So although it is a balmy 70-something degrees here on Okinawa, it is nevertheless beginning to look at least a little bit like Christmas. This island definitely has the green part down :p Mom sent me a ginormous package of Christmas decorations and some presents (which are still safe in their wrapping paper Mom, no peeking on my part!) So check out what my mommy sent me!!

She MADE this for me, it's all cross stitch. Is this not totally awesome?! I've been meaning to make Christmas stockings for Lee and me since we got married and never did find any patterns that I just loved, so I never made any. I was so overwhelmed when we unpacked these that I just totally started crying, much to Lee's consternation. All I could tell him was "I miss my mommy!" So check out Lee's, which may be even more awesome than mine...

As I said, totally awesome! I've spent quite a while staring at them both because they're so beautiful. My mommy is just THAT cool, aren't you jealous? She also sent us a green and red afghan that she crocheted for us and it's gorgeous. It's so pretty that I couldn't stand to only have it out for Christmas time so it's just gonna have to stay out year-round :)
So here's what else we've added to our household in the recent past...

Yep, we joined the Dark Side and got a Mac, which means we had to get a new printer because our old one (which I still really like) isn't Mac-compatible. Annoying. That is a 27-inch monitor, which is how big our first
tv was. I'm sure Lee could give you all the specs on what we got but all I know is that it's a Mac,
iTunes runs a lot faster, and it's got this cool feature where you can check out movie previews. I'll have to learn how to use it better. For now both the PC and the Mac are hooked up on our computer desk, although they've swapped spots since this picture was taken. I like to imagine that they play Battleship while we're at work during the day.
Seems like I've been working nonstop for about the last month, putting in extra hours after work just trying to catch up, *and* I've been trying to read for my class, *and* Lee's parents were here for a week and I didn't want to ignore them in favor of work or class (although I did have to go in to work a few times and I skipped out on going to the aquarium one day so I could read for class). I had my last in-class session for this term today, so now all I need to do is write my research paper (yeah, that's *all*, snort!). But our instructor has worked it so that we should turn it in as soon as possible, but theoretically we have until the next term ends (like, in March) because we all have
incompletes until we turn in the paper. I'm still going to try to knock mine out as fast as I can so it's not hanging over my head since I'm taking next term off from school and I want to enjoy myself :)
Here's a few more pictures because Liz requested them...we went to a holiday party last night for Lee's work. Lee did a picture
slideshow and I provided the music (or at least, my
iPod did). So here's a couple photos from the par-
tay:

Jamie and Margaret, hey for once you get to see their beautiful faces rather than their toes :) They're part of the regular group that goes to
Cocok's with the silent k together. Here's the shot that would be going in my Christmas cards, if I hadn't already sent them out:

Hm. I've got kind of a funny look on my face in this one. Wait a minute, maybe it was *this* one I was going to send out...
Haha, the patented Ree and
Christy self-portrait strikes again!
Part of the annual Christmas party involves a fundraiser wherein several people have to dress up in costumes. I'm not so sure what the rules are, but I want to say that the person with the most money and the person with the least money in the fundraiser both have to dress up as different things, but somehow they end up with three people in costume so like I said, the rules are fuzzy. So here's this year's lucky three:

Santa's lost weight. Wonder what his workout
regimen is like.

We also had a Christmas fairy! She was a really good sport about this, she even sprinkled pixie dust on everyone as she walked around in her fairy costume. The angle on this photograph isn't the best though, it looks like she's wearing that entire chandelier on her head.

And here's Lee's boss. Now you can see what it would look like if Peter Pan *did* grow up. Last year, the winner (loser?) who wore the fairy costume was this big hulking DUDE, so he looked really great with the fairy wings and antennae. This fundraiser netted about a grand, so not too shabby, huh?
Ok peeps, gotta go. We're late for a dinner date. Merry Christmas!