'Tis The Season To Be Jolly...

Last weekend Jeff and I really didn't do very much.

I have absolutely no recollection of Friday night. What the hell? Am I losing it? Perhaps. This is going to bother me. Oh well, carrying on....

On Saturday morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn. Why? Because my body doesn't believe in sleeping in anymore. It is unfortunate. I'd love to snooze until 11:00 just once.

I woke Jeff up because he had a ton of homework to do, and he asked me to make sure he was up by 7:30. Then, I brewed some coffee for us to sip on. I have never been a coffee drinker, but lately I've been enjoying an occasional cup. I think it is just because of the cold weather, though.

I know what you are thinking, but let me tell you! It does get pretty nippy here! There was a high of 50 today, and I had frost on my windshield this morning! Plus, it rains during the winter. Cold rains suck. The only thing that I like about winter is the snow on the mountain tops. I'm still waiting for that, though.

Anyway, I had no ambition to go to the gym, so instead I went to Walmart for a few baking supplies. I had most of the stuff, so that was nice.

When I got home, I decided that maybe it would be wise to make the cut-out cookies in advance - so that we didn't have to make the dough, wait for it to chill, roll it out, bake the cookies, wait for them cool, and then decorate them - on top of the other cookies that I had planned.

Some day I will have a kitchen with two ovens. Yes, yes, I will. Ooh, and maybe a second refrigerator and freezer. Of course, I'll also have ample counterspace. Then, I will just stay home all the time and cook and bake to my heart's content. Ahhhh, I can dream.

Focus, Ashley!

I got all the sugar cookies baked. It took awhile and a lot of patience with the dough, but they turned out well. :) I'm so proud.

Saturday night was the Christmas party for Jeff's squadron. I guess that it is typically a very fancy affair, but this year is was not. In fact, it was in one of the AMU's hangars AKA a big garage for the jets. Classy, eh? A lot of people were disappointed, but I was quite content with the casual style. I don't really own many clothes to begin with, let alone dressy stuff! So, that saved me a bundle. Hallelujah! Other than being cold, I had a great time.

We sat with the Thayer's and the King's. They are both younger couples, each with a toddler, and I like them a lot. They had snacks (including Hershey's Kisses - both cherry flavored and with almonds! Yum.), they served us Mexican food (while it may not have been the best and a lot of people compared it to previous years, I was quite happy with it!), and they had an ENDLESS supply of FREE Diet Pepsi!! Well, amongst other drinks. I enjoyed myself and was glad that I went.

Afterward, Jeff was invited to an Irish Pub to drink. He had to get up early to do more homework, so he said we would go for one drink and stressed the fact that he had stuff to do in the morning. Surprisingly, the guys were understanding. However, we never made it to the Irish Pub. Instead, the guys changed the plans and we went to The Coyote Cabaret AKA The Shitty Titty AKA a strip club. Excuse me while I go say three Hail Marys.

I was lucky enough to join these guys on one other trip to "The Tit." This is the only one that I have been to, and let me tell you this: it is a doozy! Basically, they hire anyone. By anyone, I mean just that. ANYONE. They have girls of all shapes and sizes. Mostly in the shape of round, though. The guys do not go there because it is a good show. They go there because it is a bar, it is right across from base, and because it is like a wreck that you can't take your eyes off of. We left early.

When we got home, I made the peanut butter balls, so that they would be chilling in the fridge until I could dip them the next day. Then, I mixed up the dough for the peanut butter blossoms, stuck it in the fridge, and called it a night.

I woke up nice and early on Sunday, went to the gym, showered, enjoyed some coffee, and started working on my cookies. I whipped up some frosting for the sugar cookies. Then, I rolled out all the balls from the peanut butter cookie dough, so that I could bake them.

Nicole arrived around 12:00. She helped me make the Buttery Almond cookies. Then, we decorated, and decorated, and decorated! The first five-dozen were a blast, but by the end I decided that I would be cutting next year's recipe in half! The outcome was so delicious, though, that by next year I will probably decide that it was well-worth the effort, and I will fall back into the trap of decorating E I G H T dozen sugar cookies. Next year I won't have Nicole, though. They are leaving for Colorado in March.

Once we finished that project, she had to leave. So, Jeff and I dipped the peanut butter balls together. It was fun.

I sent some cookies home with Nicole, sent Jeff over to the neighbor's house with some, enjoyed some for myself, and sent the rest to work with Jeff for his entire AMU to enjoy. They did just that. So, I must say that it was time well-spent. :)

Work, work, work...what can I say about work?

I can't stand our activity therapist. She is driving us all up a tree. She sits in her office all day. That is her job. She used to help us on the floor and interact with the participants. She used to even do the most important part of her job. You know, come up with new activities and schedule them. For the past few months, though, all she has done is locked herself in her office and done nothing. In fact, recently WE have been coming up with all of the ideas and she just plays it off like she is the brilliant mind behind the crafty ideas.

She complains that she has so much work to do, but everytime we turn around she is texting, smoking, or in the kitchen eating. She also loves to hand her work off on us because we have so much time to file her papers for her. When she isn't doing those things, though, she enjoys harrassing the staff-especially the kitchen worker because she spends so much time in there. Most of what she says goes in one ear and out the other. We all know that she is just being a witch and that most of what she says contradicts what our REAL supervisor says. So, we choose to ignore her.

She is always hounding my dear Rosa. Finally, she became so fed up with it that Rosa said something this week at our staff meeting. It was a failed attempt to make our work environment more pleasant. Now, the activity therapist has it out for Rosa and has been chasing her around yelling at her all week. It breaks my heart because Rosa is the kindest, sweetest, hardest-working woman ever.

I wasted way too much energy typing all those words about her. I just get so fed up that I could scream or cry. Normally, I just cry because I don't have the balls to stand up for myself.

This weekend will be pretty boring. Tomorrow there is a Festival of Cheer that I might go to - if my friend Nicole decides to take her kids. Then, I think that I will whip up some pasta and homemade bread sticks for dinner - since I have everything on hand. On Sunday, my supervisor invited me to visit her church. I don't really want to go because I'm a scared little chicken, but I will go anyway.

Next weekend is my work Christmas party with just the HPP staff. I am making a chocolate cake from scratch. I'm so excited. :) If it is tasty delicious, I will post the goodness.

We don't have any official plans for the holidays, but I am pretty sure that we will have a small meal here and invite some of the people that don't have plans. I sure wish that we could be home, though. Maybe another year.