Happy 2010, everyone! It’s been a decade since the Y2K scare, isn’t that crazy? I remember 10 years ago, my family stocked up on food in case the end of the world was to happen I also intentionally left my computer on to see if the date would freak out. Luckily, neither of those happened. 2012, you’re next!

So, I missed doing a one-year blog anniversary post AND a Christmas post! Time flies when you’re having fun, haha. It’s never too late to give a one-year anniversary shout out to my blog. <3 I vow to myself to blog more often this year; I do have lots of things to write about in the next couple of weeks, especially with all of of the unopened DVD box sets, video games, and gunpla lying around the room. I’ll get to it, promise. I also want to try and finish up some art that’s been lying around, too (I know, I know; I keep telling myself this). I can’t find the sketch I did for Gordon a while back ^^;; So I need to draw it out again. I think it got thrown away in another stack of papers Humbug.

How was everyone’s Christmas and New Year’s? I hope everyone had a grand time!

The family ended up opening Christmas presents on Christmas afternoon. My parents and one of my sisters ended up falling asleep before midnight. No worries, though. My other sister and I ended up baking mini red velvet cupcakes! That was my first baking excursion After baking from scratch for the first time, it made me want to explore baking a bit more and gave me hope that I can really successfully bake. Usually, I tend to burn things. By the way, one of my acquisitions from Christmas was a pair of Gloomy Bear gloves! They’re very warm and make great puppets, too. I wonder if there are any bloody Gloomy Bear gloves…

Everybody scored really cool presents for Christmas, especially my dad. We got him Beatles Rock Band for the PS3 and a USB microphone so he can sing to his favorite Beatles hits. I bought my mom a Starbucks gift card so she can get her Mocha Frappuccino whenever she wants. I bought my sisters some shirts from Threadless when they had their Black Friday sale. And lastly, Lester got a shirt from 8Five2 (that was on clearance at Giant Robot) and DJ Hero for XBOX 360. If you haven’t tried out DJ Hero, do so NOW. It’s so fun!

As for my loot, you can see the Gloomy Bear gloves in the front. The cardigan is from Saltlick and the poo plush that has pockets is from Le Neko Noir, both obtained from the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco. Mom bought me a Swatch watch from the Navy Exchange (= no tax, woo hoo!) and Dad bought all of us necklaces. I now have another package of Chapstick. I’m notorious for losing my Chapstick a lot Lastly there’s a cupcake luggage tag and a DIY Bub from Kidrobot. Awesome gifts ftw!

Here’s a picture of the mini red velvet cupcakes my sister and I made alongside the cream cheese frosting. I’m thinking of what other recipes to get into. Does anybody have any baking recipes that they’d like to share with me? I want to explore and dabble into the world of baking! Or at least attempt to, lol.

Also, what did you all do for New Year’s? I usually stay at home with the parents to welcome in the new year, then knock out shortly thereafter. Again, I kept my computer on to see if the date would freak out, and it didn’t! Here’s to the new year. I can’t believe it’s already 2010

I’d make a list of resolutions, but I like living in the now, so I’ll just tackle whatever comes my way. Bring it!

Almost a year ago, Konata and Yuki helped out with decorating the house with Christmas ornaments. This year, Miku wanted to help! Although, she seemed to enjoy posing with the decorations more than helping out.

I finally took her out of the DETOLF and changed some of her parts! I got really scared with taking her apart because 1. She’s my first Nendoroid and 2. The parts didn’t want to come off initially ;_; In the end, all went well and she’s more happy than ever.

This is our bare pre-lit artificial Christmas tree. To my knowledge, all we’ve had were artificial Christmas trees. They’re fairly easy to reinstall every year since you just have to stack the parts on top of one another, plug in, and let the magic happen. I do wish that one day, I’d have a Christmas with a fresh pine tree, but I’ll save that for another year. We never really had the lingering smell of pine in the house, although I’d prefer the smell of Mom’s cooking over pine any day Do you prefer a real tree or an artificial tree?

Tons of random ornaments in the boxes. They range from intricate Hallmark ornaments to McDonald’s Happy Meal ornaments to our very own ornaments made back in elementary school. My sisters’ ornaments seemed to have outlived mine, though. I used to have this clay Santa that I made in the 1st or 2nd grade, but his beard fell off and, eventually, the ornament broke

After decorating the Christmas tree, Miku finally decided to jump in and, erhm, “help.” Peek-a-boo!

After “helping” out with the finishing touches on the Christmas tree, she decided to befriend some of the other inhabitants that have taken over our living room. It never hurts to make more friends, right?

Miku also has a thing for the Coca-Cola bear. Whether she sides with Coke or Pepsi, I don’t know. Heck, she might even be an RC Cola kind of girl

And now, Miku bids you all a good night! Hope everyone’s staying warm and cozy for the holidays. We’ve yet to put up Christmas lights and decorate some more, but for now, our decorated Christmas tree will do.

As for me, finals are coming up Here’s to the next couple weeks of non-stop homework and studying!

The Big Bay Balloon Parade report will have to wait until I go get my adapter swapped. I’m too lazy to recreate my workflow settings on the desktop PC and I can wait until tomorrow to get that set up. In the meantime, here is an overdue Christmas loot haul post alongside the DVD box sets I scored, since all of the pictures are already uploaded onto Flickr. Not included are the clothes I scored later on at the malls. $5 tanktops and two articles of clothing from Old Navy for ~$15? I’m there

Nike Dunk High Premium Black/Sail-Tour Yellow. They’re so pretty *_*

A $25 gift card to American Apparel and a purple AA fanny pack.

Frank Kozik’s Labbit! A drooling one, too! Other mouth accessories include a twin popsicle, a bone, and a pair of lips.

The previously mentioned Southern Cross/Mospeada DVD box set. Yay!

Labbit enjoys the patron

Om nom nom nom.

Labbit amongst the giftwrap!

With popsicles.

With a bone in its mouth.

From left to right, top to bottom: Macross Plus, Record of Lodoss War, Giant Robo, Devil Hunter Yohko, and Martian Successor Nadesico volume 3. Not pictured is Paprika on Blu-Ray (which I plan to watch later on today). I accidentally bought Nadesico thinking it was a whole set (I didn’t notice the 3 at the bottom right-hand corner) but it’s okay! I found volumes 1 & 2 on Amazon so those should be on the way soon. The best thing about this haul is that everything was half-off its retail price, including Paprika! Include that with the Cowboy Bebop DVDs that I received for my Secret Santa exchange and I have tons of anime to wath in DVD/Blu-Ray for a good while.

Guess who’s getting the Southern Cross/Mospeada Double Pack DVD set for Christmas!

Mom bought it for me at Best Buy since she couldn’t think of something to get for me on her own, so she told me to pick out what I’d want for Christmas. I’m surprised she actually got it for me, too. Thanks, Mom!

I’m not too sure what’s going to happen during Christmas week. It’s usually a chill time for me with the family and friends, but this week, I have jury duty. Out of all of the weeks, why this one?

I actually had to negotiate with the courts because this particular on-call lasted for a whole month instead of a week and they wanted me to do it during summer school. I had to fax over an explanation telling them that I was unable to do so and requested for a week-long on-call term rather than a month-long term. After some talks back and forth, I was able to get a week in December. Unfortunately, the only time I could do it was the last full week of December. Hopefully if I do get called in, it’s early on within the week rather than later on. Let’s just hope!

Is there anything for Christmas that you’re looking forward to in particular, whether it be being with family, certain gifts, or exclusive events?