Advent 2009

We haven’t done much this year.  The advent wreath and candles are out, but we didn’t light them or do the readings.  The advent calendar is out, too, but unlike last year, it sits empty this season.  Honestly, I didn’t even put up Christmas decorations until the 7th or so.  Between the late Thanksgiving and the flu, time just slipped away.  All is not lost.  I did manage to sneak in one special treat for the boys on Saturday.

I went to Anthropologie last week to buy Mikey’s teachers their Christmas presents. They made out like bandits thanks to a lovely sale table. On this same sale table I found two very sweet, miniature coffee cups perfect for hot cocoa and little hands. At $3.95 each, I couldn’t resist. Sold and sold.

Anthropologie makes it so easy to give gifts. Their packaging is almost always fantastic, and you know I can’t resist a thick Kraft box.The boys tore into the gifts with such excitement that I started to get a little nervous about how the gifts would go over. Can you blame me? We were giving them coffee cups, not hatching dinosaur eggs.

Luckily, they were very well received, especially after we explained to them that inside those cups would go hot cocoa and as many marshmallows as they wanted. The cocoa they could sip in front of the TV while they watched the Christmas movie of their choice.

They started watching A Charlie Brown Christmas and I served the cocoa. Mikey pronounced it too hot, which means he inherited The Mister’s intolerance for food or drink hotter than room temperature. I am of the opinion that food isn’t edible if it doesn’t burn off the roof of your mouth. Nicholas must have inherited this same preferance because he drank his cocoa (the same one Mikey declared burning hot) through a straw in one pull. I tried to tell him to be careful, that the cocoa was very hot, but he just sat there drinking away, taking a breath only when his cup slurped empty. I see in his future a long and illustrious career as a fraternity brother. The only way I could have been more impressed is if he drank the cocoa while doing a handstand.

p.s.  Did you notice our open windows and short sleeved shirts?  It was 70 degrees on Saturday.  I planted flowers in the yard while Nicholas napped and Mikey helped The Mister with a leaking water meter.  I wore a sweater today to do Christmas shopping, but it was more on principle than necessity.  I thought I would get hot pushing my way through the crowds, but everything was empty.  The freeways, the parking lots, the stores…empty.  Was is empty for you, too?

A Mesozoic Christmas

Thanks to a brilliant craft idea from Abbey, who was inspired by a tip from Stephanie, I spent the day crafting up a winter wonderland Mikey and Nicholas can appreciate. Glittered reindeer? Looks good, mom! Glittered dinosaurs? You’re the best mom ever, mom! False.

When I told Mikey and Nicholas last week that I would be covering in glitter the cheap dinosaurs I bought at Michaels (the ones they were playing with as if they didn’t have 52 million other dinosaurs of the same variety but ten times more expensive) all game playing came to a halt. Imagine the sound of the largest record on earth screeching to a halt, with Mikey bringing Tyrannosaurus Rex up to his chest in a protective hug.

“You’re going to what?!”  Horror.  Four horror filled eyes looked up at me.  Even the dinosaurs looked scared.

“I’m going to cover them in glitter and put them on the tree table in the toy room.  It’s going to be Dinosaur Mountain!  I’m telling you, you’re going to love it!” Please. Now you’re opposed to glitter? You used to be quite the fan. A really big fan, in fact.

Crickets.  Many crickets chirping.

“But, Mama,”  Mikey explained to me in a tone one normally reserves for the feeble, “Mama, dinosaurs don’t glitter.”

This went on for several minutes, the dinosaurs suddenly children in a bad custody case.  Finally, I had no choice but to put my legal education to use.  My closing argument went something like this:

“WE ARE GLITTERING THE DINOSAURS AND BY GOD YOU TWO ARE GOING TO LOVE IT!”

Then I called my mother in law and told her she needed to head to Michaels pronto and buy some dinosaurs for her grandsons for Christmas.

Yesterday I glittered the dinosaurs. I put Nicholas to bed and laid out all the supplies on the dining room table.  Mikey, his head stuffed with a cold, sniffed both to alleviate sinus pressure and communicate his disdain.

“Do you want to work on the dinosaurs with me, Mikey?”

“No, because dinosaurs don’t glitter.  I’ll just work on my lego car.”

Suit yourself.

I just finished gluing and glittering Tyrannosaurus Rex when Mikey approached the table.

“Whoa.  What did you do to that Tyrannosaurus Rex?”

“I glittered him.  Now I’m going to do the rest.”  Holds breath.

“He looks really cool, mom!”

Releases breath.

“Aw, thanks, Mikey!”  But really I was thinking, Thankyouverymuch maybe now you will think twice before you argue with your mother because I think I know you just a little bit better than you give me credit for, little mister.

Also, AHA!  I KNEW IT!

Mikey kept checking on my progress until all four dinosaurs were covered in glitter and ready to perform alongside white tigers in Las Vegas.

Mikey likes the Stegosaurus best because he looks like “he’s on fire.”  I like the Brachiosaurus best because he comes closest to the vintage colored glass I wanted.  Overall, everyone was happy, including the dinosaurs.

At night is when they look the prettiest, coming close to how I envisioned them in my mind when I first saw Abbey’s post. This year I went with a cheap snow blanket since I didn’t know how the project would turn out. Next year I will probably use a piece of muslin and spread some of that cotton-candy fake snow if I am confident Nicholas won’t fiddle with it too much. I will also replace the tree lights underneath the blanket with a lit table garland. The lights get a bit hot for my comfort, and I think a garland would look better overall.  In the next day or so I will tape down the tree wires if I get the energy and position the dinos better.  We’ll see.  Right now I am pleased everyone likes Dinosaur Mountain–initial furious mutiny notwithstanding.

Christmas 2009

I am mere minutes from picking up Mikey from school.  In T-minus 30 minutes, Christmas vacation officially starts.  I can’t wait!  There will be much baking, crafting, and merry making.  There will also be present wrapping.  Every year I try to do something different.  Last year was about my love of tulle, and how nicely said fabric matched the homemade marshmallows I made everyone.  I could swear I wrote a post about wrapping presents with tulle, but I can’t find it anywhere.  Oh well.

This year I am all about the Kraft paper, which I use for almost everything all throughout the year.  I’m not the only one using Kraft paper this year.  It’s a popular choice for 2009, and perhaps that reflects a cultural shift in our society.  Following economic downturns, populations will, by consequence, simplify and turn inward, reflecting on their life and the artifices that no longer brings them pleasure.  Zzzzzzzz.  Personally, I just think it’s super cute.  Besides, it gave me an excuse to use my mom’s blue typewriter from the 70s, the very same one with which I typed away many an atrocious short story as an awkward 9 year old.  Me and old blue, we go back.

I was going to use plain Kraft paper, but I came across this postage themed Kraft paper at Staples and couldn’t resist how it matched the packing labels already in my cart.  I tied everything up with a giant ball of hemp twine I bought months ago to package items for a customer.  Then, my favorite part: ol’ blue.  A sweet Christmas message on one side for the recipient.  On the other side, a quote (I love quotes) I felt reflected their personality or passions in life.  Finding the quotes for all my friends and family has been my favorite part, hands down.  I have several books on quotes (thanks to my mom) and countless online resources I turn to often.  I may have found two or three or twenty quotes I like for myself in the process, causing quite a delay in the assembly line and one or two last minute, freak-out wrapping sessions so I could make it to the post office before the angry noon mob.

Eek!  Speaking of noon–I’m off to pick up Mikey.  Yahoo!

Stuffing Stockings

You would think someone who went to school for as long as I have would have thought of this idea sooner.  Degrees: three.  Commonsense: zero.  After ten years of looking at floppy, twisted stockings, I realized (with the same pride Lise Meitner must have felt when she discovered nuclear fission) I could stuff them with something innocuous until Christmas Eve, whereby toys and goodies would replace said stuffing and keep the stockings looking plump and pretty.

[pauses for applause]

I used plastic bags from the super market, of which I have many. Go ahead, judge me. I use them to dispose of Nichoals’s thrice daily diaper bombs. Uh huh. I knew you would understand. Anyway, four seems to be the magic number. The heel and toe each get one bag, stuffed firmly. The shaft needs only two loosely crumpled bags. I didn’t think the bags would add enough weight to keep the stockings straight, but it worked. Had the stockings continued to twist, I would have added dried beans or rice to the toes. (Now that I am coming up with brilliant ideas and all.)

For my next trick, I will attempt to finish decorating for Christmas before Christmas–or, at least before my inlaws show up on Sunday.

Happy Everything

Today is my blog’s second birthday.  Happy birthday, blog!

I’m doing okay.  This is, easily, the sickest I have been in a long time, most likely ever.  I never had a true flu before.  I thought I did but, trust me, once you have actually had the flu, you realize those other times you just had a bad cold.  You also start to understand how it is people succumb from complications every year.  The pain was excruciating.  The only other time in my life I have experienced pain like that was when I was in full blown back labor with Mikey, and at least then I could order an epidural.

Craziness.  Long story short: flu.  Then, on Wednesday, I developed a bacterial bronchitis.  Yes, I developed a secondary bacterial infection subsequent to the flu.  How cliche!  Anyway, I am still recuperating.  Feeling better, but not 100%.  I think today is the first day since last Monday I didn’t wake up with a fever, so that says something.

You know what else is crazy?  On Wednesday we (me, the family, and my 103 fever) made the 8 hour drive to Lake Tahoe.  It had been on the books for a while, and I just didn’t have the heart to disappoint the boys.  I also didn’t know if I had the heart to survive the trip, but I did.  I spent the trip inside, nursed back to health by my parents, while The Mister fulfilled Mikey and Nicholas’s dreams of snow fights and sledding, outside.

The Mister also fulfilled my dreams of having hundreds of wonderful pictures to document the occasion. He’s a good dad and husband, that Mister.

{My brother, Paul, and Mikey working on the Thanksgiving salad.}

{Baby Gabby, aka THE TURKEY}

{Mikey, wearing my snow hat from the 70s and my gloves from the 80s}

The end.