This is a stressful week.  We leave for North Carolina on Sunday and will be there until the 30th.  I am trying not to think about how much I have changed and how little our families appreciate change.  That is the source of most of my stress.  But that is another post altogether.

Our new sofa arrived yesterday and Josh and I rushed around like crazy people to pick it up before the store closed.  Interesting tid bit: the manager of the store had read my not-so-stellar review of his store, EQ3, on Yelp and seemed offended that my experience wasn’t all positive.  He was very apologetic, but also made excuses for what went wrong.  I guess people really do read those things. Here’s the sofa:

It’s more stylish than our old one but not nearly as comfortable.  It’s actually two end-pieces from a custom order sectional design.  The ottoman has storage and that oh-so-modern removable tray table.  I’m just glad to have a proper living room.  I’ll post more photos when I get curtains up.

Here is a photo of my amarillys plant.  I’m certain it’s going to bloom and be its most beautiful while we’re gone.

I bought this plant for Hans and Christyn as a thank you gift about a month ago.  Back then it was only 10-12 inches tall.  They made fun of it for looking distinctly like a penis.  Which is something that hadn’t crossed my mind.  (I bought it because the pot it came in matched Christyn’s living room.)  Anyway, I suppose live plants are less than perfect gifts, because not everyone wants to take care of a live plant.  So it ended up at my house, and I’m really glad.  I mean, look how awesome it is.  (Also note the wall heater in the background: we’re getting our pilot light lit today.  Finally— we’re freezing.)

Sunday we did the last of our Christmas shopping at Ten Thousand Villages in Pasadena.  Money is tight this year, so I’m mostly giving trinkets.  But here are a couple I thought were worth posting:

Look at this adorable flying pig!  He was made in Indonesia.  It’s a gift for my mom to remind her that anything is possible.

This little guy was hard to photograph because he kept spinning around.  He’s a chicken made of dried orange peels, made in Colombia.  This is a gift for my Granny who collects chickens and roosters.  (Not live ones.)

Also this week:

I read the book, “Sea Glass” by Anita Shreve.  I read it in 1.5 days, and it totally took over my life, my psyche, my imagination, everything.  Such an amazing story.  It was also fascinating to read a book about the Great Depression in the current strange and hard economic times.  I just found out it’s part of a trilogy including “Fortunes Rocks” and “The Pilot’s Wife.”  The latter was on the Oprah’s Book Club list, and I want no flack from any of you.  Like her or lump her, she has picked some good books.  However, I would like to state that “East of Eden” has been my favorite book since junior year in high school, 2000/2001, long before Oprah ever got a hold of it.  (I actually bought this book at the $1 bookstore in Burbank as a gift for my friend Amber who once directed a totally ridiculous and pointless play by the same name.)

We just watched this documentary by Ben Stein.  I thought it was interesting and raised some good points.  Apparently it was ripped apart by critics and labelled as propaganda.  But I just can’t get past the part when Richard Dawkins essentially says it is more likely that a highly developed civilization came before us, created life as we know it, and disappeared, than a higher power (Such as God) could have created life.  I’m not one of those Christians that interprets the Creation story literally, as in six 24 hour days.  But that’s not what the documentary is about.  I think regardless of what you believe about evolution or Darwin, this documentary is worth a watch, if for nothing else to see how the science community is not as open to exploring new ideas as we thought.

And finally:

This movie has a lot of actors I love: Jon Leguizamo, Jason Schwartzman, Peter Stormare, as well as Brittany Murphy, Mena Suvari, Mickey Rourke, and Deborah Harry.  It’s a completely whacked out tale of meth addiction and production.  Pretty sick, but entertaining.

Perhaps while I’m home I’ll see some of you there, or possibly post some of the awesome, high-calorie foods I’ll be eating or some of the beautiful North Carolina countryside I’ll be seeing.  But if not, Merry Christmas to all!