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.)

No one can see here

Game Boy had his eye exam today. (All four of us have been to the eye doctor in the last four weeks.) He also needs reading glasses. Apparently, the last eye exam was most likely wrong (that doctor said he outgrew his farsightedness). Strangely, he and the Wiz have the same prescription.

Game Boy also has a convergence problem. He sees double from a very long distance (over a foot away from his eyes--most of us don't see double until close to our noses). Glasses will help with all of that and we are supposed to do exercises to improve that. He must have a really hard time at school.

Anyway, they tried to make his glasses. They had his prescription in stock (unlike mine, which must be ground specifically for me) and worked on them. His left lens was cut in half by the edging machine. The left lens on the Wiz's glasses did the same thing. Both boys' glasses did this twice. This time, Game Boy's glasses are going to be sent off to another lab to fix. (So, of four pairs of glasses, only the Collar's were made while we waited. The Wiz's and Game Boy's should have been, but the machine broke. My glasses just take a loooooooooong time.)

While we were there, we had the Wiz's glasses adjusted, because they are a little bit big. Guess what! The ear piece broke as they were adjusting the fit. So now his glasses are being sent to another lab also. He may wind up with different glasses though, because the frames have been discontinued and the company is gone. Who knows?

I'm finding this pretty funny. What else can I do?

All three of us should have our new glasses by next Friday. I hope! I really wanted to get used to my bifocals (progressive lenses, natch!) before school started. We shall see.

General Catch Up

Three Good Things:

My grades are turned in.
We are not moving in February.
I received an SP package from Kent, England. (Pictures tomorrow!)

Three Bad Things:

I have to start wearing bifocals.
My Christmas shopping is woefully behind. (But who needs more stuff?)
It's really cold here.

Three So/so Things:

The boys start winter break on Friday.
All of the Christmas decorations are out of the garage and in the house.
The Collar and I are going shopping together this afternoon.

Ooookay.

It's 72 degrees outside. Last week, it was snowing (but the Collar and I were in Florida).

I finished another Christmas present. I only have one left now. Do you want to see? Of course you do! These are for the Wiz.
I've added another gift to the queue, but I'm not going to worry about it.

One more final to give, and then I can really begin to work on grades. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Pictures from a Week

New glasses.

New club.

Big lizards.

Big city.

Big sky.

Odd(s) and Ends

First, Game Boy wants you to see this:

He connected two words with the word "drives" on a triple word score and earned a cool 84 points. It was a coup!

I finished a hat for the Wiz. He's wearing a scarf I made for his baby long, long ago. It is the only thing I've ever knitted from novelty yarn.

And finally, a tiny little sweater for my SP. I need to make a hanger for it, but there it is.

The next week is going to be very busy. It's the last week of classes, and we have a trip from Wednesday to Friday.