Okay So There Are No Pictures

We spent the week before Christmas in Hickory with Rob's folks. And I didn't take my camera. That's usually Rob's job and so I left my camera behind. Well Rob took his, but he was so busy with his new Flip camera, which he adores, he didn't take any still photos. And as you know from previous posts I am NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH THE NIKON. Which is fine by me, but I didn't take my camera--so no photos.

The kids had a lot of fun playing with cousins, making cookies and driving Grandma crazy. It's first Christmas in about four years that no one has been sick. No colds, no strep, no stomach ickiness. Can I just say it rocked! That doesn't mean we won't get sick later--and we were sick at Thanksgiving, but not sick on Christmas was nice. Oh so nice!

The kids got fish for Christmas. Well I should say a fish tank. Santa couldn't swing the fish since we were in Hickory. So Rob is in the process (much more complicated then he realized) of cycling the tank to accept fish. If you know Rob, you know how much he wants things to go perfectly, and how much research has gone into this. I'll post a fish pic once we get fish in the tank. We are hoping for Tuesday or Wednesday.

Other wise the kids got mostly games and books. My kind of Christmas. There were a few toys. But not a ton.I of course got books. I love books, and I've read only three of the books I got. I think I got about ten. I've been trying not to let myself completely disappear over the holidays. Most of the books I got were ones I had already read, and deemed worthy of owning. I only have so much space, and so I must say I am a book snob. But Rob always goes and gets me a surprise book--and he always does a good job. This time is was Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, which was awesome. A fun and informative book about hacking and fighting back against the impositions that the government puts on us. When I say informative I mean the guy tells you how to hack things and stuff. Totally cool and geeky and I love, love, loved it. I must admit I kind of glossed over some things that were way over my head because I don't really get the technical side of hacking--though I really think I could if I wanted to. Hmmm I picture myself in a different life with different career choices.

Speaking of career. I finished my first draft of my novel on Friday. Do my little dance of glee. I finished. I really did. It ended up at about 50,000 words, but I think I need to flesh stuff out, so I'm hoping it will be closer to the 75,000 that I was hoping for. Just to give you an idea 50,000 words equates to about 178 pages. I am hoping to start querying in March, but that is going to take intense work and focus.

Rob is enjoying his break, his Christmas present, and is editing and watching Ghosthunters. He also just went downstairs to test the water in the fish tank. I told you he was way into it. ; )

Now I am feeling very random and wordy so I thought I would share that in the last two months I have won two contests on blogs. Both gave me free young adult books--which is totally my thing. But I thought I'd share the links, kind of as a thanks. I may have a contest someday, but I've got other things to focus on now.

The first contest I won was on Aprilynne Pike's blog. She wrote a book Wings which debuts in May. I want to read it. I like the cover, and I've followed her story from shortly after she sold the book to getting it published. I won Hunger Games from her (which is my favorite book of the year).

And I just won two books, and some bath salts from the Shrinking Violets Promotions blog. I read this blog to learn more about promoting myself. It works for me, because truly I am an introvert. I am not ashamed to admit this anymore. Anyway the blog is great, especially if you are an aspiring writer.

I love this time of year. I love to set goals and look back at the things I've accomplished. I'm that way and I know it drives Rob nuts. But oh well. So I'm off to set me some goals, and create a plan to achieve them. I'll post pics later in the week.