Christmas 2010

Well, Santa came:

...and apparently someone felt it was now safe to pout.

Ooh, that boy woke up in a FOUL mood! It took about half an hour to get him to calm down. Every little thing was making him mad. He's starting to do these exaggerated face contortions when he's crying and having a tantrum that are freaking HILARIOUS. I know I shouldn't laugh, but the ridiculousness of it all makes it really hard.

We chatted on Skype with his Grandma and Aunt while we opened presents, which was really cool. I'd say the boy did very well for himself.

There are now officially way too many toys in my house. We need to weed out some of the baby stuff that he no longer uses. I think the additions to his train tracks and the Leaptop from Grandma were probably the biggest hits.

I got him a mixer for his kitchen. I was so excited to find something for it that wasn't pink! Don't these manufacturers know little boys like to cook too? Most of the top chefs in the world are men for Pete's sake!

My mom came over for a few hours to hang out with us and play with the boy. Check out what she gave me:

How flipping cool is that? Check out the copyright date on the box.

Can you believe she found this??? She collects junk and her boyfriend collects and sells scrap metal, so she's always coming across interesting stuff that people toss. This thing is intact.

It has all of the original paperwork and directions, as well as the baseboard for pinning your paper and even some of the original paper that came in the box!

Every piece is there, including the ballpoint pens and the little stick pins. Nothing is cracked, nothing is broken, not even the plastic base that houses it all. Check out what was under the base:

A paper refill pack with more designs on it! It has the paper inside and the original price tags. Thirty-three cents at K-Mart, y'all. Bargain.

Everyone keeps telling me I could get a lot for it on eBay. My mom said if I sell it I have to give her half of whatever I get. Here's the thing - I never had a Spirograph when I was a kid and I used to think they were so cool, so this baby is staying with me. I can't wait to try it out!

In other gift news, I also got the much wished for Home Depot gift card from my mother in law and promptly bought myself a shovel, a rake, a rack from which to hang them for the garage, a big bag of mulch, a bag of mulch/soil mix, some flower seeds, a little hand rake thing, and some felt pads for the bottom of the kitchen chairs. I've already dug up the dead flowering shrub in the front yard and a whole bunch of weeds. We have a LOT of big fat earthworms, which is awesome for my gardening aspirations.

Today, we're just kind of hanging out at home. I made a big lunch since my husband was telecommuting.

Alphabet soup from scratch with homemade chicken stock, bread fresh from the oven, and lemonade hand-squeezed by yours truly. We have learned that alphabet soup is a bad idea though. The boy insisted in pulling the pasta out of his bowl piece by piece and identifying each letter before he would eat it. Farfalle from now on!

I've started work on my December Daily. I'm just a little behind (HA!) but hopefully I won't still be working on it come March like last year. I did have to tell my husband that he needed to not let me scrapbook after I took my sleeping pills, because I made a few gaffes, shall we say, in my book. There are photos placed on the page crooked, and one page where I apparently stuck down a photo, then peeled it off the page and replaced it with another photo. When I peeled it off I pulled a lot of the patterned paper with it and didn't seem to notice or care due to my friends Ambien and Trazodone.

This year has been long, and hard, so I'm really looking forward to 2011 being much better. Everyone please be safe tonight! Remember to not drink and drive (obvs) and that if you do drink, you can call 1-800-AAA-HELP for a free ride home for you AND your car. Even if you don't plan on drinking keep that number handy in case someone else needs it, you know?

Have a great and happy New Years!