It's MY turn to be Santa

and I've got presents!!


I am in love with taking pictures of our tree.
I just love it.

We started wrapping the few things we had bought Rory,
and then after shopping Thursday we were able to fill up the entire corner of the room.
Probably more presents than we have ever had under our tree.. but most are for our family, and we bought a lot of large cheap gifts. It LOOKS like an awesome stash.
We did hide a few or Rory's gifts in the closet. Hopefully, she is a little excited early morning on the 25th.

Thursday , I had a dentist appt and we had lots to do. I feared it would be our ONLY chance to get ready for the fast approaching holidays. So we spent the whole day after my teeth cleaning going from store to store trying to find cheap gifts for people..
extra cheap- since I had planned to bake a lot of things for people, and no longer could with a broken oven element.
Plus, we NEEDED to buy Rory shoes she somehow grew out of everything but her flipflops.
THAT was one hell of a battle. We didn't manage to find a SINGLE pair of tennis shoes that fit whatever size she is right now(she is sort of between sizes AND there is FAR too much variant depending on the brand, she was wearing anything from 9 to 11!) We ended up finding dress shoes, which fit her wonderfully- but it wasn't what WE were looking for. Rory HAD to have them though, and she did sort of need shoes for that party.sigh.

Did I mention last week that we managed, somehow, to flip Rory's upsidedown schedule?
Only a little,
but Rory and I now get to bed by(if not before) 9pm and wake up before the sun. Somehow it reminds me of visiting my Grandparents as a child, but it's not too bad. I feel like less of a zombie, at least. And I have been able to get a lot done, the house is clean AND I finished a huge creative project.

After all of that rushing and highly frustrating holiday shopping Thursday ,
the rain came down.
We woke up to a message that Ri had the day off.
It was like "now what? we did our stuff yesterday!" We did ride around a little in search of a few little random things we needed before chaos sets in. We managed to get everything wrapped too! Ri even wrapped my gift with Rory's help... and I still can't figure out what that BIG HEAVY box is.

Saturday Ri was off too..
but we had to go to the big Xmas party at porky's.
Yes. thats a bar.
but they have really cool party, they save up a lot of money and give it all back to the children in the community.
Plus.
My dad dresses up as Santa


Rory was up at the, freezing grumpy frozen ,
buttcrack of dawn again, getting her to wait until afternoon to go was a challenge.

I painted a snowflake on her cheek as she got ready.
I chatted with mom and lissy on the phone.
I got frustrated at Ri seeming sooo grumpy,
and Rory pouring her hot cocoa out on the carpet!- becuase it wasn't perfect.
It was shaping up to be a long .long. day.
Lissy wanted me to hang out at Mom's for awhile as well- to help them watch Nico.
She had to work. She was not thrilled about that.

I was excited to get to take pics of the kids with Santa.
I was hoping to get all sorts of cool pics since Dad would be Santa...
did not turn out that way

The line turned out the be too much for Nico.
I did get really great pictures of Nico with JJ

I am in love with this picture. It is painfully sweet.
Nico was sooo tired he didn't want the boring cuddly women relatives to hold him,
He might sleep.He would only hold JJ.

Lissy had gave me special instructions to make SURE we were very carefull and attentive with him.
Do not let him eat things he shouldn't
Try to get him to drink from his sippy cup
and keep him away from that water and the docks.
because that scares her..
We are great siblings...

the strong wind was blowing the water to splash.
He thought it was cool.


The long line of people started to push and prod around us.
Santa hadn't even rode up, yet!

The line was scary.
It seemed like there were less people this year. They had lowered the limit age of kids to 8 and were saying they had less to give, they also had less activities going on on the side beyond the long line of aggressive and rude parents.
Ri was already grumpy.. it was all I could do to get him to stay in the line.

Finally we heard Santa come.

OMG. it was like a rockstar was pulling up. children SCREAMED - high shrill screams I thought were limited to Hannah Montana concerts.


Dad..er. I mean Santa cut through our part of the line stopping to give Rory a hug.
She gave him a kiss ,too.
I DID explain to her that Dad maybe dressed up as Santa..
and maybe he knows Santa and he can talk to the real Santa.
I dunno.
For a long time I thought we wouldn't do the Santa thing at all. I never explained it to her- she heard about it from other kids and TV. She is soo pessimistic she seems to know santa is pretend... but she can pretend. I am still not sure if she believes in Santa or just likes to believe.
One thing I do know for certain,
at that moment her Grandada was both Santa and Grandada. She even thought it highly important she wait in line and tell him what she wanted for Xmas like the other kids did.

Mom was so cute cringing when Dad held the bitty babies.

Nico was DONE though.

It was windy.
Babies would cry for their Mommy and he would know that word and miss his own.
and he was tired.
There wasn't much consoling him.
he went to the car and had his sippy cup , away from the crowd.
Rory made friends with all the little girls in line around us, showing them her purse and the little pets she brought in it.
We were in line next to some fairly nice people. Aunt Judy showed up to hang out and even brought a soda out for us- which Rory immediately shared with the little girl she had been playing with. ah well.
I was enjoying watching Dad with all the little kids,
it was crowded and cramped but not bad..
... until some rednecks skipped in front of us and started making racist statements about the people in front of them and behind us.
Ri was tempted to be violent.. or run.
there was strong temptation to run.
We just gave up and ended up with their 8 more kids in front of us..hoping the line would end soon.

I think having these few pics and short vid was worth it:




She was soo excited to open the present he gave her she didn't get the chance to tell him what she wanted ,
I asked her if she knew who Santa was -she said "Yes, but I can't tell around the other little kids", so I told her not to worry we will see him later and she can tell him then.
She wants that darn hangout zoo little petshop playset.. the only one we DIDN't get... So I guess we will have to get it.

We quickly plopped her in line for the bounce house :
and the slide
and got the hell out of that crowded scary place.
I was REALLY sad to leave like that.
Rory would have liked to hang out longer.
I really had hoped to get a picture with Nico and Santa.
There was NO WAY Ri was going to stay.
We hung out at Mom's for a bit trying to figure out what Lissy would prefer me to do.
Nico took a short nap and woke up to get some food
Messy cookie face smiles!

He amazed mom with his crawling.
and made me nervous with his fearless cruising.

He is soo funny. When ever I aimed the cam at him he would get ready for it. Closing his eyes with a big fakey smile.

We heard back a bit from the party, UncleJohn& AuntJudy kept us updated- and when Dad got home he was pretty mad.
He said toward the end it was a free for all. Basically all the really pushy rude people got to go through the line over and over, after he(santa) left the stage they started carrying off whole big boxes of presents.Even Ri's sis Mel said she left in the hoopla

A lot of the people that had chipped in to put it all together were disgusted. They have cut back on it more and more I doubt many people will be involved at all next year.
When John&Judy saw people stealing boxes they took one too- with plans to give it to toys for tots and/or relatives. Even as we headed home later that night we saw a group of teenagers with one of Porky's HUGE boxes of toys being split open at the park..Just ripping off the wrapping paper and separating everything into piles, to sell I guess.
It is sicking how much people take advantage of things like that.

They did stop buy and bring Rory a few extra things.
She ended up with a make up kit from Santa, and Dad also got her a playdoh set-
then Judy got her a mini telescope, an art kit, a toy guitar(which I keep trying to get her to give to Nico). She was very happy.
anyways.

Did you know Lissy maybe the only person more neurotic than me?
SHe is slipped out by ice...

Nico seemed to like it .

I wish I could edit vid's right now but I can't (some stupid program is interfering).. I am able to at least give you this shorty of how Nico and Dad communicate-





Sooo soo cute.

Mom decided to bring Nico to his Dad, and we decided to head home.
I am sad I didn't get to see Amy and Allura the whole visit, they were at Aaron's parents waiting on a new car to better get a carseat into


Lissy did get to come over later, and finally pick up the pile of stuff I have been trying to give back/unload on, her and see my tree and the pictures I'd got.
Nico even showed her the funny camera reaction face



... and Rory slept through their whole visit.
She is serious about this whole normal schedule thing. She gives me a high five every time she wakes up to sunrise.

I should really be asleep now.
I just feel like there is sooo much to do.
I can't believe it is already Dec 20th!! Annnnd. to top it off, Ben might take us to Disney World on Tuesday - how freakin awesome will that be?!?
I should really sleep, or do SOMETHING to prep for the next few days.

Oh.I said I had presents.
well, besides those 2 cute videos
and pictures like this:

My new blog is up!!!
Woooot!

I have suddenly felt soo creative, and so inspired by praises from my readers , and friends-even my horoscope and tarot cards seemed to be pushing me to be more creative ( no, I don't usually pay much attention to those lol) ,I finally felt the need to get on the ball and get some posts up !

Now,
I should get to another post there.
But 1st
YOU should SUBSCRIBE TO MY OTHER BLOG- it is a much different thing than here, art poems stories, not so much a blog almost like a story book
...: Of Fairy Tales and Far Aways

So ,Happy WhateverWinterHolidayYouDoOrDon'tCelebrate! !!!

I hope you get everything you want, and if you don't I hope you still feel blessed with what you have :)

PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE