Christmas

I need Christmas to be on a Friday every year. I mean if it really is Christ's birth we are celebrating, it should be in August, but that's besides the point. I just want a long weekend. It was nice to be able to relax and talk to family instead of rushing out the door to make sure we get to work the next day.

But I think Elmo and Patsy summed up the holiday best - "it's not Christmas without Grandma." We suffered three big losses this year - Grandmom, Aunt Charlotte, and my cousin's grandmother. These three ladies we very special and the loss is a gaping hole in our families. We remembered them with stories, songs, laughter and tears.

I think the funniest thing was the talent show that my sister coordinated. M-cat played his broken trumpet and wowed us with his magician skills, the Divine Ms Em paired up with Trinks for dancing and singing, S stepped out of his shyness to leave us rolling on the floor with his dance styling - the robot with break dancing. I quoted Ananbel Lee, my father - the Jabberwakky and my sister did The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. Then my mom and sisters recreated their Grange acts - the Chipmunks's Christmas song (Pop Pop was Dave), Oh you beautiful Doll, Sugar in the morning, before my mom cracked open her accordian. My grandfather surprised us with a short poem about a billy goat. It was good fun.

I spent yesterday downloading several thousand pictures for my mother. I also set up her iPod to play in the car. Her car is really old, so I bought her an adapter to go in the cigarette lighter LAST YEAR for Christmas. But at least it works now. Mom wanted S to stay for her birthday on Monday, and she threw in a ride ALL the way to DE, so hubs and I are alone. I already sorted through S' toys and have a big bag to go to Goodwill. Trinks' room is a week long project since we don't her back until Wednesday. I can't walk into the room again, so this time I am not trying to work things out with her. Things are just disappearing. Her holiday presents will be held hostage until I see progress. Her clothes are also going. I cut her down to 5 pair of jeans. Apparently that was too many, so she now has 2. I have to find the magic number where she actually takes care of something. By the end of January, the kids rooms will have possessions reduced by 1/2, so then I can move on to the next room. If I focus on a room a month, I can meet my goal of getting rid of 1/2 of everything we have. You can't organize clutter, it all has to go.

Santa arrived!

My street, 5 days after it stopped snowing

It's sad when our driveway is cleaner than the street.


No wonder there was no school.

Mommy - guess what???

I peed in a cup.

Why would S pee in a cup? And why would he announce it at Christmas Eve dinner? Apparently Trinks was taking a milisecond too long to pee, and the cup dispenser was so handy. And he managed to fill the Dixie cup, dump it, and fill it again. My first thought was, if the toilet was free to dump the first cup, why couldn't he have finished peeing in the toilet? I guess it was too much fun. He seemed especially proud of himself.

Anniversary

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the day I never thought would happen. I still can't believe Karen has been gone for two years. I've finally stopped dialing her number halfway through just to remember she won't be there. I still hear her laugh and sometimes I see her everywhere I go. I especially miss her around Christmas. I miss taking Christmas Eve off to meet her for breakfast with the kids. I miss running around doing useless last minute shopping because we have nothing better to do. It still takes my breath away at how quickly we lost her. And then I see her girls and it hurts even more. More than anything else, Karen wanted to be a mother. She suffered through miscarriages until she got her girls. And then she couldn't stay to raise them. I am still not over the unfairness of it all. So tomorrow while I will be sad and cranky, I will try to do something to honor the memory of a truly great friend.


Gonna hold who needs holdin'
Mend what needs mendin'
Walk what needs walkin'
Though it means an extra mile
Pray what needs prayin'
Say what needs sayin'
Cause we're only here for a little while

Today I stood singin' songs and sayin' Amen
Saying goodbye to an old friend who seemed so young
He spent his life workin' hard to chase a dollar
Putting off until tomorrow the things he should have done
Made me start thinking "What's the hurry, why the runnin'?
I don't like what I'm becoming, gonna change my style
Take my time and I take it all for granted "
Cause we're only here for a little while

Gonna hold who needs holdin'
Mend what needs mendin'
Walk what needs walkin'
Though it means an extra mile
Pray what needs prayin'
Say what needs sayin'
Cause we're only here for a little while

Let me love like I'll never see tomorrow
Treat each day as though it's borrowed
Like it's precious as a child
Whoa, take my hand
Let us reach out to each other
Cause we're only here for a little while

Gonna hold who needs holdin'
Mend what needs mendin'
Walk what needs walkin'
Though it means an extra mile
Pray what needs prayin'
Say what needs sayin'
Cause we're only here for a little while

Gonna hold who needs holdin'
Mend what needs mendin'
Walk what needs walkin'
Though it means an extra mile
Pray what needs prayin'
Say what needs sayin'
Cause we're only here for a little while

Little Drummer Boy

S came home on Friday talking about the two movies he watched: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and The Little Drummer Boy. He decided to tell us all about the movies on the way to pick Trinks up. He nailed the story of Rudolph, but came up a little short on the Drummer Boy. According to S, the drummer boy played for baby Santa. Then Santa grew up and got his suit. Hubs could barely breathe by the end of the explanation. I think have a little 'splainin' to do.

Starbucks - WTF?????

I went to Starbucks yesterday because I had a coupon for a free 12 oz cup of coffee. Imagine my surprise when THEY DIDN'T HAVE STARBUCKS COFFEE!!! Apparently they only brew the crappy Pike's Place shit in the afternoon. Why do I want to go to Starbucks for weak coffee? If it's not bold and bitter, it's just not worth it. I guess it's good I don't live right near a Starbucks, not do I buy coffee often. At least it was free and there was enough cinnamon, chocolate powder, vanilla and nutmeg to hide the lack of boldness.

Life's a piece of shit....

Nope - not another anti holiday rant. I'm trying not to blog cranky. Hence the silence. I am still hating the holidays, especially when Amazon refuses to leave my packages on my doorstep and makes me fetch them at the post office. If I wanted to do that, I WOULD HAVE GONE TO A STORE!!! And then another online store messed up my order and I may not have the best present available for the Hanukah party on Sunday.

But this isn't a holiday rant. S and I kind of had a special day yesterday. I picked him up to go to kung fu last night. Once again we sat on the side lines while he quaked in fear. We ran home, made sandwiches and got back in the car to eat them on the way to Brownies. We dropped Trinks off and had a great talk in the car. He let me know his favorite song is Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from Spamalot. And the reason for this is the line, "Life's a piece of shit, when you look at it". I did warn him not to sing it at school and giggled along with him. Then we got to the library and picked up the elusive #7 Magic Treehouse Sunset of the Sabertooth. We finished #6 last week, and S owns #8, but #7 was not at the library so I had to order it. I think it was the best school night he's had in a while. I will miss these days when the little things make him happy.

Idiots on Facebook

And no, Mets Fan, I'm not referring to you. I have three Facebook friends from college. One I knew well, one I knew who he was, and the third I have no fucking clue who she is. Apparently the last two are getting married, but going through hell of some sort. And the first seems to be going through a crisis - perhaps divorce and/or foreclosure. I truly feel badly for them as all three seem to be going through hell. I just strenuously object to the horrifically vague crap they post on Facebook. They post dire messages asking for sympathy, prayers, etc, but they don't have any details. I really don't need to know, but the stuff they post just begs for questions, which people ask, but go unanswered. Very strange.

The last of the NYC pics

Holy legos, Batman! We spent a little time at FAO.



Chewie and the kids.


Sourdough bread from Amy's Bread.

Visions of Christmas in NYC

Here are some pictures from Friday in NYC. We hit the American Girl Place, Nintendo World, and the tree. I am glad I found Nintendo World so I feel less guilty about dragging S to American Girl. He's a good sport, though.