Of blog renovations and Christmas inventory

{My mom's secret to happiness: buy an extra can of sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving so you can make another dish after your oldest daughter wolfs down all the leftovers.} 

I'm considering giving my blog a makeover.  I know, bad form, I've only had it for three months plus a few days.  I played with all the colors to death when I first made it, and I was rather okay with it, and now i'm unsure I that like it all that much, except for the background and sort of the general color scheme.  But I think it looks sort of slapdash, not in the good way (ish).  So if you come back someday soon and it look different, this is why.  I am exercising my power of creative creationer's license over my blog template.  Woo.  I don't know.  perhaps I will leave it as is, in its stately Latin poster-like condition.  Perhaps I will tweak it a bit.  Perhaps I will...not.

I have relatives asking me for my Christmas list.  I swear, this gets harder to draw up every year.  I used to just keep a running tab throughout the year, and then by the time November rolled around I would just add and subtract a couple of things, print it off, and voilà — a fancy shmancy beautifully formatted Christmas list, replete with all the heart and soul of an American girl.  But two years or so ago, I stopped updating it year-round, and now I have to start from scratch.  I have about eight things on my list.  Music and a book or two.  It's really somewhat depressing.  I know there are things I want, but when I go to write them down, my brain fizzles out.  My zones of interest have been narrowing bit by bit, year by year.  I have all of three hobbies, and they're hobbies that several million other people are also semi-obsessed with..  I don't even knit anymore.  So what am I supposed to put on this list?  As much as I love new music, I don't want only stacks of that.  I don't really care about owning more books so much because I wouldn't ask for something I haven't read, and once I've read something once it's probably months and months before I reread it, so the pleasure is gone after a day.  I can ask for hats.  I can ask for clothes, but since Dad discovered Goodwill I really do not need any more of those.  I want a hamster, but that's been ruled out for some time.  I kind of want a snake, but that was never even under consideration.  I want a surprise.  Surprise me.  How hard can that be?  I'm among the most surprisable people in existence.  I just don't know what to ask for anymore...is that good or bad?