Quiet Week

this is a stuffed animal i'm making for a pregnant friend. they love mandolin so much that they're naming their child after her. They're givin their daughter mandolin's middle name. it's an honor. I can't blame them, i like the kid and her names too.

After getting about 3 feet of snow over the weekend, we're having a quiet week. All of the schools in the state cancelled school until January. It's just cheaper to keep the kids home this week, especially because the past few years when June comes around, they forgive the snow days and just let the kids out on schedule. Running the buses, AC, power and schools is very expensive and apparently they save a boatload by doing it. My guy is now attached at my hip this week. I made him go shovel the driveway and the street (they don't plow anything but major streets here), and today he completed that task, so I have to invent something for him to do.

Christmas Dinner is as follows:

Choice of: Steak, pork chops, tuna steaks

Gravy

sausage dressing

roasted garlic mashed potatoes

green beans in the pressure cooker (takes 5 minutes)

dinner rolls for those who eat them

Bigass salad same as Thanksgiving

Fruit tay

and Chocolate mousse made with Baily's irish creme and tia maria

or sugar free pie

We're openinig gifts at 12 and eating at 3 to get my inlaws the hell out of my house by 6. It's supposed to snow that day, so we might be rid of them earlier!

So far the tree has been knocked over twice, the kitten has peed on the tree once, the dog i dog sit has eaten three ornaments (she doesn't eat dog trats but eats a salt cookie?) and between Mandolin and the kitten, 7 presents have been unwrapped. They (the both of them) love to pull the bows off the gifts.

This year when i spent my 5 hours of wrapping hell, I used some fancy scmancy expensive scotch tape special for gift wrap. That stuff peeled off the gifts after 4 days and I had to go back with packing tape to keep the stuff wrapped. I should ahve just used packing tape as usual and ignored the pretty tape display. The tree, being left up to me, has giant outside lights on it instead of the little lights. I like the big light look with all of our homemade ornaments, it's "homey."

Wednesday Mandolin is going to her christmas party at daycare so she can see her baby. A new baby started there about a month ago and Mandolin's been asking me to give her a baby (a real one) ever since. If Mandolin is nice, she gets to help feed the baby and hold her. It's good that Mandolin isn't the youngest anymore. Now she wants to be a big girl. My only worry is that she'll hurt the baby. The baby was premature and is still tiny and has some brain damage. The baby has a large dent in her head from birth trauma. When I held my cousin's son a few weeks ago, Mandolin went up to that baby and punched him in the face, so I'm worried she's going to hit this brain damaged baby in the head. She's been good so far, but then again, I haven't held this baby either.

My father in law has decided to dress as santa for christmas day, i'll be sure to tell those of you who got her holiday picture how that turns out.