Well, I'm surfacing everyone.

After an extended Christmas weekend, it's time to get back to work! And after a wonderful, wonderful vacation, I'm actually really ready to get back to work.

Christmas was magical this year. Absolutely magical.

I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. Or a better family. Both immediate and extended.

And yesterday, my sad day, the day my dad passed away, I stayed curled up with a blanket reading a book from Brooke and that was it. The perfect end to the perfect long weekend.

That was all I needed!

So, today I'm coming to the surface, turning my phone back on, sitting back down at the computer and I even plan on making a call to Kuerig that I have definitely been avoiding.

Ugh.I hate getting on the phone. Hate it. And usually, I feel like if you're talking to me on the phone, you just might hate it too!!!

I'm distracted, flighty, a bit lost and usually there is enough background noise happening at my feet that I have to shout to be heard!

But that's neither here nor there because the call has to be made regardless.

So? Would you like to see the great stocking stuffer????

I promised and here I am to deliver.


It's Scotch!!!!

And three different kinds of really expensive scotch.

Zach loves Scotch. And I love that Zach loves Scotch. In my head, and from reading too many books/seeing too many movies I feel like Scotch is the quintessential man drink. And I find it really attractive in Zach. I feel like my husband should drink Scotch. (That's a side note I guess. Also, a side note is that in the books I write all of the men drink it. And. This has absolutely nothing to do with anything I guess....)

It's the perfect tiny gift. As big bottles those years and brand would be super expensive. The 25 year bottle is like $20 for just one finger of it at our local Scotch-Selling Establishment.

It wasn't AS exciting as I hoped it would be. Only because Zach had seen it before. Actually, he said he has seen it for the past couple of years, but it's not something he would ever buy for himself. Obviously. So, other than that, he loved it.

And I totally won the Stocking Competition this year!!!!! :)

Aren't they the cutest bottles though? Ok, for me being like Scotch is the essence of being a man, I probably shouldn't call the bottles "cute" but they are, aren't they???

Isn't it funny what our perceptions of the sexes are? We all have them, and I can't say that they are sexist because they are unavoidable. We are raised, influenced and experienced in certain behaviors we attribute to men and women that help us decide what the proper way to inhabit society is.

My dearest M (It's from the Young Victoria. I LOVE that movie.) doesn't think girl's should drink beer. Or at least in a bar, I guess I don't know what her stance is on drinking it at home. :)

She sees beer as a man's drink.

Oh, lord, I Love beer. And I frequently order it in a bar. And on top of that, I tell every single boy I know that if they want a laid back female for a wife that they need to find one that drinks beer. I have this whole theory about it, but I'll save myself from offending those women that don't like beer.... :)

For me, a woman shouldn't drink hard liquor or gamble.

Yep, those are my archaic philosophies. At least M's has more to do with sophistication than my outdated ideas that men gamble together to get away from women. :)

It comes from reading too many books in the 1800's where men had their own clubs and women were not allowed to gamble or drink anything but wine. Or something like that....

And it's definitely not something I think about or came to a decisive conclusion, it's just ingrained in me. Somewhere along the way I developed this philosophy and now I follow these unnamed guidelines.

And there's probably no place for these ideas in today's society, but for me you have to give men something that belongs solely to them and vice versa or the two sexes start to resent each other. Not that my rules and regulations should ever become law of the land because like I said, they are completely antiquated.

And don't think I'm this cowering female that doesn't believe there is a place for women in today's society. I am 100% in favor of a woman president. Although, believe me, there isn't a candidate out there right now that I would support. (Which, that might actually surprise some of you that know me.)

Unless of course it was me. :)

Just kidding!!!!!!!!! I don't think presidents should be prone to panic attacks and daydreaming.

I think it's super sexy when the occasional girl can drink scotch and enjoy it. Although the gambling stance still stands.

And in Sri Lanka women weren't allowed to actually build the houses, we were definitely confined to only sifting sand. Well, I said "F that."

No, I didn't really say that. But something like that.

And I convinced the masons to let me get up on the scaffolding and do the brick work. Which is actually building bricks from scratch, like Hebrew style. (From Egypt. The story of Moses. A little Bible humor for your early morning.)

Yes, I was the first woman ever in Galle, Sri Lanka history to get on the scaffolding and build a house.

It should go down in the history books.

Just kidding.

I don't really know if I was the first woman. Nor do I trust the work I did on those bricks. I'm actually very worried about the home owners, now that I'm thinking about it.....

And I did have Scotch over Halloween. Someone brought a really expensive bottle of it to the party. And I wanted my 21 year old sister in law to try it because she had never had it before.

I definitely wanted her to taste what an actual forest fire would taste like. (That's what scotch is like. A forest fire.) It helped that I prefaced it by telling her it would be delicious and she completely trusts me.

She about died.

And then made us take our fingers like a shot.

And then I almost died.

It was awful.

Oh, to be 21 again and have no respect for expensive alcohol! :)

Is anyone else still trying to figure out the point to this blog....???