Abbie's Real Life Blog

It’s been a long time since I left all my Christmas shopping until after Thanksgiving, and I kind of like the holiday thing of gathering gifts together.  I might not like it if some of these things don’t arrive in time, but right now it seems jolly.

Had a great Hanukkah weekend.  Tracy came into town on Friday night and hung out with my sister and her notboyfriend while I cleaned the house.  It looked pretty good when they all came over later in the evening.  I’d even ironed the red plaid tablecloth.  The only thing that I haven’t done this season (and I likely won’t do) is put up Christmas lights outside.  I’m just not feeling motivated, and Christmas is already next week!  If I put them up now, I won’t take them down until March.  Better just to skip it.  I’m looking forward to driving around and looking at lights that other people have put up, though.  That should be fun.

On Saturday, after a heavy brunch at Berlin Cafe (I hadn’t been there since it moved to 10th Street earlier this fall, and the place is so much better and so close to my office that I will probably go there often), we went up to my parents’ house and had latkes and applesauce and a gingerbread-apple cobbler that was absolutely fantastic.  I put ornaments on my parents’ Christmas tree (they’d just had it plain with white lights for the past week).

And on Sunday we had brunch at IHOP and dinner at a Mexican restaurant, so we just ate and ate and ate all weekend long.  I did go to the gym yesterday afternoon, but it was a drop in the bucket of carbs that was this weekend.  Today my coworker brought in Christmas treats, and I am not doing a very good job of limiting myself so far.  It is so hard to go cold turkey on myself with sugar after I’ve spent the weekend gorging.  Louis CK has a great bit about being this kind of eater.  I will try to find it and post it, but my googling isn’t turning anything up right now.

I’ve been keeping up with my 365 Project and it’s been 64 days!  I am so glad that I’m doing this, and I feel like some of the tricky part is over.  It’s the beginning of the project, right after the novelty has worn off but before it’s a habit, when it’s easy to give up and forget about it.  But I have not skipped a day yet!  You can follow it over at my photo blog or on Flickr.

(Aha, found the Louis CK video.)

It’s the whole can’t-have-one-doughnut thing at the beginning. Now you can spend the next half hour looking at other Louis CK videos on YouTube. I liked his guest spots on Parks & Recreation this fall. I wish he was a series regular. I love that character.

It looks like the camera shutter on my big camera is giving out. I had the inkling that this would happen a few weeks ago, but I was happy that I got through my two major photo shoots this winter without a problem. I have a backup camera, and I don’t have any big shoots for the next few weeks. I will be able to send it off for repairs now without too much problem. Sometimes things happen at the right time!