the aftermath of Xmas

The holidays were surprisingly smooth. Rich and I were mostly left alone, and that was just fine with us. For the first time in over a decade, we didn’t have to spend the holidays in San Antonio totally lost in a sea of extended family. Normally we hang out with his Aunts and Cousins- we’re the youngest in the family at 34 and 41, so you can guess as to how exciting our holiday nights usually were. His mother (who now lives near us in Pflugerville) decided that she didn’t want to spend Christmas eve with us… which really hurt Rich’s feelings as it was the first time in his life that they haven’t celebrated together. As it turns out, she told us that she wanted to be alone because she didn’t have the money to buy us any presents. We knew that already, I mean- we pay her bills. We weren’t expecting any gifts, and told her that while giving her lots of love and hugs… and a few useful gifts (a new purse, a cutting board, some perfume, some dvds). After that, we headed over to a friend’s house for a party and an awesome gift exchange.

On Christmas day we headed over to San Antonio to hang out with my Mom, sister, brother in law, and brand new nephew. It was a lot of fun 🙂 my sister gave me this amazing sugar skull (dia de los muertos style, yo). I put it in my dining room 🙂

While we were there  began playing with my mother’s new dog, and fell in love with him, and she gave him to us. She had bought him just about two months ago, and said that she had been trying to find him a new  home because she just wasn’t home enough (she’s a nurse, and she works A LOT). She was hoping that my sister would take him home this weekend, but she refused because she had her hands full with the new baby. So… we have a new dog; a little teacup chihuahua that I named Almond. He’s awesome.

He’ s so small that he can walk UNDERNEATH my miniature pinschers without bothering them. Technically, he’s Rich’s dog, but I kinda like him too.

Rich and I decided to wait on exchanging gifts with each other since funds were so tight this year. He gets paid on Wednesday, and I get THREE checks this week. Woo, we’re going shopping on Friday. He wants golf clubs, because he’s started playing with some of his friends, and I picked out a new phone…. I want an iPhone, simply because I want to be able to check email ANYWHERE. Yeah, because I’m so dang busy. I might change my mind- do any of you have iPhones? What’s the concensus? do you love being that connected all the time, or is it annoying? please share, I’d love to know.

I’m in the middle of going through the teacher training curriculum since I begin teaching my classes in about three weeks. I want to get through at least the first month’s classes before I start so that I can have a little bit of an agenda to follow. I’m nervous, but starting to build some confidence.

I’ve decided that I will only make one resolution for the new year, and that is to be a better friend. I’m really bad about staying in touch with my friends, and as a consequence have just a handful of them. I will do my best to make phone calls, and not just return them. I will also make sure that I have plenty of fun things to do AND ALSO invite other people to them (usually it’s just me and Rich). I need a wider social circle, beyond my dude and the yogis that I see every day.