Merry Happy Something Holiday Wrap up

Soooo
The Holiday Craziness is almost put away..and I still haven't posted.
I think my body is trying to go into hibernation mode. All I want to do is eat and sleep. I may be a little tightly anxiously wound after the whole holiday thing too.

I do have a little vid of JUST the weekend for you :


There is soo much I want to share , and say.. and yet soo little I want to say at the same time. ..
I am sure I will leave stuff out.
Xmas Eve- Christmas Eve this year was different. It felt odd. Ri had to work, and we had no mode of transportation(the truck only has three functional seatbelts) to get us to our families to visit .. So Xmas Eve this year, was spent hanging out around the house.
..For me anyway. Rory hung out with the neighborboy all day. He has been hanging out a lot he is around 7. .. but, that day was different,
he came over and asked if she could walk to another neighbor boys house with him to deliver a present.
Now,
I may be sort of overbearing, she IS almost 6..but neighborboy lives directly across the street, I can SEE his house when they play together. I did let her walk the present and come STRAIGHT back..
and they did..
but they came back to ask if they could stay and play a bit in other neighbors(whose house I cannot see from my window)..Turns out there IS another little girl on our block, and Rory is THRILLED to have found a playmate for something other than nurfwar. So I walked with them to meet these neighbors and the kid's dad who was super nice...after a little bit, I nervously let her stay and play basketball in their yard.
Rory came home a little later loaded down with handme down toys(the girl is also 7)..Ri says he thinks other Dad was just as thrilled to find a kid he could use to unload old toys on LOL!.
So, instead of begging to open a present early all night Rory played with toys the neighborgirl gave her.

We did have fun getting ready for bed - Rory spread out her reindeer food



and set out her milk and cookies, watched the Santa tracker, and we even found a copy of Twas the night before Christmas to read as I tucked her in.
She was asleep in seconds.
Ri and I stayed up a little while chatting with Jess &Steve Jess hand beaded and ornament for us, and we had made them some cookies.
Santa DID come at some point:
The pink gifts are the ones from Santa

Ri was a pain to get out of bed.. so Rory waited with her stocking
She LOVED the funny shaped erasers .

When he got up she tore through her presents sooo quickly
Santa even found jeans and long sleeve shirts that Rory loves! I don't know how he managed that one.

She got a few little pets. the LPS/blythe doll scooter toy she wanted, some mermaid my little ponies,and the playdough ice cream maker . She was really happy :) .

Noobie got the same thing she gets every year
...and then promptly hid it somewhere in the house!!(Where does she even hide something that big) I didn't find it until two days after Xmas-!!
Ri says he made her take it outside after that lol.

Rory got me some swedish fish, and Ri got us a new toaster , and he got me a coffee bean grinder( I still haven't tried it out.. I am dying to !!)


Dad came and picked us up to go to Mom's house. We ate and waited around a bit for Amy to come-
Then PRESENT TIME!!!!!!!!
My cam was acting weird all day so i didn't get a ton of pics.. there is always so much going on it is hard for me to keep up and snap off bunches of pictures anyway.

The 1st present Rory opened was a Zooble toy for JJ. I was soo glad they got her those, because we hadn't.. and this little pop open toy thing was probably her fav gift.
Allura LOVED her gift- and LOVED that is was from us:I only wish I would've got Nico the same toy phone thing.. I got Nico a microphone toy.. they both liked it ,but the phone was fought over a little.
Oh! Shirts for XMAS.. I struggles with Lissy's shirt ,not sure if she would like Voltron...I originally picked up a Smurfs shirt...but put it back because it said "Spaced out" .
yeah,
Lissy bought ME the Smurfs shirt LOL!!
..and Mom ALSO got me a new toaster. haha!



Nico and Allura were all over the presents unable to focus on anything in the commotion- both paused to check out the legos- before fighting over the shopping carts a bit.

Rory mostly just played with the Zoobles
oo thats another shirt Lissy got me- Felix the cat


Nico was very busy with a phone conference.
... I am going to get him a phone on his birthday, that is all there is to it.
He even made Mom his secretary

Lissy got all the guys nurf guns- so amidst the present opening , and wild children running amuck, there were nurf darts in every direction.

Allura LOVEs Ri. She was making him chase her all over the house , soo cute


JJ took us home before it got too late.
- Ri's mom and sis were trying to organize meeting up for dinner of after dinner(there were sposed to come xmas eve too- but that didn't work out- ) So we came home to exchange gifts with Ri's mom&and older Sis
-I failed to get any pics :(

I think all of our gifts went over well, we got some really great neat things.. and I think people liked the gifts we got them.
(oh! AND I found a use for that second taster, Ri's mom mentioned she needed one :) . Extra present.)

-here is a pic of some of Rory's fav that I keep picking off the floor. She also got tons of craft projects- she has been drawing painting beading and doing things all week
They got me some cool knickknacky things for around the house.Jewelry box and a really cool seashell dreamcatcher thingy

and it matches this clock thingy Ri's Mom brought me (OH! -and Ri got a new coffee maker.. no, he doesn't really drink coffee..but since I have started drinking a lot -and mom had bought and extra one as a present on sale and was offering it he asked for it...He hates my 10 dollar wal*mart special with the broken spout, because it leaks on his counter.)

When Mel& Ri's mom came we noticed someone had left cookies and a fire pit in the backyard!!
We totally needed a firepit!
We couldn't figure out who it could be- We had a guess,on the way home from Mom's we dropped of cookies at Ri's Dad's and they weren't there..
We texted them but they wouldn't fess up, they came over the next morn and confessed and bought Rory a few little things :) .

We've tested out the firepit a few times, I have hung up and started cleaning( I won't start on the tree until newyears) - Ri has been working..were are headed back into the grind.
I'm sure I am leaving things out..but like I said-hibernation mode.anxiety.I'm going to bed.

All in all we had a pretty great Christmas/Holiday/Whathaveyou..
Family ,Friends, laughter, gifts, traditions, food...and CANDY
I hope your Christmas, Holiday , weekend--whatever was awesome.
and I hope you have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE

Count down to Holiday Vlogging

Friday vloggy post- a little early. I'm on holiday week time. which is 2:22 something.. all the time.Something about 2s I heard it meant something awesome. Here's hoping.
I figured I would probably end up doing a XMAS Eve /Xmas Vlog. So best not to try to squish those in this week. . Mostly a vid of Rory playing in the yard,Nico in his new used car- and some other randomness.

Yesterday, Val and Scott came over and had lunch with us and exchanged gifts- She bought us a whole batch of goodies from her shop-
between this stuff, the cookies Ri made for gifts, our tree, and the indian food he is making for dinner out house smells like heaven.
Well.. it is the night before Christmas Eve.. there are still many things up in the air, things to wrap and figure out..
So have an awesome night and holiday!
SEEYA

PEACE AND TOFU CHICkEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE

Santa's elves are just a bunch of subordinate Clauses

Presents under the tree!! Before I start my letter, I want to share a bit about Rory's love for the tree.. she went to help Ri buy the tree. For some odd reason ,on the way she asked him "How much do we have for a tree"
and he gave her a small estimate..
when they got there and were looking around an eager salesman came up asking what sort of tree they were looking for.When they replied "cheap" he said well these are the cheaper ones ,(still 10 over what Ri wanted to spend) and Rory said "Awww, NUTS!" and managed to talk the man down to the price range LOL!- he trimmed off some excess and sold the tree to her.
So, for future reference Rory has awesome bartering skills.

--back to your regularly scheduled (all be it late) post

Dear Santa,

I know this letter is very late. and I doubt it will reach on time- I figured I do owe you since you actually came through (all be it late jerkface) on some of my demands..er,um. wishes from last year's letter .
(side note: I feel amazingly blessed to look back at that letter and see the difference a year has made. While some stuff has been hard- some of the goals,wishes and dreams we really aimed at were achieved this year, thanks to many players in this weird ass game of life.)

I know people usually start by telling you how good they have been..
but seeing as it is 3 days to the big day it is obvious I have some confessing to do.
I am really hopelessly behind, on the shopping , on the wrapping , on the planning.I still haven't got around to making a wreath of tree trimming like I planned.. hell, the tree hasn't even been up long!
Things are tight around here, money, time ,positivity.. I will admit my mind has veered off into some pretty negative places.
I have really been trying to be a least a decent person.
A for effort right?
I feel like I have put out a lot of effort to realize I am ok,to be thankful, to recognize my blessings..to just laugh.
AND while I am at it realize my faults, my mistakes and my negatives- the trick is to remember to realize them, but not beat myself over the head with them.
I have been trying harder to not judge other people - to not take it all to heart,while still loving..

All in all..
while I think I may have obsessed far more this year about every little thing,I have recognized the action for what it is,and tried to avoid focusing on THAT... still trying.

So, I don't know if I have been a perfect person to myself, but I have tried to be a decent human.

If that counts for anything, here is some of my very late wishlist:

I would like a new car.Why couldn't you have made me win that damn air freshener giveaway Conan had????huh? Santa? you messed up , that is why.

Regardless. I would still be riding my bike a lot - So how about an odd one,
Is it possible for winter to be warmer than fall was?
Because bundling up to go down town in Florida, in the fall is a joke.
Last year it actually snowed some- not on like Xmas or anything..but it did once. So you have shown you have a track record for granting my weather wishes... do it!!
..and maybe I'll stop pretending I want a pony, deal?


I had to layer up in my snow gear to watch the moon last night....


well.. it may not have been THAT cold.but it was cold. and wet.

& a vid from someone far more talented than me:

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.

had to, it isn't often the moon does tricks.
I felt very alone watching the world get dark..
granted I was alone(I couldn't get lazy cold Ri out of bed for more than a second.)
I thought about making a wish.. instead i felt cold, dark and alone- struggled to take pictures and went inside.-BUT,
it clearly marked for me the 1st day of winter..
and time to get ready for traditional holiday festivities.

I'm not though.
With Ri working Christmas Eve, and no car fit to take us out on our own- all I know for sure, is that my plans shall be last minute.I also have a pang of feeling like no matter what I do it will be wrong by someone, and inadvertently hurt someone no matter what I do
.. and that hurts.
Is it possible ,Santa , to wish to make everyone happy?
I guess it really isn't

-that said.
I do NOT wish for a plan. I know I have always been a pretty compulsive planner.. but I have also always been horrible with planning. If I have a plan , it just means things will not go as planned and I will fall apart.If I don't- things may still fall apart, but I can still coast on as I was already.
Lowered expectations make me feel like a happier person at the end of the day.
So, I shall wish for smoother sailing over the bumpy roads that are the days ahead.I will wish for it to all come together in the end,
and if it doesn't for fixable unravelings.
Do you think that will fit on your sleigh?

What I want more than anything- more than pleasing ANYONE else, even myself-
is the world for my creative , amazing almost 6yr old.
She built a forest in the backyard, of sticks and weeds-she was very proud..
and also wore that outfit that makes her look like a preteen and breaks my heart a little bit.
I may have to hide that sweater.
She can have it back when she is 13.


She has a lot of wishes this year..and an ever growing list.
We really didn't get her much. We did get her the one Littlest pet toy she really wants..
I can't even find some of the other toys she really wants- it is a lucky thing her birthday falls in Jan. I still will have a running list of things she didn't get from you.
You could always bring the rest you know Santa. Seriously,That is like,your job RIGHT?! I just hope she is happy and grateful, and more than likely she will be no matter what .


Ri is doing well, a month ago I would have begged you to heal him somehow..
or for more money for him- or to cheer him up as he was pretty stressed..

but things are starting to improve without your help,tyvm.
.. perhaps you should get Ri some better luck for Christmas.
Do they bottle that?
..he will hate me for this picture
He isn't wearing a hat. I love this pic though ..
Sorry Ri.

I hope people love the things we got them..
We mostly shopped for the little ones
Lissy may have already found Nico the most perfect gift
AND got it used off of craigslist:
How could I top a used car???

Well- so.
Mostly, I want health,wealth, and happiness.
There is little else I want for me..OR ,if you could bring me things that can help me get there on my own that would be even better.

I really don't think it is asking for much.

... or maybe it is, but that's your curse dude.

39 Degrees North: Christmas Card 2010 from 39 Degrees North on Vimeo.

Thanks Santa!
We'll be the one house in our lil suburb without a ridiculous amount of Holiday decorations out.


One more piece of holiday cheer before I run around the house wishing there was more time, and wondering were it went: (NSFW)-cover the elves' eyes Santa


I'll be back soon with my Vlog.. hopefully, maybe. I gotta a lot to do this week.


PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE

Almost weekend-week vid wrap up

Woo-hoo I am soooo excited it is Friday!
Are you?
The weather is warming up a bit , and it has been a nice day so far too!

Today is P day = PJ/pizza / Polar express ! at Rory's school....which means it is the LAST day before winter break. I am excited and also sort of sad, How am I going to deal with her home all week?


Yesterday- was silly hat day and they did a cookie exchange and candy tree decorating.. Ri & I went to her class to help/watch them decorate trees. I think it was the 1st time Ri has been in the classroom like that. It was a bit overwhelming.
I didn't realize the trees were going to be icing covered cones with candy decorations- LOL- Rory took full advantage of that...Most the other kids made simple trees and ate lots of candy. Rory went ALL out and made an entire candy village on her plate. Seriously, a work of art....Or an attempt to bring home copious amounts of candy. It did look awesome.
They also got stockings- every parent brought in little things to put in the stockings. dollar store trinkets.(we gave them holiday erasers)- lots of cute little things :)


Well. It IS Friday, Time for my vid post-
I cheated again with a longer vid. i am still back and forth whether I want to turn my week in a minute to just a Friday vid blog. Todays vid hit a whole 3mins and 33 seconds:



and in case you missed it buried in my last post- more cute niece with her 1st birthday cake- Cutest vid ever!


Hopefully, I will make time to be back with a bloggy post again soon!
I gotta run though.

PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE

I went to the avoidance party,and all I got was this bloggy blog post

Sorry - Lissy says I should post.
I am stuck in a place where I have SOO much I need to do- and don't want to do that I am avoiding it all.

I love the avoid-dance, it is like the tango, but I crawl up in bed and play video games- instead of actually dancing around.
We've don't a lot and hardly anything all at once. It has been FAH-REEEEZing,
Seriously, freezing. The water guy told me the pipes have been bursting all over and reminded me to drip our faucets.(ours didn't burst, they got air in them though, when they fixed our streets pipes Monday.)

Anyway- other than the same old, same old of waking up at the butt crack of dawn and getting the kid off to school, and home- and then staying up all too late after she goes to bed
We HAVE had a bit going on.

Slowly but surely. Honestly, I feel like we are way behind what we should have done this week- but we are doing what we can afford, which is basically the bare minimum .
We JUST got a Holiday Tree ,JUST yesterday!! I don't think I have ever waited THAT long.. and it is ALL sort of that way. We haven't really even begun shopping for gifts.. or even writing lists of who we will gift and figuring out a plan of action. It is sort of depressing right now with everything else we have on our plates.


Oh! Before I get to the weekend- I have to tell you about last Friday's drama- that I mentioned a bit on my last post.
Well.
It was FREEZING.
I was trying to figure out a way to bundle up enough to pick up the kid-then it started to drizzle.Wet,freezing nasty! Ri called to save me, saying his boss offered to let him pick Rory up and drive her home and he would cover for him. SWEET!
...but then, Ri called back- his car battery died,
then the school called wondering where he was.
Poor Ri ended up RUNNING from his work to her school- and his boss brought Rory home.
ugh.
That was sort of nerve wracking, but everything worked out. Rory was fine, the battery cost us a bit to replace, but the truck is fine now too- and thank goodness for Ri's boss for bringing her home.

Rory spent all of Saturday's bit of sunshine running around the house with the neighbor boys, as they plotted to catch the stray cat. .. I played video games ..so I could sit in the bay window and spy on them(sure,that's why)
. So adorable.

Sunday Was the one day I got real pics AND vid from.
Lissy picked Rory and I up to go to the Eagles Christmas party, and Allura's Bday party.
Mom had bought all the grandkids cute holiday clothes and signed them up for the gift exchange
Nico looked soo nice in his suit


Rory's dress was a harder fit- it was a bit big and awkward on her, so we modified the sleeves a bit with safety pins as we primped and got ready at Mom&Dad's house.
-and they ended up being the only kids there not in jeans.

The weather was still pretty yucky- we ran to the club,it was SUPER crowded over 100 kids and two adults there for each kid. -Plus, they FILLED the room with tables you could barely walk around.
Rory had no idea the Christmas party would include a Santa and presents- So when they called her name she was surprised and really excited.

I missed the pic of Allura somehow- Neither Nico Or Allura wanted much to do with that Santa though.
We were worried for a minute, because we had missed Rory and Allura's names being called..but NO ONE knew /had heard Nico being called, I was listing off every possible variant of Nico I could think of
- Val was there and said she'd thought she heard them say Nico, then they found it-
Rico! LOL. My Dad does have pretty illegible lefty handwriting sometimes , i imagine the gift wrappers guessed what his N was and figured an R
They got really awesome gifts! I really didn't expect that! Every kid got 2 presents a stuffed animal and a little gift bag. Nico got a cool talking flashlight toy, and a tractor. Rory got a Bratz doll , and big box of neat beads.
Mostly Rory sat with Val- Poor Val ended up sitting at a table with 5 kids! (Her Sister's 3,Seth and Rory)...but you know, I think they were the most well behaved people there. They all pretty much sat there quietly playing with their things and chatting.

Damian is such a cutey...and he knows it- I get the camera out and get this pose:
Even little Nova sat quietly ..covering herself in her stickers Awwww!
She has grown WAY too much since last time I saw her.

Nico and Allura ,on the other hand were sort of all over the place- it probably didn't help that they were getting nice and sugared up




I am sad this is the only decent pics of the older boys I got. I don't think they would have looked up from their toys and video games if there wasn't food.

We stayed a bit to get in line for face painting.

Then headed to GrammyGrapes house since she is nearby


We didn't stay long with the overstimulated kidlets-
(and adults...yeah,Me.. I can only handle a certain amount of stimulation before my brain feels like a tight rubber band) .
We headed back to mom's for Birthday party


Allura was SOOO cute eating her cake!


I got some vid that will be squished up in my mini week blog( which - sorry- will probably run a bit longer than a minute again this week)- but
a tidbit-
I think this is the most Hilarious video ever:

You must watch it


I think Allura thinks I am strange..and she is not at all afraid to tell me about it either.

She loved her presents, mom found the cutest teeny kitchen, and Allura opened and closed the doors thrilled she had doors she was allowed to open and close by herself.
I am still hoping to pass Rory's toy kitchen down to them in a few years- but Rory still plays with hers while we cook dinner.
We were WIPED out by the time we got home. I had left the place a total wreck- and Ri had been at work and out trying to get a new truck battery.
We reentered what has become our grind..
Waking up and getting the kid off to school, and back home again
.FREEZING, chores, dinner, freezing- staying up all too late after the kiddo goes to bed, and maybe having some friends over to chat and play video games.

Tuesday Ri somehow managed to drag me out of the house to get SOME shopping done. We got the one toy Rory REALLY wants, and thought over other gifts to get(but didn't really buy anything)- bought Ri some new pants though because he has lost all too much weight.
Val was in town doing some stuff for her shop- so she took us out to lunch. We talked all too loudly, with all too long of a wait for our food and had a really awesome time.
Ri DID finally, get the tree with Rory that night too

I haven't had a chance to really decorate it-That is just what Rory started that night.
We stayed up playing trivial pursuit with Jess.
My house is a MESS! AND I have hardly done half the things I should have caught up with..
but.
I know the answers to a lot of really dumb useless trivia questions. That is sort how my life is in a nut shell even.
For that matter, I have a high score on damn near every facebook app..which means my clean clothes are in a pile three times taller than me.

Today.. or, well Wednesday at this hour- was more rushing around than I would have liked, and because Ri was at work I had to ride my bike to pick up the kid. The plan was just to ride her To Ri's work - and he would take her home when he got off work, which wouldn't/shouldn't have been long after she gout out of school....but his coworker was WAY late and we ended up hanging out. It was fine though- it gave Rory time to run off some of her CRAZY CRAZY energy (her entire class seems wilder than usual.. i guess it is just that time of year)
Ri still drove her home, at least it is almost ALMOST starting to warm up. I still can't imagine I will be biking her there in the morn though.
We ALSO had to make cookies for Rory's class..luckily Ri did it all while I screwed around on the internet. Now My entire house smells of yummy chocolate chip cookies. :)

Now - Silly hat day/cookie exchange day is upon us, then the next day for Rory is Pajama Day, and then school is out for winter break.. and really- though we have a bit of rushing around to do and A LOT we need to do,we are gonna have the big break of her being out of school to conquer a lot of that... it isn't making me stress less. but, it is making me feel less rushed about stressing.
Totally logical thought ,in my head.

I don't know what up with me this past few weeks
I am definitely feeling a bit more stressed, worried and pressured.

Have a cookie. Ri only made a million of them.

I am going to bed. I have to go to Rory's class full of wound up holiday spirit demons and help decorate a tree..
and I should probably clean sometime in the near future.
PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE