I Was A Very Good Girl

Wow! Santa...aka World's Best Daddy....spoiled me rotten! Dad and I always do a nice Christmas but it's nothing over the top. Small treats and a few JCrew sweaters usually. But this year he did that and also a large flat screen TV for my bedroom. I've been meaning to do a post with a photo on my bedroom TV situation for a few months now but keep forgetting. And now the photo is too late but let me set the scene with words for you anyway. When I was out of college and living in a cute little apartment in Indy, my then roommate Belle got new living room furniture for her graduation present. So I supplied the end tables (hand-me-down teak tables from my parents when they moved to FL like 20+ years before) and TV (purchased new with the help of her then boyfriend. The thing was HUGE- heavy as all get out.). While the TV was large in size (like a giant box of heaviness), it always had issues. I think I paid an arm and a leg to buy the thing and double that over the last nine years to fix it repeatedly. But like a year ago it stopped working. Well it would still work fine with the DVD player but not as a TV with or without cable. So I swapped it out for my little tiny TV from my college dorm room freshman year. It's the kind with the built-in VCR. The VCR only even worked on play and automatic re-wind, but no longer worked to rewind-at-will or record or pause. I never watch movies anyway so it didn't bother me. My dad asked me about a month after I made him do the heavy lifting to swap out my TV's if the big one was dead or if we should continue to store the monster. So I plugged it in and what do you know, it decided to work again. So out went the tiny TV and in went the monster TV. Again. And then about five or six months ago, it all happened again. But I was very into using my DVD player to workout with videos every day by this time. And I could never figure out how to hook the DVD player up to the tiny TV. I mean, DVD players didn't exist when I bought it in 1996 I don't think. So I scooted the big monster TV over and added the baby TV next to it. The small was for watching at night in bed and the large was for doing DVD's each morning. Total trailer trash! I know! It looked terrible but was rather humorous too. When I was in college with Bestie, we had a similar situation for a while with the same baby TV on top of a dead giant TV. It was awesome and oh-so-klassy! Anyway, it honestly didn't really bother me. I just don't care all that much about electronics or vehicles. We all have our "things" and those just don't happen to be mine. It was trashy and I knew I would eventually give in and you know, buy just one TV for all my needs. But I was certainly in no big rush to spend my money that way. I would just rather go out to dinner or fly down to see my Godson or save or really anything other than buy something electronic. But my dad knew that I would never upgrade until they both completely died. And that baby TV has flaws but I swear my own currently-non-existent kids will take the damn thing with them to college. It's going to be that thing that just lives on forever. Even when kids think of VHS players the way I think of record players. So now I have just one TV. And it's so light and small in mass compared to the monster TV of yesteryear. I'm amazed that something can be so thin. Maybe it will be my thin-spiration for the new year. Ha. So Santa was very generous with this little girl and I am so very excited and grateful. Don't worry, Sadie Kate was spoiled rotten too. Because she was of course a perfect princess all year long!

Oh, so my family does the Dirty Santa (aka: Yankee Trade or White Elephant) Game each Christmas for the grown-ups and older teens. This year was hands down the most fun and had us all in stitches yesterday. I thought though that I would have brought the favorite gift- a tan colored Snuggie (because we all really want one, don't lie!), a red mug and a $10 gift card to Starbucks. So my cousin opened it and like half the room was like, "oh I don't like Starbucks, I only like Dunkin Donuts." Well damn. I mean, Dunkin is down the street from me. But I went out of my way to get a S'bucks card thinking everyone (read: me!) worshiped all that's green and steamed. I should have known. I live in NY. Dunkin is king in my part of the country. I was so bummed that I didn't have the big hit gift. It did get stolen but my secret goal (so shhhh....don't tell anyone.....let's just keep this dirty between us girls) every year is to have the most coveted and stolen gift. Shallow? Perhaps. But gift giving....now that is one of my "things!" I am already trying to come up with what I hope will be the winner for next year. Any ideas?

Oh the kids LOVED their treat buckets (see post below)! So if you have a need for a kiddie gift for any holiday or birthday, stop by the Dollar Tree or Wally World and you too can be the gift giving winner for $12 or less!