A blog by Cameron and Shannon

My Christmas tree is NOT up, due to a last-minute overnight to Chattanooga on Friday, my complete and utter failure to recall that our company Holiday Parties were on Saturday and Sunday nights, and the fact that I got a cold that hit bigtime on Friday night-Sunday (why can’t these come during the work week, when I could at least take a couple sick days? Or at least on a weekend when there aren’t TWO parties to attend.)

Also, my house is not spotless as planned; rather, our need for a laundry room/at least a good sturdy set of hampers has made itself quite clear in the form of our sorted laundry piles exploding all over our bedroom. Exacerbating the extreme heartache over this topic is that I have seriously been planning a “complete huge spotless house cleaning” since about September and have never finished for one reason or another.

Furthermore, we are officially Out of Closet Space in our apartment. Therefore, the shoe closet is also the Christmas gift storage space until I get said tree up. My apologies if your gifts smell a bit like shoes and/or feet. I’ve just kind of been tossing the shopping bags and delivery boxes in there.

It should go without saying that I have made neither cookies nor chili, because those are reserved for Tree Decorating, which has not happened. Maybe it will on Thursday?

I’ve also not sent Christmas cards, because we’ve not taken a Christmas picture, because that happens in front of the tree.

Currently, I am combatting tears when thinking of the fact that my Christmas tree will likely go up a week later than planned, rushed on some weeknight, while I am in the middle of a cold and really not feeling all about it, just like last year.

Top that off with the fact that (while I am VERY thankful for my lovely job) I added NINETEEN to-do items to my list THIS MORNING (and I don’t mean my personal to-do list) - and that I just realized I thought I had read all my email but did not scroll UP all the way, thus revealing 20 unread emails - and I am on the edge, people. THE EDGE.

Liz tagged me in a photo thingie, where I am supposed to post the 4th picture from the 4th folder on my computer, and then explain myself. I’m also supposed to tag 4 other people, but I will leave that all up to you guys if you want to go around posting your photos.

I have to confess that the 4th photo from the 4th photo was pretty boring: it was a bowl of strawberries. So I am posting the 5th photo. This is almost the same, as you can still see the strawberries:

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Being Very Into Christmas this year, I suddenly see that there are very important Christmas issues to talk about, such as Christmas lights.

I happen to be a white Christmas light person myself. I feel pretty passionately about white Christmas lights now that I am thinking about this, but to be honest, I have absolutely no idea what kind of Christmas lights are in our storage area right now and that have been on our tree for the past two years we’ve been married.

My mother was a colored Christmas lights gal, and I can respect that. Outdoors, however, there were only white lights. Maybe this was to simulate snow? To make the icicle lights more believable hanging from our roof in Florida?

Come to think of it, outside lights are a different issue altogether. I’m a big colored outside light person. I also enjoy those plastic Santas that are lit from the inside.

Oh! And the lights should never blink! Or synchronize to music (do Christmas lights really do that or did I make that up just now)? But the ones that twinkle…those are definitely a plus.

Then there’s the case of the amount of Christmas lights you should have on your tree. Personally, every year I just kind of buy a couple of strings when they are on sale and add ‘em in.

I could keep going on this issue (we’ve not even covered those giant Christmas lights from the 60’s) but I suppose I’ll stop here, considering I’ve already proven myself slightly unhealthily obsessed with CHRISTMAS LIGHTS for crying out loud. But I would definitely be interested on anyone else’s Christmas light opines.

No, seriously. Yesterday it snowed on and off all day, and every place I go has at least one Christmas tree.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this yet, but I am way into Christmas this year. Last year was kind of half-hearted: our Christmas tree didn’t get put up until about a week before Christmas, our Christmas cards never got sent out, and once we finally made it to Florida for the holidays with my family, things went kind of haywire with my Papa in the hospital. This year, on the other hand, I began listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. So I guess you could say I am feeling double Christmas cheer this year, and I have some serious plans.

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After three days and nights of Thanksgiving festivities in good ole Live Oak, FL and a harrowing ELEVEN HOUR DRIVE (it is supposed to take EIGHT, people) back to Nashville, we are finally home.

Home…where it is snowing. Although I don’t mind that much right now. As much as I love and miss Florida, there is something nice about having a time of year where you honest to goodness can’t be doing anything better than cozying up with your book/movie/letter writing/journaling and coffee/hot chocolate.

However, all of that will have to wait a little while, as I made a to-do list this morning and promptly began having anxiety attacks about All There Is To Do. Please note:

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Through some twist of fate, I finally finished reading the last Twilight novel in the same weekend I saw the Twilight movie. Holy. Moly.

Let’s talk about the book first. I’m not gonna try to make excuses for myself as to why I purchased and read every book in this series. I tell you - not as an excuse, but as a reality - these books are like crack. You hate what you are doing when you are reading. You hate yourself for reading again later. You want to yell at the people in the book to just COME ON!!! and throw the book across the room. But you cannot stop. You just CAN’T.

I admit, I really was looking forward to Bella and Edward (OK who names a freaking heartthrob character something like EDWARD past the year 1875?) getting married. But… without ruining this for anyone who still hasn’t read this yet wants to… seriously? Also, I threw up about 475 times while reading this book.

And yet I still saw the movie.

The movie. THE MOVIE. I’m going to admit that even if I were not addicted to the crack Stephanie Meyer deals out in measured literary doses, I probably still would have seen this movie. No…definitely. Definitely would have seen this movie. It wasn’t the compelling previews with growls, angry stares and killer lines like “Hold on, spider monkey” (What the WHAT?!) - it was that people are going NUTS for this stuff. And that poor guy who plays Edward Cullen. Wow. Before I talk about the actual quality of the movie, let me just say, there is something VERY priceless and awesome about sitting in the dark with 100 14-17 year old girls who giggle at the screen like we are IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL CLASSROOM.

But, sweet heavens, THE MOVIE. It was just downright goofy sometimes. In a bad way. Maybe my heart has hardened to stone since I was 16, but Edward Cullen was NOT dreamy - he was CREEPY!!! OMG, so creepy. Oh, yeah, and he looks like he’s about thirty years old. That would not be such a bad thing if Bella didn’t look actually 17. And the dialogue! And James… And…yeah there’s just way to much to try to explain. The book wasn’t the Best Thing Ever, but I felt like it had some Harry Potter level potential. I was disappointed.

On the bright side, there are always three more movies coming out…

Yesterday I Ran Errands. Somehow it seems like a good idea to “accomplish something” and perform all of my weekly errands in one fell swoop, wherein, list in hand, I purchase everything we could possibly need for one week. Usually it takes me precisely one trip around the parking lot looking for a space before I realize this was a bad idea. Somehow I never realize this before heading to the store(s). That said, I have a few things I need to get off my chest:

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You want to know something that is hard? Working all kinds of extra hours (not complaining) when you have also resolved not to spend any money on stuff for yourself, meaning you can’t even buy these boots or these boots, even though you’ve lived in the (relative) North for 3 winters now and never found any boots you liked until this year?

It is tough.

I’m gonna spare you all who I’m voting for and why, but I would like to say, this is my first time voting in Tennessee and it’s taking a little adjustment knowing that my vote is not pulling the same electoral weight as it did in Florida. It’s gonna be weird to watch the returns knowing that my state is only going to impact the electoral college vote by 11 points - that is 16 points fewer than when I lived in Florida. I think the electoral college is a great system, but, man, it’s hard to lose those 16 votes.

I’ve also not voted YET… we were supposed to go this morning, but when the first lines they showed on the Today Show were from Nashville, I kind of threw away that thought since people began lining up at FIVE THIRTY IN THE MORNING. Which we did not.

So wish us luck.

Oh, yeah and go VOTE!!!

I’m by no means what you’d call a horror movie expert (in fact, there are some horror movies I refuse to watch altogether - I’m looking at YOU Hostel and Saw) but I feel confident in saying that I’ve seen, well, a LOT.

So here are my Top 10 Awesome Horror Movies, which you should be watching at Halloween. Or at any other time of the year. They’re not really in any particular order.

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I don’t even really know how to lead into this kind of thing on a blog, because it’s kind of a personal thing, not to mention I don’t really want to be a “downer,” but I’ll give it a try.

As I posted last Monday, we were planning to head out for vacation the following Wednesday. We didn’t actually get to go on vacation because my Papa (my grandfather) passed away last Tuesday. So, instead of leaving to drive to Virginia to enjoy some fall weather on Wednesday, we drove down to my hometown in Florida for the funeral and time with my family.

This was the first time someone in my close immediate familial unit has died, and to be quite frank, it is something I would rather not do again for a very, very long time.

But I do have to say my Papa was awesome. The man had a certain generosity and steadiness of character that I can only hope to achieve sometime in my life.

I am going to miss him a lot.

Sorry, Liz. I will email you.

However, I am trying to get ready for vacation. But, seriously…THE CRAZINESS.

How can I still not have everything together even though I have been planning since LAST TUESDAY?! How? But I’m going to stop complaining about planning now because did I mention we get to enjoy the lovely fall weather in DC? And Virginia? And stay and B&Bs and visit wineries? And eat lots of yummy food?

OH - speaking of the food - people of Washington DC and Central Virginia, I have one thing to say to you: WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON WITH THE DINING RESERVATIONS? I had to make reservations for dinner for our vacation a week out. And I STILL had to scoot each and every reservation request by 15-30 minutes from my original request. Seriously, people. Seriously.