It's gonna be a new year

It's New Year's Eve, 9 p.m., and we're home. There's laundry going in the dryer, I just yelled at the girls for the third time to go to sleep, and Greg has been upstairs for the last two hours on the other computer. In other words, it's a pretty normal weeknight. I have no desire to go out to "celebrate" the end of 2007. It was a good year--we were all relatively healthy (except for some dental stuff for Allie and me), Greg and I got to travel to Ireland (thanks again, Mom and Dad, for babysitting), and the girls grew at an exponential rate.

I started thinking of the negative things that happened this year to us and to our families, but really, why dwell on all of that. Some stuff happened, some of it was pretty bad, most of it just kind of sucked, and hopefully things will be better next year. I'm an optimistic person anyway, so I'm looking forward to 2008.

2008 will be the year that Julia starts kindergarten (be still, my heart). I can't think of anything else I can anticipate for next year that will change our family as profoundly as our little one heading off to school. I think she's going to be ready. I don't think I am going to be. Thank goodness it's over 8 months away.

Yep, 2008 can take one day at a time to come. I hope it's a happy year for us, and for all of you. Happy New Year!

Lame game

Go ahead, guess what it's doing outside right now. Oh, forget it. This game is way too easy.

Of course. It's snowing!

We getting another 4-5 inches of snow today. This is on top of the 1 inch we got on Wednesday night and the 2 inches we got on Monday. Some snow did melt last week, but that really didn't make a dent. For someone like me who doesn't particularly like winter, this weather is annoying.

My family was supposed to come and visit today (for the weekend) and obviously, they're not coming. They say they're coming tomorrow morning. All I can say is that Greg went grocery shopping in today's blizzard and spent over $300, so they better get their asses down here somehow. I have to pick the girls up at daycare in an hour and I'm going to walk the two blocks, because Greg almost didn't get the car back up our slightly-sloping driveway and into the garage.

We're going to Disney with the girls in less than a month. The Weather Channel says it's 84 degrees in Orlando today. I'm ready now.

Fine and dandy, except when we're not

We're all fine, here in the Lee household after Christmas. I spent a bunch of time picking up the living room, dining room, and basement last night, so most of our gifts are under the tree, or adjacent to the tree, or actively being played with, or they're on the kitchen table so we don't have anywhere to eat.

I wanted to make sure that the gift clothing that the girls received all fit, so I told them last night that it was time for "Fashion Show," which is our process of trying on everything. There's really no "show" involved, unless you include getting Daddy to take his eyes off "Hellboy" for a moment to say that she looks nice.

Allie removed her sweatshirt and jeans and started trying things on. Julia, who still sometimes struggles with not having a nap in the afternoon, was having one of those days. She protested taking her clothes off, then started crying, then said, with all the indignation her little voice could muster, "Fashion Show is BORING."

This was after I moved the toy she was playing with over two inches, and she yelled, "Mommy, now I can't find my mug (which is about 1/4 inch high, by the way) and I'll have to get a NEW ONE!" Then she started crying.

I told her she didn't have to do Fashion Show, and then she said, "Allie won't PLAY with me. Allie won't let me be the PRINCESS," and she started crying.

It was a long evening.

Merry Christmas to all

We're home again, the wrapping paper is mostly picked up, and we've opened 16 or so new toys today. Our girls are spoiled and so are we.

Thank you to everyone for the gifts. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Sing, sing a song

Yes, today was the day of Allie's "Winter Sing" (mustn't call it a Christmas concert). She did a wonderful job, smiling and singing whole-heartedly and not waving, which is against the rules. Her elementary school has a new music teacher this year who did a good job, though we were disappointed that the second graders were the only class who didn't have a song with choreography. And did you know that "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" actually sounds kind of sad. Oh well. She was very happy that both of her parents were able to make it and I'm sure Greg will be posting some photos soon.

Julia was busy today too, attending a short holiday party at her preschool. She brought a small gift and received one in return, a stuffed penguin which she hasn't let go of since she got home (probably since this morning's party, frankly). That's partially because she decided yesterday to give up her blankie. No, she hasn't given up sucking her thumb. She's just apparently giving up that specific prop.

I'll take what I can get.

For dinner tonight, Greg made turkey matzo ball soup, which was wonderful since the turkey cooked more that it had on Sunday. And now the girls are watching "The Nightmare Before Christmas" while Greg is snoring, sleeping sitting up on the couch. And he gives Dave a hard time for doing that!

Resigned

Guess what's going to happen around here today? Can you guess it? Do you have an inkling?

Aww, you guessed. It's going to snow.

Sigh.

Prep-for-holiday Saturday

This morning, Allie and I made a list of the things we need to get done this weekend. So far, we've made Church Windows, gone to a holiday party, and made dough for Christmas cutouts. Greg wrapped some gifts this afternoon so we're getting there on a fourth item from the list. Tomorrow, we need to bake the Christmas cutouts, decorate them, bake a chocolate cake for my department potluck on Monday, pick up Famous Dave's barbeque for the potluck, and wrap and sort more gifts. The presents are actually birthday and Christmas, since Ashton, Judy, Rachel, and Marcia all have birthdays between the 17th and the 28th.

What are Church Windows, you may ask? Well, it's really a technical, lengthy recipe. I don't want to be typing all night, so I'm not sure I should get into it here. I do have some other things to get done yet this evening. Oh, all right.

Put a stick of butter and a bag of chocolate chips in the microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir. Dump in a bag of colored marshmallows. Form into loaves and refrigerate. Cut in slices and you have Church Windows. Phew, I'm exhausted just typing about it.

The chocolate cake is called Almost-As-Good-As-Sex Cake. There's a Better Than Sex Cake recipe out there but this is not that. You bake a German chocolate cake mix like usual. Poke holes all over. Dump a can of sweetened condensed milk on top. Dump a jar of caramel ice cream topping on top. Cover the whole thing with whipped cream. Crush two Heath bars and sprinkle on top. It's really, really good.

I like to bake, but I love simple recipes. I used to say that the only recipe I had memorized was Nestle Tollhouse Cookies, but that's obviously not true because I just did these simple recipes from memory. You really should try them. Go ahead, stop reading blogs and go create something for your family and friends. Just please come back later, OK?

And by the way, we got another 2 inches of snow today. I think that brings the total to 26 inches. OK, God, we get the point--you wanted us to have a white Christmas and we definitely are going to. Now cut it out.

The girl who?

We're watching the cartoon "I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown," which I had never heard of, but apparently it's the "new" Charlie Brown special. It focuses on Linus's younger brother, Rerun, and because it's not the traditional Charlie Brown Christmas special, I'm not interested. The girls and Greg are pretty absorbed though.

Greg just paused the TV on a picture of Linus holding his blanket and sucking his thumb. He told Julia he's going to call her "The Girl Linus" now. She doesn't seem too happy about that.

If I thought that Julia would stop sucking her thumb if we called that name (without psychological damage), I think I'd consider it. Unfortunately, I doubt it is going to be that easy.

Changes

I'm getting a new boss today. Considering that my current boss has been with the company for 17 years, and has overseen my department for the entire time, that's a big change. I've been in my current position for 2 years now, but I've been with the company for 10, so a new era is about to start.

My new boss could be one of three people. I have a fervent hope for one individual, but that doesn't mean I'm going to get my wish. No one has asked my opinion. I'll know today, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

I want Kreacher

I was rereading part of the last Harry Potter book this weekend and I've come to a decision. I want a house elf. If you've read the books, you know that this is a controversial statement. House elves are slaves, bound to their masters or their master's family for eternity, or until they are given clothes (see the second Harry Potter movie for more information). But my family has a definite need.

We desperately need someone to help us with our clothing problem.

If you looked around my home right now, you would see a heaping basket of clean laundry waiting to be put away. You'd see hampers in Allie's room and in Julia's room. You'd see a hamper in the mudroom/laundry room/back hallway. None of these three is particularly full at the moment because I did laundry this weekend. And then you'd see the piles.

There's a pile of clothes at the end of the bed where Greg dropped them. I don't generally pick up these clothes, so when he does, that's when his clothes get washed. He has a lot of clothes so this isn't usually a problem. There's a pile of clothes in the middle of the living room from where the girls changed into their pajamas last night. I'd feel worse about the changing clothes in the living room thing if I didn't know that lots of people let their kids do that (including Dan and Kerry, hah!). I just want a laundry fairy or elf or someone to pick them up besides me. And it's always me (unless I yell at the girls).

The worst problem is the socks. Both Greg and the girls have a habit of taking off their socks wherever. And our cats like socks. I've seen Rabies many times with socks in his mouth. They end up all over the house--in every hallway, by the front door, in the middle of the kitchen. Until last night, there were two socks in the back corner, underneath the Christmas tree. I picked up two off the landing of the stairs yesterday. It's a little insane.

So until I get a house elf, I just want to put the warning out there to visitors--No, we're not begging for extra goodies by leaving extra "stockings" around. Yes, we do have a problem.

Crafty

It snowed again this weekend, what a surprise. BEFORE this last storm, the weatherman said that we were almost 12 inches above average for snowfall for the month of December. It's going to only be in the 20s this week, so it doesn't look like anything is going to melt any time soon. Enough of the weather report.

The Lee family went shopping this weekend, Greg with the girls for me and me alone for Greg. The parking lots were the worst part of the experience. They're rutted and still not well plowed, full of icy patches.

Today we stayed in and the girls and me did some crafts for people we like. All will be revealed in the next few weeks.

That phrase has more meaning that what I just typed, but I can't say anything further right now.

Shopping success

Allie went back to school today. She ate a little for breakfast, she wasn't dizzy or shaky, and she said she wanted to go, so we sent her. She said she put her head sideways on her desk a lot, and her teacher sent her to the office once to have her temperature taken (it was normal), but she made it through the day. What a trooper.

So Greg and I got to shopping. We started at about 9:30 and finished at 3:45 or so. We got presents for my mom's and Greg's mom's birthdays, two family-exchange participants, our daycare provider's kids, our daycare provider, Dwayne's little girl, and our two girls. It all went really smoothly and the snow held off starting until about 5 p.m., so we didn't have to deal with that mess.

The newspaper says we have 13 inches of snow and ice on the ground now and we're supposed to get another 3-4 inches by tomorrow. Greg commented earlier today that it seems we'll have a white Christmas. We didn't have snow last year, so I guess that would be OK. Then, the whole lot of it can melt on December 26th, as far as I'm concerned. Bah humsnow.

It must be winter

What are the signs:

o It's been snowing like a sonofabitch and more is coming tomorrow
o People at work are complaining endlessly (with some justification) about the state of the parking lots and sidewalks that they have to use. At least 10 people have fallen, 2 somewhat seriously.
o My co-worker hit a lump of ice in the driveway at work and tore the fender off her two-month-old car. $600 damage
o In the last two weeks, all of us in the Lee household have been sick

To delineate that further, I got a cold right after Thanksgiving that I'm still getting over. Julia spent that same weekend throwing up, mostly in the middle of the night. Soon afterwards, Greg had some stomach problems. Last weekend, there weren't any new illnesses but we couldn't really leave the house because of the weather.

Today, Allie got up as usual and went downstairs. When I came downstairs, she was lying on the couch and saying her stomach hurt. We assumed it was constipation and she perked up quite a bit as we left for daycare and school. About 1 hour later, her school called and said she'd thrown up in class.

Greg and I are very proud of her (seriously). She threw up into her hands as she ran for the wastebasket. She said she didn't get any vomit on her desk and maybe only a couple of drops on the floor for the school janitor to take care of. When I picked her up in the school office, she vomited again and didn't get any of it anywhere except a waste basket. After she got home, she threw up again and still didn't even get her clothes dirty. After Greg came home and I went back to work, she threw up several more times and never made any mess to speak of. That's pretty amazing for a sick almost 8-year-old.

Now, I'm hoping that the just slightly uneasy stomach I'm feeling is purely psychosomatic. Greg and I are supposed to get our Christmas shopping for the girls done tomorrow--we've both taken vacation--and if Allie is well enough to go to school, we're still on for that.

We're supposed to get another 3-4 inches of snow. I can hardly wait.

Ready for Christmas

Well, it snowed this weekend, and sleeted and freezing rained and rained, but it snowed this weekend, so outdoors is looking like Christmas.

Greg gave in to Julia's begging yesterday and brought up our two artificial Christmas trees from the basement. (Don't get me started on artificial trees--yes, they were easy and they look OK, but it's so not like it should be.) We put them up yesterday. Today, the girls went through every box of ornaments and decorated for an hour or so, so that looks like Christmas. We have one tree in the dining room window on the front of the house and one tree in the corner of the living room.

Allie and Julia sat down this evening after their bath and started their Christmas lists for Santa, so that's sounding like Christmas. We'll probably take them to see our favorite Santa at the mall one night this week or next, so that seems like Christmas.

So I guess we're getting ready. We just have to make Christmas cookies, consider actually doing a Christmas card (we'd like to do a photo card of the girls and I know, that's really easy to do but we never seem to do it), buy all of the gifts, wrap all of the gifts, mail some of the gifts, plan our holiday schedule, make holiday food, and do our holiday travel, and Christmas will be all set. I'm tired already.

The end of the world is coming

We're going to have a snowstorm today. And people are acting like the apocalypse is here. It's going to start at noon, last all day and into the night, and encompass as much as 14 inches of snow in some places in the state. We're supposed to get somewhere between four and eight around here, but then there'll be sleet and ice afterwards. The authorities are warning of possible power outages if worst comes to worst. I'm sure the local grocery is almost out of milk and bread, because even though most American homes contain enough food to last for a couple of weeks, people do panic when given enough news warnings. The Red Cross says they have 550 volunteers on reserve to set up emergency shelters if necessary.

Around the Lee household, we did buy milk, since we were almost out. We also bought oatmeal, raisins, and chocolate chips, because I firmly believe in making cookies when it rains or snows all day. And if we make cookies, we needed milk anyway. Greg is excited because it sounds like he's going to be able to try out his brand new snowblower. We have plenty of wood for the fireplace, some candles, lots of batteries if we could just find some of the zillion flashlights we own.

The worst part? We could lose internet access. Oh, the horror!