Merry Christmas

[prosodic]

Me with my Christmas haul - DVDs of Golden Girls (season 1), Friends (season 10) and Sex and the City (all seasons), all given by Lance.  Madonna's "Confessions On a Dance Floor," given by my sister-in-law.  I'm wearing my new sheep pajamas that I got at Target while we were in Minnesota, courtesy of my father-in-law and his wife, who gave us a monetary gift. We got a lot of monetary gifts, which we'll be putting into savings toward the house we plan to buy in the next 2 years.

Lance with all the goodies I got him. 

Our dining room window with the pinecone lights and the pointsettia I'm desperately trying to keep alive.

The ugly hutch we have on loan from Schinnen, decorated with my reindeer, an angel candleholder that I got from my mother-in-law two years ago, and a Yankee candle.  The placemat is part of a set I got in the IWC gift exchange from a lovely Italian lady.

Not Christmassy, but I just wanted to show off the tapestry I bought to cover up the fuse box, and since I was taking pictures anyway...

My snowman display in the entryway, underneath the spiral staircase.  The snowpeople at the bottom have feathery wings, so I guess you can call them snow angels.

O Tannenbaum!  Before we opened gifts, of course.  I actually took this in the dark and did not retouch it.  My flash is good.

The living room, with our stockings hung by the radiator with care (Lance's is on the other side, out of view of the camera).

We had a pretty good day.  We woke up later than I usually do on Christmas.  We can hear the bells from the village church very clearly, and they rang repeatedly for morning masses, so we eventually decided to get out of bed since our sleep kept getting interrupted.  We wandered downstairs and Lance found the movie channel, where we caught the end of Miracle on 34th Street and then watched The Santa Clause. While we were doing that, I made Pillsbury Cinnabon cinnamon rolls (which had no difference in taste from the regular Pillsbury rolls).  Halfway through the movie, we opened gifts.  We spent the rest of the day alternating between watching the classic television show marathon on AFN (all with a Christmas theme) and the DVDs we had on hand.  I got Lance a boxed set of a bunch of Christmas shows, so we watched Frosty the Snowman. I made ham, mashed potatoes with cambanzola cheese, stuffing, and crescent rolls for lunch.  For dinner, we nibbled on leftovers from last night's party.  Once it got dark and I turned on all the Christmas lights and turned off all the other lights and lit the candles, we kicked back and watched The Muppets Christmas Carol

Football is on now.  So Lance is going to be up all night watching that.  I might actually get some sleep tonight!  He's been pretty noisy the past couple of nights with his sinuses all stuffed up and stuff.

Funny - Lance's friend had to "cook" a Black Forest Cake from scratch (he said cook, not bake...oy vey).  But anyway, he called me twice today with cake emergencies.  The first one was easy - he didn't have wax paper to line the cake pans.  So I told him to butter the pans and then dust them with flour.  The second time he called, he couldn't get the heavy whipping cream to turn into whipped cream.  I told him to just keep whipping.  I don't know how things turned out, but he never called back, so I assume things turned out okay.

I'm going to go shopping on amazon.com now with the two gift certificates we got.  I'll have to save the shopping cart though, because Lance needs to pick out what he wants before I can make the purchases.  It's just easier if we order everything together.

Comments

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

And you're from Ohio too! I can't stand it! :)

[capitalista.livejournal.com]

Yes, a fellow Buckeye! What part of Ohio are you from? I'm originally from Chillicothe, but have lived in Portsmouth and Athens, also. My significant other lives in Dayton... right next to the Air Force Base!

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

I was born in Findlay, but I lived in Columbus most of my life and that's what I consider to be home. I graduated from Ohio State with my BA in English and then went out to Miami University for my MA, but never quite got finished. Once I got married and moved to Germany, I decided that a library career was more practical for me, since I really don't like teaching that much. So I'm starting over from scratch with the masters degree once we get back to the States in 2007. I'll probably be doing the degree online while I'm working full time.

Athens is pretty. So it Chillicothe. I've been camping there. I'm not so familiar with Portsmouth though.

[capitalista.livejournal.com]

I like Oxford, my friend teaches at a high school there.

I'm going to Kent State. They have distance programs where they offer classes in 3 different locations every year, in addition to their normal Kent and Columbus locations. This year, they started the program in Portsmouth, at the university where I teach (and also received my B.A.). It's nice because they guarantee the classes you need and the classes are held on the same nights for the entire duration. You have to take some online courses or workshops to complete your degree, but it's very convenient. And it's part-time, so you can still work. And, in my opinion, library school is like high school compared to my first grad school experience.

Also, I do not like teaching. I never really intended to teach, just the job I was offered. I worked as a student employee in university libraries and love research, so I thought library and info science would be good for me. I teach part-time at 2 different schools now and do contract (economic research) work, so I don't have insurance, etc. Hopefully this degree will get me the full-time job with benefits I want in an area I want.

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

And, in my opinion, library school is like high school compared to my first grad school experience.

Interesting. My graduate program in English was tough, but I loved it. I loved doing research. I only rarely enjoyed teaching composition. I knew from the first day that teaching was not for me, but that's what a graduate degree in English grooms you to do. I do wish I had finished...I was so close to being done. But there were a few problems, most of which were beyond my control.

I really miss Oxford sometimes. It was so different from Columbus, but for a small college town, it had a lot to offer. It had a great art museum, good theatre (I was a volunteer for theatre and arts events and got to see a lot of great things for free), good restaurants and nightlife. Great little place to spend a couple years of your life.

Sounds like your program works out really well. We'll probably end up living in Georgia when we're done with our assignment in Germany, so I plan to do a distance education program at either University of South Carolina or University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Both, I hear, have excellent MLIS programs. But U. S. Carolina is more accessible, should I need to go to campus. So I'll probably try to get in there.

[capitalista.livejournal.com]

My first master's was in economics... it was very hard. I studied 24/7. It was tough, but I loved it. The library program so far is easy. Sometimes I feel more like it's my hobby than a graduate program. There's nothing you have to try to "understand." I've only had 2 courses so far, so maybe it will get harder, but I doubt it. One of the librarians I used to work for said she got her MLS because it was the easiest choice. It is very interesting, though. I'm now obsessed with acid-free paper!

I think the fact that we have other master's courses will work in our favor, as a lot of the academic library jobs are looking for other graduate work in addition to the MLS/MLIS.

I've also heard of a good online program from a women's university in Texas. Though, it is nice to have access to the campus, if need be. I visited Kent this past summer for a workshop and I'm glad I did. I feel more like a real Kent State student- I feel more connected. As it is, we watch our instructor on t.v., with microphones to communicate.