Sunday, December 23, 2007

We're stretching Christmas like taffy over here

Jeff and I decided to have a staggered roll out of Christmas gifts this year, and so far it has gone pretty well. Another factor at play in our lives right now is that both kids are just not 100%. A lot of laying around and napping and accounts of not feeling good, stomachs hurting, bodies feeling "scratchy" (a catch all adjective for Maggie, although she could use some lotion). So ever since Friday night, when our holiday vacation actually kicked off, the kids have been sort of lackluster, save for some brief pockets of brightness, as documented below.

We are loving our Wii, and are still managing to get a lot of play in, despite the ill health. Right now Jeff is horsing around with the preferences, poking around and putting his mind to it. He also kicked out the JAM his first time out at Guitar Hero (Thanks for the gift, Grammi and Papa!) which surprised me, but didn't. So far I am impressed with the parental controls that come with the Wii. For example, Henry always plays using a certain "Mii" character named "hok", and we can go a message center or somewhere on the Wii that will tell us which games, and for how long, his "hok" Mii played. Pretty interesting.

I think another thing about this Christmas that's different is, of course, that I'm working. Last week, as we were all clawing our way through the work and school week, digging out cars from snow storms, securing christmas party gift exchange contribution and the holiday concert at the school, I realized yet again how hard we all work now that we have some place to be every weekday. What a chore it is to just get through the week sometimes, and how nice it would be to have four days of just us, etc. It has been very nice and mellow... I am just now realizing that Matt from the farm is the only non resident of our house to actually set eyes on our Christmas tree! How sad is that!?

Here is our tree this year, by the way:



One way to look at it is if there is only going to be one person outside our house to see our tree, it ought to be the person who actually cut the dang thing down! Maybe?






Onward with the photographs.

Here is Henry, thrilled to pieces with his very own copy of The Simpsons movie (thank you Jocelyn!), which came complete with it's own t-shirt. The t-shirt, incidentally, came compressed into the shape of a pink frosted half eaten donut. d'oh!




And this is Maggie, proudly displaying her "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse set!" Thank you again, Jocelyn... This set came with only one character! I had to explain that the reason it only comes with Mickey (and not Minnie, or Daisy, or even Daffy) is so that people will spend more money. I can't figure out which is worse, that I'm right, or that she understood what I was talking about.



And yes, that is a nasty dusty old microwave she's using as a play table surface..

I just like this pic. She opened up a gift of a dozen headbands, and put this one on herself! cutie pie.



Since I knew we were getting Guitar Hero, and I knew that Maggie would end up not exactly being able to participate too significantly with that game, I worked it out so that Henry gave Maggie her own electric guitar toy for Christmas. Here she is jamming out. We've been listening to classic rock songs ("Iron Man", "You Really Got Me", "Shout at the Devil", etc.) and she was always lamenting that she didn't have the right rocker outfit. The rocker outfit involves a guitar, and also dark sunglasses. She'd been wondering about footwear, but I pointed out that a lot of rockers go barefoot, and so she was all set.




Here's a dud shot of Maggie and her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse set. Gives you an idea of the quantity of snow we have around here.




In other news, the giant package I shipped to Seattle still has not reached it's final destination! I will be so bummed out if it doesn't get there! The degree of sweat and toil I employed to put what's in that box, in that box, cannot be replaced! I will be bumming hard core. Although when I was at the post office, saying goodbye to the box, as it were, I was struck by how I may never see any of the items in this box. I was putting it all in a box and then entrusting it to the good folks at my local post office to get it there. Odd, that. Also, once I got that shipment out, and then the other priority piece of mail (I'm looking at you, Arizona) made it's way into the mail, the holiday stress level, in general, really took a nosedive for me. I mellowed out like an old hound dog after those two boxes left our possession. But now I think of all the goodies in that Seattle package, and I am bumming hard core at the thought of none of getting anywhere!

Keep the faith, Susie. Keep the faith. Tomorrow is another day. The mail comes on Christmas Eve day, doesn't it?

Oh, and one more thing! I know it sounds like a regift, but it's actually a kick ass regift and I am thrilled to get it. I've never turned my nose up at anything I got second hand, and I'm not starting now! Jeff had his Powerbook G4 laptop refurbished and tuned up and now it's all mine! mine mine MINE! I am thrilled with this. He and I had talked about how I would inherit his laptop after he got his new one. But then his old laptop shit the bed somehow and I was busy passing him notes about Christmas gift ideas for me and between this and that, I forgot all about it. Until he gave me a big "Merry Christmas!" and made like a game show tv hostess and with a big sweep of his arm revealed a gorgeous laptop -- just like his new one! with a screensaver that said, "Susie's Tibook G4" -- I was like, whoo hoo! sweet!

He'd stripped it of all his business, cleaned it up and out and then fixed it up nice and sweet, and now it's all mine mine MINE! I already feel like I am writing to you from my new world headquarters... And last night, I went to Marshalls and bought the perfect backpack for it, with which I am super pleased. I would, ultimately, like to downplay the significance of the Mac in the kitchen, and this powerbook will be the first major step in that direction. if I could figure out how to retain the large scale convienence of all the Kitchen Mac delivers without having that giant clutter pit of cables and papers and dust and so forth, I would certainly do so. Now, at least, I can strip the kitchen mac of my personal business and begin to taper off my dependance of that machine and refocus it to this one I'm on right now! I can also begin to contemplate different projects I've had in my mind but have been too shy to crank out while perched on a stool in the kitchen. Dig?

Okedoke, dear reader. Sure do love you. I hope that, whichever specific reader you are, you find yourself content and able to cope with this unusual holiday season. My dad's not here anymore to say "Bah Humbug" and "fiddle dee dee" and all the rest, and we all are having to go it alone without him, and that's hard. My way to cope is to isolate myself with my family and do what I want (and what my husband agrees to - love you Jebby!) about gift gifting and waiting (or not), and so I'm hanging in there. I hope you are too. bye for now...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

CUTE CUTE CUTE!!! Love, Jocelyn