I want a hippopotamus for Christmas!

That song's in my head, and I love it!

It's been a good, busy week.  Work was crazy with all the holiday business.  Only a half day tomorrow, which is fantastic.  We had our staff Christmas party at a restaurant downtown last night, and it was wonderful.  It was probably the most low-key one I've been to, but I think everyone had a good time.  We did the "White Elephant" thing, and I stole a gift card.  I felt kinda bad "stealing" a gift, but the person who first had it went up and ended up with another of the same, so no harm, no foul!

Found a very old friend on FB yesterday.  He had sent me a message back in freakin March, but it went to some "Other" folder in the message center that I'd never seen until yesterday.  I was going through FB's new security things and learned about it.  Craziness.  It's a cool story with him though... We met in a chat room (remember those?!) back when we were both in 8th grade which was 1997, I think.  We emailed and chatted all through high school, then finally met when we were 20 or so.  We kind of fell out of touch about five years ago.  It's nice to talk to him again.

I'm so excited for Tuesday!  I think I've nailed all my gifts for everyone this year.  My favorite one is for my step-dad.  He's a writer and has been in the process of turning one of his screenplays into a novel for quite some time now.  He's got it based in our old town and mentioned once he'd hoped to get a picture of the river at sunrise for the cover.  I finally dragged my ass out of bed early enough and drove there on a gorgeous morning this week.  There was a mist on the river, and the sun made it glow.  I noticed a cop keeping an eye on me, but I think he was just being nosy, haha.  The pictures turned out beautifully, and I can't wait for him to see them.  He's not in the best of health, and I don't know if he'll get to finish that book, but maybe this will keep him going on it for a bit.

Happy Holidays!