Bye 2008, hello 2009!

Posted on December 31, 2008 by Sherry

Overall 2008 has been a pretty darn good year for me. Other than the sheer volume of germs that invaded our home thanks to what got passed onto Hayley at school, we’ve had good health. We certainly aren’t rich, but we managed to get by and then some, finding enough left over for fun stuff too. We had a good year here in general so I can’t offer up any substantial complaints about 2008.

That being said, I love New Year’s Eve because no matter how good a year has been, I am always eager to see what’s in store for next one. I don’t know what will happen in 2009 although I certainly have my hopes and aspirations. But just the fact that it’s a brand new year is good enough for me.

Tonight, George is entertaining a bar full of drunken people by playing and singing live music, and while I wish I was there, I’m having a quiet celebration here at home with my girls. We have wine (mine is red wine, theirs is actually 7Up in fancy wine glasses), we have snacks, we have good music (somehow I only just discovered Jason Mraz today but holy crap is he ever amazing. Check him out here, you won’t be sorry! This song in particular may make you need to take a cold shower.), and soon I’ll turn on the television to watch the ball drop. For me it’s just not really New Year’s Eve if I can’t see Dick Clark’s Rocking New Year’s Eve special. I don’t know if Breanna will hang in there that long, but Hayley will.

I have a few traditions that I incorporate into the new year. Dick Clark is one of them. I also make resolutions, though I try to be reasonable; they’re probably more like goals than resolutions which is less intimidating. And on New Year’s Day I serve something with beans for supper because I once heard that beans are good luck. Tomorrow I might make chili with a ton of beans in it or I might just serve a cold bean salad with a take-out pizza.

As for my resolutions/goals, here are my modest attempts:

1. Make the effort. A good friend came up with that a couple of years ago and I have loved it ever since because it’s all-encompassing and forgiving since it’s all relative.
2. Read more. I did so much better with reading this year, having read a good chunk of books, but I could still read more than I do.
3. Deal with the panic attacks in some way. While it was cathartic to write about it last month, I’d like to just get rid of them altogether thanks.
4. Find a better balance between work, kids, and home.
5. Do something for my photo habit – whether that’s to find a class or a local club or group, it doesn’t really matter. I just know that while I still enjoy “in the moment” shots and while I do like a lot of my pictures, I want to get better and learn more. Until I find something, I’m making good use of several photography books and websites.

Basically, numbers 2-5 fall under number 1 right? But those are just my very specific goals.

I’m heading over to the couch to see if anything is on the TV yet, and if not I’ll load up another Jason Mraz album on the iPod and see if the girls want to dance for a bit.

Happy new year to you all! I hope that 2009 brings you whatever you wish for most. See you next year!

We are family

Posted on December 29, 2008 by Sherry

Christmas 2009 is going to have a lot to live up to after this year. This was the best Christmas holiday I’ve had in years. We got great gifts for the kids, received some awesome gifts as well, saw our immediate family on both sides, I got to see my sister – twice! – for the first time in two years, and then on Sunday we went to my aunt and uncle’s house, where I saw some family that I hadn’t seen in over ten years.

We’re still not sure how it all happened that we got so out of touch. My aunt and uncle live about 20 minutes away from us. One of her daughters and her kids live about another ten minutes from them. The other daughter and her family live in Toronto but come out this way several times per year. And yet somehow it had been over a decade since I saw any of them – the last time I saw them, I wasn’t yet involved with George. Hayley and Breanna never even knew they have four cousins until they met them on Sunday. Meanwhile, growing up I saw them all so regularly at my home and theirs, and for most of my childhood I went and spent a week with them at their summer place in Vermont. They had a camper trailer in a nice summer trailer park right on Lake Champlain and that week down there was always the highlight of my summers. I never could have imagined so much time slipping past us without visits (though at least there have been emails and Facebook!).

The best part, though, wasn’t just seeing them again. The best part was that I walked into that house, the house I knew so well, and it was like ten years had never happened. Sometimes when you’re out of touch there’s a lot of awkwardness when you meet up again. Long silences, trying to fill in the blanks, peeking at your watch to see if you can leave yet, that sort of thing.

None of that happened. I walked through the door and one of my cousins greeted me and it was literally as though we had been hanging out as recently as last week. The talking started and it never stopped for a moment for the entire three hours that we were there. The joking between all of us, the banter, it was just the same as it had been 20 years ago when we would sit outside in Vermont and laugh until we cried.

There’s something very special about family members who can do that. We all had a very strong bond throughout my life and it was so good to see that it was still there. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that it was time to get ready to leave, it was hard to believe that three whole hours had gone by when it felt like we had just arrived.

Seeing the six girls playing together like I used to with my two cousins, hanging out with those same cousins who are now mothers just like me, teasing my aunt and uncle like I always used to, it felt just like home. And I guess you could say it was. I am so glad that I got to bring George and my girls into that circle so they could know these people who are so important to me, no matter how much time passes.

George has heard a lot of stories about my days in Vermont, but I don’t think I’ve ever really shared any of them online. My aunt showed me some pictures that she had found and my cousin scanned them for me – the sight of myself at roughly age 13 or 14 was hilarious and I will upload them and think of a few stories that I can tell about the old summer days.

In the meantime, I’m still glowing, more than 24 hours later, still unbelievably happy beyond words that we all got together yesterday. I don’t even know if they knew how much it all meant to me. All I know is that the culmination of December 24th through to December 28th was such that my holidays were essentially about family – and isn’t that what the holidays are really supposed to be about after all?

A toy store exploded in my living room

Posted on December 27, 2008 by Sherry

Christmas, oh Christmas. Another year come and gone but for some reason I didn’t get the post-holiday letdown like I usually do. Often, after it’s all over I feel a bit deflated – you prep for so long for this great day and it’s over so fast. Maybe this year it’s because it’s spread out more. We started being festive by the 24th. On the 25th we did our Christmas morning, then went to George’s parents’ house to celebrate with them. My own family came on the 26th. Today we took it easy at home, and tomorrow, on the 28th, we’re going to see some family that I haven’t seen in over a decade.

I figure that spreading it out so much is what made it feel like it wasn’t over too quickly and while it’s tiring it is so much more enjoyable than just doing everything in one fell swoop on one day.

Christmas morning dawned early with Hayley waking George up at 5:30 am. We had decided to divide and conquer with George and Hayley in one room and Breanna and I in the other – we figured it would lessen the odds of anyone sneaking out before the rest of us. He managed to keep her contained until 6:30 at which point he turned on the Christmas lights, turned up the heat, and woke Breanna and I up at 6:40 to get started.

They knew they were getting their Fur Real kittens from Santa but everything else was a surprise. I think we did really well. Hayley loved her keyboard and Breanna was thrilled with her camera. Then the Barbie Diamond castle just about blew their heads right off. Look at Breanna’s face when they realized what was in the giant box for both of them to play with:

A little happy!

We didn’t get a chance to put it together until after lunch today but it sure is beautiful!

We left Hayley with her grandparents after opening presents over there so we could bring Breanna home for a brief nap, but then we were right back again for a delicious turkey dinner. We didn’t stay too late because the kids were wiped out, so we got them home and into bed pretty easily and George and I did our own tradition of watching a movie on Christmas night. And speaking of tradition, we did our yearly family photo on the stairs of his parents’ house before leaving.

We slept in a bit on the 26th but then we were up and moving. I tidied up while George set about cooking up two delicious pork roasts for supper and my family arrived right at 3 pm for more festivities. Once again the kids made out like bandits, and so did I to be honest. My mom surprised me with one of those massage pads that attaches to the back of your chair. Now when I work at my computer I can have a little back massage at the same time – it is SO awesome. And my dad got me a nice kitchen block with a bunch of great knives; I particularly loved that the tag said “to one cook from another”.

My family hung out until 11 pm and can I say I was VERY happy to have my sister home again after two whole years of not seeing her? VERY VERY HAPPY.

And you know, my mother would totally kill me if she knew I was posting this online, so please don’t tell her. She hates posing for pictures. If you point a camera at her she usually either pretends it’s not there and looks away or else she makes a face at you. I plopped down beside her with my camera and for some reason she smiled and let me take the picture. And because of that I think that this is one of my favorite pictures in a long time, not because it’s technically a fantastic shot but because it’s my MOM and I love it.

Today was nice and low-key. We slept in again since it was after 11 when the kids went to bed. I could get used to sleeping until after 9 am every day, let me tell you. We had a leisurely breakfast, a late lunch, set up the diamond castle and let the kids play, and not much else. It’s so nice. I had a bit of work to do but since it was Saturday I didn’t have a ton of stuff to worry about and I was done in about half an hour. I could get used to this life of leisure!

Tomorrow will be another big, fun day and I’m so excited about seeing some of my family after far too long. This is exactly what the holidays are supposed to be.

(You can see the full Christmas Flickr album here if you’d like!)

The children were nestled all snug in their beds

Posted on December 25, 2008 by Sherry

The presents are finally wrapped and under the tree. The stockings are waiting. Food was laid out for Santa and the reindeer, complete with a note from Hayley and Breanna. The Christmas carols have been pouring out from iTunes radio all evening. I’m full of eggnog and chocolate. And now it’s 12:30 am, so it’s official – Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate.

And to all a goodnight!

I think I can I think I can!

Posted on December 23, 2008 by Sherry

We are so close to being all done with our Christmas shopping, but alas, once more we’ll have to finish it off on the 24th. We just couldn’t get it all done. George, bless his merry heart (or something), went out to buy gifts for his family, two for mine, and two more gifts for the kids – and he did it while he was sick. We’ve all been sick the past few days except for Hayley, which means she is bordering on bored while the rest of us want to sleep or die. Breanna was probably the worst because she spiked a high fever on and off for two days straight. She seemed better this evening, though she hasn’t eaten much. She gulped down a full bowl of applesauce after watching “Charlie Brown’s Christmas” tonight, so hopefully she’ll be back to normal tomorrow.

Because Breanna was sick, we couldn’t take her shopping or drop her off with anyone, so I stayed home with the kids and alternated between taking care of them, working, and cleaning. George was pretty darn successful in his outing. The only gift proving to be tricky, shockingly enough, is my mother’s gift. She wanted some perfume (she doesn’t read this site, and I know my dad won’t tell her if he happens to read this before Christmas) and I figured that would be a fairly easy thing to find. I latched onto that idea so firmly that I can’t even remember any of the other things she had suggested. She doesn’t like heavy perfumes or anything overly floral. She’s not into the exotic scents that make liberal use of patchouli, and she doesn’t want to smell like an 80-year-old woman who bathed in perfume. She had suggested White Chantilly as one she loves. Do you think I can find it anywhere? NO. NO I CAN NOT. I found two tiny sample sized bottles but that was unacceptable.

Other than that, she just likes light scents. She always loved a Lily of the Valley perfume that she used to wear but it’s been discontinued. I’ll have to go to the perfume counter (gag!) tomorrow and see if I can find White Chantilly or something else acceptably light. It’s just hard to buy perfume for someone else based off the description “not too heavy”. I don’t want her to feel like she has to wear it if she hates it. This should have been the easiest present out of anyone in my family, but who knew White Chantilly was suddenly so hard to find?!

Aside from my mother, we still have to get stocking stuffers for the kids but I’m not worried about that at all. Last year I walked four (long, suburban) blocks in the snow, collected everything, stood in line, paid for them, stopped at the bathroom, bought myself a bottle of water and a snack, walked back, and did it all in just under an hour. The line up will likely be annoying, but that’s why God invented iPods.

I’m hoping to get it done early in the day so I can spend the afternoon making reindeer food with the kids (plain oatmeal mixed with glitter, which you then sprinkle outside in the snow so that the moonlight or streetlamps will light the way for Santa to your home!), baking cookies, and relaxing.

And speaking of relaxing, I pre-posted enough stuff to carry me on my work blogs from now until December 27th so I’m going to celebrate with a cup of green tea to beat back this Cold From Hell, a bunch of chocolate, and Christmas Vacation. Maybe I’ll even go bust a piece off the gingerbread house the kids and I put together the other day!

The magic of Santa

Posted on December 22, 2008 by Sherry

I love Santa Claus. As a parent I’ve been occasionally miffed that sometimes Santa gets the glory of the really good gifts, but overall, Santa is magical and I can’t hold the gift thing against him (especially because THIS year, Santa will bring the kids the things they asked for BUT the really awesome surprise gifts are from us, so nyah to you Santa!).

I believed in Santa for a remarkably long time, all things considered. I was about 11 when I finally accepted the truth; I had started to falter by 10, but I wanted to believe so badly that I hung in there for one more year. When I was with my mother one day in Toys R Us, she saw something my sister wanted from Santa and it was on sale for that day only. She looked at me, looked at the toy, and asked me, “do you still believe in Santa?” I looked at the toy I knew my sister had written to Santa about and I knew why she was asking, and I said, “no, but it was a lot of fun to believe!”

I was never crushed, since I had suspected as much for a year or so anyway. And I was never angry with my mother and father for “lying” to me, because I didn’t see it as lying. It was pretending, it was make believe. My mother routinely played Barbies with me, pretending the dolls were real and that they were living exciting lives. My father played Hot Wheels cars with me almost every night after supper and we pretended they tiny cars had tiny people who drove them around in their tiny, busy little lives. They were not lying to me when they played, they were taking part in the magical world of play. And when it came to Santa, they weren’t lying, they were taking part in the magical world of elves and reindeer who fly and giant toy shops in the middle of a land of ice and cold.

I was sad to no longer believe but I had a good long run. I don’t know how no one ever ruined it for me prior to that because kids are notoriously mean to each other. When Hayley started school I feared someone, especially an older kid, would tell her the truth earlier than I’d like her to know. So far her belief seems intact, and if it’s shaken then I don’t know about it yet. I want her to believe as long as she possibly can, and Breanna too. It will be of the utmost importance that she does not spoil it for Breanna when the day of truth comes. I will remind her of how much fun it was to write a letter to Santa and get one back, how much she enjoyed setting out milk and cookies for Santa on the 24th, and how giddy she got when she would visit Santa at the mall, and I will ask her to let her sister have that too.

So far, though? So good. On Friday we went to one of the malls that usually has reindeer in a petting zoo. To our enormous disappointment, they didn’t have them this year but there was no line-up for Santa yet, being before 3 pm on the last day of pre-vacation school, so we let them go see Santa, talk to him, and get some free hugs.

They were so happy and it made my heart sing. This Santa gave them “magic” washcloths – they’re tiny little blocks but when you put them in the water they pop open to full sized cloths with Santa decorations on them. They were thrilled.

Then on Saturday, I actually dressed them for the purpose of getting photos taken and we went to a smaller mall to see another Santa. Again, they stood and blushed and chattered at him, and then they took a picture. I could not get Breanna to look at the camera because she was so bashful in that “oh my god, a celebrity!” way but it’s so cute I don’t care. This Santa gave Hayley a stuffed frog and Breanna a stuffed dragon and both girls have slept with their special Santa gifts each night since.

I love the magic of Christmas. I hate shopping but for my kids I will do anything and everything to give them a happy and wonderful 25th – and the magical belief in a man in a red suit with flying reindeer is all part of the tradition. I hope they believe for a long time.

One of those moments

Posted on December 21, 2008 by Sherry

When you have a six year old child, things can be challenging. To say the least. There are days that are so incredibly frustrating that I find myself wondering what it might have been like to just have a goldfish instead of kids. But overall, kids are a good thing, and in particular there are times when that same child who had you pulling your hair out suddenly sweeps in and does something so cute and sweet that you are overwhelmed with how cute and sweet they are with their cute and sweet ways (okay, sorry).

We’ve been watching a lot of Christmas stuff around here, of course. Rudolph, Frosty, Shrek the Halls, Caillou’s Holiday Movie, so on and so forth. The other night we were watching Rudolph and when they arrived at the Island of Misfit Toys I told Hayley I didn’t understand why some of the toys were unwanted. In particular, as a child I was always smitten with the little elephant, the white one with pink polka dots. I always wanted one for myself but it was only a movie and back then they didn’t make eight billion dolls and action figures based on movie characters.

Shortly after the movie ended, Hayley disappeared. She emerged eventually with a drawing she had done.

She told me that she couldn’t get me the real elephant but she drew one for me instead.

Funny, but I couldn’t remember any of the things that had frustrated me that day after she handed me that drawing. That’s one that will go in my folder forever.

Friday Flashback # 17 – Welcome to the Jungle

Posted on December 19, 2008 by Sherry

From a young age I’ve never really been able to pinpoint one type of music that I love best. I’ve always listened to a variety of music genres and back in the days of mixed tapes it wasn’t unusual to hear something very bubblegum pop, followed by some sort of heavy metal, then a little rap, only to end with a country song. It was like the musical version of a split personality.

I listened to a lot of metal bands in the 90s, the hair bands like Poison, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, and the like. And I loved Guns n Roses like whoa. I never ever would have paid more than five bucks to go see them live because Axl Rose had such a horrible reputation for performing two or three songs, then getting pissed off at nothing, stalking off the stage and shutting down the show. I would have been too afraid of wasting my money.

But I certainly loved to listen to them at home. This week George got their new album and I was listening to it. It’s good, but it’s not the same. All the original band members other than Axl are gone and his voice sounds different. It’s just missing something. So I got out my copy of “Appetite for Destruction” and stuck it on my iPod, then I relived my youth while walking the dog. Some really loud GnR is a great way to get through a subzero walk, let me tell you.

So here’s “Welcome to the Jungle” for you.

My favorite song on the album is actually “Rocket Queen” but alas, they never made a video for it. Totally underrated awesome song. But here’s a live version that isn’t too bad.

Now I’m all hyper.

Running through my brain

Posted on December 18, 2008 by Sherry

I sat here for almost five minutes, staring blankly at my screen and wondering what to write about. Part of it comes from being so tired. Breanna’s sleep hasn’t improved much the last few days so I’m still on the zombie side of things. Hopefully tonight will be a good night; if not, I refuse to get out of bed until at least 9 am on Saturday.

Part of it is because being tired made it hard to work today. Randi mentioned how hard it is to work when you’re a writer and you’re tired, and I told her that not everyone gets that. Sure, I get to do all this stuff that I love (and I do indeed love it!) and on top of that I get to do it from home. I get to be with my kids, and that can be a juggling act and a half, but it works and I like it.

That being said, it’s not always easy. Trying to come up with something to write about every day is hard. I have the bonus of writing about celebrities who usually have something going on in their lives, but when there’s no news I still have to work. I love writing because it’s this great creative outlet, but when I’m especially tired, being creative can be difficult to achieve.

When I worked in tech support or answering phones, being tired sucked too, but at least I could usually go into auto-pilot mode. When most of the tech support calls are about the same problem with the same five or six possible solutions you can just breeze through it without thinking about it (that’s how I originally learned web design – I got so bored on the phone I had to teach myself something and I would design entire sites while helping someone configure their email or figure out what was wrong with their modem).

You can’t auto-pilot your writing. Well, I can HERE, but when I’m writing for a blog network that pays me to do a good job, auto-pilot doesn’t cut it.

Luckily I managed to find the stories I needed easily today (having two separate celebrities with birthdays today helped a lot!) and I was able to dig down into that tiny reserve we all have somewhere and I got it done. It’s a lot more fun when it just flows out, but I guess it can’t be like that every day.

Mostly I’m just happy at times like this that I’m not a surgeon. Imagine someone really tired working on the last half of a double shift and being responsible for fixing your heart or your brain while you’re knocked out? Yeah, no thanks!

*******
Tomorrow is Hayley’s last day of this year. She had a concert today – no parents, just the classes performing for each other – and tomorrow she has a class party. She’s taking in cookies and can’t wait. We also assembled her gifts for her teachers. She has two teachers that she sees daily plus two teacher’s aides. There are other teachers as well (health class, computers, gym, etc) but my budget can only stretch enough for the daily people right now. We turned four little plant buckets into reindeer (tracing Hayley’s hands on construction paper for antlers, and gluing on eyes and a big red nose), then filled each one with coffee, fancy hot chocolate, a dark chocolate bar, a snowflake candle, and a candy cane.

She’s so excited to be taking in gifts and cookies and having concerts and parties… Can I be six again, just for a little while?

*******
My beer and a bag of chips are calling me. It would be rude not to respond.

Making a dent

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Sherry

George and I survived the trip to Toys R Us today and it was a raging success. We got everything we wanted, it didn’t take us long to find everything, the castle is absolutely beautiful, and the store wasn’t packed at all. Hooray!

We’re not done, mind you, but I am happy because all the big gifts are done for the girls so I can breathe easy now. We still want to get them a few smaller things and we have to get them each a present for the other, but we can do that on the weekend.

We also have to get the gifts for our families, but I have my list made out of what to get for everyone which is much less stressful than the old, “hmmm let’s see what I can find…” That will also be on the weekend or perhaps Monday. We have to see how our plans go.

While we were out I also got a gingerbread house kit because I think the kids will have a blast with that. I always wanted to do them when I was a kid but we were so busy (plus my mom baked a metric ton of cookies, so it’s not like I was deprived). I told George one of the weirdest things about my youth is that I never put together and decorated a gingerbread house for Christmas until I started dating my Jewish boyfriend when I was 18.

I figure whichever day we don’t go shopping over the weekend can be gingerbread day, but even if we’re too busy, Hayley is off school all next week anyway so we could do it Monday if we had to.

George and I also got ourselves an early Christmas gift. We don’t exchange gifts since having the kids, but we usually buy something for both of us. While I would have loved a Wii (with a Wii Fit!) it wasn’t going to be realistic! Our oven’s wiring is shot. The stove part works fine but the oven doesn’t work. Since we can’t really get a whole new stove right now, we got ourselves a Black & Decker rotisserie and convection oven (it’s this one, though we paid much less than that, it was on sale!). You can cook and bake pretty much anything in it. We had a roast beef tonight and it came out perfect and was delicious.

I’m relieved because for totally unknown, random reasons, our Yule dinner tradition is to have meat pie for supper and that wasn’t going to fit in a toaster oven. I was also disappointed that we’d have to leave store bought cookies out for Santa but I can fit a small baking sheet in the convection oven – making the cookies with the kids is part of the December 24th fun.

I’m just glad I survived the first leg of the shopping. Let’s hope the rest is just as successful!

Chaos Theory

Monthly Archives: December 2008