surprisingly... christmas

we had an early xmas and much to my surprise, there were surprises.

we decided rather last minute (just days ago) to host a really small dinner party and just invited a few friends who contacted us to see what we were gonna do. it was a nice party as a whole; i made my moms famous meatballs that went over quite well, we also had lots of great nibbly things to pick at including fresh fruit, and fine cheeses thanks to charles and kara.

i should back up ... the first surprise came with me on a spur of the moment urge to run down to the jc center of downtown to pick up a little charlie brown tree. its cute in a really sort of pathetic kind of way... tim was at target doing some last minute shopping so i asked him to pick up some lights and decor to spruce up this little cute tree.

all was set, the food out and yummy and people started arriving, though a couple didn't make it and that was a little dissapointing but it was ok, the other guests were all there and enjoying eachothers company when the second suprise happened. apparently the words, "small" "intimate" and "close friends" don't mean anything to a certain someone who was sharing the party planning with us. the phone rang and she was down at the door letting in four random, "frat boys" in thier 2os? through my door - i actually wouldn't have minded if they were all gay, but straight boys are really beastly and i just can't get along with them. they were the type of kids that when i went to high school i hated and never got on with. after some uncomforatable exchanges and maybe about 30-45 mins later they found their way out thankfully. i seriously have to reconsider sharing planning of parties in my home with people. i don't like not having control of who walks in my door. i'm pretty sure what scared them away was when tim switched the tv to sweeney todd (the johnny depp version) and nigel and i started singing.

with the random strangers gone we could begin now exchanging presents - chris tim and i were gonna wait til actually christmas day but at the last minute decided to not!

first came allison and nigel. i need to go back and explain; since they'd been dating nigel could never surprise allison with any xmas gift. she always knew what she was getting, even wrapped under the tree it would be ... 'monk box set' or 'oh thats a buffy dvd' etc. a few weeks ago, though, we took a trip to the city to see Repo the Genetic Opera, and they found a store called Obscuria which sells one of a kind and antiques. allison fell in love with a ouija board there from the 1800s' apparently the first of its kind. the problem was it was a lot of money and she coudn't get it right then and there, but she was obessing over it. she did research and called / emailed every place she could to find out about it. forward to a couple weeks ago when nigel, her friend lori and tim decided that'd be a great suprise for allison so tim went and picked it up - he had to really plea to the shop owner that it was for allison cos she had called and put it on hold LOL

forward to last night. tim made a sign in a picture frame and wrapped it - gave it to allison, it said "LOOK UNDER THE COUCH". when she did there it was wrapped up. we all played along like "ohh what is it?" :0 I havce to say i've never seen her so genuinely happy. wow she was really loving it and excited. im so dissapointed that nigels gift hadn't shipped to me cos i think he would have been so jazzed.

Chris Tim and I had been out shopping for eachother just days ago, we were all being sneaky but i dont think anyone expected what we had in store for eachother. sparing the details, i got the camera i wanted, tim got the nano he wanted and tim and i got a Wii for chris (and us) surprise, surprise surprise. lol

after all the guests left, tim chris and i stayed up til 4am playing the wii. man its so much fun and i can't wait to get more games on it.

i love my new coolpix camera :) can't wait to take it everywhere w me. it's 10 mega pixels and they got me a four gig card to go with it. i wish i had it the day of the duran duran show in montclair when i had that once in a lifetime chance with pic with the whole band and the flash didn't fire on my camera. - boo.

the next few days are gonna be sort of hectic too with food prep and planning dinners, clearing out the apt. closets, etc... lots of little projects i put off because i never have time. ugh...