Scrooge

When it is appropriate to take down xmas decor? I am afraid that the 28th is rather early and Scrooge-like. I'm not really motivated for the actual work part of it but am anxious to redo the living room to go with the new painting. I need suggestions for a rug (that can stand up to barf and pee, let's remember the children), help!

Did Santa come again??

Anna woke up so cheerful this morning and eagerly asked me if Santa had brought more presents. She didn't believe me when I explained that Santa only comes on Christmas eve and went to look under the tree. Such disappointment, apparently she is still hoping for some Polly Pocket thing we didn't think to get her. Sean looked for it at Target today and they no longer have it which is probably for the best... it's a slippery slope here. Wait until she finds out that Jewish kids get 8 days of presents. We will most certainly have a convert on our hands.

Biggest Surprise

I told Sean no big gifts this year since I don't need a thing (except chocolate), so I was completely shocked when he brought out a big box this afternoon, long after presents were over. We saw this at a gallery show a while back and I can't believe he remembered which one I liked. The gallery owners asked him if I was going to be surprised by his choice and he said I was going to be surprised that he even remembered where the gallery was. Yes indeed. And he was surprised to hear me say it would go well with a new rug I've been eyeing, haha!!

Keeping them busy

The goal of every Christmas gift... keep them busy for a few days at least, ideally for the remaining days of Christmas vacation! The girls immediately started in on the painting craft from Aunt Stephanie and Sean is reading up on his new video game, in his new outfit from me. It is technically called "hangover pants and hoodie" but since Sean hasn't had a hangover since his bachelor party nearly 12 years ago, we will call these "moonlighting pants" as they are perfect for those late nights/ early mornings in his office. As always, thrilled to have a husband who moonlights instead of getting hungover.

Baby Santa Torture

My parents picked up this outfit to torture Patrick, thought it would be cute if Baby Santa handed out gifts. Forgot about Baby Santa strip tease.... so this didn't last long. But he was distracted by this awesome new eco friendly jeep thing for a bit, thanks Grandpa Timer and Grandma Sharon!

Patrick learns about presents

Took Patrick a long time to open the first present, only to have the breakable ornament from Aunt Bridget swiped from his throwing arm, but after that he was off and running. He especially loved Megan's new basketball. No photos of the cursed Buffalo Bills outfit but once it fits he will be sporting that, thanks Uncle Mark and Aunt Katie!

Thanks Aunts and Uncles!

The girls were thrilled with all their presents this year and here are some from Caroline, Andy, Bridget, and Stephanie. Anna was unsure of Wall-E at first and started talking about how long it was in the theatre, total Debbie Downer, but then Sean reminded her that she thought it was funny and right away she got all animated telling us her favorite parts.

Twas the night before Christmas

The traditional reading of The Night Before Christmas, the actual book Sean had growing up. It is inscribed to "Chris" though, from Aunt Maureen. Hmm, what sort of parents change their child's name when he is 2? (I like the name Sean better, so not complaining). Too bad more parents don't do that... ahem, "Secret Love". Whatever could be the story behind her conception??

Anyway, Sean and I tried to hit a variety of masses on Christmas eve without the kids, "date night" and finally found one with seats still available that didn't require us to watch it on a TV in an auxiliary room. Call me a bad Catholic if you will, but if I'm going to watch it on TV then it's my own TV and it's the Basilica of the Sacred Heart from Notre Dame. Of course, any true ND alum wasn't watching mass last night, they were watching history end. Yes, the 9 game losing streak in bowl games has ended. Waiting for ND to call today.... "ah yes, you said you would donate to us when we managed to win a bowl game again, did you happen to tune in to Sports Center this morning?" Thankfully it was not the BCS championship game because that would have been expensive for me, having pledged to send Sean to it if ND ever makes it in. Yeah, I'm saving pennies in a drawer, figure by the time that happens I will have enough. $1.45 so far, feeling good.

In Ryan's Honor

I still can't get links to post correctly so my apologies for the inconvenience but you really must cut and paste and check this:

http://www.bumwine.com/

Ryan is my brother-in-law who is a liquor salesman, is that right? Works for a liquor distributor, visits all the friendly liquor stores, brings home tiny bottles of sometimes frightening beverages, makes a fabulously complicated margarita at the beach... Anyway, I hope he doesn't represent any of these... of course in a recession these might be the big sellers!

The elves are watching!

This is the longest we have gone during a Christmas season without an actual elf sighting, so tonight was a big night. We had to coordinate with a larger elf from across the street to get this little guy up in the window. As the girls get older we have to get smarter at how we do this or we will get caught. One night when the girls were being naughty fighting in their room Sean did go knock on their window and that was unfortunately not caught on tape, oh the horror on their faces as they came tumbling down the hall. This is still rather entertaining.

Good Old 10 Day Forecast

Just like this summer when we were melting from the heat and the weathermen would think they were being nice to us by dangling a carrot 10 days out with promises of cooler weather then, well today they are no doubt lying to me again. Yes, it is NEGATIVE TWO out and they are messing with my head, saying it will be 48 and big sun by the 29th. Liars! Mom and Dad may have picked the wrong week to come up here. At least our ice and snow are under control unlike the whole country north of us. Sounds crazy in Seattle and we hope our good friend Brian is able to get home to start his R&R tonight, otherwise Heather may have to drink all that Nevada Sierra she bought for him....

Tornado Hits Gingerbread House

An authentic Kansas gingerbread house, after the tornado obviously.... Can I throw this away now? Bad Mommy... who is sick of all the random Christmas crafts overtaking my house. Half the stuff they don't make themselves, I shouldn't feel bad about throwing out something the teacher made, but I do.

Suspicious

I have been finding little locks of hair around the house... matches both Anna and Patrick. I am pretty sure I know who worked those scissors, someone I NEVER leave unattended with them but who insisted on taking them into the laundry room to cut out a picture for Megan. She has a few odd layers in her hair now and I am still trying to figure out if someone else got a little trim. Silly me thinking that she could be trusted now that she's 5. Don't worry, I'm sure an elf saw it happen.

Capture the Flag

My favorite game in junior high gym class was Capture the Flag. I can't remember the exact rules but the point is that you try to get into the other team's side and grab their flag and run back to your side. It must be genetic because this is also Patrick's favorite game! We play all day long and my side consists of all the areas he is not supposed to go into... the bathrooms, my bedroom, the girls' bedroom, the office, and various kitchen cupboards that I have latched shut. He has learned which object gets the most reaction when he is caught with it, so that is of course the flag. Now he doesn't even play with the flag, he just runs out into his side, proudly waving the flag, declaring victory. Let me review the flags based on location:
1. Girls' bathroom: a roll of toilet paper (he no longer unrolls it and makes a big mess on the floor, a perk)
2. My bathroom: the toilet plunger (I once caught him with his hand up inside it, we washed hands for a very long time that day)
3. Under the kitchen sink: paper towels (again, no longer unrolls it so I'm not complaining)
4. Girls' bedroom: their water cups (this one still involves dumping the water on the floor first)
5. The office: this is slightly different... can be an ornament off the tree or if Sean is working and ignoring him, he will merely turn off the power on the power strip (always good for some new vocabulary)

Needless to say, we are keeping busy around here. This is the main reason I have taken major short cuts this holiday season. Way more relaxing and no one has complained yet, so this may be the way we do it from now on. Many thanks to the elves who start wrapping the minute I check that box for gift wrapping and shipping... I only go to the post office for those in Iraq. I figure that is the least I can do.... poor Bridget is missing her second Christmas in a row. I trust that Christmas next year is going to be off the hook!

My Favorite Winter Storm Story

As I was salting my front steps today after our first snow of the season, I was first of all wondering what the girls put in the salt bucket because it was brown and lumpy... still kind of works though. After that I was reminded of our first ice storm in Texas, and I use the phrase "ice storm" with a shaker of salt because it was barely an ice storm and well, our neighbor was using a shaker of salt on her driveway. I am totally serious and I have video to prove it!! Unfortunately it is on those little 8mm tapes that we have yet to convert to digital so I can't post it here. It is pretty grainy though as I filmed it through a window screen and it is pretty shaky because I was laughing so hard. The lady obviously had no experience with ice but had heard of the salting concept. So there she is out there shaking her little table salt on the driveway for a while and then she goes into the garage and backs out her SUV.... THROUGH HER YARD TO THE STREET. Yes, I am not sure what she thought would happen when her SUV hit the thin layer of ice on the short driveway.... would the tires slip out from under it?? She went through all that and then just left her SUV parked there, didn't actually go anywhere. A couple hours later it was warm enough that it all melted anyway...

And now I am reminded of our drunk wife beating neighbor who would drive through OUR yard at night... boy, I really miss San Antonio... Well, maybe I will miss the weather once Christmas is over and snow is no longer appreciated.

All we want for Christmas...

Is more time with Daddy. Kitra will be baffled by this, but Sean was able to cut his moonlighting hours in half so he is awake more on the weekends and eating more dinners with us during the week. He assures me the kids can still go to college but what about those heated floors I want in the next house? Yes, that comes before "secret passageway". Yeah, the architect is going to LOVE us and our strange requests. Whatever dude, the check will cash.

So anyway last weekend was insanely busy with multiple birthday parties (Anna's entire class has turned 5 in the past month, I swear) and a Daisy party here and then the most memorable promotion party EVER. We will be talking about that party in the retirement home, I assure you. And here is the key to a memorable party: invite people from work that most people don't know, so when they get obnoxiously drunk and cause many awkward moments, you will be all fired up to confront them later about their attempts to drive themselves home. My apologies to the host who saw my German temper that flares up every 8 years. I am so relaxed now that I won't need a single drink on NYE and can drive everyone home. Sean works at 2am so the bus leaves before that....

This weekend was our recovery weekend which really was nice during this hectic holiday season. I declined a few opportunities that the girls had for the weekend which gave us time for a last minute visit with their much beloved old babysitter who recently had her own baby. Always interesting to see what happens when the babysitter can no longer go home and recover from all day with the kids. That first baby is always a shock to the lifestyle. I will try to post a photo from that, such a tiny little guy! Patrick was very suspicious.

We also took a drive to see the Christmas lights on Saturday night. We thought we would hit some of the nicer neighborhoods first (no mocking, those of you not from Kansas, houses are just more modest here as are the people which is a refreshing change!). There were some decent displays there but we quickly learned that the Grizwald-types live in a different area so we moved on to a neighborhood with all those blow up decorations, the girls were thrilled and I think even Patrick was getting into it. But no, we will not be getting the big blow up Santa Tigger for our yard....

Sean did put in his hours reading and playing with the kids which was appreciated by all, so I think this new schedule will work out just fine. The girls will be happy that Santa ordered presents last month though, haha!

Theology 101

So the usual battle this morning with Megan about going to church, it's very predictable and annoying and centers around how unfair it is that Anna gets to go to Sunday school instead of mass. YES, Megan went to Sunday school at that age, I realize it is actually fair but I am not Megan. Well, today Megan tries a new route, she decides to be mad at the people who killed Jesus because if that didn't happen we wouldn't have to go to church. Anna interjects with, "somebody killed Jesus?? Is that true??". You know she is picturing Sweet Baby Jesus laying in the manger, who is killing babies?? Yes, the meaning of Easter is completely lost on a 5 year old, I guess she did drop out of Sunday school before Lent last year... Sean did a quick theology lesson which perhaps satisfied them because somehow we made it to church with only one child crying (Megan, somehow she thought we were all being mean to her because we told her to stop messing with Anna's armrest).

Anyway, Patrick went to mass for the first time since he was baptized and actually did okay other than making goo-goo eyes at the older lady next to us as he plotted how to steal her purse. Oh, he loves a good purse, almost as much as he loves the wallet stuffed full of junk to pull out. He also emptied the diaper bag about 23 times which at least distracted him from the dinosaur book that I quickly grabbed before he could push the ROAR button. Yep, that really livens up the sermon, a good dinosaur roar now and then. I scooted him out after communion just to get some air and we ran into our favorite named little friend Keenan, fresh from his wrestling match with his dad. Oh, Christmas eve mass with it's extra crowded pews and extra long service is going to be fantastic! Will we have to bring the ELF with us or is that mixing faux religion with real religion? The elf has yet to make an appearance this year, Sean is afraid that Megan is too wise and Anna is too brave and will chase it... Hoping to get a neighbor to put it on a stick and bang it against the living room window one night. That should emotionally scar them for months...

Unlimited Juice?

This party is going to be off the hook!! Buster has a friend in Megan. She went to some Daisy party last night and her leader said she had never seen her with so much energy, running around, having a blast. So then I ask Megan what she had to drink. "Lemonade and punch". Mystery solved! She then had many nightmares last night about goblins with muddy feet ruining our dinner (let's not analyze what sort of mother I am here to make her fear such a thing), so she ended up in our bed. She is kind of big for that, physically I mean, I don't know how she fit.

Meanwhile, Anna could have used a shot of punch last night as she snuck off and put herself to bed without us knowing (again, let's not analyze my parenting skills). I was going to surprise her with smores (inspired by memories of the first time we met OLD Patrick and he made them for us in the stove) and found her curled up in her bed-- in her dress, sound asleep. So of course she woke up an hour early this morning and demanded I turn on some shows for her. So notice that the one child who did not interfere with my sleep last night was Patrick. This is not something parents of just a baby want to hear... there is no end to sleepless nights, sorry. Instead of crying from teething, it's begging for Cyberchase. UGH. I need some punch this morning...

Wedding Preparations

We are working on our dance moves for Bridget and Big (old? uncle? how do we differentiate here?) Patrick's wedding reception. So far Brick House gets the best response from the kids, what can I say, they are so sophisticated in their musical taste. Anna takes her inspiration from Elaine on Seinfeld and little Patrick does some sort of line dancer shuffle with random right foot kicks. I am trying hard to get this on video but they both run to the camera whenever they see it. I am also working on setting it up to capture an elf sighting because that is always good for some laughs. They also like Jessica Simpson but I won't admit to having that on my itunes, oh no. Anyway, we will keep working, just over 6 months to go... most excited to get Bridget home from Iraq first though! Welcome back party in New Orleans, we are there with no kids!!

Watch out David Blaine

This morning Sean announced as usual to the girls that he was off to work and Anna says quietly to him, "where's your belt?" because she knows he can't leave without his belt. He laughs and pulls up his jacket to show her and to his vast surprise, he isn't wearing it! She simply says, "it's in the basket", are you getting a visual of a David Blaine face here?

I guess it's pretty easy to fool Sean in the morning, you just have to mess with his routine a bit. He keeps the belt in his boots and thus remembers to put it on each morning right before he puts on the boots. So Anna just took it out and hid it. Oh, David Blaine, we are so on to your techniques.... just needed a 5 year old to show us. If I knew how to post links and videos I would now show you the parody of him with 2 gay guys. Oh my word, it is hilarious. Let me work on getting that...

Also hilarious, It's Always Sunny in Philadelpia, thanks for the tip Steff!

January Magazines

As some people know, I get a lot of magazines with photos of gorgeous, clean, clutter-free homes in them (house porn?) and yesterday I received my first January issue of those. It is not what I want to see when all the xmas decor is finally out and the house is a bit overrun with sparkle and greenery. "A Clean Slate" is the subtitle on House Beautiful in January and it shows a very relaxing, simple room, with the usual fresh flowers and strategically placed fresh produce. Yes, no sign of kid "rock collections" (or worse, acorn collections which lead to maggots! 2 friends dealt with that recently and another one found them in her trashcan... that had been forgotten in the garage since the 4th of July-- now let's see who reads my blog, hahaha). Also, no piles of notes about kid things or magazines and catalogs to read, it's a house with no responsibilities.

Let me discuss the endless kid notes for a moment, I am all about teaching kids about charity but I am having a super hard time remembering all the different donations they are supposed to take in to various classes and activities. The zoo wants a lot of old used items, so that is a like a scavenger hunt around the house, but at least it is cleaning out closets like HB is telling me to do... I'm not sure how Megan can get this stuff on the bus though. She's big for her age, but do you think she can handle a bag of old towels?? And still look cool to the bus crowd? One of them tried to make her eat an envelope the other day, can't imagine what they would do with those towels.

As for xmas clutter, I picked up a bunch more at Gatherings on the Prairie, a store down in Junction City yesterday. Yes, after 2.5 years I finally ventured down there with a friend. When I told Sean we were going there he asked if it was for a drug deal. Well, for some people home decor is an addiction and this stuff is very nice and super cheap. They had pillows for $20 that I was going to order from Sundance for $85 plus shipping. So I guess I may end up a regular in JC after all... I suppose I could finally check out the commissary too then. Nah, I don't have patience for that circus.

p.s. There is a church sign in Manhattan about how there is no X in Christmas, and so apparently I shouldn't keep abbreviating it. I guess to be a minister in some denominations you don't have to take a history of Christianity class? I do love living in a small town at times like this because some guy even wrote a letter to the editor pointing out the meaning behind it. Probably a senior citizen, God love 'em. They have time to do all the stuff I never get around to...

Too Lazy To Scrapbook

So this really cracks me up... my sister Stephanie made this ad with some photos from xmas last year. I think it only runs in Michigan so no one will recognize us.

My Little Helper

Well, he will be quite the helper when it comes time to undecorate at least...

December Chaos

My parents are here and Patrick is teething, so that has used up my spare time this week, hence the lack of lame blog posts. Lo siento. The house is half decorated, as in the girls did their tree downstairs (so tacky), and I did only the top half of the living room tree to keep Patrick from breaking too many ornaments and I have yet to do the tree in the office. Megan's Daisy troop is coming over to go caroling on Friday night so I need to be finished by then. I work best under pressure- and with lots of caffeine.

I truly don't know how other people get all this stuff done, are they vampires who don't need to sleep?? That was the most interesting part of the Twilight series in my opinion, reading about all the stuff the vampires could accomplish at night while everyone else slept. And yes, I know I would get way more done without a computer addiction but I contend that it just takes the place of watching TV for me. I could be very addicted to TV but the writer's strike last year really broke that habit for me. Plus, they keep canceling my favorite shows, so I just give up. Life is not the same without Buster and GOB. The dramas were stressing me out too much so I dumped them too. Sean was delighted to purge Grey's Anatomy (the entire fall season) from tivo the other night. I'm just going to end with Meredith and McDreamy happy together, don't tell me otherwise.

I will find some photos and funny stories to post after this weekend. Just need to get through a bunch of baking, decorating, shopping and parties in the next 4 days and then we can coast on through until it is time to pack all this Christmas decor back up.... good times.