Christmas magic and stuff

Oh hai!! Yeah, I've kind of fallen behind in my blogging, I'm sure you guys have all been emo crying about that. Okay, maybe not so much. I've just been working a lot lately, plus I have all the other family like people underfoot instead of off doing their various work/school things. They mostly just laze about in my way like a bunch of indolent sloths (or maybe lemurs) who are too lazy to even pick the nits off each other.

On Christmas Eve, we usually let the kids open a present, and this present usually involves sleepwear of some kind. Here's Annie in Christmas jammies. They should have come with a can of Static Guard though, those babies were crackling like a forest fire every time she walked across the room. Maybe we should have fired up the gas fireplace and then just had her walk back and forth to create a nice atmosphere.

The tree all bountified by Santa, after he finished watching It's a Wonderful Life for the umpty thousandth leventh time.

No, Alyson is not flipping us off, that's a giant chocolate covered pretzel rod thing from her stocking. I was kind of butthurt that Santa didn't think to give me one too.

Annie embracing her favorite gift, the hallowed Doctor Who dvds. We had to get the seasons with David Tennant in them first, or she would have thrown a fit.

Alyson with her favorite gifts, a nine dollar hat, an eight dollar sock monkey, and a cat who cost a helluva lot more than that. He had a bow on his head milliseconds before this pic, but he managed to shake it off. He looks less than thrilled, does he not?

We got about 15 or so inches of snow starting the Friday before Christmas. And now, it's all gone, because the temp shot up into the 50's yesterday. It was so foggy from all that snow melting like gangbusters that the visibility was nil. I kept expecting dead pirates to come wandering out of it, or maybe big monsters with sucker tentacles and such.

We think this popcorn kernel totally looks like a frog, and when things like that happen, the kids immediately start hollering get the camera! Put it on the blog! So here you go, a Kermit Kernel.

We got this "Magic Tree Garden" kit at the same store the weird Methuselah plant thing came from. You unfold all the little paper things, put them in the tray just so, and then pour the magic solution in the tray, and wait. And take pictures every fifteen minutes or so, but I am thoughtfully fast forwarding to the end for y'all.

Here it is, about 12 hours or so later, and I gotta say, this little baby lives up to the hype. It's actuality is even more impressive than the picture on the box, and it's cheap fun to boot. I sent out a couple to my friend's respective daughters, I hope they have as much fun with it as we did.

Catch you guys next year! I hope everyone had a nice holiday!

What up, biatch, ok, that's not nice, um we got a cool camera too?

We are crying emo teardrops, here they are. We love you Mayo, whoever you may be, don't get me started, but all you need is a decent camera and a Christmas tree. T-Bone saw your post, laughed his ass off, and did this in like 30 seconds. There are more pics, mind you, but we didn't want to belabor the point. Georgia sistahs, see? We can all do it. And then some. Mayo, if you do ever happen to surf by here, BRING IT. Cuz we already done brought it.

P.S. to the family who have thought I have losted my mind, don't be askairt, it's just weirdo blog people stuffs.

There's a reason I work in the Deli, and not the Bakery

Case in point, this kinda lopsided ugly ass "Tardis" cake. Did y'all know it's kinda hard to draw a Tardis on a cake with icing and stuff? Well, it is. Looks like Doctor Who is encountering some intergalactic turbulence that is making his outline all wonky. Not unlike my head, which is currently full of unpleasant things, and I don't mean thoughts, more like stuff that involves the heavy use of tissues. And I have to work today, but I'm trying to limit my cold medicine intake because I don't want to fall in a slicer. Not that there is going to be anyone there anyway, everyone in the Tri-city area was there last night, buying up everything in preparation for the big snowstorm, which is currently howling outside my window. Hopefully everyone is safe inside munching on their 6 slices of olive loaf cut on medium.

Notice the look of joy at the gift of a bag of cheese popcorn. Doesn't take much. Actually, this was part of a theme present given to her by her Grandparents--it also involved a Hannah Montana nightgown, and a couple of movies. Whenever she stays with her grandparents overnight, they watch movies and she and Grandpa munch up most of a bag of this cheesy goodness.

In contrast to the unrestrained joy of the last picture, this is an example of the gritted teeth smile of why the hell did you get me this I thought there were Doctor Who dvds in that last big package?

But wait! Recovery of happiness when she figured out that she can actually use it to make things. She's starting simple, making bags, because she is a little bag lady waiting to happen, after all. She also got a certificate for 10 bucks worth of material. She started bugging Terry first thing this morning about it. She must expect him to hook up the sled dogs and mush her butt on over there. I haven't even heard a car TRY to go up our street.

Happy Birthday Annie Bananie!

My youngest turns 11 today, hard to believe, and of course I have to do the obligatory picture thing. It took me a looooong time to decide to have a second child, and Annie made it in just under the wire, because I had declared age 30 as my cut-off point for birthing babies. I think I discovered I was pregnant in March, and my birthday is in April. I'm kinda glad she snuck all in there, life wouldn't be the same without her. That's Al splayed out on the floor behind her, with a daggone dirty sock.

She was pretty much this happy all the time, this chair is one of those vibratey bouncy things, ours had a battery in it so you could be lazy and not even jiggle it with your foot. Which is kind of weird, because aren't you really not supposed to be all shaking babies? At any rate, see how chubby her cheeks are? We could get the vibration just right and watch those babies jiggle like jell-0.

This picture reduced her to tears, Terry was looking at it and said Wow, Annie, you have big eyes! Well, she must have thought that was some kind of disease, because she started crying and was all "I have BIG EYES? I have BIG EYES?!?" Also, I think she kinda looks like one of those poor little sad Russian orphans in this one, or that could just be the crazay 70's style shirt, which could possibly be a hand me down from Lisa's daughter.

And here she is this past summer? spring? OK, it's a recent pic, except obviously before she cut her hair off for Locks of Love. Dang, you don't really so much notice them growing up until you take a good look, and poof, there it is. Or is that Whoop? She's all like a young lady and stuff, now, ouch. She's also a wonderful caring person, which is a feat growing up around the likes of me. Guess I will have to give Terry credit for that one. Happy Birthday to mah baby! And now, I must go and make a cake and figure out how to draw a Tardis on it.

Bang Bang Choo-Choo Train

So last night we went to the basketball game at Annie's school. She got to be captain of the cheerleaders for this go round so she thought she was the poo. Terry took a bunch of pictures, but well, they were of jumping around itty girls, so not that many came out. This is the best of the bunch. It's funny because the B team has like forty leven cheerleaders and the A team has like, four. Annie is actually supposed to be on the A team, but this is her last year at this school and she wanted to be on the team with her (younger) best friends, and she had to get all pouty to do it, but it all worked out in the end. Oh, the team lost, but at least they didn't get their butts handed to them like last week. They might have had a sportin' chance if the other team hadn't had some huge gorilla kid (ha, I think that might be him in the background of the pic, note how close he is to being the same height as the ref) who just stood under the basket with his arms up and picked off rebounds and threw them back up into the basket, while our teeny guys skittered

around his ankles like pesky ants at a picnic.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CRIMINAL?

GHOST "Santa Claws" McEVILCAT
WANTED

For advanced Christmas tree desecration, including the breaking of ornaments and the bending of limbs in a most non flattering manner

I have to work 30 hours next week, and I am not happy about that, although I'm sure I will enjoy the jingle jangle of Christmas coinage in my pocket when I get paid for slogging away in the slicing mines. Today we have ham for $1.99 a pound, thank God there's a 4 pound limit. Think of me tonight, peoples. :)

Redrum

Cumulative snowfall over the last two days, not sure how much. Enough for the pansy schoolboard to cancel though. I swear, in the past, one time we got eight inches and the kids still went. Lord knows people were still out and about last night after their deli ham.

Annie with her snow playing implements of destruction. The purple thing is a block mold, she had visions of building a fort, and the other thing? Um, it's actually part of a catch type game, but in this instance it's serving as a diggy thing. You know, so she could poke at the snow first to make sure it wasn't a frozen kitten or a mangled rabbit before she stuffed it in her mold.

The winter counterpoint to the leaf angel of fall, no she hasn't collapsed in the snow while we just stay inside and take pics of her for the blog.

Hell on Earth, just sayin'. Plus, they conveniently left out the ZILLIONS of people milling about in your way, with whiny overtired children. But, if you are looking for an ornament for say, a necrophiliac dentist, they probably have it. No, seriously, I did see one aimed at morticians. But Bronner's is a wholesome place full of sunshine and love, so there probably really isn't a section of ornaments celebrating deviant practices. In other news, it's the second snowday in a row here, hence the title. I keep expecting to see those creepy twins at the top of the stairs. I'm almost looking forward to going to work just so I can get away from the endless bickering!!! Santa is soooooo watching these girls, I hope he can get his hands on enough coal.

HO HO HOw about this month be over already?

I ran out of time today trying to figure out how to link things, I will add more to this wondrous epistle when I get home from work.

Yeah, I got nothing clever

Slow week, or maybe it just feels slow to me. I'm trying to get acclimated to being back in the workforce, but after something like 13 years, even with sporadic exercising and doing mucho housework, my muscles are soft like a marshmallow. I did not know there were so many teeny tiny muscles in my back, go figure. Hopefully I will get used to it though and end up in better shape.

Our Christmas tree this year. Yeah, we're Fakey McFakersons with the tree. I would like a real one, but watching Patti sneeze her fool head off, while perhaps being entertaining, does not seem so much with the Christmas spirit. Oh, looks like Doctor Who has Tardised in to check it out.

I like this little Charlie Brown version, made by Annie last year. We were trying to grow something or the other and it didn't work, so she asked for the little itty clay pot thing, which she turned upside down and turned into a treestand for her pipe cleaners. As usual, she just felt like making a tree, so she grabbed pipe cleaners and beads and well, there ya go. We usually keep a ton of art supplies around for her. I would much rather see her do things like this than sit slack-jawed for hours in front of her Webkinz site or the tv. The package is from her to Ghost, I believe it contains a glove. He kept stealing hers out of the closet to play with, so she found an old pair and she's giving him one. Maybe she's saving the other one for his birthday, I don't know.

Miss T, she loves me, and she knows how ate up I am with the Anglophilia. So she sent me these buttons, which she calls badges. I'm gonna have to hide the flag one from Annie or she's gonna make off with it. Also, it came with an itty card that said HO HO HO on the outside. At first I thought she was insulting me, but then I remembered it's December.

And how would you like that cat sliced, maam?