Merry Christmas all. Lovely day here, and I shouldn't be here at 10 pm. I was kind of too excited last night/this morning. And stayed up too late wrapping. But it was worth it. It was a wonderful day.

Apparently, a ninth reindeer travels behind Santa's sleigh, as a backup. If one of the other reindeer stubs his hoof, Perpinsia is there to step in.

Thank heaven.

This year I had to totally let go of the christmas tree thing. I wanted one sooner, I wanted to cut it myself, help choose it, all that. Weather put a damper on it and last night, my husband and son chose one without me. I drew a picture for G of 
the tree I wanted, and he painstakingly referred to it as they 
selected. He shot down a few of daddy's suggestions for this one. So it lilts to one side and is a little slim through the middle. 
So it has small white lights (half of which no longer light) and huge colored 
ones. So we had to cut a foot off the top *and* bottom. It's perfect.

It did take a while to get here though. Half the lights didn't light, I couldn't find a replacement bulb, ended up buying another string of lights, half of which of *those* didn't work, the large bulbs are so heavy they kept smashing on the floor, the ornaments smashing on the floor, I used the dustpan about 9234570 times, and the home depot tree isn't all that fresh and is leaving balsam deposits all over. But I still wouldn't trade it for anything.

It's like I need to work. Since October or so, I haven't had reliable childcare. I can get coverage for a meeting here and there, and probably 3 days in the last 10 weeks I've had a full day, but not good consistent time. I love the time with the kids, but I find myself playing lots of facebook games, eating junky food, and letting the house go to pot. So today I finally had childcare, a deadline, and somehow I"m still able to cook a real dinner and clean up the kitchen. Like I can do it when I only have barely enough time to, but if I have all day, I won't do any of it.

Oh my heart.

Not only does she tell me "I love you too momma" just out of the blue (yes, she adds the "too" even if she says it first), but she says "thanks momma!" if I give her something that she likes, like chocolate milk, and she really means it. Or she'll say "thanks momma, I love chocolate milk!"

But then, today, she walked up to me and said "merry christmas, momma". My heart!!

Oh winkflash, how I love thee. Not only are you sending my cards (which btw, are very cute and have a great design, this coming from a Design Professional) for incredibly cheap, but they are already printed and en route. I took the photo Friday night. Seriously, even if I had decided to print them myself on my little hp all in one, I couldn't have done it faster and cheaper. And other than getting the kids to be relatively cute and facing the right way, I had to do nothing.

Thank you.