Monday, December 17, 2012

Merry Christmas Season

Well, just like for everyone else, it’s gotten busier around here.  Nothing too much though.  We’ve been taking life in general pretty easy the last few months while I’ve been sick.  Since I’m still suffering many a sick-day, Christmas is pretty low key this year.  Waking up feeling not too bad today, I actually started considering making some Christmas treats, even if just for us.  The idea hasn’t so far been appealing, so there was and is a danger of going completely treatless this year!  I know, The Horror!  Since I’ve given up grocery shopping in favor of sending hubby to the store for a few essentials once or twice a week, who knows if treat making will ever materialize.  Well, we’ll survive. 

I tried to get some tummy shots in a mirror the other day.  It actually doesn’t look nearly as impressive as what I see in the mirror in person, but maybe I’m just fantasizing. Either way, my weight probably hit it’s lowest a week ago, and has been sitting there since, but my pants no longer fit around the waist, so clearly the tummy is growing even if the weight isn’t changing.

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Last Wednesday we picnicked in the car and went to Storybook Land in Albany.  It’s a free exhibit of chidren’s scenes (Fairy Tales, Nursery Rhymes, Disney Movies, Christmas villages, model trains, etc.). I took the boys last year and they were a little bored.  Maybe after waiting outside in the freezing cold for over an hour raised their expectations too much.  But this year they l.o.v.e.d. it!  (I didn’t wait ‘til the last night so we only had to wait about a half hour or so outside.) And Hollyn was entralled.  At the end kids could get their pictures with Santa.  The first time for any of our kids, actually.  I’ve never wanted to wait in line/pay anything/etc. But we went for it this time.  Interestingly, all the previous years I’ve played up Santa (“Better behave, or Santa won’t bring you anything”), but this year his existence has almost never come up.  It’s the first time in the last several years no one even wrote him a letter.  When Brennan had his turn and was asked what he wanted for Christmas, he wasn’t even prepared how to answer.  He had to think of something on the spot. Smile

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We’ve got a full tree this year, but Hollyn has mostly left it alone.  She’s broken an ornament or two and pulled a couple of tags off of some gifts, but she mostly ignores it all.  So that’s going about as well as could be expected.

We’re all doing well.  Yesterday the power went out from about 7:30pm – 8:30pm, then again lasting several hours about 11:30pm.  For that first one, there was a quick flicker, then suddenly it was b.l.a.c.k.  Like, completely black.  Of course our eyes weren’t adjusted anyway, even if the moon had been visible.  Brennan panicked a little.  He and Asher had been upstairs in their room, and made their way down to meet me as I felt my way to the laundry room where our flashlights and candles are kept.  Thank goodness Mom passed along a whole bunch of candles to me years ago.  They’ve always come in handy for these outages, although it’s time to get some more.  All this occurred due to a windstorm, which was pretty exciting to hear.  We were SO close to having the boys in bed on time for once, when all this happened.  In the end it was too exciting and they felt uncomfortable going to bed with all the darkness (despite the fact they don’t use night-lights or anything and always sleep in darkness.)  It was pretty fun though.  Thank goodness for the alarm on Brian’s phone to get us up on time since we were without power almost all night too.