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.