Broke Christmas

HA! Gotcha! You thought I was referencing my lack of Christmas financing, when, in fact, I was about to tell you the story of decoration casualties.

Yes, it's true. The garage attic was a particularly rough place to be this summer, it would appear. I was anxious to get the decorations out on Saturday, because I really wanted to light my cranberry scented candles that I got last year for a dollar each. But I restrained myself and dutifully cleaned the house first. All alone, I might add. Josh and the kids went off to help his dad do something. I was just finishing vacuuming the ceiling when they came home. (Oh, yes. The house was cleaned top to bottom!!!!) Well, it turns out that a dollar was pretty much all the candles were worth. They were in jars, but the lids, even closed, leaked wax all over the box when they melted this summer. It killed a string of Christmas lights. Actually, 2 strands of white (and this was after an hour of bulb substitution) and one of blue were all that made it out of 6. I put the two white on the tree, and started on the decoration part, while Josh got out the train tracks and Grant's Budweiser train. The more I went through the box, though, the more broken items I found. It was a little upsetting, but most of my extra-special ones were packed well and survived. I was a little bit sad about the kitchen snowman. He's tacky, but I like him, anyway. Both of his spoon arms are broken. Then, I broke a glass ball getting it out of the box. It was one of the ones from Yuma, but not my cheesy chile pepper ones. It was the tasteful Santa Clause one. Oh, drat.

We have the big tree up by the window, the little one in the kitchen, a small table with snowmen on it by the back door, and a red vinyl Christmas tablecloth on the kids' table, and we had a couple of decorated felt goody bags that I let Grant and Abbie hang on their doorknobs. Also, I strung the blue lights rather unattractively over the kids' table in the kitchen. Grant's train goes in a figure 8 around the tree and then behind the entertainment center (where it hides from the children until Josh is home to monitor them). We are so festive with our halls decked!

We had the last beginner class on Sunday. They are so good! I am very impressed. They all had questions for me about expectations of the group, but not in the way I expected. If you are more nervous about how much time you will have to spend practicing then what the test will cover, that is a hint that you should not audition. Well, in most cases. At the beginning of class, Andrew was making sure they knew all the names of the different drums and stands. My name was on the equipment test. Hmm. How should I feel about that? And they all got it right! I laughed. Don't think that will be on the audition. :P

Josh got his haircut for his interview tomorrow, and I was a little upset with the result. The girl did a better job on the front than the last girl, but she FORGOT to go around one of his ears. So, one is longer than the other and has a jagged corner behind. He obviously can't see behind his own ear and didn't notice, but I'm shocked that the girl didn't. Tsk, tsk. Shoddy craftsmanship.

And my haircut is on Friday. Plus, me and Heather are going to do some Christmas shopping. I wonder what I will do with that opportunity. Maybe Heather can distract the kids while I do some Santa-ing. And I could get a little something for Josh, perhaps. Grant will be writing Santa for a toy Tyrannosaurus, and Abbie says she wants a "girl baby" doll to "hold hands with". I guess that means she wants one with 5 fingers?

* * *

It is much later now. I just spent a nice long time on the phone with my mommy. I love my mommy. And I love my grand-mommy.

Have I told you that my dad is having prostate surgery in January? I am going to copy some of my movies for him for Christmas, so he can watch them while he's recovering. I have also coached Brother to get some books for him. My dad is basically the recipe for the world's worst patient. He questions the doctor, does his own research, is not very trusting, gets nervous, calls everyone he's ever met to find out if they think the doctor/procedure/facility/whatever are in any way questionable and on top of all that is physically incapable of being still for ANY length of time, no matter how short. My mother is brushing up her martyr hat, as we speak.

On that cheerful note, I am going to abandon you in favor of my cute children, who didn't even make each other bleed while Mommy was on the phone! Aren't they fabulous?

Happy Monday! Go get your blizzard supplies now! It's gonna be an exciting night!