Brand New Year, Same Old Me

It's been a long time, no? Yay for the Holidays, except now I have been playing mad catch-up with my ever-pressing work deadlines, thus no AB this week; but keep your eyes peeled for next week.

Though the break was super nice; the university I work at gave all the employees a whole week off, plus I took extra time. So nice long break for me, which was spent staying up way too late, sleeping, watching a Venture Brothers Marathon, eating lots of holiday foods, and playing video games (Guitar Heroes—with visiting fam too! Nothing like watching your uncle play, hah!), Kingdom Hearts 2 (finished!), DDR, and Okami (still in progress.)) But I wasn't a total lazy person all through the hols; we entertained several relatives at my mom's house, went to parties, painted my bathroom, and got my house into some semblance of normalcy. (My vacuum works again!) I didn't sketch much, but I did come up with several ideas for comic ideas, and we got AB pillows made, so Woohoo.

(The pillows are awesome btw. Much smaller than we wanted, and we still need to play with transfer paper types, but they are cute and cuddly, which is really all that matters. We had a sushi/gyoza party last weekend, and if the glomping and sqealing were any indication, they should sell pretty well as is at the con. So look out, Boise!)

Elicia and I gave out some winning presents this year, and we got as good as we gave; yay for karma! The hightlights were a comprehensive book on weaponry though the ages that makes me drool every time I read it, an iPod/radio/alarm clock that is teh pretties, a Shikamaru plushie and keychain, a Totoro keychain, and super warm PJ's. I am drawing a huge blank on others I got (Sob! How ungrateful does that make me seem!), but will add other gifts as I recall them.

I gave Elicia Okami, a cow-shaped measuring tape, and a stuffed cat that looks and feels much like our very own Pip, which also coincidentally is named Pip! so now she can go to grad school and her Pip withdrawls will be hopefully lessened. I also got her a rather wierd, blobby green Tamagotchi stocking stuffer. Cute but random, so therefore a perfect Leeshee gift!

My dad I got an Eric Clapton CD, which he loved, a Bush humor calendar, which made him laugh, and a Lowe's gift card to help him and my Stepmom out with the restoring of the farm. My Stepmom I got a candle holder from Global Village Gifts, which I knew she'd appreciate. Elicia got them tons of nice things from England.

She also got our mom stuff from across the pond; I got mom snowman candles since that is the theme in her living room after christmas, a special box set of the Polar Express book complete with a bell; and other things I threw in at the last minute. Oh, we both got her nativities, yet another room theme. (My mom has a lot of room themes. But I can't complain, as my house has the Asian room theme thing still going strong. The rooms are all almost painted and look awesome, btw. Now to find the perfect super-long wall scroll...)

My biggest regret about the hols is easy: that my slowly depleting blog posts and AB pics turned nonexistent. I can't apologize enough about my laziness. And there was so much great news and art stuff happening, too! But I will do my best to catch up and get on track of everything again. All my little balls of stuff to do were dropped, but I promise to start picking them back up and juggling them all once more. Be patient, my fair ones! All three of you who actually read this blog will be nourished once more! =)