There was one thing I really wanted to do while on vacation this year, I really, really wanted to go see The Holiday and just laugh. So I finally convinced a sick Mom and a grumpy Sister (who avoids movie theaters like the plague) to go with me today and I think they were both pleasantly surprised. I have to say, I loved that movie. I'm admittedly a bit emotionally loaded right now, and spent most of it in tears...but that's not always a bad thing! The best part of the movie was the character that doesn't make an appearance in the previews, because as Kylene said: they're selling a love story, not a story about an old guy...but you know, I might have cried the hardest during his finale scene...

Anyway, total chick flick, but better than I expected. I thought it would be cheese on a stick, something to just see and have fun with. I wasn't expecting to cry all the way through and have squeaky eyes the rest of the day.

We're still officially without internet. A very kind neighbor gave us access to their wireless for now, we managed to make it work on this one computer, and I just figured it out on the PC, so if I don't die of exhaustion before looking, editing and uploading pictures, maybe this post will not be entirely sans photos...no promises though.

Just a few more days of vacation and the dread and depression are already setting in. I don't know why it's happening so fast this year, maybe because the vacation has seemed like one oops after another with a lot of wasted time, a lot of sickness and a lot of stress and now it's nearly over. Whatever it is, it's making me the polar opposite of Miss Manners...plus there is the looming trepidtation of Sven having to go to Russia for at least 2, if not 4 weeks with the new year and a major birthday for ME, on a MONDAY by myself. Just lots of things to make you feel like a big fat meany.

Oh and then there's the whole sweater thing. Who is not cold this winter? Yah, so whereas past NW Winters left hundreds of lovely colorful, wool sweaters for the buying, the winter of 2006 is giving me nothing. People, I'm cold! I had honestly hoped to increase my wardrobe by one or two sweaters this year, modern ones that also fit, ya know? Instead, I find nothing but thin thin polyester and cotton blends, cardigans or pullovers so thin, they need a layer on top of them! Hello? The sweater is my top layer please! So I've been in a few stores and browsed a few online with no luck.

Past Christmases yielded an Old Navy Gift Card in stockings, one that would go to quite a generous helping of new clothing. Stockings now yield cash, in case the receiver doesn't want clothes, or clothes at Old Navy, in the same amount as the gift cards, yet when the shopping spree was over, I had exactly one pair of pants, one shirt, and one pair of pj's and the money was gone. Same store, same me (okay, different body shape) so what happened? Did the store not have a good or large selection? Have I become that picky? Why did I walk away with so little when I went in with so much potential?

Maybe it's TV. At home, I watch LOST and GA and stuff that is mindless and so non-reality it couldn't be any more different than real life. Here, I watch TLC's What Not to Wear. I don't just watch it, I'm addicted to it. Why don't they have this kind of stuff in Germany? So anyway, you are sitting there watching this frump of a woman (because it is almost always a woman) be transformed and suddenly you want to shop too. You want to be transformed, or at least get new, trendy, fashionable or fun clothes. Only, you don't have $5000 to spend, so the fun gets sucked right back out again.

Whatever. Someone tell me where the sweaters are, please?

So since I came up with a big fat zero for myself this morning regarding sweaters, I moved to the little girl's department and filled my hands with outfits for Georgia instead. Heck, she looks cute in anything you put on her. So I was grabbing 18 month sizes when I realized that these fit her now, and maybe I should be stocking up on the next size...

The terrible thing about this, is it isn't even the worst, she screamed and screamed and had her arms out to me, it was so pathetic. They kept her there and had Santa hold down her hands, so in the official santa photo, she's just crying, but her hands are out of her face...This is one Sven snapped while waiting for them to finish so I could get my baby back. Why exactly do we do this to our kids?

She was actually really enjoying the wait to see Santa, they had the line wet up so we were walking thru Santa's Workshop and there was a little boy behind us that she flirted with (he screamed when it came time to sit in Santa's lap as well, that poor Santa...).

This was also our last day out and about because right after it, we all came down with nasty colds, one right after the other. Georgia had been feeling nasty earlier in the week and we thought she was on the road to recovery, but when I came down with the same thing, it hit her again, much harder, so the two of us have been suffering from the same thing simultaneously. Now we are on the mend, but Daddy, Auntie Kylene and Grandma are showing symptoms, despite increased intake of different herbal remedies against germs...

Yes, it's been a rather sick Christmas for us this year...Plus, due to increased working hours at his store, Grandad has not been able to spend much time at  home and poor sick Miss Mae is still scared of him and won't go near him. \

All right, updates enough. I need to get this published before out internet runs off again. Merry Christmas!