new beginnings

    Part of me always feels that the 'new year' begins the day after Christmas. The hassles are over and my mind can clear a bit. I have a full week to waste, um, I mean accomplish so much! This morning I at least started off right...
    Even after begin up early and quite active all day (forgot to put on my pedometer though), not getting to bed until after midnight (!!!), I still got up just a little after 9AM. Got my 8+ and didn't zonk out for half the day as I expected to do. Perhaps because I had a few things I wanted to get done -- and I feel quite rested, except for my eyes which are almost always tired. Yes. I need to get them checked.
    First thing accomplished was to get my husband's XM satellite radio activated. I'm looking at him now, across the living room from me, enjoying it immensely, happily clicking that record button every time something good comes on. His station of choice is "Willie's Place" for old country music. I want to get him one of the headsets with the antenna booster in it. He has to remove his hearing aids to use the earbuds. His ears will probably be sore shortly, but then he is used to wearing the hearing aids all the time, so perhaps not. I also got us a car kit so we can listen to it in the truck. AND, I get to listen to it online at work (or wherever).
    Next is to order #1Son's iPod Shuffle. I want to get it engraved for him, so I have to wait until he gets up to know what he wants on it. He surprised me actually, by picking that as his gift instead of the front-end mask for his car. But, they are SO cute, I can't blame him at all. I'd get one for myself, but I already carry around too many electronic gadgets!
    I don't always get my kids a lot of gifts, so we try to make the presenting of them fun. This year, I wrapped the Shuffle (that I had on-hand whic is a 21st-birthday gift for DH's grandson) as one gift, a printout from J.C. Whitney for the car mask and $50 as another, and put those two wrapped items along with a plain white envelope with some Marble Slab Creamery gift certificates in a box and wrapped it. Inside too was a note which said something about how it was time to play "Let's Make A Deal" and that he could have the small wrapped box and the plain white envelope or the wrapped envelope, to choose wisely because one was twice as valuable as the other. He wouldn't decide right away. He opened other gifts and later on decided on the small wrapped box (the Shuffle) and the white envelope (the GCs). It was fun for him I think. In the end, I gave him the cash too because it made the difference with what his brother's gifts totaled.
    For #2Son, in a large box, was his guitar stand, in pieces, and new strings, some tool for restringing and some string conditioner, along with a gift card for Circuit City and a bag of Hershey's Peanut Butter-filled Kisses. He got the Creamery GCs too and some for CiCi's Pizza, too. I'd seen this little Smiley Face bank at a dollar store and got it, because his dad always buys Smiley Face stuff for him. But I didn't want him to know what it was as soon as he took off the paper, so I tore the box apart at the seam and turned it inside out. Then I used copious amounts of heavy box tape so he could not get into it easily. He was appropriately frustrated, and greatly amused at his momma.
    My husband loves coconut, and especially all candies coconut. A few weeks ago I brought home some Hershey's Coconut Creame Kisses. He loved them. But he also said later not to get him any more because he just ate too many of them. Well, of course I had already bought him some more! I had a three-tiered candy jar put back as an 'emergency gift' so put one bag of the candies in each of the BOTTOM two glass containers, leaving the top on empty. We are known for putting gifts in boxes which are not what it says on the box, so when he was all "great, a candy jar" I reminded him of that habit, and he puzzled as he took out the foam I had added that would keep everything tight and wouldn't let on the candy was in there. He kept taking out the pieces and finally got to the candy...I'm sure he could smell the chocolate -- as could our sweet-toothed kitty, Sasha! That and the Jeff Foxworthy Redneck Christmas book I found on the BAM bargain table gave him good chuckles.
    All in all, a rather successful day of gift giving. Oh! Me? Well, two lovely books, Tazo Chai tea bags, both dry-roasted and SF chocolate covered macadamia nuts from DSis -- also violet soaps from Scotland, beautiful blown-glass hibicus ornament AND rosewook DP knitting needles, size 2 and 3 -- which I am about half afraid to use after breaking the Brittany birch 1s that I borrowed from Lisa (Remember to order those replacements for me, please, Rissa.) My sister ALWAYS overspends on Baby Susie! At least we got a lot done on her laptop yesterday too. Trying to get her anxieties relieved and her comfort level raised. She has a very nice wide-screen Dell -- just needs the junk cleaned off of it. LOL
    Now, on to other To-Do's. Blessed day to all.