Just In Case You Ever Wondered

I love Christmas.

But now I'm kind of ready for it to be over.

I know what you're thinking:  "Um, Christmas is over.  It's December 27th.  The rest of the Christmas-celebrating masses moved on yesterday.  Idiot."

Man, you guys are harsh sometimes.

The reason I bring up the whole I'm-ready-for-Christmas-to-be-over thing is that I'm usually not ready to give up the Christmas ghost until mid-January.  Sometimes I use Epiphany as an excuse, sometimes I say that I won't take all the decorations down until the wise men have had a chance to arrive.  Sometimes I'm honest and say I just don't want Christmas to be over yet.

This year, though, I might go nuts and take it down right after the new year.  I won't lie to my children again and tell them that Christmas decorations can do double duty for Valentine's Day (by the by- does anyone actually decorate for Valentine's Day?  I keep seeing all these ideas on Pinterest- do people really do that?  Am I the only one that thinks that's crazy?).

We're not done celebrating yet, though.  We still have some traveling to do and some family to see.

Which means one of my favorite parts of the holidays isn't over yet!

That's right:  I still have more presents to wrap!  It's funny; I'm not much of a gift person, and yet I love to wrap gifts.


Gift wrapping was one of my favorite parts about one of my high school jobs.  I worked in a drugstore, and when I wasn't working in the back in the pharmacy, I was up front, where we sold gifts and make up and stuff.  And around the holidays?  I spent many an hour at the gift wrapping station, making perfume bottles and knick knacks look all purdy for the pathetically grateful men who were out shopping for their womenfolk.

Hey, have I ever told you guys about the time I was talking to my Spanish Conversation Partner about that high school job?  I was a Spanish minor in college, and part of the program included spending a certain amount of time every week talking to one of our Spanish-speaking international students.  This gave us gringos an opportunity to practice with someone who wasn't allowed to speak English to us, and was a lot of fun, besides.  Well, one day one of my Partners and I were talking about who knows what, when for some reason I mentioned my high school job.  He asked a question about it, and while I was trying to answer, he began to look alarmed.  I continued attempting to explain myself, his face looking more and more incredulous and a trifle worried, until he suddenly began laughing, and I decided it was time to stop talking.

When he finally regained control of himself, he explained to me that I had told him I sold drugs in high school.  I was a drug dealer.  It turns out they don't really have an equivalent word for "drugstore" in Spanish; they just stick with 'la farmacia.'


To sum up:  I love wrapping presents, and I am not now, nor have I ever been, a drug dealer.


I hope everyone had a terrific Christmas!

I Love My Job

Every occupation has it's positives and negatives, the parts you love, and the parts that you don't love so much.

At this point, I consider my job to be that of raising our three children.  I stay at home with them rather than leaving the house to work.  For the most part, I love my job.

Obviously, there are parts that I don't like quite so much.  Earlier this week, I was lying on the floor, building a giant block tower with Atticus.  Caedmon was toddling around, idly swinging a plastic golf club.  I became a little too immersed in the construction of the tower, and just caught a glimpse of Caedmon swinging the club back and forth a little too close to me before he whacked me in the head, square on the temple.  I saw stars, immediately experienced some severe nausea, and obviously, a killer headache.

All I really wanted to do was take some ibuprofen and lie down.  Atticus and Caedmon did not care.

Yesterday, Atticus took a mighty swing with that same freaking plastic club, and although he was aiming for a practice ball, he hit me on the elbow, and magically managed to hit my funny bone.

The plastic golf clubs have since been banned.

That didn't stop my boys, though.  They seem to have a hardwired need to swing stick-like tools at balls, and they don't care if I have laid down a no-golf-in-the-house rule, or how many injuries I have sustained.  I may have confiscated all the toys that I think could possibly be used to hurt me, but they make do with what they can find.

I found Caedmon hitting a baseball around the house with the toilet brush this morning.  Honestly, I'm just lucky he didn't find his other favorite forbidden toy:  the plunger.

Disgusting childhood habits aside, I know I'm very fortunate.  This morning at 8 am, after readying Adelaide for school,  Atticus, Caedmon, and I were still in our pajamas, reading books together on the couch.  I get to spend all day with our children, and even get a nice break every afternoon during naptime.

Speaking of naptime, now that it's here, I need to go disinfect our house.