12/31/06 The last day of the year December 31, 2006

And as far as that goes, it’s probably going to be a fairly uneventful one. It’s shortly after 9am and Christopher & I have just had breakfast. Dadoo fried us eggs and I made english muffin toast. I think this is the most I’ve seen Christopher eat in one sitting in days. This is a good thing because he hasn’t been eating much this weekend.

I’m not even sure I’ll be awake at midnight … no surprise to some of you. If they had the new year start at noon I’d be all over it!

I can’t believe my two week break from school is almost over! I go back on Tuesday and have one more week of Auditing II. On Tuesday the 9th, I go to LCC for an hour orientation on their on-line classes for my art class. Oh joy … not. I’ve been going to school on-line for over 3 years. I think I know the drill. Oh well.

We’ve actually been putting some stuff away that was in (or near) boxes. Thomas put all of our suitcases in the secret closet under the stairs. Well I suppose it’s not a secret any more. I got a new scanner for Christmas from mom (my old one died) and I set that up yesterday. I also cleaned off a corner of my desk. But now there crap on it again

I still haven’t sent out Christmas cards with the family newletter. I blame it on my printer. I think it is having mental problems. We are going to attempt to get it a new ink cartridge in hopes that it will un-die. I found some heavier paper (24 lb as opposed to 18 or 20 lb) and we are hoping this will resolve the bleed through problem of printing with an inkjet printer on both sides of the paper. If not they’ll just be grey scale and printed on the laser printer. Oh well. To bad. I wanted to get them mailed with a December postmark. No such luck.

12/28/06 Time passes December 28, 2006

The week between Christmas and New Years is an odd one. Life in general seems to move rather slowly, but I usually have a lot of work to do (if I have to work). For us accountants it’s month end, combined with quarter end and now I have to add year end to it. I much prefer year end some other time … like March.

Thomas has this week off and we’ve had lunch the last two days. Yesterday he had the boys so it was all four of us for lunch (Christopher is at daycare – he like his routine). So life is normal, but it’s not.

We are now gearing up for Micah’s 13th birthday. Even though he has been acting like a teenager for a while, it will be official, there will be *2* teenagers in the house. Dear Lord save me! It’s sort of cool to start the new year with a birthday. I’m sure he won’t feel that way when he’s 40, but it’s cool now.

So as life crawls by outside I have to hustle to get the 2007 budgets done.

12/26/06 We survived the carnage … December 26, 2006

This was the first Christmas where Christopher could participate. He didn’t do much last year because he was only 5 months old. He didn’t understand presents. Once he got a present with a ball, he was happy. He also liked one of the empty boxes. He used it as a car and one of us pulled him around the living room … until the box couldn’t take it any more and died. He loves his basketball hoop. It’s now in the family room, but we put it together so he would see it first thing on Christmas morning. He loves ‘badetball’. Everything is a ‘badetball’ now.

We had 11 people for Christmas Eve dinner. It was nice to have the new house full of people. Four were last minute additions, but we had so much food that my attitude was ‘the more the merrier’. Christopher loves playing with new people, after he gets over the shy factor. We opened presents from the grandparents on Christmas Eve and presents from each other and Santa on Christmas morning.

We had so many leftovers that we invited my mom over for dinner on Christmas night. We still have a ton of leftovers. I took some for lunch today. I imagine that I will soon be sick of mashed potatoes, candied yams, greenbean casserole, and rib roast.

I can’t believe I’ve already had a week off from school and only have one more week off. It’s going too fast!

12/23/06 Eighty Two and counting December 23, 2006

I finally made a list of the words that Christopher knows (actually says). There are 82 of them. I was amazed! If someone had casually asked me that question I would have said a couple dozen words. Oh my! I don’t know if 82 is a little or a lot, but to me it is a lot for such a little guy.

We lit the candles on the 8th night! Hooray! It was quite a blaze. I think the boys enjoy the ritual. I know Thomas & I do. Hopefully Christopher will as well when he is older.

On Thursday night I stabbed my finger with wood while putting contact paper in a drawer (the last drawer in the kitchen that had to have surgery before we could use it). I thought it was ok, but this morning it was totally swollen and had an infection. Thankfully my medical group has an after hours clinic on the weekends. The doctor stuck my finger with lidocaine and pulled out a nice little chunk of wood. My finger is still numb, but I’ll live.

Tomorrow is our big day. The families are coming over for beef roast and presents.

12/22/06 And on the 7th night we blew it (no pun intended) December 22, 2006

Dang! We didn’t light the candles last night. Well the boys were out with their mom and by the time they got home … Thomas & I had dinner in the living room, totally bypassing the dining room where the menorah sits. Ah well, tonight we’ll have to light them for the 8th and final night.

After already working 4 10’s, Thomas got off at 11am and is spending the rest of the day with the teenagers. They need some time with their dad. Christopher is happy at day care. I am still at work. Hopefully we’ll close at 3pm.

Yummy, I had lunch with mom at the local Thai restaurant. I had my all time favourite … Pad Thai. If I wanted something else I’d go to a different restaurant.

I am finally wearing Christmas attire. I made this cute sweatshirt several years ago … my one and only attempt with those bottles of dimensional fabric paint. My hands are just not strong enough to squeeze those stupid little bottles. So I am wearing a white turtleneck with a pointsettia print and my Christmas sweatshirt over it. I have on green socks with Christmas trees and earrings that a friend made that look like Christmas trees. They’re green triangles with a bead at the bottom for the ‘trunk’ of the tree. (Yes Julie they’re from Karen.) They’re a lot cuter than I can describe them.

Part of me feels guilty that I am writing this at work and part of me feels like we should just close. Most people are gone anyway. No such luck … back to Budget 2007 …

12/21/06 – B – Pushed into the margins … December 21, 2006

I was reading a blog (I love reading other people’s blogs) and this woman spoke about motherhood making her feel like she was being pushed into the margins. Is this how I am feeling? Maybe so …

12/21/06 – A – Sixth Night

Well we’ve remembered for 6 nights now, only two to go for Chanukah. Not too bad for a house mostly full of Catholics.

We don’t have all of our Christmas presents bought yet. Nothing much is wrapped. Heck, the tree doesn’t even have lights on it. But I have a rib roast in the refrigerator and potatoes, green beans, and onion rings (for the green bean casserole) in the pantry … so Christmas Eve dinner is a go.

12/19/06 How You Do Anything … December 19, 2006

I found this list on http://robenmarie.blogs.com/my_weblog/ and she got it from a book called How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything . I think I need to work on being able to answer these questions. I don’t even know the answers any more.

Answer these quickly without “thinking.”

1. I’m happiest when…
2. Someday I’m going to…
3. When I’m really down, what I want to do is…
4. I feel anxious when…
5. I’m afraid that…
6. I like people who…
7. All it takes to make me happy is…
8. What I really want to do is…
9. I wish that…
10. I don’t like people who…
11. A person really should…
12. I just hate it that…
13. I have everything I need, however…
14. If I could do whatever I wanted, I would…

12/18/06 Fourth Night December 18, 2006

Ok, so it seems really strange to be writing about Chanukah the day after I wrote about buying a Christmas tree. Such is the life of mixed marriages, both my parents and mine.

Tonight is the fourth night of Chanukah. So far we have lit the candles every night. Five more nights to go. We’re doing pretty well. I think if I remember to put the candles in the menorah every morning, I will remember to light them in the evening because I will see them.

Baruch atta adonai …

12/17/06 We got a tree December 17, 2006

We drove into the wilderness and cut down a tree. I’ll have photos later. I’m on Jonah’s laptop, while the family watches TV together. I miss having a laptop with internet access. My old hokey laptop is Win98 and it would be lame to put it on the internet. It would be virus ridden in minutes.

So back to the Christmas tree. We were going to just go to one of the “cut your own tree” places and get a tree there. But as we drove by the place, we decided to keep driving. Thomas knew where we could get a tree cutting down permit, so we stopped there and paid our $5 for the permit. We followed the map up the state road and drove up some side roads. Every road we went up had trees across them at various points. So we weren’t able to go as high as Thomas wanted. But we saw snow, played in snow, and found a tree. It’s not a full bushy tree, like at a farm or a lot. But we had fun finding it.

Christopher wasn’t very impressed with snow. He would grab some then try to fling it from his hands. It was cute. He was much more interested in the rocks on the gravel road. He’s a rock dude. He’s also not much into being in the car for an hour. He can be bribed temporarily with milk and cookies.