Tonight on the way to dinner Merritt informed us that he wants a pet chinchilla. We told him no more animals until one of our cats goes to heaven. Personally I want an African grey parrot. Or a leopard gecko. Or a tortoise that crawls around the house.

We (me and the boys and Andy and his parents) had delicious sushi at Kokoro for Christmas eve. I insisted on dinner out since it's my family tradition...always Asian because they are mostly the only restaurants open on the 24th. My favorite roll there is the Bloody Geisha: raw tuna with cream cheese and avocado, spicy red roe, and a spicy red sauce.

Tomorrow I'm making cinnamon rolls and butternut squash bread to go with bacon and eggs and fruit for breakfast. We only got a few toys for the kids but they will have plenty to open from the grandparents. Andy and I agreed to spend no more than $20 on each other this year and I'm extremely curious to see what he came up with.

Gallery of the Absurd has had some clever Christmas art this year but the Olsen twins are by far my favorite...



And a merry one too!

Inspired by Susannah Breslin's fantastic list of Best of Every Dirty Little Thing 2007, I've created my own list.

**BEST THINGS IN MY LIFE 2007**

My discovery of Smashbox lipgloss

All three of my sisters finding nice boyfriends

Lexapro!

My solo trip to Annapolis

Andy's parting of ways with his most stress-inducing, time-sucking client

Master bedroom redecoration (black, wine, orange, and cornflower blue)

DVR!

Kokoro sushi bar in Palm Coast

My wall organizer/display for my vast nail polish collection

Listening to Clutch's Blast Tyrant for the first time

Deep conversations with Merritt

Deep snuggling with Justin

First Saturdays at Mud Monkey (pottery painting/mosaic making)

Watching The Office with Andy

Fitting comfortably into pre-pregnancy clothes

Coffee!

Finally setting blog feeds for myself

IKEA opens in Orlando

Getting my braces off/having straight teeth

Reading I'm With The Band: Confessions of a Groupie, and Rule of the Bone

Being matched with Selvin, a new Christian Childrens Fund child to sponsor, and making a meaningful connection with him and his family through letters

My birthday dinner at 95 Cordova

Brigette's first baby

And of course...

I'm really proud of my blog for America's Next Top Model. I need to get paid to blog. I'm pretty good at it. But it seems hard to make a living unless you are blogging politics, celebrities, or of course sex.

My Gmail rant video has been viewed a lot on Youtube. I wonder if others got tricked into the IKEA coupons spam ad too.

I gave the boys mohawks for the holidays. Andy isn't thrilled.

Google is soliciting videos that tell stories about Gmail. I had one for them.



That was fun.

Organizing files on my computer...discovered my long lost save of the Skirt! cover my art was chosen for: April 2005.

And my latest painted objects are up.

Also added some pictures from past art shows I had never posted. This one is interesting:



Was I really ever that elegant? That skinny?? Look at that awesome updo! I think my sister Christi gave me the rose. It's the second time I ever wore gloves. (The first time was white vintage ones to a wedding, just the wrist length ones, with a white hat.) I hope I have an occasion to wear gloves again.

Yesterday I donated one of my paintings to an auction for a family in need. Next month I'm donating another one to a fundraising auction for the new arts center that is trying to be built here. I love donating artwork.

I still haven't had the perfect opportunity to go to my studio space. It's going to be wonderful when I do, one of these days; I'm not rushed. I'm going back to basics with my first painting: black and white with just hints of color. I am in no hurry to complete it. I will take my time with this one. It's about where I've been the past few years. It's about what I was and what I'll never be again. And it's going to have many, many flowers.

I truly hope glitter never goes out of style.