Christmas 2006

Dear Everyone,

A Merry Christmas to you all...even if it is a little late in the day. I meant to post earlier; in fact, I did post, but somehow the internet rejected my Yuletide offering, complete with multiple pictures. The pictures are on Flickr now anyway.

This is Claire posting, by the way. I'm using Brad's account as I'm waiting for Blogger/Google to let me into the new exclusive club/registration/whatever.

We have been enjoying having K & L's family here this weekend; it's been LOADS of fun!

Well, we had an interesting Christmas experience. Last night we had a bonfire after dinner and roasted marshmallows, until it started raining...at which time, we came inside and decorated gingerbread houses in honor of Andrew, and a great time was had by all. This morning we had waffles and opened some presents, including a toy hand grenade which provided many opportunities for fake disaster. After a lull in the festivities - to absorb our new gifts and give Drew a chance to nap- we headed over to Daddy and Mama's to continue the binge of gifts and merriment...and Christmas dinner!

After dinner Ethan and some of his older male relatives went out to play with his new toys; he had a bit of a disaster with a couple of rusty nails. Blood! Tears! ( There was probably some sweat involved too...) But all was well, eventually. In the above picture, if you look closely, you can see a hint of a bandage on Ethan's hand. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without some drama...

Perching, as is His Wont

originally uploaded by bradleypass.

My Nefarious Husband

We have a new phone/answering machine system now, so you can call, if you need to. But don't call if you don't need to- I'd rather hear from you by email or blog comment. When the phone rings, I just automatically think that something bad has happened and someone is calling to tell me.

Brad succumbed to getting an early Christmas present for himself. Yay- saved me the trouble of a lot of frantic thinking and shopping. ( Actually, I did get him another present...but don't tell him.) He got one of those little Nintendo game things - not the kind you plug into the TV, but the kind you can stick in your pocket that kind of looks like some sort of blackberry. He's been fairly obsessed with playing games on it, like Mario Brothers and bowling etc.

One evening, he introduced me to a game that I'd never seen before. You had to move a balloon up the side of a tower...by blowing at the little screen. " See? Like this!" ( Blast of breathing onto the gaming device. To be precise, into the microphone. AH!) So, your boss rides miniature horses, Nate is renting his car out, your petite female co-worker was a wrestler in highschool ( another tale he told me recently, which actually turned out to be true...but can you blame me for being skeptical?), and now you want me to believe that your breath controls the altitude of a little digital balloon? Nice one. I did not fall off the turnip truck yesterday, my friend. Well, it turns out that it actually WAS true... The wonders of technology floor me, I tell you.

But the principle of the boy who cried wolf is at work here. I am seeing lies behind every blade of grass these days. Even now, as I am typing this, I am starting to question whether it is actually still not true. I can't remember if I tried it myself. I just asked Brad to go get the game so I could test it out. He is not acquiescing to my demands. He laughs at me. I can't trust my own husband! Sad to say, I am such a technological baby that if I hoisted myself up off my chair and found the thing, I wouldn't know how to find the stupid game on it. Further bulletins as the truth comes to light.

Ahh...the holidays. Peace, love, and...deception.

Christmas is a'Comin...

The other night, I unwittingly built up a gargantuan amount of static electricity; when I picked up the phone in the kitchen, I got a HUGE shock and the phone fried itself. Truly. It was crispy and everything. The messages erased, and the phone does not work anymore. That was our main phone -with a built in answering machine- so if you are trying to call us and can't get a live person OR an answering machine, that's why. We should have gone out today and got a new one but we were too busy being productive in other ways. Of course, we still have other phones in the house but none of them have answering machines hooked up. So if you need to leave a message, try the cell phones.

Judging from their decorations and lights, our neighbors are endowed with a fanatical amount of holiday spirit. I dare not elaborate on my opinions of certain decorations because I am my mother's daughter and I worry that someday one of my neighbors might stumble upon the blog, find this post and - GASP- be offended. BUT. The other night we had a visitor who commented that our neighbors might think from our lack of decorations that we're Jewish. I thought that was pretty funny. We do look conspicuously bare and somewhat bah-humbuggish compared to all our twinkly, colorful neighbors. I guess I've just been slow to get in the holiday spirit - that and I'm just not one for elaborate outdoor decorations. Or much of any elaborate decorations, for that matter. To be honest, it's the kind of thing I'd ask Brad to do, but I don't want to ask him to do anything extra these days because he has an inSANE amount on his plate. Maybe I should put a massive inflatable menorah, or a huge plastic dreidel, or gigantic, glowing star of David on the lawn. Just to give the neighborhood something to talk about. Another reason for them to think we are "different." I did buy some of those window candles this afternoon - although I need more extension cords to make it all work- and hopefully passersby will see our Christmas tree...Not that there's anything wrong with being Jewish, but I kinda like Jesus.

Stanne the Sinner

 

I promise to never take good health for granted again...

Life has ground down to a sort of time warped, slow motion, suspended animation existence. Nothing exciting is happening, and each day is eerily similar to the last. I feel like I'm not accomplishing anything...which isn't exactly true because I did actually paint the bathroom last week. ( Pictures to follow when all the cleanup and touch ups and re-installations are accomplished.)

But I think this feeling of deadening inertia is mostly due to the fact that I've been sick for the last couple of weeks. There's nothing like sickness to reduce one's motivations and ambitions. Actually, I think it's more like I just never fully recovered from being sick when I got back from England. I thought I was getting better but then I had a relapse. This is not just a cold- this is a cold on steroids. This is a cold that reduces you to a lower life form. This is a cold that wound up in Brad's system, and Grandpa's. This is a cold that turned into a cough that has shaken me to the core. I don't think I have ever had a cough this bad before in my life. I have had coughing fits so severe that I end up doubled over, gasping for breath, with tears streaming from my eyes. It was pretty pathetic; we both coughed at night waking the other one up and I don't think either one of us has had a normal night's sleep in many a day. I have drunk enough cough syrup- the normal buzzy kind AND a strange homeopathic kind- and ingested enough lozenges and cough drops to fill a small warehouse. Not to mention all the normal things like Vitamin C and echinacea... When I laughed I sounded like Marilla sometimes.

But, thanks be to God, we are all on the mend at last.

I set up the Christmas tree yesterday. I waited a little longer than normal because I wasn't sure what Stanne's reaction would be, and sure enough, he is completely and unhealthily enthralled with it. The squirt bottle is being used a lot to keep him from eating too much of the tree. ( We have the fake kind.) I made sure to fasten the ornaments as securely as I could and left them off the lower branches. I found him half way up the tree this afternoon, lounging in the branches like some sort of wild cougar. I didn't know whether to shoo him off or take pictures. So, I did both- well, first I took a couple pictures, and then he caught sight of the camera strap and came down to attack that.

I guess we won't be putting our Christmas presents under the tree anytime soon.

The squeaky wheel...

...gets presents!!

Remember my post about eggnog recently? And how I said I wanted a nutmeg grater? Well, someone with the love language of gift-giving - my friend Soj, in fact- read that and clicked on over to Amazon and BOUGHT ME ONE! It just came in the mail today! I can't believe it! How cool is that?! Thanks, Soj! An excuse to buy more eggnog! ( As if I needed one...) Mmmmm....

I should post about things I want more often! And now to get a nutmeg nut...