And yet there was more Christmas!

Is 25 days too many for Christmas? I would submit to you that most of the time, no. But right this very second, yes. Yes it is. Yet we persevere.

17. I could not remember this far back, but thankfully my camera remembered for me (and now I shared the biggest reason for taking pictures. To supplement my spectacularly terrible short term memory). We made ornaments for grandparents and teacher gifts. I got the ornament idea from Heather, but she had a kit from Hobby Lobby. I got some silvery ornaments from Michaels and used already-owned finger paints and sharpie to decorate. I love them. We also filled a mason jar with hot chocolate packets and Christmas candies and a Starbucks gift card for Spencer’s teacher. Henry’s daycare lady will get a Chili’s gift card because I know it’s a place she goes, and one of the ornaments.

18: Night at Bethlehem. Every year my neighbors’ church does this giant ‘do where there is a bazaar a la old time Bethlehem and a reenactment of the birth of Jesus, and I think it’s Spencer’s favorite. Last year we went and partway through the No Room at the Inn song, he stood up and yelled hey! I’ve read this book! Good times. We were on a short schedule this year because I had an early flight but we still got some goodness in before heading home. The kids got their candle, dreidels and chocolate chip cookies so they were set.

19: Watch a Christmas movie! This was our last official “watch a Christmas movie” and we watched Christmas With the Kranks. In retrospect, probably a little too old for them but they stuck it out until about 15 minutes until the end when they had enough.

20: Make a gingerbread house! Spencer had been awaiting this very day for 20 days, and he was not disappointed. He had a great time. Daddy took over the making and decorating, so Mommy wasn’t overly annoyed too. Good times.

21. Baking! The last of the baking. At the time, I didn’t know it was going to be the last of the baking because technically I have more to make but that stuff’s going in the freezer until some random time I decide I feel like making Oreo truffles. Right now is not that time. I did make chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip, forgotten kisses, gingerbread cookies (although I used Trader Joe’s dark gingerbread mix for this and I have to say, A+), and toffee! My toffee came through this time! With only one major finger burn! Paired with the previously made peppermint fudge and chocolate dipped marshmallows, I am done, man. I wanted to make Oreo truffles (regular and mint) and sugared nuts, and I have all the makings for all of those but dude. I’m tired.

(Henry enjoyed learning why baking day is such a good advent day for him)

22. WE FORGOT TO DO IT. Ha! Honestly, it was a Monday so I can already tell you it’s “read a Christmas book,” which we can easily fit in tonight if we want. This morning Spencer was again reading the 12 days of Christmas as loud as he could, so maybe that ship has sailed.

Tonight we have “make place cards for Christmas breakfast” which will be very easy. I have pretty cardboard-style gift tags, and we are going to write names on the back and tie them to napkin rings. You might do things fancier at your house, but I think this matches our stamina level. Christmas Eve is always “drive around in PJs with hot chocolate looking at Christmas lights until the little ones fall asleep.” It might say exactly that on the placard.

I have some wrapping to finish but otherwise I think we are in good shape to sail into the holiday with minimal exhaustion. After going through what we could eat on Christmas Eve, I’ve decided we are going out for dinner (Thai? Probably?) which means I can set my breakfast table midday instead of the middle of the night. I’m also making most of Christmas breakfast on Christmas Eve, so in the morning I can just stuff everything in the oven for warming. I’ve gotten over my anxiety about the children being disappointed about Christmas at this point. I know they’ll like things. I know they’ll be disappointed there are no handheld video games under the tree, but I do hope they get over it. S asked for a non-tech item Sunday morning and it was bought by Santa by noon. We are done. Done. I’m done.

Merry Christmas!

Conversations with Henry and other stories.

“God can see all things.

God is a pyramid.

But he doesn’t have a mouth. Only people and dogs have mouths.

And cats. Cats have mouths.

Cami eats really fast.”

(Cami is my MIL’s cat)

(I’m assuming the rest of this is related to the pyramid with the eye on it on the dollar bill.)

This kid, man. I don't even know where he comes up with what he wants to talk about, and he certainly doesn't need a sounding board to get it out. 

Also, I told my husband about this conversation, and his response was "I've seen Cami eat. She does eat really fast."

There was very little sleep last night from me, because of this child, but the folks at Jimmy Dean knew that and their machines made me a breakfast sandwich with extra carbs.

We've been bbarrelingthrough our advent activities, with even very little push back.

12: ICE at the Gaylord Palms - this was very interesting and seriously cold, but a pretty small exhibit for the money. I'm glad we did it, but I'm not sure we would do it again. (also, I'm the sucker who paid for the photo. Hey, I'm not going back, right? YOLO and all that)

13: We spent the day at Epcot snacking around the world with Tara and Jen and visiting with internet children. It was great fun. I wanted to see Elsa turn Cinderella's castle to ice once before the holiday was over, so we headed to MK for the evening. It was a lovely fun day.

14. Making holiday treats: I still haven't tried toffee again yet after last week's poor showing, but I made peppermint fudge, chocolate-dipped marshmallows, cheerio and m&m treats (think rice krispies with more gluten). The boys did not help, and I was okay with that. Not on the advent that we did also: my cousin graduated so we trekked to my uncle's house for a party and then my mom came over to babysit and we went out for an arty movie (yawn) and sushi and wine/scotch. It was a delightful weekend, and I needed a nap afterward.

15. Read a Christmas book! (I love Mondays). I had a terrible anxiety attack related to money and paying bills for my mom and being over all "maybe I should make sure I'm a little more on track with my meds". Christmas book, I love you for being so low maintenance. Spencer read to me this time, and I counted it on his reading log. Win all around.

16. The lights at the Botanical Gardens: Every year I look for something to do that isn't on our regular course of things we would normally do. This year I found that the Florida Botanical Gardens do up a lot of lights and for a small donation, you too can walk around and enjoy it! So we did. It was very nice (and I take terrible nighttime photos, but pretty!

We keep truckin’ through the holiday season

This week was the “easiest” of the Advent activity weeks. I sat here trying to remember what we did for on Saturday and just could not remember for a solid five minutes. It turns out the activity I had planned was not available (I thought a festival was going on, but I missed it by a day) so we made peppermint fudge and wrote letters to Santa (Henry did, with my help, but Spencer refused … I’m not sure what to do with that) and went to an ugly sweater party (in cheesy Christmas t-shirts). Sunday was making Christmas candy day, but after my toffee exploded on my kitchen I was pretty much done with that.

Monday – read a Christmas book (Spencer read Charlie Brown’s Christmas and Twas the Night Before Christmas to his brother and I melted a little)

Tuesday – have gingerbread pancakes for dinner (admit it, I’m a genius. Paired with goat cheese scrambled eggs, bacon and French 75s)

Wednesday – have a Christmas treat – this worked out perfectly because Influenster sent a bag of candy cane Hershey kisses that came in the mail Wednesday.They were well received.

Thursday – watch a Christmas movie. We watched The Santa Clause, which takes me directly to my brother’s childhood because he was so obsessed with that movie that we watched it several times a week for years, sometimes several times in the same day.

So tonight/tomorrow is a big one. We try to do one special thing a season. Usually, we go to Rockapella but this year we decided against it because the kids fell asleep last year and I’m not super happy that they moved it from Tampa Theatre (even though the new location is also gorgeous). But we’ve decided to take the kids instead to ICE at the Gaylord Palms. I’m excited; I’ve never been. We’ve got a hotel in town for the night, and tomorrow we’ll see the Christmas lights and the carolers at Disney/Epcot, and meet up with Tara and Jen and all the internet children. This weekend is going to rock.

In other, not Christmas news … nope, I don’t have any non-Christmas news, I don’t think. We are consumed. My cousin is graduating college and we’ve got his grad party on Sunday, and also I’m a walking Target advert today and I’ve not been so comfortable at work in maybe my life. Although slightly weirded out because I do not leave the house in non-pants. These are definitely non-pants.

Gifting

In the past, we’ve never gone overboard for Christmas. Part of it is that the rest of the family way over spoils the kids, and another part is that I remember the years that my parents went crazy overboard even though we were struggling to pay bills and pressure just trickles down to the kids. I was told very young that there was no Santa because there wasn’t money for a big Christmas and my mom didn’t want me to think I had been bad. I think the way I grew up makes me a terrible gift receiver – I never know exactly how to react and I’ve never been able to really enjoy presents. I want my kids to enjoy what they get with the buoyancy of childhood.

All of that lead-up is to say, I think we may have  overdone things a little this year.

Joint gift:

WiiU

We’d been thinking about this for a year, and the moment we decided, our eight-year-old Wii started giving us trouble. Perfect timing.

Also for both, Disney Hidden Pictures board game

Spencer (6.5)

Jeans

Blue Fedora (still trying to properly replace the ones that got stolen last year)

2 Movies (Transformers and Goonies)

Oblivion for PS3 (he wanted Skyrim, but I felt Oblivion was less people-violent)

Star Wars legos

Basket ball

Henry (4)

Shoes (not yet purchased)

Blue fedora (same aside as Spencer’s)

2 movies (Space Jam and the original Willy Wonka)

Funky Barn for WiiU

Tinker Toys

Philbin the teddy bear

Soccer ball

I think I need to get Spencer one more thing? I really like things to be equal, but I don’t even know if they honestly notice things like that – especially since all the grandparent gifts will be added to the mix before they open a thing. We’ll see.

Henry picked out Maleficent for Spencer, which was on his Christmas list, and Spencer hasn’t done his shopping for his brother yet. I had also gotten H a scooter but my mom is going to give that to him from her, and I talked my MIL into getting Spencer roller skates. I don’t know what else they are getting from extended family. 

I am SO EXCITED.

Christmas is all around us

**edit - can we just pretend this was posted on Friday, as it was typed? Yeah, there we go. Today's Friday. You're welcome.

This morning the boys were up before 5am. I couldn’t move for the first wake up – C went in and talked to them, ostensibly to get them to go to sleep again, but a little after five I jolted awake to them singing 12 Days of Christmas at the top of their lungs. I went in and they were lying in Spencer’s bed together with his side light on and the nursery rhyme book open (12 Days is in there).

There were very many more wake ups before I finally dragged myself out of bed for work, but nothing like that pre-dawn blood pumping, right?

We’ve been working on the Advent calendar (is it still an Advent calendar if you don’t celebrate it like Advent? I don’t know). Anyhow, 25 days of Christmas. It took me until the end of day 2 to fill all the slots and there’s a TBD somewhere in the teens, but otherwise it’s pretty good. Of course, now that the kids aren’t on me to fill the little slots constantly, they are fighting me over the planned activities (and believe me, I’m way light on the “activity” portion of this whole ordeal. Day one (and every Monday thereafter) is “read a Christmas book”, so we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Day two, have a holiday treat (that’s also scattered throughout). Day three, make snowflakes (this took an embarrassing amount of time doing incorrectly before I sucked it up and looked up directions online. I apparently did not retain this from my childhood.)

Day four, see the Christmas light show at The Shops at Wiregrass and take a train ride.

Tonight is Day five (and nearly every Friday thereafter), watch a Christmas movie. I bought the 1996 version of Miracle on 34^th Street, and I hope to even sit down and watch too; I love that movie. The kids do movie night every Friday but I rarely sit and watch with them (although also I usually dislike the movie being watched) so I’m going to try to slow myself down today. I can start going a hundred miles an hour again tomorrow, right?

Here’s my favorite Christmas song, for your enjoyment:

Books I read: November

Early in the year, I was on pace to read 169 books, and then by later in the year I was on pace for 161. I don’t think I’ll get to 160, frankly, but I don’t care. I have had so much fun reading this year. Sometimes maybe I was reading too much but such fun. With the holiday season, reading isn’t really a priority so while I’m pretty sure I’ll get to 150, any more than that is up in the air.

53. Broken Harbor - Tana French

54. Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater

55. The Dream Thieves - Maggie Stiefvater

new

83. The Storyteller - Jodi Picoult This was not at all what I was expecting, with the Nazi/WWII tie in, but it was good. Jodi’s books are always solid.

84. I'll Give You The Sun - Jandy Nelson It took a lot to get into this book, but it was worth it. Good.

85. The Evolution of Mara Dyer - Michelle Hodkin I loved this whole series.

86. We Were Liars - E Lockhart I started this book at 2am and finished at 4am, on a very bad day. I thought it was good. Fairly light read, and I guessed the twist pretty early, but then I second guessed myself the whole time.

87. We Are Not Ourselves - Matthew Thomas Hated. I read 125 pages of 495, confirmed with Elizabeth that the rest was just as depressing as the first quarter and then I moved on. Happily.

88. Mortal Heart - Robin LaFevers Good end to a great trilogy. I liked the first two better, but it was really good. Different.

89. In the Blood - Lisa Unger This was recommended to me by a friend reading it for her book club. It had that Gone Girl psychological thriller feel. Pretty good.

90. Wool - Hugh Howley This was super good.

I’m not entirely sure where the last week has gone, but it has included a lot of falling asleep early and/or staying up too late reading or watching DVR shows and then getting creeped out by the quiet house and having spooky dreams.

I’m hoping to get some real work done this morning and then get out to start my holiday weekend, but it’s also end of month so we’ll see how that goes. I’m having lunch with my best friend from high school today, as he’s in town from Switzerland, where he now lives. I’m feeling very non-jet setter about this, although I know it will be fine. I probably shouldn’t tell him I still don’t have a passport, right?

I did some major toy-thinning this weekend while watching Christmas movies. I was feeling anxious and bad about it, but today is now Wednesday and they haven’t noticed that more than half their bins are empty so I’m done worrying about it. I was having some anxiety about All of this went to Goodwill. How do you note that on the blank receipt they give you?

Sunday we had our last hurrah of summer and I blew up the pool for the kids and the neighbor boy. It’s a good thing I did it then because it’s rainy and super gross and then I assume after that it will be cold. You know, Florida cold, but cold.

 

Spencer found a fleur de lis pendant somewhere, God knows where, but he decided to make me a necklace with it. I gave him a length of ribbon, but that was not good enough for him – he wanted to make a paper chain for it. He had vision. It …. Well, I’m surprised it held the pendant. He was super excited and wanted me to wear it to the grocery store this weekend, and then wanted me to wear it to work. I made it to the car, but did you know that paper necklaces are itchy? Yeah, me either.

Once I get through this workday, I will have Thanksgiving sides to make: cranberry sauce (Henry’s insistence, he’s currently obsessed w/ cranberries), sausage stuffing (C’s insistence, his favorite part of thanksgiving dinner), and green beans (my assigned side to make). We’re having pizza for dinner, and there will be wine and a fire and happy holidays, folks. This is my happy place.

At least it's not snow.

Dude, I know I’m going to hear it from the rest of the country but IT’S COLD. No, it’s not snowing. But 39 degrees when I get up and we have old windows and C closed the vent in the bathroom when it was still AC weather means never getting out of the shower ever.

I’m going to the opening night showing of Mockingjay (part 1, don’t get me started) with some girlfriends and I’m so nervous I’m going to fall asleep. Tuesday night I was asleep by 8:30! I plan on having a coffee before I go, but even that is a little weird because the group is exclusively LDS friends (apparently I now know nearly the entire local ward) and I am not LDS. I feel weird drinking coffee or wine around them even though they don’t care. I WILL have coffee so I don’t feel like sleeping, but I’ll feel weird about it. (Specifically, I’ll be having a nonfat dirty chai latte with a pump of gingerbread, thank you Starbucks.)

Today is feeling exhausting all bright and early today, because there is SO. MUCH. To do after work today. It’s Family Reading night at the school, which we always go to so that’s exciting. I’m hoping to only have my two kids, but we’ll see. Remember that third boy I was always taking with us last year? Yeah, that’s the friend that just moved in next door.

So home, dinner (TJ’s chile lime chickenburgers and tater tots and grapes, I’m not looking fancy), Family reading night, home, bedtime things for the boys, coffee, movie. No one’s expecting me to be worth anything tomorrow morning, right? Ha. 

And I will call this post Prosecco and the Christmas tree.

I did it! I got the tree out of the attic. This was my number one goal yesterday, and I did it.

 (I’m sorry, it was in my head and now it’s in yours.)

The problem with getting the tree out of the attic is that the attic door is a standard size, and my nine-foot prelit Christmas tree, even in the bag all wrapped up and tied tight, does not FIT through said door. My husband hates to deal with getting anything in or out of the attic so I mostly try to handle it myself unless I absolutely can’t (I absolutely could not get the tree up there last year). So I wriggled and yanked and got it down.

Then came the part where I addressed the reason for getting the tree down at this particular time, which is that last year there was a portion of the tree that got blinky/sometimes was lit and sometimes not and I could not be bothered to figure it out. I was afraid if I waited until I was ready to do all the decorating I would get irritated again and not do it. So. I armed myself with a glass of wine and two child sized chairs (one for my butt and one for my wine) and I sat down and worked on the tree. I thought maybe a bulb was burned out, but that didn't account for why it was sometimes lit and sometimes not. Also, if it was on the ground and I leaned on it, the lights came one. Obviously it was a loose bulb rather than a burned out one. 

It took me awhile. There was a point in time where I tried to decide if I really cared that much, and another point in time where I was just going to go buy a short string of lights to put in that spot. Half a string of lights.

I persevered and finally, when all hope was lost, I found the offending bulb (well, maybe bulbs. It was one branch that was an issue. I couldn't narrow it down further than that) and fixed it (I hope, at least for now it is). And woohoo! I have a working Christmas tree again! It's very fulfilling.

Things always happen on Monday mornings.

Mondays are always a rush for us because H goes to Grandma’s house and everyone leaves 30 minutes earlier than usual. There is waking of children and shoving things in the car and OHMYGODCHILDJUSTGETDRESSED. In the middle of the getting the older child dressed, I realized he had streaks of red up both arms. Nosebleed. I cleaned him up, and since this is only his second ever, I tried to explain to him what happened to his nose while he got dressed.

It was a Monday. I’m pretty sure he didn’t get any of what I said.

But it feels strange, seeing the afflictions of your youth carried down in your children. Henry has my crazy allergies. Spencer has my nosebleeds. Spencer has my toe walking. Henry has my social anxiety. Poor kids.

We found this weekend that Spencer is tall enough for the big rides at Disney. He will now relate it to his spiked hair and the shoes he was wearing and will duplicate those every time thereafter that we go, just like when Henry hit the 40” mark he wore the same shoes every time for six months so that he’d have exactly the same amount of lift. He rode Primeval Whirl at Animal Kingdom and designed his own roller coaster at Sum of All Thrills in Epcot and had a grand old time.

(Christmas in Epcot, Henry didn't make it to dinner at Chuy's)

And I got one step closer to my Christmas table setting. I took the kids for a long walk (they rode their bikes, I walked) to the Target plaza and bought gold chargers at Michael’s. I’ve now realized I am in need of two folding chairs because I only have 10 dinner chairs, and there is a green glass tree I want from HomeGoods/TJ Maxx but otherwise DONE. And I’m not buying any other Christmas decorations this year so I should be happy and good and Happy Holidays, folks!

Way more words than I expected to write on a Friday

I have been in *a mood* the past couple of days, so I’m going to work on posting this without as much crankiness as I’m feeling because that’s just no fun for anyone. Work on – I’m probably gonna fail a little. Sorry in advance.

Good thing! I got my dishes! They are wonderful and I’m so excited. I went out and bought most of my Christmas linens not even on sale because I was so excited. I need a little bit more but things are so coming together, it’s marvelous. Three of the salad plates were broken, but my local store has 11 according to the website so I’m hoping to stop in and exchange them today. I found a place to store all the loveliness and everything. It’s fabulous, really. I need half my napkins still and gold chargers and runners (which I think I’d like neutral with green, maybe? Still up in the air there) and I also think I’m ordering these (I say might, but I just hit checkout so THEY ARE MINE).

 

So. Things are coming along in my quest for the perfect Christmas morning table. I will be serving bacon, biscuits and sausage gravy, almond and chocolate croissants, and fresh fruit, and my MIL will bring her egg casserole that we have every year. Coffee, egg nog, tea and orange juice. Is there anything missing? We do this every year, and every year I’m afraid I’m forgetting something.

I’ve gotten two Christmas gifts so far – This for my mom, and these for my MIL. Obviously it’s a small start but it made me feel good.

I’m having some trouble the past couple days. Anxiety trouble, cranky trouble, I-don’t-know-what’s-wrong trouble, everything-is-overwhelming trouble. It will pass, I know it will, but that doesn’t stop me from laying on the bed sobbing when I step on a tack because it’s just the absolute end of my rope. My mom is in the hospital right now, which sounds dire but it’s only mildly terrible – she’s dehydrated from a crazy terrible virus and she’s been twice for IV fluids and the second time they admitted her so she could rest and get fluids and be observed. She should hopefully go home today. She was a little offended because I said I was disinfecting the passenger seat of my car after Wednesday’s ER trip, but DUDE SHE’S BEEN HORRENDOUSLY ILL FOR FIVE DAYS. Do any of us want that? Of course, I’m terribly lazy so I got disinfectant wipes but they’re still just sitting on my passenger seat not actually being used.

Have you had Panera’s squash soup? You need it in your life before it seasonals-out of the menu. It is just delicious.

This is something that I posted to facebook and twitter, but seriously – I think I need it for posterity. Yesterday I made quiche for dinner – doesn’t that look fabulous? It has all the things both kids love.

They didn’t love it. To the point of crying. So fine, don’t eat it – whatever. But they still have a couple pieces of Halloween candy left, and they only get candy if they finish their food. Henry was hysterical about the prospect of not getting to eat his candy (I assured him it would be there tomorrow but inconsolable). Spencer had already taken his plate into the kitchen, so he went to retrieve it to finish so he could have his candy. About 10 seconds later he comes into the dining room with an empty plate. “I ate it all in there,” he says (empty mouth, this has been 10 seconds let me reiterate).

So I go to the kitchen and open the garbage and his quiche is sitting on top.

Spencer went to bed early.

Henry freaked out about the bite in his mouth that he didn’t want to the point of cough/choking/almost vomiting while he cried. I made him spit it out.

There was no candy last night. There was, however, mass hysteria. And it was after that that I stepped on the tack.

Soo …. C and I ate the quiche (seriously, it was delicious). I’m thinking that won’t make it to another meal plan anytime soon.

Shake It Off

 The other day I was alone in the car with Henry, and Taylor Swift came on the radio. I wasn’t really paying attention, we were talking about Christmas lists and all of a sudden he pauses and said, “I like this.”

“Like what, honey?” I thought he was talking about something he was looking at.

“This song. Can you turn it up?”

Later, he was playing with his Imaginext castle and I heard a whisper: Shake it off, shake it, shake it off.

Christmas comes early.

School was closed yesterday. I don’t remember being off in the middle of the week for Veteran’s Day when I was in school – was that a thing and I’m blocking it out? I feel like they gave us a Monday off or something.

Spencer got in trouble at school on Friday because he gave another kid an answer to a math test (not big trouble, just a check on his calendar so we knew about it). Now, on the surface of this – cheating on a math test? How dare! But then I remember he’s in first grade and does he actually understand the rules of testing yet? Perhaps we need to address that. He was sharing! Helping out his fellow student! Bah.

So what are you getting your kids for Christmas? We (I) are thinking of getting the boys a Wii U as a big gift for both of them, and then getting one additional game for each of them. S wants an alarm clock and legos otherwise, and I have zero ideas for H. What does a four year old want? He has so much. I took him to Toys R Us yesterday to pick up toy catalogs so he could peruse the options and I could see where his interests lie. We also wandered around TRU to get a birthday present for a party this weekend. The wandering doesn’t help because he wants EVERYTHING. Giant dragon? Check. Toys related to all the tv shows possible? Check. 48’ ninja turtle? Check.

I haven’t started my decorating other than putting out Christmassy kitchen towels and unearthing my Santa throw pillow from the linen closet and putting it on the couch. However, H and I decided to buy a small Christmas tree and accoutrements and decorate it over the weekend, and so now the boys have a Christmas tree in their room. They use it as a nightlight.

I think I might ask for the Wii U Zelda game for myself. 

Oops and weekend shenanigans

Well I was on a roll there, but then real life showed up and I totally forgot about blogging yesterday. Meh.

This weekend though, was the best. We bought tickets to a Greek festival at the local Orthodox Church for this weekend, so we went on Saturday. There were FIVE bounce houses that the kids spent an inordinate amount of time on, and a bake sale with all sorts of confections and a ridiculous amount of food and Greek-themed items to buy from vendors (my favorite: a shirt/mug that says “I’m not yelling, I’m Greek – that’s how we talk”). We got fried dough (like doughnut holes, covered in honey and cinnamon and nuts) and a sampler plate to share and desserts and let the kids jump more on the bouncy stuff. Spencer really wanted to do ring toss so I gave him a dollar to do the wine toss – and he made it! And guess what the prize was? A BOTTLE OF WINE. My six year old made me proud by winning me a bottle of wine. Hallelujah.

(I bought this lovely almond loaf for Sunday breakfast, and it was a sound and delicious investment)

The whining (heh) was a strong with the kiddos, but we powered through the day and decided to go to Big Hero 6. I’m not going to lie, we entertained the idea of going out to Disney but it was scheduled to be chilly and rainy and blech. So the movie! Was sweet and good and not a comedy. Henry stood up after the movie and declared “That was NOT funny.” He liked it (a lot!), but like the rest of the world we were expecting a comedy and not a touching why-we-became-superheroes story. What is it with Disney releasing trailers that don’t give you any idea of the storyline? First Frozen wasn’t all about the snowman and now this.

We also had dinner with our neighbor friends at a local California taco place, and it was delicious and fun. We really need to spend more time with friends. And I had macaroni and cheese with spinach, bacon and goat cheese so that was a winner.

**

Sunday was more of a lay around day. We’ve gotten used to staying home on Sundays and watching football, cleaning, and generally being lazy. We did that through the afternoon but then new-neighbor boy showed up and we went over to play basketball with other neighbors (well, it started out that the kids all wanted to play basketball but really they wanted to play on the wooden tree swing and me and my neighbor played basketball for a couple hours)

We had a fire going most of the day even though it was in the upper 60s (it was lovely) and I had a pork roast in the crock pot. I made brownies with peanut butter cups in the bottom and guacamole. I watched a lot of Gilmore Girls and didn’t read as much as I expected to. Nice, lazy day. For dinner I made pork nachos which we ate by candlelight and football-on-tv light. 

TV Talk

These questions were from a few days ago from Miss Zoot, and I liked them so I’m doing them now. That’s in the rules, right? Rules, heh. Anyhow, I  saw them on Mama Bub and thought I’d play along.

Did you watch TV growing up? What is an obscure TV show you loved that was maybe short lived or that NO ONE has ever heard of?

I did not watch much tv. I don’t know why, except that my nose was usually in a book (I know, not much changes, right?). I remember watching Reading Rainbow and Jem (I almost burnt the house down when my parents left the house with me in charge of the sausage cooking on the stove while I was watching Jem. They came home, the house was full of smoke and I was still perched slack-jawed watching Jem.) Do you remember Picture Pages? I loved Picture Pages. And Dinosaurs. Not the Mama!

What is one TV show you loved that everyone HAS heard of?

Blossom, Clarissa Explains it All, Are you Afraid of the Dark?

What TV are you watching now that you would recommend to EVERYONE?

The tv I watch is the same shows I’ve been watching for 10 years, and I wouldn’t recommend new episodes to anyone. I’m just watching until my shows are canceled, but I’m not good at picking up new shows so I figure eventually I’ll be watching nothing.

What is a TV show – past or present – that cracks you up consistently?

Friends, Big Bang Theory, New Girl.

Do your kids watch TV? Are there shows you love too and sometimes watch when they’re not around? Are there shows you hate and you REALLY wish they didn’t love them so much? 

I don’t really like the kids’ shows. They love Tumbleleaf and Peep and the Big Wide World, and last night they decided to watch an episode of Caillou (gag me). Kids movies: yes. Kids tv: no.

Do you limit your TV or your kid’s TV at all? How do you make sure your entire family isn’t sitting around binge watching Gilmore Girls all weekend?

The boys watch tv at aftercare, but we don’t really turn on the tv when we get home until after the kids go to bed (unless they are playing a Wii game), during the week. Monday through Thursday, they watch one show before bed (Mon/Wed Spencer gets to pick, Tues/Thurs Henry gets to pick) and on Fridays we do movie night with popcorn and I usually pick the movie. When we drive to Disney on most Saturdays, they watch a movie, and on Sundays we have football on and sometimes I let them watch movies in my bedroom. Mornings that one of the grownups gets to sleep in, the other grownup usually lets them watch a movie on the portable DVD player in their room.

Apparently I’m raising my children to be as out of touch with pop culture as I am. Sorry, boys.

Friday ... five? ish?

1)      I realized this morning that Henry has been playing us on the pull-up issue. I had suspected that he was replacing his pull-up in the mornings, but I couldn’t really prove it. I put the new ones out of reach, but didn’t really pay too much attention. This morning he left his old one in the hallway but still had one on his bottom so I knew without a doubt that he had switched out for a dry one so he could drag my hand to his diaper and say “look! It’s dry! Can I get a sticker on my sticker chart?”

2)      I’m trying to decide when I want to get my Christmas tree down from the attic and start slowly decorating for the holidays. I don’t separately decorate for Thanksgiving because I just love all one holiday season. My husband is an “after Thanksgiving” tree person, but last year we compromised by putting up the tree before T-day but not decorating until afterward.

3)      I’m taking a timeout from a project that is testing my nerves right now. And I think I’m going to have to take it home this weekend which I REALLY didn’t want to do but I just don’t see any way around it.

4)      We have tickets/Groupons to a local Greek festival at an orthodox church here. I have no idea how it will be, but we thought it would be a little something fun. Maybe it will be a lot o ffun, maybe it will be a little fun. We shall see.

5)      I’m low on topics today. Have a good weekend, play a little basketball.