Merry Christmas!

Man! You guys look great on my new 19"LCD monitor! Merry Christmas to me!

We've been on the road, met Charlie in Dallas. Visited with my Dad and Stepmom. Made a quick dash to Canton to visit with Mom and pick up a new bed for John. Got to go out to eat with Charlie one night sans kids and had a wonderful steak at the FourWinds Steakhouse. (Two thumbs up if you're ever between Dallas and Canton and just feel like stopping in the middle of nowhere for a fine dining experience. Back to Dad's for a pre-Christmas gift exchange with my brothers family, then back home on Saturday. John's birthday was yesterday and then here it is Christmas day. Whew...

Peach barfed in the new car (if it's three months old, can I still call it new?) about Huntsville. You should have seen the kids bail out when I pulled over. Not that I blame them. I don't do vomit. I can do poop all day long, but not vomit. Never underestimate the intestinal fortitude required to be a Mom. "Dude, DON'T! Because if you hurl, I'm totally gonna blow chunks." It just doesn't sound the same when you're talking to the five year old. Ace and Melee' had run fever and been sick in general over a week ago, but just when I thought it was going to miss the rest of us, the Black Plague landed. Well, maybe just a couple of really bad head colds and a little bit of car sickness. Keeping the holidays challenging.

Santa was very good to us and I hope he was very good to you all! Merry Merry! God Bless! And a Happy New Year!

Our Lady of the Weeds

I'm not sure why Mary looks so glum. Maybe it was that long donkey ride up the isle to the stage. Joseph looks a little shell-shocked too. That's what that first baby will do for you.

I guess they had a little stage fright. It didn't take them long to warm up, but by the time they did, I was busy shooting video and didn't take anymore pictures. She was sooo cute! You can't see her little pink sash and she played with her head covering for most of the program. They sang a lot of cute songs and Chili, they did a handbell song and I teared up a little!

All the classes sang some songs, and they even took the babies on stage (there were three of them) and they had whiskers drawn on their faces. Their teachers danced them around to the Meowing version of Jingle Bells. It was hilarious! I felt like I had died and gone to "Christmas Program Heaven"!

So Busy I'm Paralyzed

I should be posting. I should be vacuuming. I should be wrapping presents. Or at least taking an inventory of presents. Or at least seperating the presents so that I could inventory them. Or at least making an effort to hide them in the back of my closet so the kids won't find them.

On the plus side, I have made some cookies. And I'm working frantically to get ya'll your Christmas cards out before Christmas. If they come with only my signature on them, it's not that the others don't love you, it's that I got tired of trying to talk them into showing their love with a hand signed card.

Kicking His Butt up the Ladder of Success Since 1989

Guess who was named employee of the year?

I know, I can't remember his name either. That's what happens when you go galavanting around the country saving the bacon of Branch Managers everywhere. Implementing ways to save money so that they can line their pockets with a few more hunskies.

Oh, I complain, but I know it's hard on him too. Wondering if the next kid we have is gonna look like the postman. His first reaction to the kindess of our benefactor the other night was to ask if I had my hand on his knee or if I had let him put his hand on mine. But let's be frank, I'm too darned tired to wonder about what the postman's packing or to solicit free sushi.

So without further adieu, "For he's a Jolly good fellow, for he's a Jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good feeeeellooooooow, even though no one remember's his name...."

The Kindness of Strangers

Tonight, my brother- in- law wanted to celebrate the purchase of his new car by taking us out to eat at a Japanese steakhouse. We happily agreed, he must have gotten a great deal on that Mazda! I did a very quick once over of the kids, made a couple of them change in to more respectable clothes and we were off.

Once we arrived at the restaurant, Charlie pulled the boys aside to give them the lecture about not chewing with their mouths open and using utensils instead of their hands. Then went through the lecture about not ordering the most expensive item on the menu. It was not crowded and we were seated right away. As we walked across the room, I was dismayed to find that she was going to seat us with a couple who was already seated. Crap! Now there would be witnesses to my kids lack of manners. Plus now I've got to pretend I'm not shy and make small talk with strangers. But I didn't hesitate to take the seat next to the gentleman as I did not want any of my kids sitting next to him.

The kids were almost angelic tonight and the conversation easy. The food was delicious and we talked about schools and found we lived in a neighborhood right next to where he had lived in his first home here in the Houston area. They had played an afternoon of golf, and I talked to the woman about her dog and spoiled dogs in general. He let Ace open his chopsticks and I was momentarily horrified as I realized I had not checked his fingernails before we headed out the door. The gentleman acted as if he never noticed a thing and continued trying to overcome Ace's shy act. It was a lovely evening and as the kids were finishing up their ice cream they wished us a Merry Christmas and headed home.

As we hurried the kids to finish up, the waitress came over and told us that the man sitting with us, had paid for our meal. They paid in cash so we were unable to find out their name or to say thank you.

Merry Christmas indeed. Our blessings are many and our hope is to be a blessing to others during Christmas and always.

Adding Injury to Insult

When the family was here over Thanksgiving, we did a gag gift exchange. I made a big play for this Kurt Cobain lunch box which I think is a hoot! I'm thinking about carrying it as a purse. I could keep my driver's license and change in the autographed thermos.
Well the other morning as I sat here at the computer, Peach came over, looked thoughtfully at the lunchbox and said "Mommy, why are you smoking?"

And then the other day as I was mangling the lyrics to Fergilicious to my liking, John said "Yeah! More like Flabalicious." After looking at my face, he followed it with a quick kiss and a "Just kidding mom." But I was still left to pull the knife out of my back all by myself and wipe it clean on my greasy hair.