Today I took the kids out for a walk thinking the temperature didn’t look too bad. I optimistically took my camera, thinking I’d snap some shots. I took very few because it was deceptively cold out. The base temperature wasn’t bad but I had forgotten to take good old Canadian wind chills into consideration and the wind made it so that we took a brisk (brisk = “come on Hayley, walk faster… no, faster! Okay, let’s race to that mailbox!”) stroll around the block and that was it.

I did catch the above though, of a fairly large inflatable Santa on an equally large inflatable polar bear. I can never decide whether these things are funny, normal, or gaudy. I have to get a picture of the house near George’s parents where the owners have a ginormous inflatable Santa, bear, and rotating carousel, all of them fully lit up. It’s a little frightening, really.

I also managed a picture of Hayley and Ernie. Ernie comes everywhere with us.

Breanna sang in her “ahhhhh laahhh” way, and didn’t seem to mind the cold until we turned the last corner and had the wind coming straight at us. Then she started saying “oh! ooh!” in a rather unimpressed way, and I think she was happy to come inside. I didn’t get any pictures of her outside at all, but after I took her coat off, I did take a shot of her in the Best Hat Ever. I love it because it’s cute and also because the velcro means she can’t rip it off like every other hat I’ve tried.

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I’ve always known that I had a gene that makes me an incredible sap, crying over all kinds of lame things, but tonight I think I reached an all-time low. I watched “Elf” for the first time because it was playing on CBS. It was great, and I loved it. And I cried during the last ten minutes.

What the HELL is wrong with me?!

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There’s a commercial that has aired a few times over the holiday season so far and I can not for the life of me remember what it’s for. I’m pretty sure it’s for some big store chain and a sale they’re having. All I know is that it shows a family opening gifts and then the husband opens his and it’s a digital camera. He’s insanely excited about it and starts taking pictures right away.

Then he takes pictures of the food. And his wife clearing plates for the dishwasher. And his kid sitting around looking bored. And his wife while she takes a shower.

After we saw it, George looked at me and said, “that’s you.”

It’s sadly accurate.

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Tomorrow we’re taking the kids to see Santa and then we’ll drop them off with George’s parents because I want to go to pick up Hayley’s big ticket gift from Santa because if they happen to all sell out we will honestly have to go to every damn Walfart in the entire city until we find it. We’re going to get her this vanity. At first I thought it was a bit overkill since we were looking for a plain one with pretend styling tools, but considering how much she loves to sing, I think it will be a big hit.

Please think good thoughts as I try to fight my way through the crowds of other freaked out mothers looking for THE perfect gift. Yeesh.

I’m a little behind on my blog reading so I only noticed this morning that Andrea invited me to a come-as-you-are blog party. Which meant, grab your camera, snap a picture, no changing your clothes or fixing yourself up. So here you go, Andrea, I came to your party in a grey t-shirt, shower-damp hair, and no make-up. Sheesh.

(Then you get to “invite” three people to your own party, so I tag Amanda, Carol, and Chantal.)

Lately Hayley’s favorite thing to do is to try to hide and then surprise whoever happens to come along first. Take the photo above for instance. I was folding up some bedding and she knew that. She also knew where the bedding goes – in the linen closet. I was doing this in the living room so she wandered down the hall, then closed the door to her room. I thought she had gone inside. She often closes it if she’s changing her clothes or if she wants to play with something inappropriate for Breanna. I thought nothing of it.

And then I opened the linen closet and nearly peed myself when Hayley shouted “SURPRISE!” from her contorted position on the shelf.

Naturally, I asked her to stay there while I got my camera. Then when she’s a teenager and thinks I am lame, I can show her that once upon a time she thought I was enough fun to scare the crap out of me.

In other Hayley news, today I was thinking about Ikea because I want to get this for Breanna, and for some stupid reason Ikea is the only place that carries it around here. Ikea is a store I hate going to, partly because it’s crowded and a bit of a maze, but also because I always want to pile everything I can onto a palette and bring it all home. When I get an Ikea catalog in the mail, it’s kind of like porn – I horde it and look at it repeatedly, preferably when I’m all alone and can drool openly.

Anyway, despite the fact that I was thinking about Ikea, I didn’t actually mention it out loud. Hayley was playing with my old Sesame Street playset in the middle of the living room floor. She piled Big Bird, Maria, and Cookie Monster into the garbage truck and drove it across the floor and then pulled up next to some blocks. She made Maria get out of the truck and had her announce, “Okay, everyone! We’re at Ikea, let’s go shopping!”

It must be genetic.

These two pictures have nothing to do with today’s entry, they just happened to be two that I took today and loved, so I posted them. Breanna thinks these cat ears are incredibly funny.

And Hayley just looks pretty with them on.

Today was one step towards getting on with Christmas. Two games for Hayley arrived today, via super secret FedEx. Well, sort of secret. Just in the sense that Hayley was playing in her room with the door closed and had her music blasting (wait a minute… is she a teenager already?!) and didn’t hear the guy come to the door. They’re both Cranium games, and I can barely wait to give them to her but I will wrap them up and just hang in there. One is called Cariboo, and it’s a treasure hunt game that she’s played once before at a friend’s house. They were all only three back then and she’s much more into games now so I think she’ll be really happy; it’s a very cute game. The other one is called Hullaballoo and I’m very interested in this one because it seems like a very good activity game for long and cold winter days. It’s almost like a combination of statue, twister, and musical chairs. I look forward to playing them with her.

Playing games was a big part of my own childhood. We regularly played board games like Mastermind, Parcheesi, Life, Battleship, Clue, and many more than I can’t even think of right now. To this day I still love board games but my circle of friends doesn’t really do that. George and I played Scrabble once, many years ago in Halifax but haven’t since, despite having a set in our cupboard. I don’t know why, it’s one of my favorites. I also love Boggle, also because of the word geek factor, and I love Scattergories which is my current favorite of all. I’m equally open to card games too, and have fond memories of exciting rounds of 31 and May I? with my family, especially my grandmother on my dad’s side; we spend many summer afternoons having lunch at her table and then playing cards.

When we used to go to Vermont for a week with my aunt and uncle, and sometimes my cousins, we would sit in the add-on room of the trailer, facing Lake Champlain in a really nice, fairly quiet recreational trailer park. There, at about 9 pm, we would start to play a board game called Balderdash. The object is to try to fake people out. When it’s your turn, you read out an obscure word. Everyone then makes up some sort of definition (or the real one if they should happen to know it), and then you read all the definitions plus the real one. People guess what the real definition is; players get points if they fake you out and anyone guessing the actual meaning of the word gets bonus points.

Typed out it sounds tame. In reality it is a hysterically funny game. The level of ridiculousness we would reach in our phony definitions – and the fact that people, usually my poor aunt – would believe the craziest ones, would have us laughing so loud that I’m surprised we never got kicked out or at least given a warning. What with the lake right there in front of us, I’m sure there must have been some echo factor that carried our voices and our incredulous outbursts – “you really believed it was a special brush made for detangling a skunk’s fur?!” – all over the park.

I miss playing games. I’m glad Hayley likes them too. We play Snakes and Ladders, obnoxious though it may be sometimes, and we play the farm Hide and Seek board game that she loves so much. In between, we play Go Fish. I know my dad has gotten her the Dora version of Candyland and I look forward to that as well as our two new games. It’s a really nice way for us to pass Breanna’s nap time. When she gets a little older, I want to introduce her to other childhood favorites, like the ones mentioned earlier, plus Operation, Mousetrap, and even games like Connect Four.

The only game that will be conspicuously missing from our collection, much to my sister’s disappointment will be Monopoly. There have been games I have loved and games that were mediocre but acceptable. Monopoly is the one game I flat out despise and refuse to play again.

Sorry Amanda! Maybe you can get yourself a Monopoly set and Hayley can come play it with you!

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Last night, George had to work late so it was just three girls for supper. I made a Beef Skillet Dinner since it’s easy to do even if your kids are clingy (they were), fast if you’re hungry (I was), and stays warm nicely for anyone who wasn’t home to eat at supper time (George).

Breanna’s starting to eat a bit more at one sitting now than she used to. She’s been eager to try anything we might be eating and she seems to enjoy it, but she didn’t have a huge appetite. She still eats less at a time than Hayley did at a year, but she’s getting there.

Sometimes she is so dainty when she first starts out.

Of course that doesn’t capture the tomato all over her face and the pieces of pasta that missed her mouth and ended up in her lap, nor does it show the dish that she tossed on the floor when she was all done. But she did enjoy it and ate two servings.

Hayley, didn’t mind the meal even though it’s not her favorite. The biggest surprise of all to me was that she requested milk with it. Usually I have to coerce her into drinking it or at least dress it up by making hot chocolate, but last night she randomly mentioned that all her friends like milk and asked if she could have some for supper. Not being stupid, I immediately gave her a full cup and she drank it all before she was even half done her meal. Then she gave me her best supermodel “got milk?” pose.

Me? Oh I ate all the food on my plate. It may not be fancy, but it’s damn tasty and if there’s one thing I love to do, it’s eat.

Beef Skillet Dinner:
– 1 lb ground beef
– garlic powder, basil, oregano, etc to taste (whatever you like on your beef)
– 1 envelope dry onion soup mix
– 1 large can diced tomatoes
– 2 cups water
– 2 cups of any small pasta like macaroni, penne, etc.

Brown beef with seasonings, then drain. Add onion soup mix and tomatoes, then stir well. Add water. Bring to a boil. Add pasta, then mix together. Lower to a simmer and cover. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pasta is done and most liquids are absorbed.

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Both girls are getting an Aquadoodle mat for Christmas. I’m not sure if it’s from Santa or George’s sister. I’m pretty sure though that it’s the one with Thomas the Tank Engine. Generally speaking, no one here is the least bit interested in Thomas the actual show, but the Aquadoodle itself is really neat, and Hayley loves trains. You can use one of the special markers to lay down a train track on the mat and the Thomas train will follow it. I’ve always wanted to get Hayley one of these so I’m looking forward to it. Now if only I could figure out what to get them individually from us!

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I noticed today that there are only 13 days left until Christmas. It’s hard not to notice, really. Hayley has an advent calendar so I always know the exact date by breakfast time, which is the longest I can hold her off from getting to that tiny square of chocolate. She also has the countdown calendar that we made together, and every day she peels off one more number, leaving us with X number of sleeps until the big day.

It’s getting redundant of me to say this every year, but I’m just not ready. Oh sure, the tree is up and has been since the U.S. Thanksgiving because I couldn’t wait any longer. We’ve been enjoying the holiday-themed shows on various television networks. We’ve watched our Mickey Mouse Christmas DVD, the Caillou Holiday movie, the cartoon version of the Grinch, and a really bad remake of Rudolph on video.

But me? I’m not ready. We still have so much to get. So far Santa has gotten the ball pit tent and an Aquadoodle set for the girls but we still have to get Hayley’s play vanity and the stuff to go with it, Breanna’s musical instrument, and one more gift from us to each of them. We also have to get stocking stuffers, though those are usually pretty easy thanks to dollar stores. And we haven’t gotten any gifts for anyone in our families.

I know what the holidays are supposed to be about. Too bad my nerves don’t understand that and are going haywire over how quickly this month is zipping by with so much left to do.