Three. glorious. days. off.

I have learned one vital difference between working in an academic library and a public library. In an academic library, there are no patrons during the holidays. Literally. Even though I would work during the couple of weeks around Xmas and New Years, since there weren't any classes, the library itself was closed. In a public library, especially a public law library, the holidays bring in people who are their "best." This past week was especially tiring, because one my co-workers was out for a couple of days with strep so it was just me and my boss, who is the most intelligent, funniest, and down to earth woman that I know (Why yes, she does read my blog. Why do you ask?). I feel like I have survived a hazing of sorts this past week, since my six month probation finally comes to a finish next week. Woo Hoo!

I have been meaning to write a nice, long post about my Xmas weekend. But, frankly, I'm out of the mood to write a nice, long post, which would also require a nice, long photo shoot of all the goodies I got. So instead, you're going to get things in drips and drabs (or whatever that expression is).

First, I have to tell you about the sugar cookie house. A couple of years ago, my hubby and I got married in early November. Because weddings cost a small fortune and use up all of your vacation time at work (and in my case, thanks to gallbladder surgery two weeks before the wedding, all of my sick time as well), we decided that it would be best to stay home for the holidays rather than travel to family. So we decorated more than normal (because it never seems worth the effort to decorate and then be out of town for two weeks, just so the cats can enjoy a tree and some lights) and made a cookie house. I had never made one before, because I don't like gingerbread, but my hubby enlightened me to the fact that we could make one using sugar cookie dough. It was lots of fun and pretty yummy.

Anyhoo, long story short (sort of), since we weren't going out of town for Xmas this year, we decided to make another cookie house. We baked the pieces on Thursday night, but waited until Saturday night (Xmas Eve) to actually assemble the house. Because we were going to use colored m&ms for different things (a pool, landscaping, etc.), we spent some time sorting out the different colors among bowls. I felt like quite the rock star roadie! Then we spread frosting along the bottom of our house base. And, finally, it was time to take the house pieces off the cookie sheets and assemble! Note to selves: it's best to remove the house pieces from the cookie sheets immediately upon cooling. Otherwise they stick to the cookie sheet and break into tiny pieces when attempting to remove. Here is a picture of our final house from that night...

Oh well! We've decided to attempt this again after my hubby gets back in town and make it a birthday cookie house, since his birthday is on the 16th.

At least our tree decorating looked a little bit better than our cookie house. We never have finished unpacking from the move, since we're going to begin house shopping and hopefully moving again quite soon. But we did put up our little table top tree on top of our tv.

Do you like the snowscape scene along the bottom? And check out my black and white sheepie ornaments sitting in the "snow" next to the snowman!

The Goods
One of the many gifts that I got from my hubby was the Deluxe Librarian Action Figure set (with shushing action!). I already have the Librarian Action figure (with shushing action!).* But this one comes with a library backdrop, a desk, computer, book cart and stacks of books! (Yes, I am a dork)

I love the fact that the deluxe version comes with action figure dressed in red, while the non-deluxe has her dressed in blue. One of these days I'll have to find the box where I packed my other action figure and put them into the set together.

I also love the fact that the books have real book spines and titles on the covers.

*When I bought my Librarian Action Figure, I bought a second one to keep in the cardboard box, just in case I had the opportunity to meet Nancy Pearl**, the librarian depicted as the action figure. And, as luck would have it, I came this close to meeting her! While I was in my last year of school, I was the Secretary of our student chapter of the American Library Association. The chapter is responsible for bringing in speakers throughout the year and Nancy Pearl agreed to be one of our speakers. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts kept coming up between us and so she never did get to come to our school. Darnit!

** I'm aware that my name is the same as the action figure's real life model.