The Beard

"He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man."

Shakespeare

 

Since the bard himself had a beard, we can count the above statement to be suffering under extreme bias.

 

Being that I was on winter break for two weeks, I decided just before Christmas to test out my beard-growing abilities and experience what the outcome might be should I decide to permanently join the flock of fully-fledged facial fuzz fans.

 

Beard!

 

Of course, being the savvy shopper that I am, I persuaded my wife that I should be allowed to purchase (on a side note:  notice my choice of words in persuaded and allowed - guess who runs the finances in this household!) a nice new electric razor for the purposes of keeping this crazy facial hair in check once winter break ends.  

Off we went to Walmart.  It was a cold, rainy night and Walmart was absolutely packed.  It's a popular place to spend cold, rainy nights.  As with most Walmart trips, it could truly be called an adventure.  Items strewn across the floors, kids tearing around the store unsupervised, obnoxiously loud groups of cell phone users blocking the aisles, and we can't forget the weird teenager obsessed with the blood pressure monitor.  "This is really fun," he proclaims as he hovers behind my shoulder.  

 

Finally, we made it to the shaving needs aisle and I picked up a nifty Philips Norelco for only $30.

 

Nifty.

 

 

 

Now, before you are tricked into believing that I'm the one in the Gwynne family who just loves an opportunity to spend money (as my wife would have you believe), I will point out to you that we bought a number of items on this shopping trip. 

 

In addition to the razor, we purchased numerous cosmetics, an electric shiatsu chair massager, and a few other household items.  Can you guess who these other products were for?  

 

Enough said.

The Snowman

Did you grow up watching The Snowman at Christmastime? I have fond but vague memories of the motorcycle and flying scene from when I was a child watching it on the local PBS station. It wasn't until I was much older and dating Dave that I fell in love with the film.



One night during one of our many Skype conversations, I'd mentioned seeing The Snowman when I was a kid. He knew exactly what I was talking about and brilliantly sent it to me as a present for the next gift-giving occasion. It didn't matter that it wasn't Christmastime at that point; I put the disc in the DVD player and watched it right away.

It's now become a Christmas tradition to watch The Snowman and Father Christmas. The best part about the tradition, however, is that my work friends join me in watching the films. Most years, we only have time for The Snowman because we watch during our lunch break. This year, for the 4th time, we got together at my apartment during our lunch hour to watch the film and enjoy Christmas cookies.

These women are some of my best work friends. During the years of watching The Snowman, our lives have changed. Some of us have gotten married. A few have left the company or moved away. Children are being added to the group. But our tradition of getting together every year has stayed the same. I hope it is a tradition for years to come.

Merry (Meaty) Christmas

Just this morning, I was dreaming about side dishes I could make for my family's Christmas dinner next week. Little did I know that my contribution would be bigger than I had imagined!

When I got home from work tonight, I noticed a huge Styrofoam box outside my neighbor's door. Ever the curious one, I took a look to see what it was. The sender was Omaha Steaks (yum!), but the recipient was our old neighbor, who had moved out in July. I called Dave to play a fun game called "What Would You Do If a Package from Omaha Steaks Was Accidentally Delivered to You?" Fortunately, the pressure was off because it was our neighbor's dilemma, so we had fun coming up with solutions. Dave told me to keep an eye on it so that we could at least stick it outside for the night if our neighbors never came home to take care of it.

Well, around 8 I heard some noise out in the hall, so I went over to the peep hole and saw that my neighbor had discovered the package. I heard him talking to his wife, and I wondered what they would do with it. Only a few minutes later, there was a knock at our door!

There was our neighbor with the big white box. He asked if we ate ham, and I said yes, so he explained how he was mistakenly sent this box o' meat. He told me that he'd called the company to try to fix the mistake, but Omaha Steaks said he could keep it and they would send another shipment to the correct address. (Very good, Omaha!) Then, and here's the best part, he offered to give us the package because he and his wife don't eat ham. Amazing!

I thanked him, said Merry Christmas, and then tore into that package like a kid on Christmas morning. There was not only a 7-lb. ham but also 4 burgers! I called my parents to tell them the good news and then asked if they'd like to use the ham for our Christmas dinner. Of course they would! How neat is that?

Weekend Roundup

Perhaps it's because last weekend was filled with the flurry of eating turkey and shopping for Christmas presents, but this weekend felt super relaxed, even though we managed to fit quite a bit in. (I love that type of weekend!) There are no pictures to accompany my account, unfortunately, so you will just have to use your imagination.

Friday: Dave and I were invited to a game night at my coworker's home, but because Dave was still in quarantine after his battle with the stomach flu, I went solo. All the games we played were brand-new to me: Blink, In a Pickle, Rummikub, and Pictureka. I enjoyed all of them, but I think Blink and In a Pickle will be going on my Christmas list this year.

Saturday: The first big snow of the winter was set to fall on Saturday, so we didn't know exactly what was on the agenda for the day. Fortunately, the road crews were able to keep up, and we were able to get out and run some errands. (This is the part of the weekend when we got a lot done.) Some of the stores were madhouses, but it wasn't too bad. Once we were home, I watched the NBC Friday night movie from the night before. It wasn't my favorite, but it did help ease the pain of missing all of my Hallmark Christmas movies this year. (Our cable provider and Hallmark aren't liking each other very much right now, so that means no Hallmark channel for the Gwynnes.)

Sunday: For a variety of reasons, we haven't been to our church for a weekend service since September. I was super excited to get back to the routine of Sunday morning church, and the service didn't disappoint. I love my church because each Sunday we really study the Bible. We were all over the major and minor prophets yesterday. On the way home, we stopped to fill up the gas tank and pick up a paper, and I was able to spend the afternoon reading the Chicago Tribune, one of my favorite Sunday afternoon activities. In the evening, we put up the Christmas tree and decorations, and I watched part of Rick Steves' European Christmas while sipping hot chocolate. It was the perfect end to a great weekend.

Thanks for the Tie, Mum

(Please ignore the clashing plaid purple shirt. I promise Dave will wear a matching shirt when he wears it to work.)

Someone Has the Stomach Flu

Surprise Block Party

Last winter, the sensitive stairway smoke detector in our building set off the fire alarm a handful of times--once just after I'd washed my hair (imagine the lovely frozen-hair look I sported after that one) and once three times throughout the night (midnight, two, and three-thirty). I think there was another time, but it was likely in the middle of the night and probably felt more like a nightmare.

With the weather getting colder, Dave and I have discussed the possibility of the early morning wake-up more often. Last night, as a matter of fact, we couldn't stop talking about it. We discussed possibilities for insulating the window in that stairway to keep the area warmer. We dreamed about what it would be like to own a home without the fire alarm worries someday. Dave had even talked about the problem with a coworker earlier in the day.

Last night, I got ready for bed just after nine and settled under the covers with a good book. I had just finished reading a couple of pages when the all-too-familiar sound began: AAAARRRRR!!!! AAARRRRR!!!!! AAARRRR!!!! (That's the best I can do to write what it sounded like.) Dave and I grabbed our coats and shoes and headed downstairs to see which smoke detector set it off. It turned out to be from the building next door, actually from the same apartment that burned toast last Labor Day and woke everyone up from sleeping in that morning.

One of our neighbors called the fire department, and they came quickly. I think the whole fire brigade was there last night. They walked into the building next door with their axes and other firefighting gear. They started to hook up the fire hose. Then one of them walked into our building (where the system is based) to reset the alarm and tell us we could go back to our apartments because the problem was from the building next door.

Uh, are you sure you want us to go back? Our buildings are separated by a thin wall, so if there really was a problem, it wouldn't be a good idea to send all these people back inside. When I asked what had happened next door, they wouldn't tell me, only reminding us we could go back to our homes. We obeyed, and since our apartment is on the other side of the building from where all the action was, I couldn't watch to see if they continued to bring out their gear or if they left soon after.

The good thing about all of it is that we had more people from our building go outside once the alarm went off. The first time the fire alarm went off last winter, we were the only ones standing outside when the fire department came. This time, we met our neighbors from across the hall and caught up with our neighbor from the second floor, who we don't see much once the complex's pool is shut down for the winter. I think I will always be haunted by that awful sound, even years after we move.

If you've lived in an apartment building, have you had to deal with fire alarms? It seems our building is always inviting the fire department over, especially on those cold winter nights. I'd like to know we aren't the only ones suffering. ;-)