Where Has the Year Gone?

Today is December 1st and I can hardly believe it.  It seems like the year has just disappeared......

I still have no energy and yesterday was a hard day back at work.  I got there about 5:45 a.m. and left around 2:20 to head to the dentist for my cleaning.  I was just plain worn out.  I seriously could have fallen asleep in the chair, but the hygienist wouldn't let me.  Every time I started to doze off, she'd say, "turn toward me."  Dang her.  This bronchial infection/respiratory thingamadoogy whatchamajig is just suckin' the last remaining little tidbit of life out of me!

Lately, I have been working on having my blog turned into a book for journaling sake.  I recently sent my 2007 book to print and it just shipped today!  It will arrive on Friday.  I'm excited to see my life from that year in print.  This is what the cover looks like.  I know...not very exciting or "pretty", but I wanted something timeless and consistent for future books so when they are all on the shelves, they look like a collection of books - it's the analytical in me... 

I started blogging late that year - in October, but I still ended up having about 72 pages in the book!  I've recently begun working on 2008's book and upon first upload, I was already at 220 pages!  It was amazing to me that that particular year took up that many pages.  Who would have thought?  So, I was just wondering how many pages my 2009 book will take up.  I counted up how many entries I had in 2008 - 157 entries = 220 pages.  Then, I counted up how many entries I have year-to-date for 2009 and there are 196 with a whole month to go!  Plus, my entries this year have been far longer than last year's and I have a lot more pictures this year too.  I bet 2009's book reaches 400 pages!  Ouchy - that one's gonna be expensive!  The thing that I am most proud of though about this whole blogging thing is that I have actually been doing something the prophets have told/asked/commanded us to do - to keep a journal - and for this year, I have actually done it 59% of the days so far!  I think that's excellent since I never was very good at it before.  Plus, in a way, I've been able to "scrapbook" our daily happenings for "free" and without spending a lot of time like in normal scrapbooking.  (I miss the creative outlet of scrapbooking though!). 

I think it was last year that I made my first book.  It was from our trip to Disneyland with Dad.  It looked like this and was such a cute gift for him.  The image wrapped completely around the book.  I hope he liked it.
 
I learned a LOT from doing that first book - and, I learned a lot from doing my 2007 blog book. My 2008 and 2009 books are going to ROCK!  I just need to find the time to finish editing them!

Tonight was Food Among Friends and it was at our house.  Melon Man had today off, so he helped prep the house - he unloaded the dishwasher, did a load of laundry, and.....drum roll, please.....put up the Christmas Tree!  We decided to put it in the same place as last year - the other spot we were considering just wasn't tall enough for the 9 foot monstrosity.  He fluffed the branches a bit, but they still need quite a bit more "fluffing" to make the tree look really full.  I will put the decorations on in the next couple of days.  It was nice to have it up when the....count 'em....3.....ladies showed up.  I thought for sure more would come this time since it was about holiday traditions food.  But, there were only 3, plus myself, that came.  It was quaint though and actually nice to just visit for an hour.  And...as much as I don't want to really admit it, I was actually glad it was just a small group because I don't know how well I would have handled a large group tonight.  We had ginger meatballs, pumpkin pecan fudge, egg nog shakes, and......drum roll again please....CLAM CHOWDER!  YUM-O-LA!  Sooooooo good.  A little salty, but sooooooo gooooooood.  A very nice pre-cursor to Christmas Eve!  I can't wait to take the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

I'm going to bed now...I'm REALLY tired.  Happy Birthday to my BIL Brain Brian.  Thanks for building my shelf while you were here....I'm still really in love with it and it looks freakin' awesome behind the ginormous Christmas tree!

Countdown to Christmas....only 22 more days until Christmas Eve!  Argh....I have a lot to do!!!