Next Year

should be better. This year started with surgery for me, and things pretty much lurched from one disaster to another. It was also funny, and we had fun, but I'd really like to see things get a little boring for a bit. (Like that will happen.) I am writing these here because I want to remember and check back next New Year's Eve.

I'm not going to make resolutions, per se, but I do have things that I want to try/do/happen in 2008.

This year
--I'm going to exercise at least 3 times a week. I started out doing well last year, but then spent from March to August in a splint or cast. That kind of put a damper on exercise. I always feel better when I exercise any way.

--I am going to do things to the house because I want to, not because I have to. Even if we move this year, I am going to enjoy my house while we are here. (I started doing this already. I have made curtains for all of the bed rooms this year.)

--I am going to get rid of the clutter in our house. The Wiz is six, and we don't need baby/toddler/preschooler items any more. We also have more stuff than we need. I'm getting rid of it. I'm going to organize what we have and work on making my life easier.

--I am going to work on reducing our carbon foot print more. We already do the light bulbs, and I'm replacing wrapping paper with gift bags (mostly cloth ones). I want to put baskets on my Dew and use it more around town. I am going to grow more vegetables this year.

--I am not going to stress out over things as much. I am too anxious about things that I can't control, and I'm going to attempt to let things go. No one follows the scripts I write in my head, so I'm going to stop writing them.

--I hope that the job situation gets sorted out this year. I'm tired of not feeling any of it is secure.

--I am going to floss every day. I used to do this, and keep falling out of the habit because of it making me throw up (pregnancy, twice), thumb injuries, surgery, etc. None of that will happen this year, right? (Right? Please?)


That's a start.

Christmas, Part II

I left off at brunch. After brunch, we really began to open our presents. I think that once the presents are under the tree, they breed or something.

I have some where upwards of 100 pictures, but I won't subject you to that! I'll just show you a few.

There is Game Boy in his Italian soccer club jersey (a huge hit--he actually stripped off his shirt to put it on) from his Aunt E and Uncle F. He also received a huge lego set with a Star Wars transport. That took him two days to build.

The Wiz is holding his Fur Berry, which turned out to be his favorite gift. It also smells nice, which led to some surreal/strange comments. G/G gave him a pot and saute pan which will last him forever. He's made himself eggs, already.

All of the adults received gifts too, but they are never as interesting as gifts for children.

When we were finished, The Collar hooked up our family Christmas gift (bigger and high definition tv--we watch lots of movies) and then everyone rested. I did so by chopping vegetables. There's something meditative about dicing, and I was able to listen to Sing You Sinners by Erin McKeown.

We ate an early dinner. The menu hasn't changed in 4 years. We had shrimp cocktail or pickled herring, pork tenderloin, swedish cabbage and apples, and roasted root vegetables. It's a very colorful meal. For dessert, we had creme brulee and then opened our crackers. The Collar's parents had to go home this year after dinner. After dinner, we went downstairs and watched A Christmas Story (our DVD, not TBS). It was a very nice day.

I hope that yours was nice too.

We interrupt Christmas

to show you our glasses.

The Wiz now has different glasses as his first pair broke when they were being adjusted.

Game Boy's came too.

Here are mine. I'm getting used to them. Periodically, my eyes will do some weird shift. The other thing is that every flat surface looks very slanted. I remember that from the first time I got eyeglasses. It was cloudy and dark, so I don't know how the transitions coating works, yet. I can easily get the sunglasses on though. This picture was taken by Game Boy.

This last picture is the Wiz and the Collar reading. I think it's cute.

Christmas at Clever Name

We let the boys wake us up at 6:30 am. This is hard on us because the Collar never makes it home until after midnight. For some strange reason, I don't go to bed until he comes home. Next year, we aren't letting them get up until 7:00! Notice how chipper they are. There are no pictures of the grown ups because we hadn't had coffee yet.

The first thing they do is make rolls. They (The Collar, The BBFs, Game Boy, and The Wiz) all have cinnamon and/or orange rolls. This year I had gluten free scones. More importantly, I make a pot of coffee for the grown ups. This year, all four of us wore red pajamas for Christmas. My parents gave them to us. I have children who would wear pajamas all day long if I would let them. Generally my rule is you can't have lunch until you put on regular clothes. (I think that both boys will make fine college students.)

When the rolls are done, we move everything downstairs to the family room and eat breakfast and open our Christmas stockings. Our stockings this year were really great. All of us involved seemed to have a lot of luck finding really good things for our stockings. I didn't get too many pictures, because I was busy helping the Wiz.

Both boys had a great time. After we finished, we all dressed and went to the 10:00 am casual Christmas Eucharist. The Collar doesn't even wear clericals for this service. It's quite nice.

When that is over, we went home, and the Wiz helped me make egg, cheese, and sausage pie (crustless quiche). While that's baking, we opened more presents. I'll blog that later.

The Gear Up to Christmas

I'm behind. Here's a photo collection for our preparations to Christmas.

A stocking meatloaf
A Christmas treeFour finished pairs of socks. From left to right: The Wiz's socks, Game Boy's Socks, Eleanor Socks for MIL, and FIL's socks. I didn't finish the Collar's.

Cloth gift bags, since I'm tired of cutting down trees. (Well, not personally.)