We're driving to Grand Junction tomorrow, cat, dog, and all. This may be the first year I haven't begged Ben to take extra time off work so we can leave before the weekend. Probably because I have so much to do still. I'm back doing the transcription for my parents. It's funny to be doing the same job you had in high school :-)

I've given in to my domestic goddess urges and made peanut butter fudge and peppermint marshmallows. They will be perfect in mugs of hot chocolate with my family. Today Jem is in daycare so I can get some laundry, vacuuming, and cleaning done. Also tomorrow she turns 1 year old, so I figured we can call her playdate a birthday present.

Tonight I have plans to see Sweeney Todd with Ben and Brian. Frankly I'm a little nervous about it.
1) The singing probably won't be that great
2) It might be too gory for me and
3) I haven't actually seen the whole musical (on video) because I get bored and turn it off halfway. I hope the movie keeps the pace better. But how often do Ben and Brian encourage me to see a musical? How can I not go?

I'm so ready for Christmas! For family and food and presents and pets and all the fun that comes with my favorite holiday!

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We took Izzy back from the kennel with Jem last week and had her at home for an afternoon. She and Jem are very different.

I just saw Enchanted and it was fantastic. Very funny, we were laughing out loud. I loved all the references to old movies, and apparently I missed a lot (check the link for a wikipedia list of tons of references). I thought they recycled a lot of animation during the first section. If anyone else sees it, let me know if you agree that they reused Prince's Philip's fat dad adjusting his belly (redone as Nathanial), Alice falling down the hole (when Giselle falls to NY), and sleeping beauty petting the animals (by Giselle in the very beginning). There's probably some others, let me know if you catch them.

We spent the holiday in Augusta, Maine visiting Ben's folks. I got to cook most of the Thanksgiving dinner. I was nervous about it, but everything turned out really good. The weather was misty cold the first day, but sunny the next couple days. Even so, I packed way too light; I was freezing for most of the trip! Traveling was surprisingly smooth, if long (12 hours to get there, 14 hours to get home). DIA had parking, ticketing, and security well organized and even had an old-timey band playing near the security lines.