The 12 Troubles of Christmas

Okay, I have to start out saying that Christmas really was quite lovely, and, overall, the holiday break has been very nice. But it seems that I've had a few more "troubles" over the past week and a half than I would like. Some of the troubles were mere annoyances. A couple were a little more excrutiating. And I don't know if there were 12. Why don't we count them and see?

1. The snow. I hate driving in the snow! Before my accident last January and then getting stuck in a snowbank on my way to work on Valentine's Day, I hated driving in the snow. Now I despise driving in the snow and sometimes I even think about not going to work when it is snowing (it hasn't happened yet, but don't rule that out). So, I am counting the snow as one of the troubles of Christmas because it took me about an hour and a half to get home from school after we got out for the break on the 19th. Then I got stuck about 4 times between my in-laws' house and our apartment. What usually takes me about 5 minutes took 15-20 minutes to get home.

However, on the positive side, it didn't snow on Saturday and there were no problems picking up TSH from the airport.

2. The food. I had decided to make waffles for Christmas breakfast. Mmm, waffles.... Oh, where was I? Oh, yeah. Christmas breakfast. So, I started making the waffles using my trusty Krusteaz belgian waffle mix and instead of actually reading the package, I instead decided that it needed 1 1/3 c of oil instead of 1 1/3 c of water. Just so you know, even if you decide to add a little more mix and some water to the batter, it will not work! Instead, it will leave a mess in your belgian waffle maker that you will have to clean out later on. I guess I should do that today.

Another food related trouble is that I ate too much junk food and I was sick for a couple of days. That was totally my own fault. I'll take the blame for that. But who can resist all of those yummy goodies?!

Yet another food related trouble is when we took the boys to IHOP and Andrew had a fit the entire time and refused to eat anything and spent about a half hour embarrassing me.

But TSH and I went out to dinner by ourselves one night (thanks to the parents for taking the boys for the entire night!) at The Training Table, and it was delightful.

3. The movie. TSH and I decided to take the boys out to see The Tale of Despereaux Christmas morning. And while we were there, the power surged and went out at the theater, so we only saw about a half hour of the movie. We were given passes to go back later, which we finally did on Saturday. But the theater was freezing and I forgot my blanket in the car! (I had remembered it on Christmas.) The manager said that ever since the power outage, they hadn't been able to warm up that theater. Lovely.

But on the happy side, we did get to finish seeing the tale of the little mouse and TSH and I went and saw Twilight (1st time for him, 3rd time for me). And it was still totally awesome!

4. The ouchies. After we gave up on the movie on Christmas Day, we all got into the car and drove to my parents' house. Unfortunately, before I got in the car, I hit my head and it hurt so bad I thought I was going to have a concussion. No conussion, fortunately, but I did have a bruise on my head until about, oh, yesterday.

Then, early Monday morning (about 3:30), Nathan woke up and I decided to be nice and let TSH sleep (that was my mistake right there!), so I got up and fixed Nathan a bottle. I then decided to sit on the couch for a little bit because my stomach was making some rumbling noises (see #2. The food). After about a half hour of watching QVC sell canes and other items to people who need some help moving about the house, I turned off the TV, got up off the couch, slipped on some Christmas toy packaging that had yet to be thrown away, and hurt myself so badly that I wondered if I would have to go to the doctor. I was sure that I had screwed up my knee and I couldn't get off the floor by myself (fortunately , TSH had heard "a scream" and then noticed I wasn't in bed, so he came to find me, or else who knows when I would have been found). Good news, I didn't screw up my knee. Bad news, I did pull a muscle in my leg and it's now Thursday and I'm just starting to walk normally...and it still hurts. It's a good thing that we live on the bottom floor and that we don't have any stairs or I would be in big trouble. I'm not handling stairs very well yet.

And now I wish I had bought that cane that rolled which I saw on QVC just before I got hurt. I could probably use one right now.

And there is no good side to the ouchies. Except maybe that I didn't end up in the emergency room for either of them.

Alright, so maybe there weren't 12 troubles of Christmas, but what kind of post title would "The 4 Troubles of Christmas" be?

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you didn't ruin the waffles or do yourself bodily harm.

And to all a goodnight!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Hollie, my SIL, emailed me these questions and I thought, "Hey, those would be great to put on my blog!" Of course, she beat me to it, but I'm going to put the questions and my answers on here anyway.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Well, it depends. If it's a present for the kids, wrapping paper. If it's a present for friends or older family members, gift bags. So, both!

2. Real tree or artificial? I like my little, three foot, fake Christmas tree that I just put up on a table. But even if I had a bigger tree, I wouldn't want a real one, because I don't want to have to vacuum any more than I absolutely have to.

3. When do you put up the tree? Right after Thanksgiving. I want to enjoy it for as long as possible.

4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime before I have to go back to work, but never before New Year's.

5. Do you like egg nog? Heck yeah! What's not to like?! Sugar and fat are always my favorite holiday treats.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I wonder what a "child" means. Does that mean before I turned 18 or before I left home or is it before I stopped believing in Santa? Maybe it's just the gifts that I actually remember receiving. That's what I'll put. My Cabbage Patch doll named Norma, my dollhouse made out of cardboard, and my stereo. Sorry, that's more than one.

7. Hardest person to buy for? TSH. I always try to get something that makes him jump up and down because he's so excited, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe he just doesn't do excited.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Myself! I always know what I like the best! And my mom because she always tells me what she wants other people to get her for Christmas. And we have pretty similar tastes. (Hollie said, "Andria (she likes gift cards)." Well, it's true. I do like gift cards because I always know what I like the best!)

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Notice the emphasis I put on "a"? That's because I don't have just one nativity scene; I have multiple nativity scenes. I don't even know how many I have, but I'm going to try and remember now: eskimo nativity, cheap-o porcelin nativity from Big Lots, Charming Tales nativity, Precious Moments teeny-tiny tea cup nativity...I think I have others too, but I can't think of what they are right now. This year I only put up my Fontanini nativity that I bought on clearance last year and I bought 3 Wise Men for it this year on eBay. I'm going to see if I can find a star for it too.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I am so bad with Christmas cards! I've gotten to the point that I've just given up on them. But I love the cards I receive!

11. Worst Christmas gift you've ever received? An electric can-opener. TSH gave it to me the first year we lived in our own apartment because I had said that we needed an electric can-opener. And, now, five years later, I still can't figure out how to use the stupid thing, so I always just use a hand can-opener. The only present that I've received that was worse than that one was when TSH told me that he had a surprise for me after I had been gone for a week on a trip, and I came home to find that a vacuum cleaner was the surprise.

12. Favorite Christmas movie? I think it has to be a tie between White Christmas and A Christmas Story. It wouldn't be Christmas without Bing singing "Sisters" or without an evil Santa saying, "You'll shoot your eye out!"

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I usually start some time in September, but I'm slow this year and didn't start until just before Thanksgiving. I'm almost done. I just need to think of something for my SIL, Michelle.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Of course not! At least I don't remember doing that. That explanation would hold up in court, right?

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Honey-baked ham, funeral potatoes, and fresh rolls.

16. Lights on the tree? White only. I think they're so much more elegant.

17. Favorite Christmas song? BNL and Sarah McLachlan's "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" and Barry Manilow singing "Ave Maria."

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I like to do both. We usually do a year at home, and then the next year we go somewhere. This year we'll be home; next year is Disneyland!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Mmm, Olive?

20. Open the gifts Christmas morning or Christmas Eve? Christmas morning, even though, even as an adult, I can't sleep all night Christmas Eve.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? I think this is the one time of the year that I try really hard not to be annoyed. So, I can't think of anything.

22. Favorite ornament, theme, or color? I used to do lots o' snowmen, but I've kept them put away this year and I'm not putting as much out. So, I guess I'll just say red and gold are my colors. I have red and gold poinsettias on my tree.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year? I want for my entire family to be healthy and happy so we can have fun while TSH is home for 2 weeks.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Like Gone with the Wind...

but actually a little bit better! Yes, it is...Australia! (You thought I was going to say Twilight, didn't you? I'll talk about that in a minute.) If you know about my old obsession with Gone with the Wind, you know that it takes a lot for me to admit that something is better than that lovely old costume epic. But Australia really takes the cake. It's just a few minutes short of 3 hours and yet, an hour into the movie, I looked at my watch and was surprised that it had already been an hour. It moves really fast, the story is enjoyable, and Hugh Jackman is yummy, yummier even than TSH (but don't tell him that!). I don't want to tell you all too much about it, but go see it! Go see it. Go see it. Then we can talk about it!

Okay, this post was going to be titled "Twilight--So nice, I had to see it twice" but then I saw Australia and I had to start with it. But I totally loved Twlight. And it wasn't just because I was crazy with fatigue because it was 12 o'clock in the AM and it was almost 24 hours since I had woken up in the morning before I crawled back into bed for a long 3 1/2 hour sleep. It was so awesome! I laughed, I cried, I was on the edge of my seat! And then I told Amy that I wanted to go see it again, so we went and saw it yesterday. And I loved it just as much the second time. And I want to see it again. (Hey, thanks to my parents for watching my boys Friday and Saturday when I went to the movies with Amy and Tavia. I so owe you for it.)

Well, Thanksgiving weekend is now almost over. I actually got the boys' room and the front room cleaned and vacuumed this weekend, so I'm grateful for that. And almost all of my Christmas shopping is already done. Rock on! *head banging*

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend and I hope you'll go see my two new favorite movies.

I Guess I Was Wrong...

to believe that this was a safe place for me to share my musings. I tell my students that we can disagree without being disagreeable, but I guess that's just in the imaginary world of my classroom.

I received an email from someone that wasn't very nice about something I've shared and, in fact, made me cry. So, I no longer feel like sharing.

I guess from now on I'll just post things of little importance that I don't really care about. Maybe then no one will make me cry.

We Have Overcome

"we have overcome"
Originally uploaded by globalpunditorg

Okay, I'm getting misty eyed again. Someone felt the same way I did on Tuesday night.

I hope the song gets stuck in your brain too. It's one that often is in my head.

A Few Musings

So, I have several things that I want to share, but I don't want to write several posts, so all of my musings (well, you know, for now) will go in this post.

First, I have to tell you how proud of myself I was on Tuesday. I went shopping (because I had been eating Fiber One bars and yogurt for a couple days in a row for lunch and I was tired of it) and I took my fancy Evil*Mart shopping bags with me so I could save the environment by not using plastic sacks. I was extremely proud of myself, as I put my shopping bags on the checkstand, believing that the bag boys must think that I was an amazing person because I was saving the environment.

Until I looked at my purchases (I spent $90, so I had a lot) and realized that almost everything I bought was wrapped up in tons of paper and plastic and metal (I bought a can of whipped cream...mmm, yummy, aaahhhh...). Then I didn't feel like I was saving the environment anymore. Instead, I felt like a stupid little girl with my stupid little shopping bags and I wanted to crawl under the load of groceries and disappear. But what can a person do?!

Second, I am admitting to the entire world now (because the five people who read my blog are "the entire world"), that I cried, or more accurately sobbed, Tuesday night when Barack Obama was elected. I have been a supporter of Obama since before he even started campaigning. In fact, I had a feeling he would run for president a year before campaigning even started. I read The Audacity of Hope and was very impressed by his politics and policies.

Tuesday night, I was so scared. I really didn't believe that white America would vote for an African American. I hoped that people would see past the color and look at the man, but I didn't really believe it could happen.

So, when CBS plastered it across the screen that Barack Obama had been elected, I started sobbing. I cried for quite a bit of that evening and then the entire drive into work the next morning, which, of course, took longer than usual because of that stupid snow storm we had.

I have only cried for joy three times in my life. The first was when Maribel committed to baptism. The second was when I got my first (and current) teaching job. And the third was when Barack Obama was elected president. I feel like it's "A Whole New World" and everything is exciting and new.

I was reminded of a line from The Secret Life of Bees when Zach (a black teenager) tells Lily (a white teenager) that he wants to be a lawyer and Lily just can't get her mind around that idea. She says that a person has to see something before he or she can believe it and Zach's reply is, "You gotta imagine something before it can happen." That quote has been stuck in my mind since Tuesday night. We (those who believed in Obama and who looked past race to something more important) imagined a world where anyone really and truly can become whatever he or she wants to be.

And my third musing for the post (see, I stuck to a "few" this time) is actually a little bit related to the last musing. I went and saw The Secret Life of Bees last night with Amy and Tavia. I was disappointed in the movie and didn't cry even though I was sure I would and even brought tissues to quench the tears that I was sure would come). However, I was again fascinated by the concept of May's wall and I wish I had something that tangible to help me get rid of my sorrows.

I guess, my friends, you are my wall.

So, that's the end of this ridiculously long post. I hope that, if you choose to make comments, that they will be nice (not that anyone has ever made a rude/inappropriate comment on my blog), because I really have allowed myself to be a little vulnerable here. I don't want your sympathy or any thing like that. I just thought I needed the musings to be out there or, I guess, on here, because where else can I share my musings?