#175 of 365: Party Like It's 2009

I didn't really feel like going out and doing much for New Year's Eve so I mainly just hung out with the family. We went to the movies and saw "The Princess and The Frog." After that we played a game and then Kimberly and I took off to go ring in the new year with some friends.

#174 of 365: I Hope You're Happy

My mom and Kimberly really wanted to go see Wicked while it was here in San Francisco so I got them and I tickets for Christmas. It was beyond incredible or amazing or spectacular. The perfect word to describe it is: WONDERFUL.

#173 of 365: Italian Kiss

Brittney and Job love bocce ball. And I love bocce ball. So I took them and my parents and Kimberly to my favorite bocce place, Campo di Bocce. We had an outdoor court and it rained almost the whole time, but it was still really fun!

#172 of 365: Cold Feet

Kimberly, me and Brittney snuck outside late tonight, with bare feet, to play in the cold, wet leaves and puddles.

#171 of 365: Silly Statues

My neice Isabelle finally started warming up to me on the last night of their visit. We were acting hecka goofy with each other and having so much fun!!! I really hate to see her go.

#170 of 365: myPhone

Look at what Santa helped me get!!!

#169 of 365: Be Jealous

I have the coolest, funniest, raddest, most beautiful family in the world!!!!!!!

#168 of 365: Seasonal Splendor

Tonight we spent Christmas Eve driving around looking at the lights. We have some really amazing displays in and around town. This one house is the most spectacular though! There are so many lights and attractions at just this one house it is incredible. Santa was even there giving out candy canes. It's hard to tell, but me, Kurt and Lori are standing in front of the house. Kind of under the "RY" in "MERRY CHRISTMAS"

#167 of 365: Friendly Wager

My family LOVES playing games! Every extra moment we have is spent playing games. Tonight we played "Up The River, Down The River." At the beginning of each round everyone bets to say how many hands they are going to take.

#166 of 365: Once There Was A Snowman

My best friend Suzanne, and all of her brothers and sisters, are in town for Christmas. So are all of my brother and sisters. We all grew up 2 blocks from each other and consider ourselves family. It's been years since we've all been together like this so we decided to have a giant family party! We had 18 adults and 11 kids there!!! And that wasn't even all of us because Michael had to work and some of the inlaws aren't in town yet. Del surprised us with a clown named Freckles, who was really great with the kids and they loved her. Freckles' helper did some face painting on the kids too. Becca and I got in on the action. She got a string of Christmas lights and I got this snowman.

#165 of 365: Game Play

Playing Hand and Foot with the family after most of the kids and even a couple of the adults had gone to bed.

#164 of 365: Survivor Brilliance

Kimberly, Lori and I holed ourselves up in my parent's room to watch the Survivor: Somoa finale. The rest of the family protested against us not socializing with them, but there was no way we were going to miss this! We had to see if Russell would win! He didn't. We were sad. He was sad. It was very sad. But we liked Natalie too. Here we are enjoying a standard holiday treat for our family, Seven Layer Bars, while we watched the finale.

#163 of 365: Express Delight

My neice Brooklyn came to visit! I love her chubby cheeks and giant eyes. This girl has more expressions and noises than a 7 year old boy! She is always so happy.

#162 of 365: Bird's Eye View

Just the top of my pretty, little head.

#161 of 365: Bargin Buy

This is one of my favorite sweaters. I bought it (and many others) at a discount clothing store. They were having a sale where everything you could fit in a giant shopping bag was only $5. This sweater had a rip near one of the armpits but I sewed it up and you can't even tell now.

#160 of 365: Drifting Off

About to turn out the lights and go to sleep.

#159 of 365: Impressed

Stopped at my favorite coffee shop to get the best hot chocolate ever. Mexican Hot Chocolate from Empresso.

#158 of 365: Evergreen

My parents and I went to our favorite Christmas tree lot, one that we've frequented often over the last 24 years, to get this year's tree. My camera was on the fritz so this was the best I could do.

#157 of 365: Contradiction

I like the ying yang feel of this photo.

#156 of 365: Hilarious

I never laugh as hard as I do when I'm around Rusty and Jeff.

#155 of 365: Indistinct

Hazy lamp light on a rainy street.

#154 of 365: Coziness

Wearing my comfy clothes.

#153 of 365: Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

Tonight I got to spend a little one on one time with Gillian Larson from the TV show Survivor Gabon. She is a friend of Steve, who is a family friend and my old boss. I actually used to know Gillian's husband Ron, who works with Steve. But that's not the point. Survivor Gabon was my favorite season of one of my favorite TV shows. I was so excited to meet Gillian and hear all her stories and ask her all kinds of questions. I loved hearing about all the contestants, from Gabon and other seasons. I would love to be a photographer for the show. I'm going to look into that.

#152 of 365: Hazy

Today was a very emotional day.

#151 of 365: Cinnamon Bun

I just pulled my hair back after work.

#150 of 365: Party House

Rusty, Des and I went over to Michael's new house to hang out tonight, and I brought a bag full of games to play. We sat around eating junk food and enjoying the fire. Then Michael wanted to watch his new favorite movie "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past." Good thing I brought all the games!

#149 of 365: Frozen Water Fun

Tamara, Shaun and I went to Yosemite to go ice skating at the outdoor rink in Curry Village. Tamara was like a baby deer learning to walk for the first time. She hung on Shaun the whole time. I just skated merrily along snapping pictures of the gorgeous setting we were in. You can see Half Dome perfectly in the background. Everyone should go to Yosemite in the winter!

P.S. I had a crush on the guy on the right in the photo. He worked there and he built a fire in the fire pit while I was laying by it trying to get warm. And he was an awesome skater. He could even do that skidding-to-a-stop-thing that blasts ice everywhere. Hot!

#148 of 365: Delighted

I'm really smily while at an event for work. The place looked beautiful. And I was really happy for the people we were celebrating. That's all the good I can say about it.

#147 of 365: Chit Chat

I'm sure I'm chatting to one of my sisters.

#146 of 365: Lousy

What a crappy day I had...

#145 of 365: Irritate

Don't you hate it when you get something in your eye?

#144 of 365: Munchies

Late night snack.

#143 of 365: Morose

We had to leave the wonderful lake house today and drive back home to work and reality.

#142 of 365: Wintry Weather

A raging storm moved in last night. It poured rain, then hailed 2 inches, then snowed at least 2 more. Kimberly, her roommate Lindsay and I went for a walk down by the lake in the late afternoon. By then the parking lot was melting and slushy. Our socks, shoes and pants were soaked, and our toes and feet were frozen.

#141 of 365: Pretty Panorama

I took the family out geocaching and to enjoy the beautiful autumn day. We went to an overlook of the Valley of Enchantment. It really was enchanting to see the whole valley with all the evergreen trees with the fall colors mixed in.

#140 of 365: Rustle

I went out on the back porch to relax before going to bed.

#139 of 365: Vista

Half of my family met at the lake house at Lake Gregory for Thanksgiving. When we arrived late tonight I walked down to the lake and stood at my favorite view point of the lake and the mountains. It was really cold but so gorgeous!

#138 of 365: Shine

The shiny surface of my cell phone screen comes in really handy. I use it for all sorts of things...checking my makeup, spying on people behind me, reflecting light in people's faces, etc.

#137 of 365: Stockings

My black argyle trouser socks.

#136 of 365: Found It

I got a GPS for my birthday (I actually just ordered and received it a couple days ago) and used it for the first time tonight. Kimberly, Lindsay, Eric, Rachel and I went out geocaching tonight. We found 7 out of 8. It was a great night! Lots of adventures and laughs!

#135 of 365: Soiree

One of my great friends Danny married Jane today. I went to the reception that was held in a barn at a vineyard. It was beautiful there but freezing cold! Danny and Jane know how to throw a party. We ate lots of good food, took photos in a photo booth and danced, danced, danced.

#134 of 365: Gluttony

After work Tamara, her husband Shaun and I went to Eddie Papa's in Pleasanton for dinner. Tamara and I got a craving for the restaurant after discussing it with someone at work. For dessert we ordered the s'mores. They gave us a fancy pot of flames, homemade marshmallows, rich hot fudge and graham crackers. I ate half of it and my hands and face were all sticky. It was the best thing ever!!!

#133 of 365: There's A New Kid In Town

My mom, Tamara and I went to the midnight release of the movie New Moon. Our showing was actually at 12:25am, but we got to the theater at 7pm and stood outside, in line, in the freezing cold until 10pm when they let us into our individual theaters. I wore my Twilight movie t-shirt but put these New Moon pins my mom gave me over the faces of Bella and Edward. The pin of Edward was placed on the thigh of my jeans.

#132 of 365: Crushed

It was a long, frustrating day and this is the kind of photo I could handle taking of myself.

#131 of 365: Peas In A Pod

I love edamame! Especially when I get to eat it out of the pod.

#130 of 365: Over The Under

I heard about Stephen King's new book "Under The Dome" from a new book email list I'm on and the premise intrigued me. I went and bought it on my lunch break today. I didn't realize how large the book was going to be until I picked it up off the shelf. I kind of looked around like "is this for real? where's the real book?" I started reading it tonight and so far it is VERY intriguing!

#129 of 365: Outlast

Lori threatened to spoil all that had happened on Survivor Soma if I didn't catch up today. So I spent several hours tonight watching episodes 5 through 9. I couldn't watch the last 15 minutes of the last episode because Mega Video kicked me out. Bummer. Russell is mine and Lori's favorite player. Of all time probably. He is a genius at the game. If he doesn't win the whole thing then he will have been robbed!

Christina's Shortlist

1. Fingerless Gloves - I got these at Target and I love them to death. They are especially handy when I'm working on my computer and my hands are freezing, because they still allow me to type easily but keep my hands warm.


2. Sharpie Markers and this blog - I'm a HUGE doodler. And I thought I was creative until I started reading this blog. It's inspirational.



3. Meiko - I love her voice and I love her music. Meiko knows my life!
Boys With Girlfriends - Music Video



4. Chocolate Pudding - I'm trying to eat less junk food and so chocolate pudding is great for my chocolate cravings that I get all the time!



5. Glee - This show is awesome!! I'm obsessed with it! I bought the soundtrack on iTunes and I listen to it practically everyday. My favorite character is Sue. She steals every scene and has me laughing out loud, even if I'm watching it by myself.

Glee - Don't Stop Believe