The Elf

I am the Christmas Elf at our house.

I do the decorating - although this year I actually had help with the tree and I almost fainted from the shock! Usually they help me for 5 min. and disappear. This year they stayed and decorated and laughed and giggled for over an hour until the tree was done. And I loved every second of it - even though I've spent another 2 hours primping the tree without their knowledge. (Ornaments need to hang, not sit on the branches.) Some things have to be done right, you know?

I do the shopping.
I'm the crazy person out at 5am on Black Friday.
I'm the one who is up at all hours surfing the internet for bargains.
For me, it's the thrill of the hunt...  I take pride in finding what they want at a price I'm willing to pay.
(Mr. only has to shop for me and I even tell him what I want and where to get it at the best price.)

I do the wrapping.
All of it.
I should train them, but really... I like to wrap.
This year I decided to beautify my presents with real bows made with real ribbon that I purchased at a real bargain after Christmas last year.  (We haven't had presents with ribbon in years.  I used to use curling ribbon, but the cats used it as dental floss. By the time Christmas day rolled around, it was quite disgusting and no one wanted to touch the ribbons to open the gifts. This is not exactly the response you want on Christmas morning. Trust me...)

I usually wrap gifts on our island in the kitchen. It's warm with the fire going, and it's a large expanse on which to spread out the paper, tape, and other wrapping goodies.  Mr. sits and works on his computer on a small corner of the island while I wrap.  We keep each other company and he gets a sneak peek at the kids' gifts.

I was in the midst of wrapping when Mr. had a realization:
Christmas is easy when you have an Elf in the family.

I grinned.
Yes, Dear, it is.

He is a very lucky man.
And I am one appreciated Elf.

Eyes..

I guess I have a "look" that makes me appear "mean".
Now I know that I can give a look that will melt ice and freeze fire. If you cross me, you'll be on the receiving end of that... It's a classic and I learned it from my mother. :-)
But that's not what we're talking about.

The women in my family have piercing blue eyes. We are watchers. We take it all in. We aren't fake or phony. We just are. We tell it like it is.
Maybe that combined with the piercing blue eyes makes us look mean scary?

What do you think? Do these eyes look mean?

Happy Birthday, Mr. Chairman

We have this friend who is afraid he'll do something stupid and show up on my blog.  So, since it's his birthday, I thought I'd write about him. It's the least I can do, right?

DT, or Mr. Chairman as I like to call him, has a big heart and is one of the hardest workers I know. He and my Mr. spend most of the fall marching season hauling band crap together.  He'll work at his job all day and then show up to volunteer at a football game, stay late to help pack the truck for a band trip early in the morning, and then show up before dawn to haul that equipment to the competition. He smiles and has a great time - he has the best attitude and some of the funniest jokes we've ever heard...
Mr. Chairman is as talented as he is funny.  He rings handbells, plays any brass instrument, and can even plunk out a tune or three on the piano.  He has played trombone at our Christmas parties, brought his baritone to the basketball games, and even hopped in to play at a Jazz Concert when one of the kids got sick.  He is a neat guy and dear friend of the family.  

So, please wish Mr. Chairman a Happy Birthday!  And if it turns out he does something funny or stupid, I'll fill you all in...

Hickory Farms

This arrived in the mail for us to sample last week. It is gorgeous!!!

When we opened the box, we were blown away by the selections. We immediately thought, "What a great gift for a family!"
This is called The Hickory Farms Storybook Gift Set. It comes with a summer sausage, a block of cheese, a small box of crackers, a cookie sampler, a plate with Mickey on it, and Mickey's Night Before Christmas hardcover book.
We thought the family could open this gift Christmas Eve. They could have some family time reading the book while chowing down on the edibles in the box. We also thought that if the family didn't have a special "cookies for Santa" plate, that this one could definitely serve the purpose - and with the cookies included in the package, no baking is necessary.
The package came exactly as you see it above except that the book comes wrapped in white butcher paper to protect it. The top layer of cookies were a little crumbled, but you can't eat them in once piece anyway, so it was fine with us. Everything in the box was absolutely delicious.  The crackers were yummy and intact. The cheese was phenomenal. The summer sausage was delectable. I can't say enough good things about this gift set.
I am a collector of children's Christmas books, so this gift set is right up my alley.  I'm going to add the book to the Christmas basket today when I set it out for the season.
If you need a different kind of gift, please go to Hickory Farms and check out the other yummies they have. There are fruit baskets, sausage and cheese boxes, petit fours - my all time favorite, and more. If you want to ship to your favorite soldier, APO/FPO shipping is free. You certainly can't beat that and you know it will be well received - Hickory Farms is the best!
So if you are looking for a terrific gift to give to friends - this is it!

"I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Hickory Farms and received a Hickory Farms gift basket to facilitate my review."

Julie...

My dear friend Julie - the one I've known since we were in elementary school... the one with one leg who was an Olympian - her - Anyway, she was hired away from a very good job very close to home to work at a prosthetics company in New Hampshire over 45 minutes from her house. She did not apply for the job. They called her. They begged and pleaded with her to take this job.  Before she took the position she told them that she knew dental insurance, not prosthetics and that she'd need time to learn. They told her they'd give her 6 months and then they'd review her and give her a raise.   She also told them that she needed a secure job because she's a single mom with a mortgage.  "Fear not", they said... "We want you to retire here".
Julie loved this job. She was in her element. She learned quickly. She felt at home.

She was there exactly 6 weeks. They laid her off on Friday because they said that they didn't have enough work to keep her busy. (Bunch of bold faced liars!) This company does many arms and legs for the wounded soldiers coming back from war - not to mention the steady stream of clients they get nationwide and around the world. They are known as the best of the best. (If the owner doesn't make this right, I'll be spewing their company name all over the internet.) Did I mention that Julie wears one of their prosthetic legs?  Who lays off someone who can relate to patients like no other? Julie knows what it is like to be without a limb - those who make limbs think they know, but they do not. Only those who have lost limbs can know. She was hired to be a patient advocate - and she is the best. She got Medicaid and Medicare to pay when no one else could - in less than 6 weeks. (Beat that, baby!)
The supervisor told Julie that she was sorry. (Excuse me, but that's a crock...  We all know that the supervisor didn't like it that the owner hired her.) Before Julie left, she told the supervisor - who is also the owner's wife - exactly what needed to be done with each of the 25 files on her desk as well as the status of the closed files that needed to be put up. The woman was totally shocked because she's a lousy boss who was too wrapped up in herself to see the big picture. She had no idea that Julie had done that much work in such a short time.  By the way - Julie's work is flawless. The insurance companies and the government don't pay out if there are mistakes in paperwork...  That supervisor? She's a moron who just laid off the best thing that ever happened to that place.
So - if any of you know of a dental office, prosthetics office, or medical establishment - in Massachusetts, or southern New Hampshire in need of an excellent worker, please let me know. I've got an terrific employee for you. She can't go back to her old job, because they replaced her...

May the Force Be With You...

As it was with us...

R & I are definitely shoe-ins for the "Mother of the Year Award".   We took the kids to see Star Wars in Concert last night - in Baltimore - as in Maryland - as in 2 hours from home. 

The evening started off innocently enough - get the kids from swimming and head out.
We stopped at the drive thru for a quick bite, distributed the loot and began our drive.
Within moments we were stopped on the road because of an accident up ahead. I was a little freaked out because #1 was ahead of us - enough ahead of us to be mixed up in that mess we couldn't see. I called home. Mr. was out walking Zeb and told me that #1 had not yet arrived. We hung up. 15 minutes later I called back. #1 was walking in the door. Crisis averted. Blessing #1 of the evening. All was well and we were moving at a good clip.

As we hit Route 495, the backup started... we crept along at 10mph - I think I'm being generous with that speed.  Our arrival time on the GPS was clicking up towards the starting time of the concert. We did not panic.
We are moms. We can handle anything!
We even had a small potty crisis, but we managed. We just kept going. At the 495/270 split, we were blessed with moving traffic - for a short few miles. Then we were back to stop and go. Once on 95N, things opened up. The traffic gods smiled upon us and we were cruisin'.


We were going to be later than expected, so I asked if I should call the band director and have him put our tix at Will Call. R said that would probably be a good idea. I dialed.
Hi, it's Ladybug. Do you think you could put our tix at will call?
I don't have your tix. I gave them to LLB and HP and told them to put them in a safe place.
LLB has the tix?
Umm.. yup.

From the back seat we heard two gasps. 
OMG, Mom... I forgot the tix in my locker.
Yeah. Mine are there, too.

I said into the phone: She forgot them in her locker. Do you think they will help us?
Gee. I dunno. Good luck.
And he clicked off.

Around here, this is what we call an "awshit moment".

R and I sighed. The kids felt awful.  LLB was very close to tears.
R and I discussed the sanity of handing tickets to 9th graders - especially when we'd both been at school in his presence at a meeting the night before.

I called back. He gave us the section, rows, and seat numbers and wished us luck.

We held our collective breaths, said a few prayers, and discussed with the children re-payment of the admission price should we have to purchase more tix. They could virtually see their money flying out of their piggy banks, but they didn't complain.

R's Mr. happened to call at this point, so he was filled in on our dilemma. He said something like, "You're going to have to talk your way in. You can do it!"(Hey, we're moms - we can do anything, right?")

At one point LLB said, "Well, this way we'll have the tickets for the scrapbook." We all giggled. She had a point...

We arrived in Baltimore - time was tight... very tight.
We parked in the Sheraton garage - they were close and cheap.

We walked over to the 1st Mariner Center.  We headed for the Will Call counter.
I had my band jacket and band shirt on. (This certainly helps when you are claiming to be "with the band").
I explained our plight to the agent at the window.
He told me to hang on. He headed out back.
We told the children to cross their fingers and to start praying - hard!

The man came back. He started to fill out a pass and was called away. We tried to remain calm. He returned, and finished filling out the pass.  He handed it through the window and told us to enjoy the show.
We thanked him profusely and heaved a huge sigh of relief.
Yet another blessing!

We headed to our seats in the nosebleed section.  Up the stairs...
R had to use the facilities, so we stopped to wait just outside the section door. While we were there, I showed my pass to one of the 1st Mariner Center Staff. She told me she'd been looking for us, that we'd been relocated, handed me 4 tix, and told me the rest of the band was there.

R came out of the bathroom and I literally shoved a ticket in her face. Her eyes lit up.  "How did this happen?" I quickly explained. I'm not sure she heard or understood a word I said, but the implication was that we had real tickets! 
Yes, people - another blessing in less than 5 minutes!

We flew down the stairs to our much better seats.
There are 2 doors to each section. We walked in the door to the left - amazingly it was the correct door! Our seats were right on the end. We missed exactly 30 seconds of the show.

R texted her Mr. "we're in!"

The show was amazing -  the music, the lights, the screen - everything! I thoroughly enjoyed watching the conductor. He conducted the symphony and the choir. Amazing!!

The ride home was blissfully uneventful.
We decided that this was definitely an adventure for the scrapbook... I just wish we had some pictures to go with it.

How not to start a Christmas list...

We had another early morning with Zeb. 
Mr. decided to head off to work early since he was up. He hadn't picked his clothes for the day last night because he expected to be getting dressed in the daylight.  Socks all look the same in the dark.  Mr. is pretty funny about his socks - they have to match what he's wearing - unlike myself... if mine match each other it's a good day.  The light from the closet is not on the same side of the room as his dresser.  He must have made 20 trips back and forth between the light and the dresser to see what color socks he had in his hand. 
The floor in our room is a little "springy" and Mr. walks "hard". The antique lamp on the dresser rattles when you walk.  20 trips back and forth across the bedroom became almost hysterically funny to me.
From under the covers, I said, "Turn on the light."
"No, I found them. I think I need to ask Santa for more blue socks."
"Okay. I'll make a note of that."