Thursday, December 25, 2008

What is your Return Policy?

Is it possible to return the flu? Sure, I know I can re-gift it (I passed it on to the Husband), but I didn't want it, and I want to return it.

It started about 2am on Christmas Eve. On top of feeling like I'd been run over by a jolly elf's sleigh, I was also worried about all of the things that still needed to be done. I was literally sick and worried, and let's throw in tired for good measure. It managed to get done, but now I have the Herculean task of tidying up. You have no idea how much 4 kidlets without parental supervision (well, a parent that gives a jingle bell about how the house looks) can trash a house in 24 short hours. In the Husband's defense, he did manage to feed the kidlets. Meanwhile, making me more nauseous with the smell of cooking chili.

But I think the best gift I've received is this one: the Gaggs (my mother in law) picked up the kidlets about an hour ago to take them to PD's (the sister in law) house so they can celebrate Christmas with their cousins. I can spend the rest of the afternoon in my p.j.s, with the remote (something I never get, ever), and my knitting, recovering. The house can wait til tomorrow.

Happy Christmakwanzaakuh (or whatever you celebrate), and may you find peace and joy in the small things.

Monday, December 22, 2008

It's begining to look a lot like...bleah

The annual holiday hurl is upon us. I awoke last night to sound of one of the kidlets yaking. It was the Girl. I gave her my sympathy and sent her back to bed. Periodically, I'd hear her bowing to the porcelain, send her my telepathic sympathy, and go back to sleep. I know, I'm a rotten mom. But, honestly, the Girl is the precision puker in the family. I knew that there would be no mess to clean up.

This morning when I came down the stairs to the family room, all four kidlets looked like death. They had all been up during the night! I had a few spots to scrub on the carpet. My children really are considerate. They didn't want to wake me to let me know that I might want to clean the carpet before it soaked in. The little red buckets have been handed out for the times they can't make it to the vomitorium, and the rule is that the bucket must be with you at all times.

Every year (with the exception of two), the kidlets have had the flu at Christmastime. This is another reason Christmas makes me cranky.
Lost in Translation







Monday, December 15, 2008

Groovy

Scene: the living room

Characters: the Husband
Big Steve (former hippie)

the Husband: Hey, do you have a GPS yet?

Big Steve: Nah.

the Husband: You really ought to get one.

Big Steve: Nah, man. I don't care where I'm at.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

I Can Hear My Mother Now







"If (insert friend's name here) were jumping off a bridge..." Now, in my defense, I had every intention of starting the scarf long before she made a few. She just got to it first.



Yep, that's the Noro striped scarf that all of the cool kids are making. I think I did o.k. picking out the colors online when all I had to judge the colors by was a wee little picture. So far the striping is pretty awesome. The greens, browns, and blacks from the two different skeins seem to be coming up at the same time giving a rather muted striping effect. Those two skeins are colors 221 and 245. We'll see what happens when I start using color 279.


I could see making multiples of this scarf, because it's fun and good watchin' t.v. knittin'.


I've also decided that I don't have enough wool sweaters. It's shameful really. I'm a knitter fer cryin' out loud. I really only have two wool sweaters that are good for indoors. One is a Goodwill buy. It's a Woolrich sweater. It's a henley tunic length made out of a sport weight heathered blue wool. It's nice and warm, but not too heavy. The other is my 'go to' sweater.


My other wool sweaters are those really heavy thick cabled aran type sweaters that are perfect for wearing outside when you don't want to wear a coat. I like pretending I'm in an LLBean catalogue! You know the one I'm talking about. It's the photo of the healthy looking model outside in the snow draging a Christmas tree along behind her wearing the rubber snow boots that they are known for with her flannel lined jeans, earwarmers, mittens, and cabled sweater.





So to remedy my problem of not having enough warm wooly 'inside' sweaters, I'm knitting furiously on the Malabrigo cardigan I started in September. I'm doing a modified drop shoulder, and I'm almost done with the back. My goal is to have 7 indoor wool sweaters. One for each day of the week. Maybe I'll reach my goal in a couple of years!



Tuesday, December 09, 2008




Christmas Makes Me Cranky




Are you one of those people that really don't like Christmas, but you keep your mouth shut so as not to ruin the fun of those magnificently silly people that are covered in colored sugar like a cookie and wear blinking Christmas themed pins/necklaces/ties? I'll come out of the closet and admit it. Christmas is not my favorite holiday.




Maybe it's because I feel the need to please those that 'get the Christmas spirit'. Yeah, the kidlets want the house decorated and pretty for Christmas, but who does all the work? Mom. Would it kill them to put the empty boxes away once they have decorated the house?




And don't get me started on the presents and the subterfuge that is involved with kidlets that still believe in Santa! Oi, vey.




I'm a home body. I love nothing more that to be at home on a cold winter's evening watching t.v. (even if it is Spongebob, because I never get control of the remote, ever) in my jammies. But, yet, there is another party we have to go to. Bah humbug.div>


I just get done making a lavish meal - all from scratch - for Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday, because it's just about the food and being with family and friends without the added bonus of gift buying/wrapping and decorating), when I have to do it again for Christmas! I just got the kitchen cleaned up, now I have to dirty it again? By cooking? Can't we just order a pizza?




The part I do like about Christmas is the week between Christmas and New Years. All of the hoopla is over, and the kidlets and I declare it jammie week. That's right, a week of jammies with nothing to do but eat leftovers and cookies, play games and take many naps. O.k., that last part is mostly me.