Jam-packed weekend

Winding down on a Sunday night, and boy, did I get a ton of stuff done.

Honestly, as much as I like Christmas, the holidays themselves suck. Not to be a Scrooge, but I just get tired of one party after another, and having to make stuff for all of them.

Tonight, I turned down one. Felt bad about it, but I’ve just been slammed. I had a  ton to do this weekend and, if I survived to the night, knew I’d just want to veg out. And that’s what happened.

My big highlights, beyond Christmas prep, I mean, were a birthday party for a 6-year-old and two movies. As busy as I was, these were things I had penciled in.

The brunch Saturday morning was not. I didn’t find out about that until Friday night, at a going-away party. But it was a person I like, so I woke up and hit the gym before 6 a.m. in order to squeeze everything in. Even before breakfast, I’d made the first of the Christmas sweets – a vat of Rice Krispy treats for stocking stuffers.

The nonstop Saturday wound down with a movie with a friend. We went to see Mockingjay, which I recently learned was showing here. While researching that, I found out that Point Break was also showing here and I’d made time to do that on Sunday.

But Mockingjay was a cool one to see not because it was in 3D (which it shouldn’t have been, but it was my only option) but because seeing that here meant that I’d seen every movie in the franchise in a different country. I started in Indonesia with the first one, then Catching Fire was how I spent the day before my deployment (that an Chick-Fil-A). I saw the first installment of Mockingjay in Hong Kong, so this was No. 4.

Today I went to see Point Break. I’d seen the previous before, possibly in Hong Kong during that Mockingjay showing. I remember watching it and them highlighting the extreme sports and the “bag guy” gang and me sitting there thinking, how is this not Point Break? I’d heard nothing of a reboot, and really, the highlights showed things like snowboarding, base jumping and motorcross – not surfing. But I swear they called one guy Bodhi and the other Utah and I was really, really confused. How could it not be point break? But eventually, they flashed the name on and it was like, oh, they DID reboot it.

And it wasn’t too bad. It didn’t have heart and I didn’t buy the whole reason the little bag guy gang was committing the crimes, but it was enjoyable. It didn’t seem to rip off the Swayze/Reeves version at all – that’s the classic. It did not interfere with the presence of that one at all. And since it was in 3D and featured extreme sports all in exotic locations all over the world, the scenery was fantastic.

The rest of Sunday has been spent baking. I’m on the hook for not only Rice Krispy treats and a side dish (which I did Saturday before the movie), but cookies for two parties this weekend, plus Marine stockings.

We have some party on Saturday at the Big Boss’ house and for some reason, even though 120 people and their spouses have been invited, it’s the junior employees who have been asked to make cookies. Sigh. I don’t know if we’re supposed to be flattered or what, but I’m just not.

I made mint chip (from mint chips someone gave me) and sugar cookies, plus brownies. I’m just covered in baking goop and cannot wait to take a shower and just crash.

I did finally pull out some Christmas decorations. I thought about it earlier this month but was out of town last weekend. At that point, I figured I’d bypass it totally but decided today that I should toss out some jingle bells or something. So now I have a few modest decorations – two Nativity scenes, a couple little wooden trees and a snowmanny-like thing outside the door. I have another little wooden tree and a snowman heading into work tomorrow to accompany the reject brownies. No one can turn down reject brownies.

In other news, I got my official time from the race – 1:16! I was pretty happy with it. I mean, I know it’s slow but ya know what? So am I. I was not built for speed, but stamina I got.