Status update -

Still happily married.
Still unemployed.
Getting pretty bored.

There are things, projects, I could be working on to keep busy and be productive, but I'm feeling no compulsion whatsoever to start on them. I'm going to blame it on the weather. I don't mind the cold and snow and actually like winter, but after awhile, I just want fresh warm air. Really, the problem is that I'm not being active at all - no exercise, no real movement. Sloth begets sloth and the vicious spiral continues.

On to more fun things - I finally got some pictures uploaded to share! So now, just six weeks overdue, are some pictures of our festive holiday house.

This picture doesn't do the living room justice. It was so warm and pretty in all its Christmas finery. The picture above the mantle was a wedding gift from our photographer and his wife and is my favorite wedding pic. The bookshelves were purchased naked with our wedding money and we polyed them ourselves. The garland on top of the shelves and the wreath on the right are my favorite Christmas decoration buys. They were Yankee Candle store decorations that I bought for a song ($9 for each swag and $20 for the wreath) a few years ago. Did you know they sold their store decorations? I didn't either until I asked. Oh, and I love poinsettias. I'd have them in every room if I could. I think next year, I want to get some bigger ones to put on the floor on either side of the stove/fireplace.

I really love this nativity set. It was also a wedding gift, this from my sister and brother-in-law. When my sister and I were in Italy in '98, we found a great store on Rome's Piazza Navona that sold these wonderful art/craft pieces. I wanted to buy the nativity set for our mom, but it was expensive so I just bought an adorable piece for me (sweet, huh?). But I've always remembered that store and those pieces and wanted to return for more. So when my sister was in Rome again last May, I asked her to go to the store for the nativity set. She told me she went twice but the store was always closed. Yet come September, she gave us this as a wedding gift. The store had indeed been closed, but she contacted the store via email and bought two nativity sets (one for me, one for Mom). I was sad to put it away with the other Xmas stuff, so I really should just leave it out all year.

This is the dining room all dressed up (my back is to the living room while taking this picture; in the living room pic, the dining room is to the left of the chair). I took that picture the night of our very first dinner party, which included our moms as our guests. My cute snowmen wine glasses are on the table, along with our great wedding china (which we use every day). The mirror, bar cabinet, table and chairs all came from my house in Cinti. The kitchen is to the left. I've never had a full-blown Christmas tree at my own home/apartment. My mom would often send me live Jackson Perkins mini trees that stood 3 1/2 feet tall, but that's it. So having a regular tree (even a fake one) was great. D got this one from his mom a few years ago but hadn't used it. It looked great and was already strung with lights, which made decorating it quite easy.

And last but not least, here's our kitty! Isn't he just the cutest? I'm lucky I got a great kitty in addition to a great husband. He is smart and cute and fuzzy and cuddly (the kitty, not the husband; actually, come to think of it...). His only issue?

Well, he's kinda portly. 20 lbs. of portly. D and his mom call him little fat cat. That's really what he is - he's not a big cat, just a fat cat. So I'm trying to get D to cut back on the amount of food he puts out for him, I won't give him any people food and we're both playing with him and his favorite toy (a shoestring) a couple times a day. Hopefully, we'll knock a couple pounds off him so he'll be around for a long time to come.

Okay, that's the slide show for today, kids. Hasta.