Christmas stuff

So Christmas has come and gone yet again. We didn't even try to top last year's gifts, but we'll be going on vacation soon so everyone was fine with less expensive presents this time around.

Our family put on the church Christmas play. We made a movie of it, too, so everyone who wasn't able to make it can see it, although when I was putting it together I misspelled the word "Innkeeper." I was so mad at myself for not catching it, but I did put an annotation on YouTube so people will know that I really do know how to spell.  It was a SkitGuys play, and it was the perfect length and had the exact right number of parts so each of had one. I played Mary, but it was only a bit part with two lines. Since I was directing and also playing techie, that worked fine. We actually had a bigger crowd than we expected.

On Christmas Day, we opened our presents and then spent the day at my parents' house. Here is the annual list of what everyone got. I'm sure you are all hanging on the edge of your seats for this part.

Jay: A socket set, a speaker for his iPod, and a year's supply of guitar strings.
Joy: A pair of boots she had been coveting, a speaker for her iPod, and an assortment of mustache items like bandaids with mustaches on them.
Sarah: A ripstick to replace the one Erick backed over that she got for her birthday, a purple coat with fur around the hood, and a speaker for her iPod.
Abby: JustDance4, a full length mirror, and an art set (black Friday special).
Rachel: A remote control helicopter, a cardboard house to color, and pair of headphones.
Timothy: A Lego Lord of the Rings set, a Darth Vader costume, and an art farm with green gel that the ants eat.

I got Erick a Brooklyn lantern (as seen on TV) and he got me a sweater. We did cheap gifts this year because of our hugely expensive vacation we are about to take.

The day after Christmas we got eleven inches of snow and I couldn't make it to work. So we stayed home and played with Christmas toys. I played JustDance4 and the girls laughed at me, but I'm determined to get better and beat them all. It is so tiring, though! When I was a kid, playing video games didn't make you tired. I'm going to have to build up some muscle if I want to beat them at this game.

The van is running

I figured I'd better post again to let you all know that we did get the van running again. I guess the fuel pump wasn't getting power because there was corrosion on some connector. So Erick took it off, cleaned it, and put it back on, and we haven't had any trouble with it for two days now. So that's a good sign. I'm still a little distrustful of it, I think, but maybe this will be the end of our van problems.

Just some catching up

I know I keep starting these by saying how busy I've been, but I really have been busy. I only have two semesters left of school, though, so maybe eventually I will get back to posting more regularly.

So to catch up, we had Thanskgiving, of course. We invited some friends from church over. Oh, yeah, one thing that was interesting was that before Thanksgiving I had written a blog post for the local newspaper about how I was thankful for my Walmart job. LINK I was just so tired of all the anti-Walmart sentiments I'd been hearing and thought it would be appropriate to be thankful instead of gripey through Thanksgiving. A week or so later, I got a phone call from one of our assistant managers, who said that home office wanted to talk to me. At first I thought I must be in huge trouble, but she said it was because of the blog post. When they finally got back with me, it was the media relations department who wanted me to be a Walmart ambassador. I guess she just wanted to know my thoughts about Walmart--the kinds of changes they've made, whether they pay fairly, etc. She said she might be checking back occasionally to hear what Walmart associates think. It was definitely interesting!

So now the biggest thing going on is our van. It keeps dying on us. We just put a fuel pump in it and now it won't start again. Erick is going to look at it when he gets home. He's hoping it's just a relay. We are supposed to be going on a family vacation at the first of the year, so we really need to get this figured out soon. Last night we drove out to Little Nashville to see the lights and it worked fine.

Today the kids have three friends over, and so things are a little noisy downstairs. I've submitted all of my assignment for the semester, and so now I'm catching up on other stuff. I'm cleaning my room right now. Actually, I'm taking a teensy weensy break from cleaning my room to post on my blog.

Oh, and did I ever post about my new haircut? I don't think I did. I changed my profile picture on Facebook, but I didn't put it here. I got it cut really short to get all that blonde that I put in it last year out. I really like it. I still have some blonde in the front, but it looks fine.