Whew! Finally.

I'm terribly sorry to have kept you waiting for so long. Hey! Wake up! I know you want to know about this fabulous news of my incredibly interesting life. I often wondered if I'd *ever* get to say this, but we moved into our new house. About a month ago, actually. I'm sitting here in my nice, warm living room, gazing lovingly at my Christmas tree with pretty, pretty lights on it. For the last 3 Christmases, we didn't have room for the big tree, you know. Things are going pretty smoothly now, and we should close on our construction loan soon. I've been cooking up all kinds of wonderful things in my spacious kitchen and taking luxurious baths in my new, giant jetted tub. Ahhhh. Home sweet home. I would take a picture to share, as I promised Robin, but all six of my nieces and nephews were here for the last two days, so there's a toy explosion happening all over the house, and my nephew let the dog in this afternoon just as the snow was good and melty so there are hound-sized muddy footprints all over my beautiful, cream-colored carpets. Then, my niece let a cat in for good measure, so there are kitty-prints winding around the doggy variety. My living room looks like some kind of inter-species animal dance studio. Maybe I should take a pic of that, because after all of my work to keep these carpets clean, it's really sort of funny that it all came down to one afternoon with the little ones.

Christmas is coming, and I'm seriously the best wife in all the world because I bought my husband a pool table for our soon-to-be-finished basement rec room. Last year I got him a snazzy electronic dartboard, so the rec room should be fairly entertaining when it's done. Yay! Since many of our early dates were spent playing pool in smoky dive bars near campus, I'm looking forward to challenging my sweetie to a game and remembering the wanton days of our youth. Ha! How old do I sound now? Let me take out my dentures and play some pool, Grandpa. I'm 28. Sheesh.

My daughter wants a horse for Christmas. Specifically, she wants a "water-poofing horse." We don't know what that means, and she can't tell us. Not that she's getting a live horse of any variety this holiday season, but I'd sure like to know what "water-poofing" is and how it relates to the equine world.

I've lost 40 pounds now, and I'm inching my way closer to what I weighed when I got married. My holiday treat for myself? Wardrobe additions, of course. I have a closet the size of Rhode Island now. It must be filled. I recently bought a very foxy pair of black leather boots - mid-calf high with skinny heels. I love these boots. Other women admire them but ask how I can walk in them. Clearly they don't understand that sometimes, for the sake of looking and feeling really sexy, a little foot pain is a small sacrifice. I'm thinking that I need to revisit my stance on footwear. Previously, I decided that I would curb my shoe shopping because A) I don't really go anywhere exciting anymore, and B) No one here cares if my shoes are Manolo Blahnik or Walmart Special. I'm admitting it now, though. I love shoes. I see a shopping trip in my future, and I think pretty soon the people of my small hamlet will be exposed to loftier foot fashion once again.