what I have been doing

These last few days have kept me very busy and I haven't written much and so to my two followers who actually follow my blog, I am sorry, but seriously, mom and dad, I call you, like, a million times a day. I have been writing in my head for years now and now that I do this, it is almost constant, but getting on the computer is such a hassle, you know, turning it on and all, I just hate doing it sometimes. Here is what has been going on:



1. Christmas is upon us, well technically it is advent now and it won't be Christmas until Christmas day, but who cares about technicalities when you have Christmas lights to put up. That's right, we put up lights this year. One of the things I think pre-marriage counseling should ferret out is if you are a Christmas light person. If you are and your spouse is not, well proceed with caution. If you are and you spouse is not, but likes to give "constructive criticism" about how you wrap the trees, turn the hell around and find a new one, or content yourself to a life of spinsterhood. One year I was out putting lights up by myself when my next door neighbor felt so sorry for me he came out to help-- even though he is aged, uses a walker and was caring for his dying wife. He somehow guilted Hyphen into helping and so every year since then we either have complete bitching while helping or total nonparticipation. I am really not sure which is worse, because nothing kills the Christmas spirit like putting up lights by yourself. Of course, this was before we had Annabelle. I knew Annabelle would like Christmas lights because she is cool like that. She has enthusiasm which is one of the best qualities anyone can have. So her papa, who loves and adores her, headed up the charge to go to Big Lots to buy stuff to decorate the front of the house. I would have just been happy with just some icicle lights, but now our house looks like a tasteful gingerbread house, and I love it. And, once again, our marriage survived the hanging of the lights, which is a Christmas Miracle. Of course, we have no tree yet, which is another battle entirely, so it might be a short lived miracle.



2. I told my sister I would make her crib stuff. The bumper pads and skirt and sheet that she wanted was $600 for just one!!! And I figured it couldn't be that hard, which it isn't, but I have been spending every night working on it instead of spying on people on facebook, like I normally do. I wanted to have the bumpers and crib skirts ready by her shower, and I am almost done, just one more skirt to go, and that is pretty cinchy, actually, so I think I am going to make it.



3. Christmas card design took up some time. I just want to go back to the days where you sent a card with no photo, but I am afraid those days are gone. I have some rules for what I consider a successful card. 1. Cardstock. 2. Must say Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays. 3. Must contain family picture, not just one of Annabelle. There was where the problem is, we only had one of us and we were at the beach, looking, well, like white trash. So we tried to create a moment of us lighting our advent wreath, which we do every night, it worked for a bit until Annabelle grabbed a candle and Hyphen almost burnt his hand. In the end, I went with some pictures throughout the year. If you get one, please note how Hyphen is carving the pumpkin with RUBBER GLOVES because he didn't want to get his hands dirty. Sigh.



4. Situation: a few years ago, in a very blond moment, my sister taught my dog (who is so stupid she would not have figured this out on her own) how to jump up on the sofa. For the past two weeks she is on it every night. Surprisingly, I am the only one who cares about this. Can't get pumpkin juice on his hands, but the dog on the sofa is okay.



5. Altar guild: I joined the Altar Guild at my Church, or as I used to call it, the old lady club. I had been meaning to join a few years ago, when they had Altar Guild Sunday and they all came marching down the aisle with canes and walkers and then the priest asked us to thank them for keeping the Church clean, but I never got around to it. Now that I am a SAHM I figured try it out. There are 13 young ladies in our sub-guild and when I say young I mean mid 30s and a couple of 20s. I went to my first meeting this week which just happened to be their Christmas luncheon. We spent the first few minutes praying for all the ladies who had fallen and had strokes. I kid you not. Looks like we joined just in time, but I do think they are going to haze us. At the end of the meeting we took a quiz testing our Christmas movie and carol knowledge. The last question was "what do you call small inexpensive gifts." The answer, of course, was stocking stuffer. The lady next to me said ( a little loudly I might add) "I call them cheap."

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