heart.

Dudes! Sometimes it’s really difficult to recap the best days ever. I think I lose the ability to eloquently recount in direct proportion to the volume of awesome. At some point I’m just going to start posting photos of me grinning and waving my hands. Or this!

On Thursday night, eight of us convened at Matt’s to shop and wrap gifts for the Aliveness Project. We’ve done this for a few years now, and it gets better every year. After we finished wrappin’, we hung out and drank hot buttered rum and watched The Office. Have I mentioned it’s really funny to come back to TV after so long? Oh yeah. But seriously!

I took Friday off to accomplish the important tasks of cookie-baking, apartment-cleaning, and party-having. In the morning, I mixed up two giant bowls of dough for peanut blossoms, and turned out 15 dozen before I had to stop for the day. I also drove the carload of presents to the Aliveness Project. I left there nearly in tears because everyone there was so very much in the holiday spirit; it’s such an intense combination of heartbreaking and uplifting. I was at home working on appetizers when Kaye called to tell me about their project for the party, laughing so hard I could barely understand her. She and Cindi showed up a little later, and set to work assembling the gingerbread party cabin, complete with little marzipan figures of everyone at the party. It was a masterpiece.

So, when ten of my favorite people in the universe get together to hang out, it’s pretty much my idea of perfect. We had organized a gift exchange with a $3 spending limit, and had been gloating about the gifts we’d found each other for at least a week. We shopped at boutiques such as the Family Dollar, Walgreens, Petter’s, and Ax-Man. The pile of presents was a sight to behold.

We all came out winners in the gift exchange. There was a wedding candle with other people’s names on it, a do-rag, a clearance douche, two cocks, collectors-edition ramen, safety goggles, beef logs, huggy jesus, an As the World Turns tshirt, a spy kit, and my personal favorite, which Jumi made for me: a bindle. Because I am totally a hobo, dudes.

We also presented Wendy with her scrapbook, which I compiled from a particularly affectionate collection of photos, and decorated with the most ridiculously girly stickers I could find at the scrapbooking store. Sadly, I could only find about twelve iterations of ‘BFF’, but there were plenty of flowers and hearts and LYLASes to make up the difference. Everybody signed the back page, and it was tied shut with a ribbon. That scrapbook is a thing of beautyAWESOME.

Saturday, it took me up until about 2 minutes before I had to leave the house to finish the rest of the cookies. I made about 40 dozen total. Between the party mess and cookie supplies scattered everywhere, my apartment was probably suitable for condemnation. But I had no time to deal with it at that moment, because it was time for WorkParty 2006.

Since last year’s party was so legendary, my boss decided to do the same thing. I was not one to complain, because it was excellent: she took us out for a huge dinner and drinks, gave us ornaments she’d picked out specifically for each of us, then handed us each $300 cash and ordered us to go spend it or we’d have to give it back. Oh, and we had 90 minutes to do so, and had to pick out items that fit three criteria: something that meant Christmas to us, something that represented a hobby, and something we’d never spend money on ourselves.

Matt and I ran up to Sports Authority and picked out a large pack for camping. We wandered around a few different stores, then stopped to pick up a Hello Kitty ornament, because it’s my xmas tradition. We had some trouble with the last item until he suggested a stand mixer; I’ve mentioned a couple times recently how much I missed having one, especially while trying to make pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving in the food processor. We found a KitchenAid mixer at Sears, and were done shopping with 5 minutes to spare.

We all reconvened to show off our purchases, turn in our receipts, and hand over any unspent money. Pam was given back something like $2.30. Steve won an additional $100 for having the most creative use of his money: an iPod Nano, a $150 bottle of scotch, and a gumball. On the way out (after keeping us in drinks for another couple hours), Pam handed us cards with bonus checks inside. Hell yes.

Matt and I went to Grumpy’s and found it packed-full of Rollergirls, people we were pretty sure we knew, and Kirby. We hung out for a while, talked to Kirby and his friend Alex, who told us of his own personal experience with every dude’s nightmare: going out with a girl one night, getting blackout-drunk, and waking up to her on the phone, telling her parents they were engaged. AWESOME.

This morning, I’m pretty sure I had a minor stroke when my alarm went off at eight. I came home and boxed up my cookies, the last batch of which was still sitting on baking sheets on the stove. I went out to my mom’s to meet up with the rest of Team Boobylicious, and 240 dozen cookies. It only took us two hours to package and sort out the orders; Wendy and I were expecting something much more painful, based on our experience with it last year. Holy crap, we’re efficient now!

I was home by 1pm, and have spent the rest of the day cleaning and uploading many, many extremely amusing party photos. I must also make my bed and prepare for my imminent collapse; I should probably get about that, because I have a date with my bathtub in 20 minutes, and I cannot be late. Also, to those of you who ordered cookies: you will be hearing from one of us within the next couple days. Good? Good.

In conclusion, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jenni

p.s. YAY!