Christmas Day-a little belated

A little late out of the starting gate for the Christmas Day post, but you know how it is, the next day completely exhausted and spending the entire day after Christmas in pajamas only to shower at 8 pm and change into a new pair of pajamas. Oh. That's just me? Bugger. My motivation has been at a standstill since Christmas, really. And I had such high hopes for getting stuff done the week after Christmas! Oh well. Anyway, Christmas morning, Poops was getting pretty good at eating the wrapping paper i mean opening his own presents, he got the little people farm from santa and a bunch of books and some other fun toys.

Then we went to my parents' house where Santa made a very special stop to see all the little boys (we have no girls in our family, it's pretty funny especially because all of us girls are really girly girls and we have an entire team of baby boys. It's ironic, I know, but boy do we love our boys!). Below is Santa! And you probably can't see it, but those bells he's holding up are actually caught in his beard which could have been disastrous but thankfully it wasn't.
That's little Anthony with Poops, he's about a month older and the cutest little thing ever! He has the tiniest mouth and he reminds me of that little old man who dances around in the Six Flags commercials. There were three other little boys hiding in the wings who wouldn't go near Santa, but they did love the presents. A good time was had by all. LOVE the fake fireplace in the corner. Santa did such a good job! We hope to make this one of our new traditions.

And here it is! The Christmas Babyfest 2006!

Thursday Thirteen #11

Thirteen Christmas gifts that were given to me or my family, or that we gave to someone else:

1. My husband and I do "date night" every Friday night and for Christmas, my sister gave us a compilation of gift cards for date nights, some of them for restaurants and one of them for Victoria's Secret (ooh la la!)
2. An awesome piggy bank for Poops from my cousins. I got my cousin a piggy bank for her son at her babyshower six years ago and she loved it and her son still uses it. I've been looking for the perfect piggy bank for Poops, but I just haven't found it. Until Christmas!! Thanks Joy! It's so cute, and it has his name on it. This is the best!
3. We gave my dad an IPod for Christmas, and we had it engraved with his name, and the message: "My kids love me". He's a "writes his name on everything" guy, and we knew he'd have taken a permanent marker to his IPod so we took preventative measures. (All of my dishes and sheets were sent to college with me with my name on them.) The engraving made him all teary eyed which in turn made us all teary eyed. It was a moment.
4. Two "Grandma's First Christmas" ornaments for Poops' grandmas. Did you even know they had these? They're too cute. (By the way, ornaments are having the best year ever, we also gave my dad a deer with a rifle ornament, because my dad likes to hunt.)
5. A book of "101 ways to use your Turkey Fryer". I gave this to my husband because we got a turkey fryer for Thanksgiving and we don't know what to do with it till next year. I just found out you can fry ice cream in it! Sweet!
6. The Little Mermaid Special Edition DVD. I gave this to my sister and my husband gave it to me! Yay! and Double Yay! We came home Christmas day and watched it. LOVE this movie! Yes, secretly I'm still 11 years old.
7. Ralphie in the Bunny Suit ornament (from A Christmas Story). My sister gave me the Ralphie ornament, and the funny thing is, I found a talking Christmas Card with a picture of Ralphie in his bunny suit on the front and gave it to her. We opened these at the same time on Christmas, BY ACCIDENT! Scary.
8. A blanket for my sister with a big US Marines logo on one side, and her favorite picture of her husband on the other (he's in Iraq right now). First of all, the man who owns the web site I ordered it off of, ROCKS. Here is the Web site. He went through great lengths to help me find the perfect picture that would work for the blanket and worked on it with me at 9pm on a Sunday! He always got right back to me, and it shipped with plenty of time before Christmas. Anyway, the blanket is super comfy, and my sister loves it. She says it will be good for when she misses him, AND when she's mad at him. HAHA! I told her she can drape it over a chair and when she gets a new outfit, give him a fashion show. My husband says the blanket will probably respond by making a comment like "how much did THAT cost!"
9. Twas The Night Before Christmas Book for Poops. I love this story and my cousin got him this. We also got him a ton of other books because I'm making him a library. I love books.
10. Speaking of books, I got the new Michael Crichton book, "Next". I love Michael Crichton, and with the exception of The Great Train Robbery, I think I've read all his books. A wonderful mix of thriller and science.
11. A gift card for I-tunes. Hi. I'm Christie. And I'm a (gasp) I-Podaholic.
12. I gave Poops and husband matching shirts: Poops a onesy that says "I Pooped" and my husband a T-Shirt that says "I'm Pooped". I know, it's corny. I love it.
13. My favorite gift of all came from my sister and I cried my eyes out when I opened it because it was beautiful and wonderful and I never expected it in a million years. She wrote a card to Poops, telling him that he's our wonderful little happy miracle, and that she donated $150 dollars to The March of Dimes in his name. It was so sweet. I can cry right now just thinking about it. Thank you Anna Mary. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Cheers to a happy, healthy and wonderful new year!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Dad and the giant cake and other random pictures

The giant icing-laden confection that was my dad's cake looked less like a cake and more like a giant flame walking toward him. A three layer german-chocolate cake with what had to have been a million candles on it. Just kidding pops! But really, we may have put too many candles on it, because the whole top layer was full of melted wax. Oops. And there was a suprisingly significant amount of heat rising up from it as Evan walked with it across the house. Happy Birthday Poppy!

Above is Aidan, under the mistletoe. Below is my 91 year old grandmother at her holiday party, looking quite festive I must say! Isn't she the cutest???
And finally, neon pajamas. Apparently, I once wore these as a baby myself. But that was in the 70's and I guess that was the style. I do have to say Aidan looks like a baby traffic cone in these and they crack me up. I think they might glow in the dark. He might be his own nightlight.

The Art of Baking

It's a time-honored tradition for the women in our family to bake cookies every year and this year, my sister, mom and I were back at it, dancing in the kitchen to Christmas music, and poring over the cookie cutters and the dough and the sprinkles. It was one of the zillion things we tried to pack into a two-day period. Bake cookies, celebrate dad birthday, finish Christmas shopping, go to Grandma's holiday party, bake cinnamon buns, finish wrapping, you know, the winding down of Christmas where you have vowed not to end up at the mall on Christmas eve but what do you know, you're there anyway because that's what happens. We have cookie baking down to a science, even having found the plates and the cellophane wrapping for the packaging really early this season and that never happens, it's always all sold out by the time we get around to buying it. But something peculiar happened to our cookies this year and we swear it wasn't our cookie-baking skills, we believe with our full hearts it was the weather, in which the heavy Florida mugginess and ridiculous heat somehow seeped into the kitchen and penetrated our cookies. Here are our sad chocolate chip cookies.




Our butter cookies, however, seemed to have a banner year, and for that we are proud. But the oatmeal cookies, seemingly perfect when removed from the oven, a perfect combination of chewy and crispy at the same time, turned back into a crumbly oatmeal surprise by morning. It still tasted good, but you had to eat it out of a bowl if you wanted a cookie. Poops sat nearby with his own cookie cutters, having a blast all to himself.

A FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US!

HAPPY FESTIVUS EVERYONE! The airing of grievances, the feats of strength and the festivus pole, all good stuff! I'm a day or two late, but here's a belated Happy Festivus, and if you don't remember it, click play to watch, just make sure to turn the music off on the IPod.

Stating the Obvious Rule #2

I have come to re-learn the following:

Never, ever, ever leave a diaper off and focus on another task at hand, like cleaning a baby's nose or ears. No, it won't be ok for "just a second", it will never be ok for "just a second". It will always result in a sprinkler that will span his entire body, part of yours, and everything else on the changing table. This rule applies especially when you are in a rush to get somewhere.

FYI.

Thursday Thirteen #10

It's a very special edition of the Thursday Thirteen! When my Thursday Thirteen addiction began, we were staying at my parents' house for the night and I put one up on the blog before I went to bed. My dad left for work before I got up the next morning, but he left me a note, his very own Thursday Thirteen! So here it is, a Thursday Thirteen written by my dad, and I'm sharing it because tomorrow is my Poppyseed's birthday. Here we go:

Thirteen Things To Do: For Anyone

1. Worship Often.
2. Be careful going home.
3. Kiss the baby.
4. Exercise.
5. Buy good food.
6. Call often.
7. Plan ahead.
8. Love your friends and family.
9. Take good care of yourself.
10. Love your husband or wife.
11. Make quiet time.
12. Use your "Magic Bullet" machine. (OK this one cracks me up, I LOVE my Magic Bullet blender, and he recently got one too. I got it to make babyfood. My dad makes some pretty kick-ass margaritas. By the way, you can scroll down the left side of the page and you'll see a picture of it! )
13. Drink grapefruit or other juice. (He lovvvvvvves his daily dose of grapefruit juice!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPPY! I LOVE YOU!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

A Wrapper's Delight

My favorite part of Christmas shopping is having all of the gifts you bought in one big fat pile in the corner of your bedroom, then pulling it all out into the living room and wrapping it all. {shudder} The task is quite daunting in my head. Thankfully, it's not Christmas Eve when I've been known to wrap all my gifts until the wee hours of the morning. It always seems like much less than it is, and then 4 hours later, you're thinking, did I really buy this much? And it takes about 5 seconds to unwrap it all the next day, and you think, didn't I buy more than this? Anyway, just the fact that Christmas is still 5 days away means I'm way ahead of the game. Evan and I are planning a wrapping party tonight. Of course, we're the only ones on the guest list, except our very special VIP guest: a bottle of Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir. Cheers!

Astute Observations

I guess there's not much going on today so here's a couple things I observed over the past couple days that I thought were worth throwing out there.

First, it's so nice when I spot something that pleasantly surprises me. Like yesterday, on the way to the mall, I was driving next to a big, burly, leather-laden, very hairy, very gruff man, the kind wearing a chain on his wallet, riding a motorcycle. He had a rider on the back of his bike: a tiny frog that looked like a children's "Leapfrog" toy still in its box, strapped on the very back. There's something about seeing the soft side of these stereotypical biker guys that warms my heart. I wish I had a camera handy.

Next: I was in Dillard's today and I picked up a beautiful hand-blown "Grandma" ornament with an inscription on it: "Grandmas are angels in training." There's something creepy about that. Maybe I am reading too much into it.

Finally: this headline goes into the, "I'm sorry?" file. (click to read on).
Report: Indian Runner Fails Gender Test

That's what I got today, Happy Monday!

Stating the Obvious Rule #1

I'll be posting these from time to time. They are basically things that are obviously known rules, but I have come to re-learn and confirm them through recent experience. Here is the inaugural one.

"You cannot lose weight whilst eating like crap. Even if you are working out."

FYI.

Parade of Horns

The Holiday Parade went something like this. Happy, happy, lots of kids running around, it's really fun to watch them, having a great time, really happy, fed, napped and clean dipey, cute outfit. Life is good, Holiday Parade a success.
Holiday Parade takes turn for the worse when dozens of really loud firetrucks, local and classic, one after the other scream by with their sirens and horns on at loudest possible decible, and at the slowest parade-speed possible, causing very distressed baby.
Parade really gets going with clown car, men on tiny motorcycles, marching bands, lots of beads and candy. Baby waves to all the people, gets some cool beads. Overwhelmed baby decides he's had enough, and wants nap to commence immediately.

Holiday Chick Flick: The Holiday

Movie: The Holiday
Christie Rating: 3 and 1/2 Snowman-shaped Peeps

I forget sometimes how much I love going to the movies when I haven't been in a long time, despite the overpriced popcorn and diet coke ($10) and I always think I have to go more often. This time, I really do mean it. There are a few movies I want to see right now, and last night with pregnant friend in tow, we set out for the late late movie (10pm for me is late, I felt like a bad girl leaving the house at 9:30!). We saw the Holiday.

What caught me on this one? The great fail-safe cast: Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, and my favorite, Jack Black, whose random humor and ability to act stupid in public places cracks me up and really it makes me feel like he could be one of my friends. I even love his band "Tenacious D". The very long beginning of the movie goes through a barrage of tearful break-ups in setting up for Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet's characters to want to up and flee the country from their former loves and former selves, for a stress-free holiday. The pair meet up on a house-swap website, decide to swap houses for two-weeks and flee the very next day.

The rest is somewhat predictable, their adventures in strange places, yada yada yada, meeting strange new people for the next two weeks, and eventually finding themselves, and even finding love. Which is a really cute premise anyway, despite its predictability and I enjoyed the ride for the most part, except for, yes, the what I like to call "frolicking in the fields" scene.. which is a nearly nauseating, very long scene where Jude Law is chasing Cameron Diaz around an English tea garden, laughing and playing, all set to music. It is the epitome of corny and scenes like these always make me feel embarrassed, and I watch them through my fingers. On the other hand, maybe it was just PMS, but I actually did find myself tearing up twice in the movie: once when you found out why Jude Law was a "single" guy, and once when Cameron Diaz had her big character realization near the end of the film.

Overall, The Holiday was extremely chick-flick-like in nature, over-the-top corny in some places, and a little longer than I would have liked. Also, as a practical, somewhat jaded 30-something, the idea of finding love love, I mean the real kind, in just 2 weeks is a little hard for me to stomach, but who cares, right? It's a movie and that's what happens in the movies, and it was a great escape, which is what I was looking for anyway, right? I give it three and a half Snowman-shaped Peeps.

MY 100th POST!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

100 THINGS CHRISTIE

1. I love rice and ketchup with lots of butter. And I'm not afraid to say it.
2. I was born with blond hair and now I have brown. Well now it's reddish-brown but that's not my natural color. (shhh).
3. I love music so much, it's one of the things I turn to in times of stress and sheer happiness. Subsequently, I love my IPod and I have given way too much money to I-Tunes. I guess it's a small price to pay for your own personal commercial-free radio station.
4. I flooded a car once. It rained so hard and the drainage on this one particular road was apparently very bad. The water rose, my car stalled, and my sister and I tried to push the car out of the water in our short skirts and platforms. We were on the way to the mall.
5. I cry at very unexpected times. Yes, those Folgers holiday commercials do it to me, when the soldier comes home. But sometimes just when I'm looking at my husband and son playing together. Or when I'm watching a particularly moving music video.
6. I have become much more emotional since having a baby.
7. I am someone's mom. Isn't that completely nuts??? I still feel like I'm 5 years old myself.
8. A teacher once blackmailed me into *not* talking in her class, but I was so stressed out, I blew the lid off it myself and told my parents and my parents told her off.
9. I always talked too much in class.
10. I can go into laughing fits over absolutely nothing, and laugh for at least 30 minutes. Hysterically until I'm crying and my stomach hurts and I can't breathe.
11. I used to be obsessed with crop circles and was on the crop circle e-mailing list. I drove out to see a few that "cropped" up in Utah. It was pretty cool.
12. I love traditions. I love having Thanksgiving at my house. I love having a real Christmas tree. I love watching "It's a Wonderful Life" while we're decorating it.
13. I'm very random and love spontaneity, which puzzles me that I am also such a traditionalist.
14. I've had lots of boyfriends. I've only ever loved 2. One is my husband.
15. I'm lucky.
16 My husband is so much like me, sometimes I think I married myself with a "hoo-hoo-dilly".
17. I love my Jeep Wrangler. I have never taken the hard top off to ride with the wind in my hair. Isn't that blasphemous?
18. I love "big people" shoes. That's what my husband calls all my shoes. They are tall. I am not.

19. My family growing up consisted of my mom, my dad, myself, and my sister whose 7 years younger than I am. We are all ridiculously close. I love that.
20. I can quote entire movies. Karate Kid I &II. Tommy Boy. The Little Mermaid. You've Got Mail. Titanic. There are more. The only person who can watch these with me is my sister because she can do it too and everyone else gets pissed off.
21. I was on the 5 year plan in college.
22. I miss living in a state with seasons. I love the cold weather and bundling up and turtle necks and big puffy coats and cute long sexy coats, and tall boots, and hats and scarves and gloves and the smell of wood burning fireplaces and seeing my breath in the cold air.
23. I am really good at reading people. I mean really good. I can tell if someone's lying by the look on their face (usually the lip quiver) and I can tell if my mom isn't feeling good in just one note on the phone. I can tell when a guy is or isn't interested. I can tell when someone's mad even though they say they're not. Facial expressions and body language are a much bigger giveaway than people think.
24. I've done Thanksgiving for two years in a row and I still can't make gravy. I will be practicing this in '07.
25. I love beverages. If I were stranded on a desert island and could only ask for one worldly item, it would be unlimited beverages. With ice and a straw. Does that make three items?
26. I hate when people write checks at a store. I didn't realize people still did it but for some reason it makes me crazy to be behind them in the checkout line.
27. My feet seem to make my shoes stinky. It's an unfortunate curse.
28. I love blue water in my toilet.
29. I firmly believe cheese makes everything taste good.
30. I used to like my steak well. Now I like it medium rare. I am a carnivore. Roar.
31. It's much easier than I thought to write 100 things about myself.
32. I love to sleep. I don't get enough of it.
33. My husband proposed to me at a vineyard in Napa Valley. It was like a fairytale. We stayed at a bed and breakfast, rode the Wine Train, went on a hot air balloon ride, and toured lots of vineyards and drank lots of wine.
34. I discovered my passion for tv news in high school.
35. I've been a journalist for 10 years, and have worked at 2 local tv stations, FOX News Channel, and The Associated Press.
36. My career took me to New York City and Utah and I had the best time at both.
37. I came back to Florida to marry my college sweetheart.
38. I'm a stay at home mom now.
39. My first job ever was at a drive-thru window at Checkers.
40. I got "my friend", "Aunt Flow", when I was 10 and had no idea what it was. The school nurse asked me if I knew how to wear a belt. I still don't know what that means.
41. I once almost had a warrant out for my arrest. Not for anything really bad. I failed to pay a speeding ticket I got in another county and they sent me a "notice". My dad found it. By the way, the officer who pulled me over, pulled in front of me, and behind another car, and slowly pulled us *both* over at the same time. Very effective maneuver.
42. When I'm at work, I love the adrenaline rush of breaking news.
43. When I'm at home, the news depresses me.
44. I had baby boy who was 6 weeks premature but he's perfectly healthy now.
45. I majored in Political Science in college because I thought it would be more useful in my industry than broadcasting. I was right.
46. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.
47. I'm a Virgo and a Republican.
48. I need lipstick. Yes, I'm one of those people who wear lipstick at the gym. I know, I know. But I really can't leave the house without it. I can barely be IN the house without it.
49. My out of the country experiences include Germany (once), and if these count which I'm not sure they do: Canada, St. Lucia, and 3 cruises worth of ports.
50. I want to travel more.
51. I want to have more babies. I am even thinking 2 or 3 more. Isn't that crazy? I think it would be fun to have an O'Sullivan Team.
52. I think I may have captured a ghost screaming on audio tape once when I was interviewing a psychic. It's chilling. I've played it for a ton of people. I'm not kidding. It's scary.
53. I saw Jerry Seinfeld do stand-up twice. He's my favorite. Once was in a bar in New York by accident. He was there to practice his upcoming Letterman appearance.
54. He almost ran over my friend with his black Porsche as she crossed the street. She was excited about it.
55. It is confirmed that I have seen every Seinfeld episode, most of them multiple times, and can name its theme within one minute of its beginning.
56. I love Levis jeans, Short, Bootcut.
57. I am mostly hairless. It's the "Indian" genes. I grow hair on my legs and arms, but it's blond and takes forever to grow. Sweet.
58. I am Native American (Mohawk), Finnish, Ukrainian, and German.
59. My Indian name is "Bright Star".
60. My son's Indian name is "Little Fire". It's also what his name means in Gaelic. It really couldn't be more fitting.
61. I have a complex about my appearance. (Shocking, I know.)
62. Cars that I have been through: Escort Pony (first car), Hyundai Sonata, Nissan Sentra, Miata convertible, Jeep Wrangler.
63. I love river rafting. I once took a bus from New York City to upstate by myself, stayed at a bed and breakfast (by myself) and took a cab to the rapids because I so badly needed to escape the city (I didn't own a car in New York). The guide drove me back to my bus stop.
64. I worked in New York City during 9/11. It was life changing.
65. I needed Zanax to fly in a plane for a long while afterward. Oddly, I always loved to eat cheese danish after taking a Zanax.
66. I can't keep my bedroom clean. I am a somewhat messy person, but have been much better at keeping the "common areas" clean since becoming pregnant. But my bedroom is still a lost cause.
67. I HATE folding laundry. I can wash it all day. But once it's done, it stays in big heaps on my bed, and then it eventually turns back into dirty laundry.
68. I blast the music in my car and sing at the top of my lungs.
69. I love love love karaoke. I haven't done it in 2 years, I can't even believe it!
70. I got sick in college once off "Gold Wasser", a cheap version of Goldschlager and now I can't even stand the smell of Goldschlager and very barely cinnamon anything.
71. I tried the "online dating" thing. I gave myself 3 dates. They were all freaks. I abandoned the online dating practice.
72. I LOVE PEEPS! Every size, shape, believe it or not they even have 4th of July Peeps, and let me tell you, I pledge allegiance to the Peep.
73. I wore a belt with a sweater in the 80's and I never will again. I thought that was one of the fashion bad ideas that we left behind.
74. I am a sucker for 80's music.
75. My husband and I met at a club in college on 80's night 10 years ago.
76. We once flew in a plane with both Hulk Hogan and the priest who married us. They were not together, and it was a complete coincidence, but to this date, I have never felt so secure on a plane in my life.
77. I am 31 years old.
78. I have loved writing since being introduced to the book report in the 4th grade.
79. I have started writing 2 novels. One I have high hopes for actually finishing one day.
80. I have written one children's book and am trying to figure out what to do to send it to someone to look at.
81. I thought I would miss work more than I do. Maybe I will someday.
82. I love making up words and finding other ways to use existing words in a sentence. How's your coffee? Frothy. How do you feel today? Absolutely frothy.
83. I hate spiders and I moved into a house infested with them. Thankfully, it's not anymore. I feel like throwing up just thinking about it. {shudder}
84. I love crab legs! I have a friend who used to go to all-you-can-eat crab legs buffets with me and we'd eat so much crab that we'd wait for that "clear your stomach burp" and continue eating crab legs.
85. I love the ocean and fresh water but I only like rivers and lakes north of Florida because rivers and lakes in Florida contain alligators and I am afraid of them.
86. Working in news has magnified my paranoia in life 100-fold. I can always picture something going tragically wrong, and then I make up the story in my head written in news-form.
87. I am really starting to get annoyed at how politically correct we are these days.
88. I love to kayak with my dad.
89. I love baseball. My favorite team is the Mets, but I'll watch the cute Yankees play too.
90. I ran one race in life and it was a 5k in Utah. I did not come anywhere close to winning.
91. I am Catholic and I should go to church more.
92. I am a cat person and a little dog person, because I like little doggie kisses rather than big, sloppy doggie kisses.
93. I am afraid of death. The very idea of it is so much bigger than I am and I feel claustrophobic when I think about it. I think that if we died and we never got to see the people we love so much on earth ever again for the rest of infinity, life would have been a terrible cruel joke.
94. I believe in God and I believe that we will get to see everyone we love so much here on earth again one day.
95. If I lost everything and still had my family and my friends, I would still have everything.
96. I have a small chest, but I had spectacular cleavage when I was pregnant. Sweet!
97. I was the Sophomore class treasure and Junior Class Vice President in high school.
98. I played the flute in the marching band and made Varsity softball as a Freshman and my band geekiness and my jockness worlds collided.
99. I tried out for the boy's baseball team when I was a Freshman. I didn't make it, so I played Varsity softball instead.
100. I try as much as I can to always be that "happy" person and usually succeed at it. I'd rather find the funny in everything and usually everything has something funny in it.

99th post! One more!

We're headed off to a holiday parade and I have to say, as a couple without kids, I would have liked to go to the holiday parade, but we would have woken up early and decided, eh, maybe next year. But with our little guy, we go to everything holiday, tree-lighting, parade, pictures, visit to santa, and it's so much fun because he gets such a kick out of everything even though he really has absolutely no idea what's going on or why his mom has dressed him in a stripey Christmas outfit with a matching stripey Santa hat. But that's what we're doing today, so I'll put up some pictures later on, after my extra-special 100th post, whoopie!!!

I am an anti-Ferg-ite.

I cannot stifle my feelings on this anymore. And believe me, I'm as surprised as you that I'm this passionate about this. So much so, that I feel I cannot NOT blog about this. I will also preface this with, I apologize in advance if you're a Fergie fan, and I give you full license to stop reading this lest you put a hit out on me. Right now, my husband and I are doing what we very often do on Saturday morning. Poops is playing in his play dome banging his blocks together, we've got our coffees, we're unshowered and still in pajamas. We're talking back and forth about what to eat for breakfast but no one is getting up to do anything about it, and VH1 is on with its top 40 videos of '06. VH1 usually goes on after the Today show and the local news.

Now, I will tell you that I am a huge fan of the Black-Eyed Peas. "Pump It" is my first song on my workout list on my IPod. I also listened to it during labor. I go into an all-out flail when I hear this song and it embarrasses my husband. I also like Fergie in the Black Eyed Peas. I like her voice. BUT I CANNOT STAND FERGIE ALONE. I DON'T KNOW WHAT A LONDON BRIDGE IS AND I EQUALLY CAN'T STAND FERGALICIOUS. I don't know why I feel this passionate about this. Maybe it's because I am offended that this is crap music and crap music can become popular. Or not really music, just crap. Obviously, people like these songs because they are both in the Top 40. But everytime I see the videos, I stop what I'm doing, and stare at the TV in disbelief, then become nauseous. Yes, I should put my energy toward something worthwhile, and I do, usually. But I can't help myself. I can't stand the branch-out Fergie, and I cannot sit by idly anymore. There I've said it.

Old Skeletons

I just wrote on someone else's blog that some of my best posts happen when I start with a blank page and have absolutely nothing to write about. Today is not one of those days. It doesn't help that my mind is equally as blank as the page. I can write about how excited I am for VH1's Best Year Ever that's on tonight. Or how Heroes got nominated for a Golden Globe (sweet!). Anyone who hasn't seen that show should find the re-runs on the Sci-Fi channel and watch them and don't be afraid of "Sci-Fi" channel like I would if I heard someone say 'watch the re-runs on Sci-Fi' because when I think of Sci-Fi, I usually think of over-the-top trekkies. This show is not really Sci-Fi. I say this because when I told my friend she should watch the re-runs on Sci-Fi, she got all weird when I mentioned Sci-Fi channel, and then I realized I might have too if I were her.

Isn't it great when after a million years, people just happen to waltz back into your life again? I heard my name while I was in the meat section of the grocery store the other day and turned around and there was a friend of mine from college that I hadn't seen it, gosh it has to be 11 years. That makes me feel old. She happens to live in the same apartment complex as my Mother-In-Law, about 3 blocks from my house! And I was excited comboed with a little scared when I met up with her again because she was a great and very fun friend, but boy did we get into a lot of trouble back then, so it was like seeing all my skeletons at the same time, staring at me in the meat section of Publix! And I'm so much less reckless now (I'm someone's mom!) and it makes me remember all the crazy stuff we used to do. I know you're wondering what these things, but since blog posts could be admissable in court, I'll refrain from the details. I'm kidding, nothing illegal. It was wonderful that I was also unshowered after the gym, with mom hair and no makeup and I am a little plumper and certainly not wearing those little skimpy clothes I would have in my early 20's. But I'm excited about having run into her again because since moving back to Florida and having a baby, I haven't been super-sociable and a lot of my old friends have moved away, so I'm back at square one building friendships. We'll see what happens. Happy Friday! Off to the gym hoping to pull a nice sweaty workout out of a hat.

Thursday Thirteen #9

It's almost time to ring in the new year and I'm really thinking about making some changes this time. Here are my:

13 Potential New Year's Resolutions!

1. Fold laundry within 24 hours of washing, lest it become a giant pile of clean and dirty laundry in bedroom within days.
2. Return phone calls in a timely manner. 2 weeks is not timely.
3. Continue quest for significant babyweightloss so that my sad, banished tiny-clothes wardrobe can return to its home in my closet.
4. Minimize angry-hormonal symptoms of PMS for entire year of 2007 for benefit of husband.
5. Significantly reduce spending on purses, shoes, wine, and delicious filet mignon topped with bleu cheese.
6. Combine two rooms of boxes full of crap into one neat, organized room full of crap and maintain same organized system for more than one full month.
7. Plant more flowers and shrubbery, but this time continue to water said plants and shrubbery so that they might thrive and flourish rather than wither and die from malnutrition and have to be replaced with new, live flowers and shrubbery.
8. Minimize "language", rage and speed whilst driving. Replace outward anger with happy, sing-song voice and become accommodating and patient with other drivers, while becoming good wholesome role-model driver for tiny son. Will feel free to sing in high, operatic tone, "Serenity Now!" instead of said "language" if boiling point occurs.
9. Clean inside AND outside of vehicle regularly so that sap from pine tree won't collect on paint job to resemble very bad abstract art.
10. Refrain from making fun of mullets or other hair-do infractions, unfortunate outfit choices and accidents regarding tripping, falling, and unidentified objects in teeth, hair or ears.

11. Find positives in my own faults, large or small, become one with them, and move on.

12. Refrain from over analyzing situations and "manufacturing craziness". No, she did not have "tone" and was not acting "funny" because she doesn't like you. She does like you. She was drunk.

13. Be confident in my own skin, no matter how big, wrinkly, or saggy it is or becomes.

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Countdown to 100!

I'm headed for my 100th post would you believe! That seems fast, although I am pretty sure it's indicative of the amount of time I spend blogging as opposed to doing house-wiferly duties like laundry, floors, and watching soaps, I mean cooking. I don't watch soaps. I end up watching Steve Harvey on TBS. So I'm doing something special for my 100th post, as opposed to this post which I'm turning into a to-do list. Finish Christmas cards, watch "fat people", I mean "The Biggest Loser" which is turning out to be one of my favorite shows. I'm completely inspired! Each week they lose about 5-7 pounds, very often much more, and every time I groan with jealousy Evan has to remind me that they are at a camp with 24-hour a day surveillance, trainers and all their meals are prepared and they have meal plans, as opposed to the real world where we have cake. I like each of the final four, except Utah for some reason. Oh and I have to fold laundry.

The Mall Experience

Was surprisingly great. Closer to end of holiday shopping. Of course there was coffee and my list. But if you can possibly take a day off and get all your shopping done in one foul swoop during a weekday at 1 o'clock, the mall is the place to be. It was leaving the mall that turned out to be the interesting part. The swirly-eyed shopper zig-zagging through the parking lot wandering aimlessly with a fist-full of packages trying desperately to locate the car? Me. Oh, and on the way home? Got stuck behind a truck carrying Port-a-potties. Yes, this is what happens to me in life. An entire highway full of cars and I am stuck behind the stinky truck. And I don't just mean stinky. I mean, likely the nastiest, most overwhelming smell I have ever had the "privilege" of being a part of. Nothing could stop it from seeping into the car. And it went just slow or fast enough for me to not be able to pass it until we got just a mile away from the house, and I could stop the car in the driveway and breathe again. I take clean air for granted.

Caffeinated and ready to go.

It's on. Until last Friday or so, the malls were still pretty much manageable during the week and even on the weekend. But now, you can see, it's on. The rush has begun and mall parking takes you either schlepping across the street or car-stalking wayward shoppers leaving the malls with swirlies in their eyes and wandering aimlessly in search of their cars, stumbling with fistfulls of packages. And you think you're close to getting a spot, when the shopper you're stalking all of a sudden zigzags through the cars and takes a right and heads down a completely different aisle where there is already another car ready to stalk for a spot. I see it all the time. But this year is different for me. I won't stalk. I will be perfectly content at whatever parking spot presents itself. And I am armed with a list, so I will not be venturing toward this crazy cluster of mad shoppers empty handed. And as of this writing, I am quite caffeinated. There are still 13 days, and I am about halfway done, and this is wonderful progress in my world. So I will breathe in deeply the holiday spirit and exhale sighs of relaxing wonderment and the gentle scent of a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks.

And then.. there was dancing.

Could it be proof that dancing is innate? That music lives inside of people of all ages, bursting to get out? A couple weeks ago, Poops started dancing to the Bonanza theme song. Evan would sing it, and Poops would bounce up and down, body, head and all. He started doing it in the exersaucer so we thought it was a fluke at first because it's real bouncy, but he does it pretty much anywhere when you sing it. This morning, I caught him dancing to a TJ Maxx commercial. La-la laaa la-la la-la-la-la TJ MAXX!

Decoupage of Christmas funnery!

I am struggling to recover some of my motivation from the weekend. Our weekend actually started last Thursday and it was packed to the brim with birthdays and holidays. Husband had two work parties, one of them was Thursday night at a giant restaurant-slash-video arcade. It was catered and open bar and free games all night and I learned that I am not good at Golden Tee or that dancing game where you step on all the arrows. Husband, who is excellent at Golden Tee, is also not good on the dance game and we looked like 30-something idiots trying to reclaim our youth. And can I just say, the next time you walk by an arcade, check out the dancing game and see who's doing it. It's teenage... boys! NOT girls. I am miffed by this.

Friday was a delicious feast of fondue for my very pregnant friend's birthday. The dinner lasted about 4 hours. Salad, cheese, meat, and of course chocolate. But having 13 people at a fondue dinner isn't without its challenges. There are only 3 pots in the middle of the table for everyone to eat out of, so not only do you have to get 13 people to agree on 3 different cheeses and chocolates, you also get to become very intimate with them in the sharing of food, sauces and probably also germs, but hey, even if you don't know everyone at the table, you sure do after fondue. I would recommend this place for a first meeting of the in-laws, because there is no way that you won't get to know them, and get to know them well after a nice fondue dinner.

Saturday, the big office Christmas party. We had a blast. The food was delicious and it was open bar all night and lots of dancing. My favorite part was the people watching. Husband works for a big engineering firm, but you wouldn't believe the mix of people at the party. From your normal, conservative, engineer-types, to she-mullets, man-mullets, and caveman beards. My biggest laugh came when I was admiring the back of a 20-something woman's cute and very short dress, but realized after she turned around that she wasn't 20-something at all, she was very likely 60-something. She tricked me with the body, the dress and the hair!! It was very entertaining to say the least. Our long night of dancing ended with a trip to the McDonald's drive-thru.

Sunday, yum. A steak brinner or linner, or dunch, whatever you want to call having a nice big fat prime rib at 1 in the afternoon. It was mumsy's birthday, it is actually today, but we celebrated it yesterday with a feast of wine and steak at her favorite restaurant where we pondered the origin of the name of horseradish, and there were theories that maybe it once covered up the taste of horse in other countries. But that's not it. In fact, it's nothing spectacular at all, sadly. Horseradish.Org, yes it is a real website, has the answers, and just in case you were wondering yourself, see below*. Anyway, steak dinner=wonderful. I needed a nap afterward.

Oh, and guess what? My dad, mom, and husband were all born in December. Last monday was husband's birthday. Mom's today. Next week the Pops, and then we have Christmas. Which means for us, that December is one, big, fat, decoupage full of fun! It was more stressful when I was working, but this year, as long as I'm out and about with Poops and the Christmas carols blaring on the car radio, I can keep it all in a lovely cheery holiday perspective.

Well today I marched off to the gym first thing in the morning to try and rectify my terrible food behavior from our four-day ridicu-feast. But I am still just totally exhausted and I have to find it in me right now to: shower, go food shopping, do a little Christmas shopping, pick up Poops' Christmas pictures, make dinner, then do Christmas cards tonight. Where will I get the energy. I will start by putting on a nice big fat pot of coffee. Happy Monday!


*From Horseradish.org:
Q. How did horseradish get its name?
A. Horseradish is believed to have originated in Central Europe, the area also linked to the most widely held theory of how horseradish was named. In German, it’s called "meerrettich" (sea radish) because it grows by the sea. Many believe the English mispronounced the German word "meer" and began calling it "mareradish." Eventually it became known as horseradish. The word "horse" (as applied in "horseradish") is believed to denote large size and coarseness. "Radish" comes from the Latin radix meaning root.

Fred the Feeding Chair and the Bottle Graveyard

This is "Fred". Husband's man-chair. Before we got married, Fred was my husband's only piece of furniture for a really long time. We named it Fred in our single days and referred it to as Husband's roommate. He even slept in it for months before he had a bed. And when we first moved in together, I thought Fred would have a short life in our household, or I guess I hoped he would, because I hate to say it, but Fred's not really what I would call a "looker". But man, is he comfortable and he has since grown on me. So Fred stays. Yes, I'm talking about Fred as if he is a person, because he has become a staple, and a symbol of all that is comfortable in our house. I have a nice rocker in the nursery, but Fred actually became my nursing chair for a while, which was convenient not so much for his comfort (even though that's a big plus), but he's so easy to clean, too, in the midst of various wet accidents. He coddled me through sleepless nights, he was there when I would schlep to the living room with Poops and watch half a movie during the 1 am feeding, and there again at 3 am, where I would watch the rest of it at the next feeding. And all the hours in between. Since I've stopped nursing, it's become our "bottle-feeding" chair. Now, Poops knows that's where the business of eating gets done and as soon as we sit down in it he looks at you and at the side table and back at you, as if to say, "Where the heck's my bottle!" Sometimes between feedings, there's still a bottle left on the side table next to Fred, and if you sit down with Poops, he gets angry that there's a bottle sitting there, and no one is giving it to him. Even if it's empty. So the bottle retires to what we call the "bottle graveyard". On the floor right next to Fred, until we remember to pick it up and take it into the kitchen. It's out of Poops' line of vision, and he forgets about it within seconds. Unfortunately, so do we. And we wind up with this:

The Bottle Graveyard

12 Days of Flubugcrud: A Christmas Musical

Been miserable with the flubugcrud or whatever the heck it is, and this year it's a real bugger. And it's gotten to everyone I know! It's almost gone, but not completely and it's almost been 2 weeks, so here's a little song for you. Because I have nothing better to do than sing songs about the flu. (To the tune of 12 days of Christmas).

On the 1st day of flubugcrud, the flubug gave to me...aches while putting up Christmas tree.

On the 2nd day of flubugcrud, the flubug gave to me...a tickle in my throat, and aches while putting up Christmas tree.

On the 3rd day of flubugcrud, the flubug gave to me...crazy runny nose, a tickle in my throat, and aches while putting up Christmas tree.

On the 4th day of flubugcrud, the flubug gave to me...can't stop coughing, crazy runny nose, a tickle in my throat and aches while putting up Christmas tree.

On the 5th day of flubugcrud, the flubug gave to me... NO EN-ER-GY! Now I can't stop coughing, crazy runny nose, tickle in my throat and aches while putting up Christmas tree!

On the 6th day of flubugcrud, the flubug gave to me, six boxes of tissues, noooo en-er-gy! Can't stop coughing, crazy runny nose, tickle in my throat and aches while putting up Christmas tree!

On the 7th day of flubugcrud, the flubug gave to me... lots of germs a-swarmin', six boxes of tissues, NO EN-ER-GY! Cann't stop coughing, crazy runny nose, tickle in my throat and aches while putting up Christmas tree!

On the 8th day of flubugcrud, the flubug gave to me...8 consecutive sneezes, lots of germs-a-swarmin', six boxes of tissues.. NO EN-ER-GY! Cann't stop coughing, crazy runny nose, tickle in my throat and aches while putting up Christmas tree!

On the 9th day of flubugcrud, the flubug gave to me... 9 relatives infected, 8 consecutive sneezes, lots of germs-a-swarmin', six boxes of tissues...NO EN-ER-GY! Cann't stop coughing, crazy runny nose, tickle in my throat and aches while putting up Christmas tree!

On the 10th day of flubugcrud, the flubug gave to me...10 hours sleeping, 9 relatives infected, 8 consecutive sneezes, lots of germs-a-swarmin', six boxes of tissues...NO EN-ER-GY! Caaan't stop coughing, crazy runny nose, tickle in my throat and aches while putting up Christmas tree!

On the 11th day of flubugcrud, the flubug gave to me....no appetite, 10 hours sleepin', 9 relatives infected, 8 consecutive sneezes, lots of germs-a-swarmin', six boxes of tissues...NO EN-ER-GY! CAAAN'T STOP COUGHING CRAZY RUNNY NOSE TICKLE IN MY THROAT AND ACHES WHILE PUTTING UP CHRISTMAS TREE!

On the 12th day of flubugcrud, the flubug gave to me, feeling like death warmed over: NO APPETITE, 10 HOURS SLEEPIN', 9 RELATIVES INFECTED, 8 CONSECUTIVE SNEEZES, LOTS OF GERMS-A-SWARMIN', SIX BOXES OF TISSUES, NOOOO EN-ER-GY! CAAN'T STOP COUGHING CRAZY RUNNY NOSE, TICKLE IN MY THROAT.....

AAAAAND ACHES WHILE PUTTING UP CHRISTMAS TREE!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE, AND HAPPY FLU SEASON!!! IT'S THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING!

Must. Get. Toy.

Thursday Thirteen #8

Thirteen Things About Me As a Kid (I guess you can call it the Mis-Adventures of Poops' Mom)

1. 5 years old: Snuck out of parents' house early in the morning with my cousin, in our nightgowns, went up the road to the neighbors' house who weren't home, ate their food, and played with their toys. Were met coming down long driveway, by frantic, angry mom.

2. One by one, slid down front of various cars covered in snow in driveway with sister and cousins. Wasn't a problem until choosing to slide down convertible, and the last one in our line fell through fabric, ripping a gaping hole in convertible. Blamed it all on him.

3. Discovered sitting behind couch with cousin, breaking parents' cigarettes in half.

4. Tried to paint mudpies "brown", you know, to make them more realistic, by using brown stain. Friend's angry father had to remove brown stain from tiny hands using turpentine.

5. With same friend: Mixed it up by sledding down hill and through swingset, lying flat, flying fast through swingset underneath the see-saw. Friend slid too close underneath see-saw and cut her eye open requiring stitches. Friend's parents didn't like me anymore.

6. Convinced sister mudpies were hamburgers. She believed me and ate one.

7. While playing Superman with a little neighbor boy, thought I had huge feats of strength. Became stranded hanging off the top of a 6 foot wall leading down to basement. Rescued by father with bag of Doritos.

8. Talked incessantly in class, but still got good grades, which made some teachers furious. One teacher found a note I wrote to a boy as a joke, and used it to blackmail me into silence in her class. I caved and told my parents.

9. Ate an entire bunch of bananas at neighbor-friend's house and threw up for the rest of the day. To this day, cannot stand smell of banana anything.

10. Stayed up the whole night looking out window trying to spot Santa. Swear to this day I heard sleigh-bells.

11. Loved loved loved loved loved, The Dukes of Hazzard.

12. Taped the "Weekly Top 40" radio show every week, and wrote down the names of the songs and the artists in order. In hindsight, this was very important to me and I still don't know why.

13. Put my tooth under my pillow TWO nights in a row, just to see if the Tooth Fairy would come twice. And she did! And this time she left a 5!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

OK, I'll Bite.

I got tagged with this Christmas Meme so I'll go ahead and post it here. Merry Christmas!!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate. I was never much of an Egg Nog fan and I'm not sure why.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped, for sure.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Last year was the first and only year I had a hankering for all white, but this year I had to add red. Otherwise, I've had multi forever.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? I will be this year.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually last minute. This year, we're up already! It's a Christmas miracle!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? The turkey and ham combo-platter with all the fixins.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Wearing my red pajamas with the feet. I love pajamas with feet!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I snuck a peek Christmas eve and saw my parents putting together my Barbie Dream House. When I opened it Christmas morning, it said "Love, Santa" and the jig was up.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We have the past couple Christmases because we're busting to give our gifts and we can't contain ourselves. Opening one of them turns into all of them!

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I do the lights, Husband does the ornaments and the star. Usually we watch It's a Wonderful Life while we put the tree up.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I Love it I Love it I Love it! (Leg kicking wildly in the air).

12. Can you ice skate? Not really. It's a little embarrassing to watch me do it.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My Barbie Dream House!

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Belting out Christmas carols and spending time with my family and trying to enjoy every single second of that Christmas "something" that's in the air as soon as Thanksgiving is over.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? The Christmas cookies I make with my mom and sister every year. Butter cookies with sprinkles. Yum! I can taste them already.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Baking cookies with my family. But I'm excited about all the new traditions we'll be making now that we have Poops to share the holidays with and that's going to be a blast!

17. What tops your tree? A blinky star.

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving Christmas gifts? Giving gifts. I love finding the perfect gift and I'm busting until Christmas to give it. I don't need anything for myself.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? All I Want for Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey and Please Come Home for Christmas by the Eagles.

20. Candy Canes? For decoration usually. But I'll take the chocolate mint kind to eat!

21. Fave Christmas Movie? A Christmas Story. And yes, I catch at least a part of every single run of it when TNT does 24 hours of Christmas Story every year. Even when I was working.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Mini Me

One down, a million to go

OK now we're getting somewhere. I've gotten an entire mall crossed off my list as having nothing for anyone worth buying. This sounds pessimistic I realize, but really, it's progress!!! This is the earliest I've ever begun Christmas shopping. I have been known to still be shopping at 10 pm on Christmas Eve, only to go home and wrap presents until 3 in the morning, and of course, unwrap them all at 7am. I refuse to do that this year. I wish I could list off what I've gotten people because I am totally BUSTING! This is probably why I don't like to shop until last minute, come to think of it. Because I'm terrible at keeping secrets and I want to give everyone their presents!! It's killing me!!!! Anyway, I'll be heading to another mall this week in search of the perfect gifts. But I've been finding a great deal of success online this year, and have gotten two great gift ideas from FindGift.Com that I've ordered presents off of and I highly recommend it if you're looking for something. They really have some great ideas for unique gifts and the stuff I've found is really inexpensive! Good luck shopping. Anyone got any ideas for children's gifts? I got a zillion kids to buy for.

Crashed

My favorite time of the day is right before Poops goes to bed. He used to fall asleep when I held him all the time when he was a little guy, but now those times are few and far between and I relish them when it happens. He didn't quite make it to his 8 o'clock bedtime. But that was okay with me.

Hi. I'm in Delaware.

Oh the joy of Christmas! This picture cracks me up. We took it Saturday morning while picking out our Christmas tree at Lowes, so we could remember our first Christmas with Poops. It reminds me of that time in Utah when we were only dating, and he came to visit me just before Christmas and I thought it would be a great idea for us to get a real tree. In fact, if you go to my sister's blog, you'd see that we have both married "fake tree" men. Men who are from "fake tree" families. There is nothing wrong with that. We were fake tree people once too, until one year, my sister and I banded together and begged my parents for fresh pine and we haven't looked back since. For my husband though, it was a work in progress. Right now, he's in a state of acceptance. We have surpassed the stages of denial and anger. (My sister is currently working on hers). The process for us began when we were dating a couple years ago, and I lived in Salt Lake City and he still lived in Florida. We went out to get a real tree because boy didn't I think it would be fun to have my boyfriend in town just before the holidays and we can get our tree and decorate it together while watching It's a Wonderful Life. It can be tradition! Sadly for me, he wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as I was about it, and when we bought the tree at the grocery store because that's the closest place I knew that sold them, it all came to a head. He lugged the big tree out to the Jeep, threw it on the roof, rolled down the windows, and tied the tree to the roof with rope. He was huffing and puffing the whole way, so I kept my silence thinking, 'ok as soon as we get it home he'll see what a nice time we'll have and he'll look back on this as a wonderful beautiful Christmas experience'. Plus I'm compromising, he's watching football instead of the movie. This is ok. Baby steps. Remember, he's not a "real tree" person. So we go to get into the Jeep to go home, and we both try to open the doors when we realize at the same time that he's managed to tie the doors shut. With the windows open. I'm trying desperately not to go into hysterics and I study his face and wait for his reaction, which I know would be either complete anger or maybe he'll force a smile, but it's key for me to not react until I see which way he goes and I know this. Thankfully, he laughs at himself and the whole process of getting our first tree together goes much more smoothly from there. But even now, it's still a challenge. He accepts that I thoroughly need fresh pine even though I'm always tracking needles all over the house and we've already vaccuumed three times since we put the tree up, and still we have to vaccuum again. And he accepts that I am like an elderly woman when it comes to my yearning for tradition. So I may get a picture like the one above when we get the Christmas tree, but I know he's smiling inside. We joke that by the time Poops is old enough to begin understanding and taking part in our traditions, Husband will have gotten all of his "real tree" reservations out of his system and be smiling on the outside too.

Who's putting on all the hats this year?

The honor goes to Aunt Kate. One year my sister put on all the hats at my birthday party. Another year, my 90 year old grandmother did it. This year, it was my sister-in-law who donned the pointy Spongebob hats at husband's birthday dinner. It's an odd tradition. But it makes for good pictures. We're bringing party hats back.

Doesn't that look like a picture of happiness? I can't get my husband to do anything other than the Chandler Bing smile ever, but one snuck out today and I was lucky enough to catch it on film. It's like getting a shot of the Lockness Monster. Happy Birthday husband! His real birthday's tomorrow. So if anyone from work is reading this, he likes pretty much any kind of cake.

O Christmas Tree!

Poops was inducted into all things Christmas Tree this weekend.

Friday night we took him to our little town's tree lighting. He sat on the ground and felt grass for the first time. He's felt it before, but that was back when he was a nub and didn't know any different. This is the new, more aware Poops.

Then we went to pick out a Christmas tree, to where else, but Lowes, and you'd be surprised what a good batch they have to choose from. And they're pretty cheap too. They're nothing like a tree farm, I know, but when Poops knows the difference, we'll take him there.

But he's a pretty hands-on type of baby. We were going to let him be the star on the tree, but the tree kept tipping over.