My parents want me to have a new portrait taken as their gift. I just got around to making the appointment for that.

I received my first Christmas card of the season today. I haven't even bought mine yet.

So this is the first year Franny's really been aware of Hannukah as a holiday. She's all into the candles. Not that we are doing candles as such; this year, as last year, we're using a Hannukah menorah puzzle to mark the nights. So not kosher I know, but much less likely to lead to fire when Isaac starts to poke at it.

yay! Jilli!!!! Awesomecakes.

ion: gronk. brrr. gronk.

Huh. Two-hour delay again. I'm not sure why, but I'm not going to look this gift horse in the mouth.

Do wish I'd made more coffee, though.

You know what I like about showers? When you've put the shampoo in your hair and let it rest for a few minutes, which makes it cool off some, then you duck your head under the hot hot water and you can feel the trickles of the suds washing out. That's a lovely feeling.

In regard to the question about hypnosis, I tried it - had two sessions with a hypnotist to try to stop stuttering. I'm a very bad subject for hypnosis, it seems. I don't relax well.

Sue, your big tree is beautiful! and in the picture, your wall looks like you've painted it with clouds. The kitchen tree is cute! Last year I didn't go to my mother's for Christmas and a good friend - a REALLY good friend - sent me a tabletop "tree"; basically, a styrofoam cone in a bowl with sprigs of greenery stuck into it, a garland of gold cord with big gold jingle bells on it, and the most adorable mini-tree skirt ever. It made me very happy.

My family's ornaments ... we had some from my mother's childhood, some we'd acquired over the years, some I'd made (truly ugly ones). These days, I often make ornaments or buy nice ones for presents ... which, considering the tree's about 30" high, means there are a number that don't get put on the tree.

And Hil, about those menorah lights ... did Jilli or Cass have anything to do with the design? (snerk)

Now, I know that *that* isn't normal, but now that I live with The Boy, I'm freezing all the time. I'm sure I need time to adjust, but before I beg him to turn up the thermostat, I don't know what's a reasonable daytime and sleeping temperature. He's been keeping it at 65 or so during the day, and 60 or 62 at night.

We will have the thermostat at 65 when we're home, 58 when we're not, and 60-62 overnight. Since it's a programmable thermostat, we set it for 68 about an hour before we get up in the morning and that works out OK.

We also have a gas stove in our bedroom that we'll let run for a while before going to sleep with the door closed, and that does a nice job of keeping things warm locally without wasting a lot of energy.

We have a Wii and it is Teh Shit.

Also, I've also been commenting at Shapely Prose lately! I love that site. I think I found it from a comment here by Kathy a couple of months ago.

I didn't even SEE JZ and Kathy other at Shapely Prose, but everyone should read it, as I LOVE it. I knew Steph was over there, but I didn't know if she wanted her other blog known at all, so I haven't mentioned it.

There was a new brand last year. Made of PLASTIC. So, yeah. You light the oil inside, and soon, the plastic melts. Depending on the design of your menorah, this could send flaming oil dripping onto your table or carpet. These were, of course, recalled.

Seems they're back again this year. New label, but obviously same product.

This is really dumb. At my work, we were told we could not even have an unlit menorah (they are doing Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas Decorations) with candles by the fire inspector. She said we would have to buy an electric menorah!

I sort of wish we would just do winter decorations around the school, rather than every religion under the sun.

WRT hypnosis, we are presenting a class on "pediatric hypnosis for nurses" and it sounds a little more like teaching the kids who are in pain etc to meditate and use biofeedback than a man with a watch saying "you are getting very sleepy"

To spice up our move to Wisconsin, we're having furnace issues. As in not working at the moment.

We had a dude in to inspect and clean it last night and something went wonky because we woke up to a freezing house at 5 a.m. We got someone else back in by 6:30 a.m. and DH got a fire going in the fireplace but nobody can quite figure out what's wrong with the furnace.

The unit is covered by a home warranty with the house but it's -3 here at the moment.

And to add insult to injury, the safety glass door on the fireplace shattered this morning--we closed it because two toddlers + fire = huge mommy fear of DANGER.

The kids and I are in front of the tv watching A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Video - two cats having a conversation: [link]