Playtime

After Christmasing for a couple of days, Peeper and I took one last trip to the mall for some shopping, lunch and hanging out at the mall's play area.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Everybody came over this evening for our big Christmas Giftapalooza.

Peeper got some cool stuff, but some of it was things that we couldn't play with right away, and when she ripped through all her gifts, and her cousins still had a bunch left, because they were taking turns, and because they had two packages each from us, whereas Peeper had a tiny package with cash in it from them, it took some talking to get her back on board with the whole "celebration" thing.

She was particularly interested in one of DaNiece's gifts, so I asked her "Do you want to spend some of your money on it?" She did, so I pulled up the Amazon app on my phone, and bought it right then and there.

She cheered up later, and by the time all the kids had a "glow show" with their new light-up Pillow Pets, she was pretty happy about her stuff, and even declared that the Pillow Pet "is perfect!"

When we were making plans for Christmas dinner, I volunteered Peeper and myself to help with several things, since we were in town for a few days ahead of time. Yesterday, we made pies, and somewhere along the way, Peeper had gotten the idea that she wanted to help prepare the turkey this evening.

So, after telling Uncle BabyBro, HerLovelyAunt and the cousins good night, (yelling up from the bottom of the stairs, "Good night! Have a good sleep! Don't let the bedbugs bite!") we got started on the turkey.

I'd told her all about what was involved, to make sure she knew what to expect. "It's a big, naked, dead bird. Are you okay with that?" She was very okay with it.

She wasn't especially thrilled when I opened up the giblet bag to show her the heart, liver and something, "I'm done looking at them now," but she played with the neck for quite a while. When it was time to get the kidneys out, I was icking out about doing it with my hands, and Peeper said, "You just have to be really brave, Mama. You can do it, you can do it. "

Well, hell, now I have to do it.

Once that was done, it was time to do the buttering, and she was all about that. She buttered that turkey up, but good, saying, "I love getting messy!"

Between the butter and the turkey juice, there was definitely another late-night shower before turning in.

Tomorrow will be the the Big Christmas Dinner.

Happy New Years Eve!

Somehow I let Peeper find out about that whole "midnight" thing, so she decided to wait up. My parents' neighbors really like their fireworks, so I figured, what the hell, she'll probably get woken up at midnight anyway. So, I told her she could stay up, and I'd take her outside at midnight to watch the fireworks.

Other than that, it was a quiet evening at home with Grandma and Grandpa.

Later we watched a Curious George Christmas movie, and The Lorax (which we'd never seen.) It was almost over at midnight, and she was about to drop. I took her outside, but she wasn't really into it. We weren't able to get a good view of many fireworks, but I did see and hear what looked like quite a display not far from us, but with houses blocking the view, so if we're there next year, we'll try going over there.

So, back inside, finished the movie, and off to bed - after midnight for the second night in a row.

Head Band Bandit

I've been really annoyed by the condition of Peeper's box of hair accessories and saying for a while that I'm going to do something about it, but nothing was actually happening.

Several weeks ago, I saw a cool headband hanger made from ribbon on Pinterest, and then someone saw that I'd pinned it and sent me a message on Facebook that a friend of hers was going to be selling them. Awesome! Except she was looking to charge $20+ for them. Um, no. 

Fast-forward a few weeks, and a very crafty, sewing-type friend was asking about storage options for headbands, this one came up, and she said she'd probably make one. 

So, I contacted her and said "If you make one for your girls, and find that it's not a $20 job, could you make me one for something less than that?" 

Long story short (ha), I bought some ribbon to match Peeper's bedroom (except I accidentally got organza for the red ribbon, and it's really going to annoy me that it's not regular ribbon), and my friend whipped up a headband holder for me in about five minutes. And she wouldn't even let me pay her for it. (Although I did insist that she keep the leftover ribbon, since I had no use for it anyway.) 

We gave it to her for Christmas, and can you believe that I've actually put it up already? 

What do you think? 

I'm not too sure about having it so close to the nightlight, I may have to experiment a bit with locations, but there's not much wall space to work with, and I'd like to keep it close to the dresser, where the rest of her hair things are. I may tack it to the side of the dresser itself.

Of course, once Peeper could see all of her headbands, she had to wear them. All of them.

Merry Christmas!

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Look Who's Been Here!

I heard some sleigh bells outside, took a peek in the living room, and look what I found!

Christmas Countdown: Christmas Eve

After much discussion and debate, Shrike and I decided that, at least for this year, the best compromise between our two ideas of the "right" way to schedule gift opening was for Peeper to open her gifts from us this afternoon (minus a couple that we think are still hiding under the tree), and we will wait on ours until tomorrow.

Of course, she will also have Santa gifts in the morning, and we'll be getting together with Shrike's family later in the day, where there will be more gifts, so it seemed to make sense to spread it out a bit. 

That and she was just miserable - and making us miserable - with the waiting. 

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This evening, we had dinner at Shrike's sister and sister-in-law's house, and then went to a Christmas Eve service at their church (the one where we were married). 

When we got home, we found a lovely little gift from (not-so-)PerfectPup - a pile of doggy diarrhea in the middle of Peeper's bedroom floor. So, bedtime was a bit delayed while Shrike cleaned that up (thank you, Shrike!!!). 

Meanwhile, I had the much more pleasant task of helping Peeper put out some treats for Santa. He got some fudge, pretzel treats and peppermint bark, as well as a K Cup to make himself a Cafe Mocha. We're pretty sure he knows how to use a Keurig; Peeper figures he probably has one at the North Pole. 

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Gifts still under the tree for everyone but Peeper, plus her already-opened gifts (plus a booty-load of hand-me-down Polly Pockets that her cousin gave her this evening).

(And our sad, sad, dried-out tree.)

Christmas Countdown: Caroling Read Christmas Books Caroling!

MOMS Club when caroling at a local retirement community today, but I didn't think Peeper and I ought to go because we've been sick, so I switched out her advent note to a re-run of "Read Christmas Books" because that sounded low-impact.

Oh no. She was not okay with that at all. She freaked out about not being able to go caroling. Actually, she's feeling better, and slept normally last night, which means that she's not coughing or particularly congested, so I suppose she's probably not so contagious, after all.

I, on the other hand, feel awful. I am congested as hell, have sinus pain all the way down to my teeth and my ears are starting to stop up. Thankfully, Shrike was wonderful enough to offer to go caroling with Peeper instead, which worked out great.

Peeper got to go, Shrike really enjoyed it (it's the first time she's gone), and I got to chill out and take a nap. Wonderful!

Christmas Countdown: Caning at the Mall

Our advent drawer said we were going to hand out candy canes today, and by golly, we were going to do it, even if Peeper and I both felt like crap, and we were all cranky as hell.

Shrike had some shopping left to do, so she headed out to do that, while Peeper and I did the cane thing.

Peeper was wearing her "Snow Much Fun" shirt, tinsel hairbands and a Santa hat, and was absolutely adorable, but for some reason, I didn't get any photos of her. Sorry.

Because I am an idiot, we decided to go to the mall instead of Target, and we handed out a few, then Peeper wanted to see Santa, which involved standing in line for about thirty minutes. We did cane everyone in the line, but mostly, we were standing, and by the time we got to see him, I was beyond done.

We went over to the little pizza place down the hall, and just as I was filling up our drink, who showed up - Mommy!

We ate, and then poked around the kitchen store a bit, where I said, "I want that, and that, and that . . . " and then we came home.

And that was way more than any of us should have attempted today.

We were supposed to go Christmas caroling at a retirement community tomorrow with MOMS Club, but I've already cancelled. Peeper will be disappointed, and so am I, but besides just not being up to it, I'd hate to expose the residents to whatever we've got.

Garbage Gifting

This is how you leave a gift for your trash men when it's a rainy, windy day. The gift is taped to a paper plate, which is sealed inside a ziplock, which is taped to the top of the trash can. They can't miss that, can they?

Movie Morning

I made a trip to Target last night - all by myself, except for meeting up with A while I was there, semi-intentionally - and among other things, I picked up a DVD of the Muppet's A Christmas Carol, because Shrike says it's her favorite version.

We made another (double) batch of Santa's Special Hot Cocoa (it still hasn't made us feel any better, though) and settled in to watch it.

We may have to try again, because I fell asleep somewhere around the time the Ghost of Christmas Present showed up.

Oops.

But the cocoa sure was good.

Santa's Special Hot Cocoa

This afternoon, Peeper and I made "Santa's Special Hot Cocoa" from a recipe in one of her books. In the book, Santa uses said cocoa to cure the reindeers' colds, so they can pull the sleigh. We're hoping it works as well on us.

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Christmas Countdown: Montessori Winter Program

Today was the Winter Program at Peeper's school, which is put on by the Toddler and Children's House classes. So, of course, it was adorable.

I had planned for Peeper to wear her Pretty Fancy Christmas Dress, but she told me that she didn't want to, because "it's too hard to get on and off," which she later confirmed meant, "It's too hard to go pee-pee in."

She's been having enough trouble with that, as it is, so I agreed to let her wear something else. Besides, she told me, "It's not a Christmas program, it's a snow program." So, she wore her snow shirt.

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Packaging the Treats

I packaged up a bunch of treats this evening, and was inordinately proud of myself for finding this gift tag for this gift.

Christmas Countdown: Gingerbread House

In the past, we've decorated pre-made gingerbread houses, but this year, Shrike's coworkers gave us a kit, along with some other "while you are recovering" gifts, so we've moved up to the big time.

It was a little tricky, but we managed it.