Jennifer Thursday!

Mike Doughty - 27 Jennifers!
Enjoy

Sittin' on the dock of the bay

Not really. I AM sitting at my breakfast bar wasting time. 'Cause I so don't want to clean the kitchen. I need to though, so I will get to it soon. 

I am also waiting for Mojo. {That sounds like a movie.} He has been gone for the past two nights on business. I hate it. The kids hate it. The dog hates it. He hates it. But we have to do it. Thankfully it doesn't happen very often at all. He used to have to do ALOT of travelling and I really really hated it. I got used to it though. I figured out how to sleep without him, but I hated it. Now I am out of the habit and usually wind up sitting up in bed all night imagining that the noises I hear are people breaking into the house to kill me and leave my children motherless.

This time I got smart and made the dog sleep in the room with me. He likes to sleep in his own bed at night and only come sleep in our bed in the mornings. He really didn't want to sleep in my room so on the second night he slept in the smack middle of the bed and made me sleep on the edge.  I could just imagine what he was thinking.

"Geez Mom, grow up! What exactly do you think I'M gonna do? Humph, well I'll sleep here BUT you won't like it! I'm sleeping right here in the middle! YOU sleep on the edge! I don't wanna be in here anyway! You closed the door most of the way and now I can't get out and get a drink of water or eat! You know I always eat after you go to bed. Man, I wish Dad would come home. Stupid Mom!"

He weighs 170 pounds! So I did not get alot of sleep last night anyway. But he got his revenge. Tonight Mojo comes home! So everyone can sleep where they belong, and the dog can get over being mad at me.

Until next time :)

Jennifer Thursday

It's BACK!

I know you've missed it.

Jennifer Thursday, where I post a link to a Jennifer song!

Here Ya go...

Nina Simone - Pirate Jenny

New Traditions

Every year on the last day of school I attack the girls as they get off the bus. And the annual "Last day of School Water Balloon Fight" commences.  This year as the Christmas holidays loomed toward me, I cast around looking for things to lighten me up and make me enjoy the Hols. I thought about the water balloon fight and about the fact that it was winter. I thought about the fact that the big girls don't catch the bus in out front yard anymore but down the street on someone else's corner.

I remembered something I saw on Pintrest. I didn't pin it at the time because I went back and looked for it for this post and could not find it. Anyway... it was a snowball fight in a can! I thought that is perfect. I can hide it behind the front door and bomb them when they walk in! So I went out and bought a Christmas tin shaped like a paint can and some white yarn. I spent one evening making big white Pompoms. I put it all together and hid it from my children.

And then I waited for the big day.


Only....

I forgot all about it.

Yep! I got sick with an inner ear imbalance caused by a prescription medicine and spent some time feeling dizzy and sick and throwing up and sleeping for days. And when the new medicine started to work and I felt a little better and finally like I could maybe drive again, Break was upon me and I forgot all about it in the frantic rush to catch up with all that I hadn't been able to do while living the worst hangover known to man. { and can I just say that it was HORRIBLE! and horribly unfair that I felt that way and I don't even drink that much! Like hardly ever! Not counting the company Christmas party, which is only once a year anyway!}

Nope, I had hidden the can in a tote filled to the brim with hidden presents and did not find it until Christmas eve. Doh!

So I decided that we would use it on New Years Eve! And that is what we did and the kids loved it. They want to do it every year now. so It is our new tradition. We don't have many for New Years. Really only the food stuff and the smashing of the gingerbread house. THAT is a subject for another post!

Where's Reggie

Meet Reginald Zelf the Christmas Elf. Reggie for short.
He has been very busy this Christmas season!

The most wonderful time of year....Maybe, sorta, not always

I set myself up. I really really did. I let my optimism get the better of me, or maybe it was wishful thinking. Or just total willful blindness.

I thought "Oh, this is great. Christmas. My mom hated Christmas, I can do this holiday, no problem! She was never here for the decorating or the movie watching or the baking or anything. Christmas eve and morning will be hard, but the rest of it? Piece. Of. Cake."

I know, I know. I can hear you shaking your heads from here. I own waterfront property on the river "Denial"!

So, I go bounding upstairs to the Christmas attic. (does it tell you anything, the fact that I have an attic dedicated to Christmas?) I pull out the first bin and in it, right on top, is this...

My mom made it when my brother and I were little. She couldn't get rid of it when she got rid of her other Christmas decorations after my brother died, but she couldn't keep it either, so it came to live with me years ago.
It has hung in pride of place over all my Christmases ever since.

The next things were these...

Mom gave me one and Mojo the other the year we moved into this house, one for each twin to inherit one day.
Then when I was digging around looking for my red and white ball ornaments (which I still haven't found) I ran into the nativity scene.

My dad made the manger from an apple crate the first year they were married and my mom had the Fontanini Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. Only she got rid of all the figures and only kept the manger. I found it in the attic and adopted it and it has been mine ever since. Only all the figures have been replaced by my mom, who gives us a new piece every year. All Fontanini. It now takes up the whole top of the buffet in the den. It is turning in to a small town, with a bakery and palm trees and lots of animals. Only I am not sure it I can stand to put it out this year. The Nativity was the only thing she put out each year. She bought several to replace the family one because she just couldn't put it out any more after my brother died. We used to play with the figures and animals and spend hours with it. I understand why she put it aside. I am blown away realizing what she did for me in letting me start it up again. In giving me pieces for it each year. She wanted her grandgirls to have memories or it and take pieces of it to start their own collections in time.

I really, really want to put it out this year, I just don't know if I can.

I am also now terrified of the land mine that was once the Christmas attic. I had no idea how much my mom is interwoven in my Christmases. I have no idea how I am going to keep diving in and getting sucker punched. But I have kids who I love more than life itself.  They deserve to have the very best Christmas I can give them. So into the breach I go.

Wish me luck.

Peppermint Popcorn - or Pinterest Tuesday

Okay, so like so many of us I have gotten addicted to Pinterest. I finally got tired of just pinning things several months ago and started to actually try some of the things I have pinned.

I also have been having trouble finding inspiration and motivation to post on here (as you can tell) so this evening as I was making the peppermint popcorn that I found through Pinterest I decided to make it a feature.

This particular pin came from Skip to my Lou , and may I say that I have fallen in love with this blog and have become a follower. So many many wonderful ideas!

So I am not going to give a step by step, 'cause she does that wonderfully well. I'm just gonna say that this stuff is YUMMY, and then go stuff my face!