Singing Lessons

Ahhh, the presents are opened (with scads and scads of them from my parents), Santa ate his cookies (and the reindeer ate their carrots), the first toys were broken (at 8:17am, four minutes after Little Miss started playing with her Bakugan), and the overtired, overstimulated wee ones are once again nestled in their beds.

We had a great Christmas, although we still haven't learned our lesson. Once again the wee ones had a gift opening frenzy that precluded my husband and I noticing exactly who each gift was from. My aunt, my sister-in-law, and my husband's cousins gave gifts, as did my sister and parents. Annnnnnnnd we're really not sure what is from whom in most cases, although we're pretty sure my sister-in-law declined to buy me a gift after insisting my husband buy her husband a wii game in addition to the Dippin' Dots maker for her daughter and college gear for her. Yep, we'll be making the calls of shame yet again tomorrow and swearing we'll do better next year.

Mister Man loved his gifts, although he did notice that there was no Crayola Crayon Maker. After bursting into tears, he allowed me to explain the lengths we went through to try to find one for him and that we'll go together to buy one once they're restocked in stores, which will make it more special for him. And he was good with that, luckily.

We made it to my aunt and uncle's (where, oops, we both made potatoes au gratin as my uncle merely told me to make a side dish and to not do sweet potatoes) and back safely, although the temps dropped quickly which immediately the rain that had been falling all day. My mom broke the only glass at the gathering (phew), and there was no drama.

Little Miss finally changed out of her Halloween shirt and Easter slippers (which she wore to "trick" Grandma) and into the ummm 2T Christmas dress that somehow still fits her. It's no longer floor length, but I still wouldn't believe the size if I hadn't looked at the tag myself. She, of course, managed to shred her tights, but she at least kept them on. We're making progress.

And we're all happy....

Little Miss took awhile to get into the holiday spirit last week:



But once she did, she was so proud of her abilities (she unfortunately learned the right words before I remembered to tape her more interesting rendition):



Which of coure meant that Mister Man had to show us how well he knew the songs that he learned for his Christmas program:



I'm content. I'd like to just hold onto this feeling for a little bit longer. Merry Christmas to you (assuming you're celebrating), and I hope it was a quiet and peaceful day (if you aren't)!

An Open Letter To The World

Dear World,

Can you please slow DOWN?

Please?  Pretty please?

I discussed yesterday my issue with missing out on December.  I admit that this was entirely my fault.  In fact, I did an admirable job catching up in the past twenty-four hours (all cards are written and mailed, presents are sorted and wrapped, shopping is complete, and prep for food is done).  I'm giving you some of the blame, too, though.  Since you've been pushing Christmas for so long, I no longer have the jolt that I need to start preparing for Christmas.  You've lulled me into a false sense of security that Christmas is still far away... and it's not.

But still.

It's not even Christmas yet.  I still have two full days to enjoy preparing for Christmas and the joy on my family's faces for the season.  Quit rushing me.  I want to celebrate the season, and you're making it awfully difficult.

Case in point.  A week and a half ago -- on December 11 to be exact, I received an email from our local baseball and softball organization letting me know that summer registration was now open.  Are you kidding me?  Two weeks before Christmas, and you want me to start thinking about a sport my children won't be playing for another four plus months?  Last year, I missed registration and signed up after teams had been formed, and now I know why.

Retail stores, you are not exempt.  When doing a little shopping last weekend -- a full week before Christmas, mind you, I noticed that the Christmas items were already being moved to the back and Valentine's items are being displayed.  Trust me, there's no way I'm buying any Valentine's when I don't have any Christmas cards out.

I'm slowly figuring out why I'm constantly exhausted and feeling behind.  There's no time to enjoy the moment we're in.  And I refuse to go along with the constant rushing ahead into the next "thing."  Watch out, World.  I am busy living in December.  And enjoying it.  Give me my Christmas.  I'll get back to you in February about Valentine's Day.  And in March or April about t-ball.

Love,



PS Only two days left my LOFT $200 gift card giveaway is ending on 12/25. One more week for my $200 VISA gift card giveaway.

I Think I Missed December

You know the phrase about time flying when you're having fun. Apparently it also flies when you're a mom. Or at least that's the excuse I'm using right now. I've been late for the entire month of December, and with Christmas in only a couple days (it's December 22 today, right? I don't even know the date right now!) I'm not even close to being ready. Somehow, it will come together, but I haven't quite figured out how yet.

So rather than wrap Christmas presents, I'm taking a break from the must do's to muddle over the proof that I'm this late.

Top Ten Pieces of Evidence That I've Forgotten It's December

10. I just wrote out my Christmas cards. It's 9pm on Christmas Eve Eve Eve. There's about a 0.00001% chance of anyone receiving the cards before Christmas. Oops.

9. The only reason I was able to write Christmas cards tonight is because I bought two huge boxes of Christmas cards majorly clearanced last year after Christmas. It only took me thirty minutes to figure out where I had hidden them.

8. I'm still collecting addresses from friends who I know have moved. One friend just called with his new address, so I'm down to only two friends whose cards have no addresses.

7. The cards I wrote for the most part have no pictures in them. I went online at Costco.com today to order cards or pictures to put in the cards, but they wouldn't be ready until 11am tomorrow. Knowing this wouldn't happen, I didn't even bother to order them. Fortunately, my mom had ten extra wallet sized pictures of the wee ones that we'd had taken for her cards last month that she had dropped off with me last week (because, you know, her cards were done by December 1). It only took me 30 minutes to figure out where I'd hidden them. Hint: they were sitting on top of the box of Christmas cards I'd bought last year.

6. I did fortunately have letters to go in each of the cards, and no, this didn't happen only because I happened to have nine sheets of my holiday stationary left over from last year. I actually remembered last weekend that we would need new stationary, so I stopped at the store Sunday afternoon to pick some up. Not willing to pay $3 for 25 sheets at Target, I went to Office Max. The good news is that their Christmas stationary was 25% off. The bad news was that they had only one design left. And it was pretty ummmm not my style. But I bought it anyway, and my lovely Christmas letter is written on it.

5. I am to bring a side dish to my aunt and uncle's for Christmas Day. That's as far as I've gotten. I have no idea what I'm making. I have no idea what ingredients I need. All I know is that it won't be a sweet potato dish since another aunt is bringing sweet potato hash. Any suggestions?

4. I'm hosting Christmas Eve Italian dinner at my house. I traditionally make a lasagne, Caesar salad, baguettes, and a dessert of some sort. I have no lasagne noodles. I have no ricotta. I have no greens. I have no lemon. I have no idea what I'm making for dessert. Guess who's heading to the store tomorrow!

3. I haven't wrapped a single present. I have bought several presents for several people, but I don't have a complete inventory of what I have still have to pick up. You already heard about my issues with the Crayon Maker. My husband isn't getting two of the presents I was planning on because the only store that sells them has neglected to call me back. And I never gave the pictures to Elizabeth for the photo bracelet. Apparently tomorrow I'm also spending much of the day wrapping presents and doing some last minute shopping.

2. Oops. I just realized that on Christmas Day when we go to my aunt and uncle's house, I will need to have presents for my cousins' three children. Apparently I also need to figure out who else I need presents for. And hope that I'm struck by inspiration quickly.

And the number one reason I know that I've forgotten it's December? This is what we were doing yesterday.

On the plus side, I don't have to worry about our tree drying out and dropping needles all over the place before the garbage company picks up trees in January this year!

Tell me I'm not alone... what have you forgotten to do this year?

PS Don't forget about my two giveaways: my LOFT $200 gift card giveaway is ending on 12/25. And my $200 VISA gift card giveaway ends the following week.

Tasty Tuesday!

Last week, I was asked to bring in cookies for Mister Man's Christmas program. The only requirement was that they be nut free. Easily done, since I don't cook with nuts anyway.

I chose the recipe for my grandmother's Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies, as they're relatively easy to make and also don't have egg -- another allergy in Mister Man's class. I figured this way the boy would have our treat and whatever his mother brought for him.

I got out all the ingredients and quickly realized that I was out of almond extract. I sighed heavily and got my coat and purse to go buy more. Oh. Yeah. Almond extract. Made from almonds. Which are nuts. And therefore verboten.

Ahem.

I adjusted my dear Gram's recipe so that they were Strawberry VANILLA Thumbprint cookies (and also dairy free for Little Miss), and they are my husband's favorite cookies of all the batches I've made so far this year. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures, and they're completely gone now. I think I'll have to make them again soon though!

Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients:

Cookies -
2/3 c sugar
1 c butter, softened (or butter flavored Crisco if you're going dairy free)
1/2 t almond extract (or 1 t vanilla if you're going nut free, ahem)
2 c flour
1/2 c preserves (any flavor works but ummm not grape, please)

Glaze -
1 c powdered sugar
1/2 t almond extract (or 1 t vanilla)
2-3 t water

Directions:
Cream the butter and sugar well. Add the almond extract/vanilla until well-combined. Add the flour and stir until just mixed.

Spoon onto a cookie sheet with a sil pat (if you don't have one, use an UNgreased cookie sheet). Use a spoon or your thumbs to make a good indentation in the center. Bake at 350 for 14-18 minutes until they start to turn slightly golden and crack just a touch.

Use the spoon to reaffirm the dents. Spoon a bit of preserves into each divot you've made. Let the cookies cool with the preserves in them until they are no longer warm (if you are impatient, the glaze won't work well, not that I know this from experience).

Mix together the powdered sugar and vanilla/almond extract. Slowly dribble in water until the glaze has reached the consistency you like. I go a little thicker but still pourable. Spoon just enough glaze onto each cookie to cover the jam, but don't let it spill over the edges.

Let cookies harden 10-15 minutes before eating... if you can!

Yum! Enjoy this and more at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday with Blessed With Grace!



PS Don't forget about my two giveaways: my LOFT $200 gift card giveaway is ending on 12/25. And my $200 VISA gift card giveaway ends the following week.

Dialing For Dollars

Every year, there's a hot Christmas present. When I was a kid, it the Cabbage Patch kids that drew the frenzy (I ended up with an obvious knockoff that year). I've watched from afar the frenzy of the Tickle Me Elmo and the Beanie Babies, always thankful that I was ... well, afar.

This year, Mister Man and I roamed through Costco the week after Thanksgiving perusing the toys they had on hand to get an idea of what he and Little Miss might like for Christmas. He found a few things, and I made note of them.

On Black Friday, my husband went shopping, and he found the Crayola Crayon Maker (a hot item on Mister Man's very short list of ummm one item). Or at least, he found it advertised. When he arrived at the store, he ended up with a rain check as it wasn't a Black Friday special but instead just on sale.

Since we were in St. Louis, and we know my in-laws have no idea what to buy for anyone, they offered to hold onto the rain check for us and purchase the item. Fine with us, as that's one less item that we need to buy.

Fast forward to this afternoon, when my husband found out that his parents hadn't actually purchased the Crayon Maker. In their book, they then just wrote it off.

When my husband informed me of the news, I sighed but didn't despair. Little Miss and I were near some stores, so we surreptitiously shopped the toy department of two stores with no luck.

After we arrived home, I started looking online. Site after site -- including Amazon -- was sold out. Ooo not looking good. Then my husband announced that he was finding auctions on eBay where the Crayon Maker was being sold for $80 and more. Yikes!

In the interim, my husband visited the less busy Costco near us to see if he could purchase the Crayon Maker there. No dice. He spent the next hour driving from suburb to suburb stopping at all likely stores. He came home empty-handed.

That's when I got serious. I started searching for availability, which is when I found the following message on the Crayola website:

The Crayola Crayon Maker is a popular holiday item, with limited availability at many U.S. retail stores. We have encountered an extremely high consumer demand that has exceeded our expectations. Unfortunately, we cannot manufacture additional units in time to ship to retailers before the holidays. Please check the following retail stores in your area:

Walmart, Toys R Us, Target, Michael's, K-Mart, Amazon.com, A.C.Moore, Meijer, Walmart.com, JoAnn Stores, Shopko, Kohl's, Fred Meyer, Wegman's, Boscov's and Costco.

In my mind, this was good news. I knew where they were sold, and we have many of those stores in my area. In fact, the Walmart Website listed three stores in my area that had the Crayon Maker either in stock or with limited quantities.

My husband called the first Walmart and struck out. Then he called the second and third that the website should have some quantity left. Nope.

In the intervening two and a half hours, my husband and I have called every single Target, Meijer, Walmart, JoAnn's, Kohl's, Michael's, K-Mart, Toys R Us, and Costco in the area.

This is when I'm thankful that it's a Sunday and we aren't burning our cell phone minutes on our fruitless search, as not a one of them had the Crayon Maker in stock.

I was briefly optimistic when the K-Mart online chat found some websites that were still selling the Crayon Maker. Of course, that was using the term loosely. For the item that was less than $20 before Thanksgiving, the lowest price was $68.64. Some were close to $100.

My husband has started looking at all the prices on the eBay auctions, but I refuse. Christmas is about giving; it isn't about trying to make a quick buck off someone. I refuse to perpetuate the trend of people buying up what they think the "hot toy" will be and then selling it to the highest bidder. To me, that's as anti-Christmas as it gets.

The new questions he's asking me is what I plan to tell Mister Man come Christmas morning. Will I tell him that he wasn't good enough for Santa to bring it? (No.) Will I tell him he wasn't worth $80? (No.) Will I ruin his Christmas? (No!)

While this is a toy he wants, we don't always get what we want, and that's fine. He has a number of other toys and books that we've bought and that my parents have bought that I know he'll enjoy. I'd be willing to bet that he doesn't even remember about the Crayon Maker that day.

Am I wrong for holding hte line on not wanting people to profit from a shortage of product on Christmas?

And once Crayola is able to make more of them and have them in stores again? I'll go out with the wee ones, and we'll buy one together. I'm sure we'll enjoy it then, and in the interim no one's life will be ruined. And next year? If there's an item Mister Man really wants, I am not relying on my in-laws to procure it, thank you very much.



PS If you need a little Christmas present for yourself, my LOFT $200 gift card giveaway is ending on 12/25. And my $200 VISA gift card giveaway ends the following week.

The Difference Between Men And Women

Don't forget! I have two different $200 gift card giveaways going on yet
here and here. Go. Play. Win.

***

Decorating for Christmas:

Women plan for the decorations. We determine when we'll have time to put up what decorations, and for that matter, what decorations we're planning this year. We'll wait to get it out and ready until we know we have a block of open time to do so.

Men are reminded that it's Christmas time when they see the stockings that the woman has gotten out of storage (the only item that had the time to go up, as it's quick and easy). He goes into the basement and starts lugging out all random Christmas boxes and depositing them in the children's playroom so that the woman "will have some motivation to get things decorated."

Removing items from storage:

Women very carefully place the somewhat fragile decorations from another holiday in an area where they are not likely to be disturbed. When removing other items from the storage area, women are careful to avoid disturbing other items in the storage area to minimize breakage.

Men see big boxes. Men get big boxes. Men go fast. Men drop things.

Accidentally breaking items:

If a woman accidentally breaks an item, she first inspects it to determine whether or not the item is fixable. If it is fixable, she immediately adds that to her to do list, at or near the top of said list. She picks up all the pieces and ensures that the area where the breakage occurs is once again clean. If the item happens to belong to someone else, the woman will tell that person, apologize and offer to either fix it or replace it.

Men break things. Regularly. They pick the item up without looking at it and put it back where - or somewhat close to where - they think they found it. They pick up the big pieces and throw them away. Men leave the little pieces on the ground -- because the cleaning ladies will vacuum it eventually -- so that the woman can come downstairs with her hands full and fear that somehow there has been a mouse infestation or something equally disastrous. Men don't mention the broken item to anyone unless pressed on the suspected mouse droppings in the basement.

Sometimes I wonder... and sometimes I just try not to be bitter. Guess which day today is!

Above And Beyond

Don't forget! I have two different $200 gift card giveaways going on yet
here and here. Go. Play. Win.

***

When Mister Man was a baby, he received this Advent tree for Christmas. At the time, we thought this was not the best present for a two month old, so we put it away for a couple of years.

For the last three or four years, though, this has been the highlight of the wee ones' Christmas anticipation. They can't wait for me to get it out each year. The first thing they do every morning is to run downstairs to put the next number on the tree. They take the numbers off the tree and play with them. Mister Man reads and now knows all the poems on each of the ornaments that has a poem. In short, they big puffy heart this tree.

Until this weekend....

Last Wednesday, I had my co-op Christmas party and gift exchange at my house. Since the numbers were so neatly arranged on the foyer table (thank you, Mister Man) a couple of my guests assumed I was using the numbers to see who went first, etc in the Yankee gift exchange. oooo, brilliant idea!

Everyone loved the fun little numbered ornaments. I loved not having to write out twenty-two numbers on little slips of paper. As soon as each person went, they put their number into a special bag, and at the end of the night, I carefully rearranged all the ornaments to be exactly where they were pre-party.

On Sunday, I had another Christmas party and another gift exchange at a friend's house. I decided to be cute and bring my fancy numbers along.

Unfortunately, when I got home, I realized that number fifteen was missing. I checked and rechecked to no avail. I called a friend I knew to be still at the party cleaning up, but it was not at the house.

Our assumption was the someone had accidentally put it in their pocket or into the gift bag instead of back into the special bag I'd brought. Now the fun became trying to remember who was number fifteen. I dialed for dollars but came up empty. Finally, one woman thought she might have remembered who had number fifteen.

Given the hour, I decided to simply email her rather than wake up her entire house. By this point, it was Monday night -- the 14th -- and I knew there would be disaster in my house come yesterday morning. And there was. There was crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth about the missing fifteen. Well, there was until Mister Man had the idea of just putting up number sixteen intead. Ah-ha!

Last night, I got home from work late. I arrived to a mysterious bag sitting in my doorway and twelve emails going back and forth trying to track down the missing ornament. Offers to search through garbage were handed out. My friend who did have number fifteen offered to buy us a whole new tree. I was overwhelmed by how far people would go for a little number!

I was hoping that we could easily find the number, but if not then we'd deal with it. We'd fake a number of we'd just deal with the fact that we no longer had number fifteen.

My friend wasn't going to let that happen, however. She felt so guilty about misplacing the number fifteen -- and truly, we don't know that it was her. Someone else may have moved or taken the fifteen after she put it in the bag.

So inside the bag she left unsolicited in my doorway last night was a replacement ornament that she had made, and two presents for the wee ones. She actually made a new felt ornament to go on our tree when she hadn't found it within two hours, then drove to my house to drop it off.

Wow.

And this morning after Mister Man read the apology letter she left him? He totally forgave her and understood. But that new ornament?

Look, Little Miss! Look! We have a brand new ornament for our tree. And it's a SNOWball!

First of all, I can't believe she made that. I can't even come close to cutting an actual circle, let alone two, and forget painting a recognizable number on it and making a border. It looks great, doesn't it?

It's now happily ensconced on our tree, and the world is once again right. In fact, it's more than right. Thank you, L. Thank you so much for going above and beyond -- we're really grateful!

I hope each and every one of you has friends who would do something like that. Talk about finding a way to put some joy into everyone's hearts.