The best plotted evil plans ...

... Yeah, Christmas started at 2am this morning on account of pee. A wet the bed and discovered his stocking so then he was up. Him in the living room woke M, who had also wet the bed(because I had forgotten to put a Goodnight on her). After stockings beds needed to be changed and by then K was up so we figured we'd just go with it and started on the presents.

Present opening and movie watching commenced as planned and we got down to the last 3 gifts each by about 7am when everyone finally took a nap. Everyone but J who thought he should guard the presents that were left. in case M got up. We didn't totally finish with gifts until about 11am, which is cool.

I'm worn out ... want to nap, lay down, can't nap ... I'll have to try again in a little bit. Then I'll have to give J a turn since he didn't get any nap at all this morning. I'm also too tired to go into who got what - My gifts included some cool new spice jars, a sewing machine, a new watch band, $40 in iTunes cards, a new lamp table combo for the living room and chocolate(yum!). The kids got toys and other stuff. For J I got a coffeemaker, a new clock radio and a new MP3 player. Everyone is happy with the gifts they got ... I want more sleep.

Merry Christmas!

Cass :)

'Twas The Night Before Christmas ...

...When all thru the house not a creature was stirring not even the diabolically intelligent mouse ... the monkeys were tucked all snug in their beds while visions of gifts dance in their heads ... me in the basement and J in the kitchen I settled in for a long evening Sim ...

Okay so it doesn't rhyme but 'tis close to the truth. The kids are settled and J is setting up his baked beans(they'll cook all night). I'm not going to Sim though, I'm tired and want to go to bed - I have 4 gifts to open tomorrow and after moving them upstairs and having a preliminary shake of them I have no idea what they are(although one may be a sewing machine...I'd like that, no really I would!). J knows I like to try to guess my gifts just before I open them so he sabotages at least one of them so I'll never guess in a million years what it is. One year he put cat bell balls in my gift and I couldn't figure out for the life of me what it was!

We do have a very smart mouse in the house right now, he keeps jumping out of the kitchen garbage at us ... we almost caught him today but he ran away before I grabbed him. He is totally ignoring the mousetrap. I'm thinking of getting this to trap him and then I'll carry him off somewhere and he can feed a stray cat or something. All our cat does is lurk in the kitchen looking foolish.

The kids were happy with their traditional Christmas Eve gift of new pajamas even though A was grumbling about it earlier today. K's has the grumpy Care Bear on it and it says "Seriously Grumpy" she thought it was very funny! A got skateboard pajamas with camouflage shorts and M got a set that says "Pretty Ballerina" on them. We got them many other gifts as well ... well not many many. A & M each have 7 gifts each and K has 6(she's harder to buy for), I have 4 and J has 3.

I will attempt to drag out gift opening as much as I can, as usual, and the first gift the kids will get are their stockings on their beds. Then I'll have A&M open their most boring gifts first - new sheets and a new blanket each. Then I'll have K open the gift to the three of them - the Shrek 3 movie. We'll all watch the movie before we open any more gifts. I'm sure you'll hear the kids screaming from where you all are :) I figure with a gift every 1/2 hour or so after that I'll be able to drag out gift opening for about 5 hours :) So far this plan has served me well every other year. Open a gift, explore the gift, repeat. We don't' give the kids tons of stuff but other than the bedding it's all pretty great stuff ... at least J & I hope they will think so.

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from my family to yours.

Cass :)

Snow! There goes the neighbourhood. and Now I've seen everything!

I had a few thought today - yeah hard to catch the little buggers bouncing around in my skull don't'cha know :)

Figured it was past time for an update - First of all we got a huge amount of snow last Sunday...about 2 feet of it. I was going to take some pictures of our snowbound street but then didn't. I was going to get K to take shots of me in my full(and very ugly) winter coat but then didn't. There's lots of time this winter to take shots like that ... although I saw on the weather forecast they are calling for rain the next couple days which will do one or both of two things: 1 - melt all the snow, 2 - turn into a massive sheet of ice and make anyone moving around on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day miserable or both 1 & 2. None of that will effect me because as of J getting home from work we only have one outing planned for tomorrow(swimming) and then J & I will happily stay in the house for the next 3-5 days. The kids might want to go outside though.

So just four sleeps until the Day; I am excited to see how the kids react to their presents and interested to see what J got me(I have 4 gifts). I also hope J likes the 3 gifts I got him.

There goes the neighbourhood: I noticed that there is going to be a used car dealer setting up camp less than a block from my house /sigh/ why me?

Now I've seen everything!: Apparently the Spice Girls are singing together again /gasp/. Okay this may be old news to a lot of you but I live in self imposed darkness under a rock so I had no idea until I saw a bit of a new video of them on MuchMoreMusic. I was surprised to say the least ...


Blast from the past:

MMmmmmm Turkey!

We have had our turkey dinner! My Mom has to work Christmas day so we decided to have our turkey dinner today with her since she is in town and not on Christmas day(when we will have leftover turkey and ham instead).

Overall it has been a lovely day, we had family swim and the kids had swim lessons, I came home and took a nap, I had a lovely visit with my Mom who took me to the dollar store and bought us all a number of things as our gifts(she brought gifts as well which we all opened). I picked dishes - a nice new set of plates and bowls. I am very happy.

Then Mom and I went and she spent the money J and I gave her on new clothes, which was very nice and I'm glad she liked her gift.

We then spent the evening visiting and having a lovely time and although supper was late(7pm rather than 6pm since the turkey took longer than expected to cook) it was delicious as usual(J is excellent in the kitchen). All together it was the perfect way to spend a Saturday.

Thanks Mom!!

Cass :)

A surprise visit on a busy night ...

Yesterday evening was very busy for me, it was Christmas Concert night at my kids' school and my two younger ones were both performing and were excite about it so I went. The crazy thing was that the two kids performed over an hour apart. M was up first and had to be at the school for 5:15pm to go on at 5:30pm ... I wasn't supposed to go get her from her classroom until 6pm but as soon as she was off the stage I took off with her. A was to be at the school for 6:45pm to go on sometime between 6:30 and 7pm - A always ends up going last so I end up sitting through all the performances ... kind of my penance for ducking out early on the little kids earlier one.

So I was sitting around in the living room hoping J would be home by 5pm so he could drive me to the school for M's performance and I wouldn't have to walk it(again for the 4th time that day: I walk the kids to school and I go pick them up at lunchtime and yesterday was Craft Club for A so I had to walk a third time). I heard the door and shouted back to the back door "Is that you honey?" and my Mom's voice answered "No it's your Mother." I was so happy!! Her timing was perfect to show up on Concert night with her car :) Of course I was happy to see her as well!

We had a lovely visit, took M to her performance came back home and had supper(which I had cooked and ready very early so it was just serve and eat) then went back for A's performance. K opted to stay at the school after M's performance and M had to be placated with making cookies with Daddy when Mom and I took A to his but overall the evening was very pleasant! Mom is going to be back on the weekend to have a more Christmassy visit since she has to work on Christmas day.

So I just want everyone to know what a great Mom I have ... she has exquisite timing!! Only her showing up made my evening as nice as it could be considering how much I dislike having my routine messed with.

K took some pictures and some video of the performance I'll post them later because M is up(and it's 6am here) and needs to be settled in her spot on the couch:)

Cass :)

What this I'm feeling ... ?

Ah ha! I have found a glimmer of Christmas Spirit in my heart at long last! I tend to have to drag myself kicking and screaming into December. The kids beg me to put up the tree but I always refuse until December. This year the turning point was going Christmas Shopping(although finally getting my period after a week of hellish PMS may have had something to do with it as well) for presents for J with a good friend.

Today I also took the plunge and wrapped the gifts we have in the house and put them up on the TV stand with the tree ... I'm sure we have a shot in my Blog from last year let me check. Ah here it is! That's our tree from last year. The tree itself is always the same but I think we have more gifts this year. I'll post a picture later this month.

Of course let's not forget that it was almost a year ago that Sammy, our old dog passed away ... /sniffle/ which still makes me sad. Just the other day I stopped by someone's house that had a black lab that so deeply reminded me of Sammy that I just stood there crying and petting their dog. I excused myself ahead of time explaining that we had lost our dog and it still makes me sad(yes, I'm crying now in fact /sigh/).

Anyway it is meant to be a happy time of the year and although I still miss him I know he had a good life and a very long life.

Now I must brace myself for tomorrow. A has a doctor appointment and we're going to have to take 3 buses to get there! His appointment is for 10:50 am and we will have to leave the house at about 8:45am to get there in time(leaving us a little wiggle room just in case we miss a connection). I hope all the buses meet up correctly!! Yeah ... I'm sure it will be loads of fun ... not!

Cass :)

No words...

I'll freely admit the main reason I haven't been posting here is because I don't have much good to say. Oh, everyone is fine and our Christmas shopping is going well and I think the kids will like their gifts.

I on the other hand have not been fine. I fell behind in the housework(although the menuing is still going well) and have only just today got back to where I feel like I have my feet under me again. The laundry is under control and the house looks reasonable(although I know there are still hidden and not so hidden treasure troves of dirt). The cat is now completely switched to a new litter that is compostable and I can now flush his poo instead of throwing it in the trash(this oddly makes me very happy).

My mood this past week has been horrendous ... PMS and many other things I have no doubt. I have yelled at the kids and felt like an utter failure as a Mom and cried and yelled some more. I feel better today but I think I'll be getting my period very soon now so that helps. All in all the last 3 days have been very hard for me. As all of you know from reading my blog my temper is an issue(or I feel it is). I'm lucky to have a very understanding and long suffering man and my kids aren't near as bad as I feel they are sometimes. /sigh/ I don't know, I'm just having a hard time and it doesn't make any sense. Things are good right now, we have a budget and a plan, the house is reasonable and the kids are ... well, kids. I mean what do I expect? So things are good but I feel rotten. I'm hoping this time it was just PMS and I'll be able to shake the mood I've been in. I do feel better today(for all that I'm sniveling at the keyboard) and that is always a good sign.

I guess I'm posting this to let everyone know why I haven't been posting. I don't really want sympathy(because I don't feel I deserve or need it) I just wanted to explain.

Cass.