboy games under it²

1. Can I tell you how long I thought about that damn garland? I knew I wanted light up, and I looked everywhere for something that fit my imagination. I ended up buying a plain light up garland from Michaels, and then wrapping it with 3 strands of secondary garland (I have no idea what you would call it… it was the pinecones and fake berries and bundles of sticks on twine). It looks fantastic and cost me a little less than I was willing to spend on an already tricked-out light up garland. I think all together it was probably $25-30, depending on how much the light-up garland was on sale for. And now I get to tell people I made it myself too. ↩

2. I may have gotten a Gameboy 3DS XL recently as a present for getting a raise, and also so I could tell people to buy me stuff for it. I am addicted. It’s awesome. ↩

As is usual, I’ve been thinking about the things I love to do, instead of, you know, actually doing them.

It’s ridiculous, really. I’ve been thinking of fiction writing, coming up with characters and what not, but not actually ever writing anything down. I’ve been thinking of poetry, which I usually do after seeing Geoff Baker perform live, even though I know all his songs and have heard them so many times. I’ve been dreaming of knitting projects, even though I’ve got 3 or 4 going, of which I would like to finish but I work on in circles–currently is the baby blanket for a future niece.

I don’t know why I am so lethargic in getting anything actually done. I’m nearly done with the thank-yous from the wedding, but I can’t seem to sit my butt down and get the last of them done, which means the rest sit on my desk, ready but not ready to go out.

I did order our Christmas cards, and having got our wedding photos back (OMG I LOVE THEM OUR PHOTOGRAPHER ROCKS) I even managed to get prints for the frames we received as gifts, and prints for gifts for the family¹. My sister and I are having fun trying to decided what to get my mom, and realized that she never got a print of K’s wedding photos, so we’re doing the side-by-side frame with a picture of each of us. I suppose if my brother ever does get married, we’ll have to find a triptych frame.

My mind does wander lately; I wonder if it’s because even though I was a laid back wedding planner, I am all done with that and thus the “big empty void” that other women have written about after their wedding was done, but honestly I can only say I was relieved to be done. None of it was really stressful, just the week before was ridiculously busy, and as a procrastinator, I’m pretty proud of what we were able to pull off.

Honestly, I think it’s the change in season. Winter is my favorite–because I love to curl up on the couch under a blanket and not do anything at all, and hey, that’s exactly what I’m doing!

I think I might have to ask Erik to borrow his laptop more often to force myself to write while on the couch, or get a better lap desk so I can use my bluetooth keyboard with my iPad.

1. Aside: I honestly think giving photos of ourselves is the lamest present ever, but jesus does my family love it. So, I give photos when I know they want one, and never make it the only present. ↩

Can we skip over the part where I make lame excuses about what has kept me away from the blog for so long? Can we all just agree that it’s lame that I can disappear like that for months or years on end and have the gall to believe that there is anyone still around to read this tripe?

Moving on…

I’ve been married for a month now.

A month! A whole month! That felt exactly like the last five years!

Ha.

Maybe it was because we were together for so long, but honestly, married life is exactly like single life. Except with slightly more chores for me. I mean, I’m still trying to find a home for everything and write the thank you notes to all and sundry who came out for the wedding.

The best part so far about getting married would have to be the honeymoon. Because I really needed a vacation.

We went to Maui and had a blast. I’d promise a post about it, but that might be an empty promise, and well, I’m trying really hard to get past those and then feeling guilty.

All this to say, I am no longer a Hightower, but a Baker through and through.

I think I’ll go make cookies.

–”One Week” Barenaked Ladies (Also, maybe I’ll go back to song lyrics for titles. I kinda miss that.

Super happy with the engagement pictures Erik and I took last weekend, and with the photographer. She's already got the edited photos for me, and triple the amount of photos we had discussed originally.

I am feeling like I'm getting stuff crossed off the wedding to-do list, and am looking forward to getting the save-the-dates designed this weekend. And my sister and I have narrowed down the bridesmaid dresses to two options, and the girls can cast their vote and pick amongst themselves.

Now to try to relax this weekend, because this work-week was super stressful.

As is usual for the sad sack that is me, I've been putting off writing. I've even been putting off reading. I've been putting off pretty much everything but living inside my own head and watching a never ending stream of Good Eats on youtube. Which makes me really hungry.

Since I love lists, and I love randomness, here's some random thoughts in list form:

• I am really bitter about Google sunsetting Google Reader. I might write a whole blog post about it, I might not. But at the moment, it sucks major. I'm not looking foward to audtioning replacements when I had that one figured out already.
• I read a post today over at Apartment Therapy about buying a keyboard specifically to teach you touch typing (so the keys were blank). It makes me sad that there are people who can't touch type¹, and who use only two fingers or what have you on both hands. I am not the greatest typist. I still suck with the numbers and punctuation on the numbers row. But I am typing this whole thing looking at the screen, not my hands. And at one time I was a two-finger typist. Then I wanted my typing speed to match my thoughts. Now I have opinions on what my keyboard needs and should be like.
• My nephew turned one over the weekend, and I managed to get his birthday present off before the big day. Not off on time for him to get it on the big day, but early enough for me to be able to say I was done before his birthday. Also, Gerard the Giraffe is officially the same size as him. They're like brothers and can share clothes.
• My cousin's boss is now a realtor, and she's being really persistant in having us switch realtors for the house hunt. I'm really sorry, but Erik is in charge with the house hunt, it's totally up to him. Stop texting me about it and trying to make me feel bad.
• My co-worker and I have a “bet” to see who can lose 5lbs in a week. Thank god we're both going to fail. But one day, we will actually go bike riding. My bike is actually chillin' in his office waiting for him to bring his bike in, since he's the one who has the bike rack and wants to go riding.
• Aside: I really wish there was such a thing as car accessory rentals. I'd love to be able to rent a bike rack for Erik's car so we could take our bikes with us when we go camping at the end of the month.
• My wedding dress is ready for pickup. OMG, it's real I'm getting married. I hope I love the dress as much now as I did three months ago when I picked it out.
• Also: now I need to get serious about getting healthy and dropping the pounds.
• Personal, bordering on TMI: I'm going back on birth control after three years off. I have an IUD, and I love it thank-you-very-much², but mine is the non-horomone one, and I'd really like to manage that time of the month and hopefully start skipping it entirely, especially for my honeymoon. Hoping that the pill will help my acne because it really began to crop up when I went off the pill.
• My friend Marie is amazing and I am a terrible person; she mailed me a book we had talked about swapping and a letter, and other than opening the package I haven't opened the letter yet. I like saving them for a little bit to have something to look forward to but it makes me weird and I really should read it and write her back.
• I love having a friend that I write letters to more than I talk to on the phone.
• I am dying to knit right now, so that's what I'm going to do. Working on a top for myself. Loving it so far.

1. Touch typing, if you're wondering, is the skill of typing while not looking at your hands, as opposed to hunt-and-peck methoods, or two finger typing or what not. ↩

2. Crazy the amount of people who try to talk me out of it, including my last OBGYN. My new one is completely understanding, and is down with me having it and birth control. ↩

This week I finished Gerald the Giraffe for my nephew 's birthday, and he even had enough time for a job interview before he shipped out for Oklahoma.

Looking forward to this weekend. Getting some wedding stuff done, hopefully getting some house stuff done, and finding time for a new craft project.

This weekends plans: finishing a birthday present, then digging in to the basket and working on some projects for myself.

And hopefully, seeing some more houses.

Today marks the 22 year of my grandfather's passing. Pictured above with his oldest son on the left, and my father on the right. These men, each one of them, passed far far too soon.

Sometimes I can't believe it's been 22 years since my grandpa has gone. 4 years this year since my dad. 2 years since my uncle. All of them, leaving my grandma devoid of men in her family, and her life.

I don't remember much about my grandpa. I was seven when he died. I remember him having lukemia, being sick in the hospital, drawing pictures for his hospital room, having to be snuck in to say goodby because there was a “no children allowed” rule. I feel like like gyped me as I never really got to spend time with either of my grandfathers¹. I don't remember what it's like to have a grandpa.

I do remember stories of my grandpa. He was married before; my grandma was his second wife, and they married when she was 17 and he was 26. He held a myriad of jobs, and was retired before my aunts graduated high school. He was a writer.

I'm sure it seems weird to do a memorial for a man who I can't really remember, on such an odd year. But the last few years have reminded me that we don't celebrate people like we should, and we forget people we should remember.

I wish I could remember my grandfather. I wish that my future children could have had the experience of their grandfather, who they will only know through stories and pictures.

I know that you never really truly know someone, but I am infinitely sad that I only got 7 years to know a man who shaped my whole family in ways I will never now understand.

1. While my Mom's father died more recently when I was 27, he lived on the east coast, and I saw him only rarely. ↩