Blissfest

Back the train up - is it seriously December already?  I don't even know how that happened.  I only posted, like, twice in November!  Is it just me or does it seem like people have been slowing down in posting on their blogs?  There has been very little movement on my sidebar lately with blogs being updated and it is very concerning to me.  Because I don't read CNN or MSN very frequently ya' know.  I've got to get news about somebody and something somewhere and somehow after all.

Anyway, since posting a list of things I am thankful for seems a tad tardy at the present, I present you with a Bliss List (i.e., the things causing me to bliss out lately):

• Seeing our awesome new stockings hanging on the fireplace mantel next to the Christmas tree.  We've never had a fireplace or a mantel to hang stockings from and we've never really had stockings.  I attempted to make stockings for us when we first got married and I mistakenly thought I was all domestic and crafty.  (I'm  really not domestic and crafty though I ashamedly try to attempt to be every now and then.  All you bloggers out there who diss on blogging about crafts and such have given me a sort of complex where I feel like it is embarrassing to even think about colorful ribbons and glue guns and other implements of craftiness.  Also, I feel guilty reading craft blogs, though I secretly enjoy them.  Seriously, if I am on a craft blog and Paul walks into the room, I minimize the screen lickety-split.  It is like porn, only I probably shouldn't joke about that.)  Our original stockings turned out awful and too small to hold much more than a toothbrush and chocolate-marshmallow Santa - certainly they couldn't hold the traditional orange in the toe.  So this year when I found the exact type of stocking I have been searching for for the past six years, I broke down and bought them (five of them to be exact - who knows, maybe one day we will actually have enough children to justify the purchase and I wanted matching stockings).

from Pottery Barn Kids
• Wearing my new running shoes while bouncing along to the sounds of "Empire State of Mind" by the cast of Glee!.  There is nothing like a new pair of running shoes to make me feel like I can go and go and go on the treadmill.  Seeing as how it is pitch black when I get home from work, I have been forcing myself to go to the gym to get a run in a couple nights a week.  My goal is to be more consistent. 
• Those cinnamony pinecone things that you can pick up this time of year in the grocery store, craft store, hardware store - basically anywhere.  They smell SO GOOD.  Especially when mingled with the scent of pine Christmas trees.  To all ya'll who have fake Christmas trees, I understand the convenience and ease but I have a frown-smile for you.
• The hilarious "Hide your kids, hide your wife" video which shouldn't be hilarious but is nevertheless hilarious.  You've probably already seen it but we are a bit behind the times.  It reminds me SO much of my mission in New Jersey.  Paul and I watch this like 5 times a day pretty much.
• Having a computer that holds a charge, where the keys don't stick and the touchpad mouse doesn't malfunction, and where the screen looks bright and clear rather than like a blurry piece of newspaper because the graphics are so dull.  Paul picked out a new Dell for me for Christmas and I am happily blogging away on it right now.  My old computer got me through every final exam in law school, hours of copious note-taking and internet surfing, and the California bar exam without ever crashing in the middle of a test once.  I feel a little guilty leaving it behind, but this new computer is a serious upgrade from about 50 gigs of memory to 500 gigs of memory.  I don't really know what that means and it might be RAM instead of gigs, but basically the new computer is better.  There.

Well, there is more to the blissfest, but I started writing this when I really should have been applying makeup and eating breakfast before work, so now I need to go slap on mascara and head out the door.  Feel free to share in the bliss though.

Also, we are hoping to send out Christmas cards so if you don't mind, would you be so kind as to email me your address at amynash@gmail.com (or leave it in the comments if you're comfortable with that)?  We may or may not have it, so if you don't mind sending it regardless, that would be super awesome.