HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

FIZZLED OUT

Someone in this house has been waiting and waiting and waiting for the arrival of Santa Claus. I quit trying to keep count of how many times I have heard "when is Santa coming?" from his little mouth, but if I had to guess, I would say it has been asked about 1000 times over the past few weeks. Don't get me wrong, the other kids are excited as well, but Anthony has really showed much more enthusiasm about his arrival than the others. Much more.

In the midst of all of this waiting, he has not been getting much sleep. He tends to go to bed a bit after 8pm and rises in the morning way before the sun is up at 5:15am. Apparently the stress of waiting for Santa's arrival has proved to be too much for this little one of mine as this is how I have been finding him the past few afternoons.

Yes, fast asleep on the couch. My Anthony Thomas quit napping at the ripe old age of two so this is a very rare find. Very rare. Actually I would go as far as to say it is nothing short of a Christmas Miracle.

GIVING BACK

My Lucas is always thinking of others. That is why I was not surprised when I found this taped to the wall right next to the fireplace.

He had decided it would only be fair to leave a gift for Santa to receive after he came bounding down that fake chimney, into our glass enclosed fake fireplace [details, details] to fill the family room with presents him and his siblings. At least this is what he thinks is going to happen. Seems that kids don't really understand this whole recession thing.

Anyway, I told him how much Santa was going to love the portrait he had drawn of him as it really was quite perfect with the hat and beard and all. I also asked him what he had ever so nicely wrapped as a gift for Santa in that nice shiny Reynolds wrap that was taped right next to the portrait. He proudly explained that he decided to give his Go Diego Go Kazoo (actually it's his brothers) to Santa as he thought he would really enjoy playing it on the sleigh while delivering presents to all the kids. Nevermind that the toy is not his to give away. I guess it's the thought that counts, right?

YOU TURN YOUR BACK FOR A MINUTE...

Miss Olivia is at the wonderful age where she finds it quite fun to get into everything and anything. She pushes chairs up to countertops, climbs on the chair, onto the counter and gets into cabinets. She opens up the one unlocked cabinet (unlocked because it is broken), pulls out all of the games and puzzles, dumps them all over the floor and proceeds to walk away. She manages to get on her tippiest of tippy toes and reaches up into the pantry to pull down snacks when she is feeling hungry. When one of the kids leaves out the case with the Wii games in it, she quickly grabs it up, spilling its contents all over the floor and getting her little fingerprints on each and every disc. When the bathroom door is left open she does not miss the opportunity to run on in there, unroll the whole roll of toilet paper and splash around in the toilet for good measure. On some occasions she happens upon my box of tampons and unwraps them one by one, leaving a trail of them around the house. She sometimes finds it fun to get into the garbage and dump it all over the kitchen floor, dragging some things into the family room as well.

You get the idea, the girl is unstoppable. She gets into everything.

So this morning I put on Max and Ruby in the hopes that this would keep her attention long enough for me to get a few emails sent without her getting into any of the things mentioned above. And for the first few minutes it was working perfectly.

Then I heard something, the crinkly sound of a bag of sorts. I stopped my typing and turned around in my chair to find this.

She managed to get her hands on my box of granola cereal and dumped it out all over the kitchen floor. A mere 3 feet away from me. She is certainly quick on her feet, isn't she?

The mess was already made, so I just let her be with her granola. She sat there happily eating for about 10 minutes before she decided she had enough and walked away.

I can't turn my back on this little girl for a minute, can I?

BREAKFAST WITH SANTA

2 Sundays ago (I know, I am a bit behind), we did our annual Breakfast with Santa. My Mom is ever so generous each year and takes my sister, myself, my aunt and all the grandkids to a really, really yummy brunch at the Pool and Yacht Club. After filling our belly's with all of that delicious food, we make our way downstairs to a room in which Santa and Mrs. Claus reside.

I was not sure what to expect this year. Ava and Lucas are old enough to be very fond of Santa, and have no problems whatsoever hopping on his lap and listing off the many, many things they want for Christmas. But Anthony can be unpredictable in this category. The year before last he would not even go near Santa. It did not matter what I used to coerce him into that Jolly Man's lap, he was not going to do it. Last year he was scared of Santa as well, but I did manage to get him to sit on his lap. All the while he stared at the ground, biting his nails out of nervousness and not saying a word. But it was progress.

This year presented us with a whole different Anthony. Yes, this year excitement overtook him when he walked into the room where Santa was. He was so excited that he could barely contain himself. Really. As he stood in line waiting he squealed in delight, jumping up and down with his hands over his mouth saying "It's Santa Mom, it's Santa!!" "When do I get to sit with Santa Mom?" More squeals and giggling. "Oh my gosh, it really is Santa!!" At one point I thought he was going to wet his pants as he was standing with his legs crossed, bouncing up and down. Turns out he did not need to use the bathroom, and that this was yet another way of him showing his excitement about being in the same room with Santa. It was really all too much for him to take in.

I think at this point Lucas was wondering what in the heck had gotten into Anthony.

Throughout his excitement, other Mom's and Dad's who were waiting in line smiled and giggled at his love for Santa. The people that worked there, taking pictures of each child on Santa's lap, and helping Santa give out little gift bags to the kids were so taken aback by how sweet and excited he was they snapped a few pictures of him as he stood in line. [Can't wait to see those.] The sheer delight that overtook that little boy in those ten minutes would have put a smile on anyone's face.

Can't wait to see what next year's meeting will bring. 'Cause how can you top that? I really don't think he could have been any happier or excited this time around.

OUT OF THE LOOP... AGAIN

Here I am, busy as ever. Again. With what you ask?

Keeping the house clean, doing laundry, taking care of the kids, cooking, cleaning some more, helping with homework, baths, grocery shopping, you know, the daily grind. This is nothing new, but of course, it is the Holiday Season, so there are just a few extra things that are added to my list this month that really add to the stress level:

Sending out the Christmas cards, which entails addressing, stamping, licking, addressing stamping licking [75 times to be exact], holiday parties to be at, holiday parties to host [this weekend and we still don't have a menu or have done any sort of planning for it], Christmas shopping [driving all around town in pursuit of the ever popular Zhu Zhu pets], wrapping all the presents [enter me, the worst Christmas-gift-wrapper ever], putting together furniture and decorating the new study room that is a Christmas gift to the kids, make 10 dozen cookies for our annual cookie exchange which will be very interesting [on top of being a horrible gift wrapper, I am also blessed with the inability to bake as well.]

And this is just a taste of what goes on during this lovely Holiday season.

I am not sure why I cannot prepare myself every November for the whirlwind of a month that December brings, as it is like this every year. Maybe I need to start practicing Yoga at this time of year to calm myself, or maybe I should join some sort of support group for crazed Mom's during the Holiday season. I am sure there is no such thing out there, but I just may start a support group of my own next year, as I am certain there are other Mom's out there who could use it at this time of year too. Then maybe the world would be a happier place during this joyous season. At least for this Momma.

BRINGING SEXY BACK

The Mr. has never been big into the whole lingerie thing. His mentality has always been, why spend a ton of money on something that is just going to come off within minutes of me seeing it? And I have always agreed. But lately he has hinted around the fact that I could spice things up a bit in the going-to-bed attire. If I felt so inclined.

Apparently he is sick of my cotton hanes underwear and cozy warm flannel pajamas I don every evening at bedtime. And I guess I don't really blame him.

Today I was doing my weekly shopping at Target when I happened upon the women's intimates department. I usually wiz right on by this department, but today I thought I would stop to peruse the racks. Maybe, just maybe even purchase something for the Mr. - something for me to wear for his viewing pleasure.

[I should clarify that I do know all about Victoria's Secret, and I do know that this would more than likely be the better place to look for such items, but I am cheap in this department and not willing to pay $50 some dollars for such things. Just not going to do it. Nope.]

On with the story....

I did my perusing, and was not really coming up with anything. Some skimpy little pajama shorts and cute little T's, some grandm-aish nightgowns, and my standard warm fuzzy fleece pajamas were all I could find. But nothing I could see myself putting on and having the Mr. go Ga-Ga over. Not a single thing. As I was getting ready to leave the intimates department, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. Nah, it couldn't be, could it? I looked again, and found it was what I had thought.

Here, take a look for yourself.

My question is, what self-respecting grown woman would wear these? Or Man for that matter, as I saw they come in Men's sizes/colors as well. Obviously there are people out there, or else they would not be producing them. Call me crazy, but my thought is that there should be some law against making footed pajamas in adult sizes so as to make it impossible for these yahoo's to purchase them.

Anyway, I left the store, still in disbelief at what I had just witnessed, and without anything for the Mr. to feast his eyes upon. I guess I was just a little bit too disturbed to look around any longer.

I think this one will baffle me for some time. I will forever wish to get inside the head of any being that would purchase such pajamas, and find out why they would do such a thing. 'Cause I am all about comfort, and love feeling warm and fuzzy in my flannel PJ's.

But footed pajamas? with animal feet to boot? C'mon. Really?