'Allo and a belated Merry Christmas to everyone out there! *waves* So. I'm going to refuse to succumb to the 'what'd ya get?' question and just fork over my belated gift already:  'Les Miserables Performs Jekyll and Hyde Pt 1'. *waits for applause* So yeah. I am also resolving to write at LEAST 1000 words a day, working on various projects (but mostly on the Les Mis story). It's coming all right thus far...

So let's see...last Saturday we all took Henry back down to college and I gave my oil painting to my uncle as a late birthday and Christmas present (his birthday is the 23rd of December). I also saw my grandparents, aunt and other uncle, my cousin, and my uncle-to-whom-I-gave-the-oil-painting's fiancee. Mom, my brothers and I all had lunch with my grandparents and then headed on the long drive home. It went really well until about 20 miles away from home: the temperature dropped drastically and the drizzle that had been falling for the past several hours froze in a clear glaze on the roads, forcing us to drive at 35 mph for the last few miles. And the wind was blowing furiously the whole while, so there was a little slipping and sliding. But we didn't go off the road, and we got home in a timely manner, so all was well.

Now. The day after Christmas Eve we had some family pictures taken by a friend of ours (she just got a really nice camera and wanted to use it) and she saved it on her website as a slideshow. The silly/bad/just plain dumb pictures are in with the good, so here's a little potpourri of 'Nolden Family Pics'. http://entertainment.webshots.com/slideshow/569376945jmQTzl
Just for clarity: there's Mom and Dad (obviously), then Isaac (black hair and struggling goatee), Henry (kind of blondish, tall), me (guess), and Will (red-brown hair, looks like Henry). And of course Javert, but he's only in a couple of pictures.

We had a biggun' last night! Okay, so I'm a picture-taking fiend whenever there's ice, snow, etc and this time is no different. Some of the pictures are okay, some aren't, but you get the idea.

http://picasaweb.google.com/molly.nolden/IceStorm121908?feat=directlink

On other subjects, I saw 'The Blob' for the first time yesterday. It was soooo cheesy...cheesy with a side of cheese on top of cheese. So to make up for it, Will and I watched 'The Invisible Man' with Claude Raines afterwards. The latter was actually really good. The special effects for the time (1933) were AMAZING, and the storyline wasn't half-bad either--they made a pretty good effort to keep to the book.

Isaac and Henry are coming home tomorrow for Christmas, so I'm at home making cookies. Yayness. XD Actually, Henry's schedule is a little convoluted: see, he has to work at the college for three weeks around Christmastime. He has to work the 1st and 3rd week, so Mom is going to get him the first week, take him back to college for the second, and then bring him home for the 3rd week. Talk about a crazy schedule...there's gonna be a lot of driving.

Oh! I finished my first oil painting yesterday! Check it out here: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/egBe2UF-5DYThXwHqnBnxQ?feat=directlink And of course it will be in the art section. My uncle, who is working on the ocean down in Louisiana, sent the photograph to us with a little hint that he'd like to see it painted. So I'm giving it to him for Christmas.

Here are some pics of Javert in his first snow:

http://picasaweb.google.com/molly.nolden/FirstSnow 

Well, I just read over my story tonight. It's definately not publishing material, and I don't think I'm even going to edit it because it's too big of an undertaking for such a small story, but I have learned a LOT about my characters over the past month and I'm glad I did it. But now, the day after NaNo ended, I'm beginning to feel quite depressed...I don't know if it's because it's really OVER or because I'm not up to editing or what, but I'm sad to be quitting. I have ideas for more (much shorter) stories involving my characters, so that's good, but I'm still quite depressed. Oh well.

On other news, I have started on another Mizzie adventure. The only thing is, I don't know whether I should do Jekyll and Hyde (they're protesting that at the moment) or Romeo and Juliet (which I think would be hilarious to do with them, all that archaic language is just begging to be mocked, but they have different ideas). Perhaps I should sleep on it...wait a second. How about votes? Does anyone wanna vote? Gimme feedback, peoples! Should I do (a) Jekyll and Hyde or (b) Romeo and Juliet? Let me know, 'kay?

Um...oh, we got the first snow yesterday. I took lots of pics, but they are currently stuck on the camera because I can't find the USB cable for transferring pics. Grr. Suffice to say, outside it is cold, windy, and icy. This morning I had to walk to the gym because the car was iced over, and even though it was only 4 blocks it was COLD. Oh, and it was Javert's first snow. He loves the stuff. XD

I haven't been drawing a whole lot lately...meh. I really need to draw, but I haven't felt like it lately. It's sort of like I'm slightly burned out: for over a year I've been a drawing fiend, and now it's ebbing off to be 'replaced' in the winter with writing and reading and knitting/crocheting. And those will ebb off come spring to be replaced with drawing and horses. I dunno, I guess it's kind of a cycle that I've become familiar with lately.

Good grief, there must be something wrong with me. I don't usually get so introspective (I hope that's the right word for it)...well, that's all for now, folks.