December 26, 2008

Merry Christmas, from our house to yours

December 22, 2008

there’s a Target in every city

We’re leaving to go to my parents’ house in the morning; I’m still not packed.  Which means that the kids aren’t packed either because NO WAY am I leaving them in charge of their own suitcases.  This afternoon, Charlie decided to gather up some clothes to take with him this week, and wound up with two pair of underwear. Total.  For FIVE DAYS.

And Henry would take shorts and t-shirts if it were up to him. You know, to New Mexico, where it’s cold.

Wade is on his own, however, which means I’m looking forward to a week of him announcing, “I brought ALL THE WRONG CLOTHES.”

Woo fun!

So far, the sum total of my efforts to get ready to travel are this: I located our flight information, and I had a manicure.  We leave at 11:00 am and my nails look great.

I had lunch with Whoorl today; we were still making plans while I was at the nail salon.  We were texting, and at one point she said, “Call me — you probably can’t text with wet nails.”  When I saw her later, I completely forgot to tell her that I had been texting with her while my hands were covered in paraffin and wrapped in plastic bags.

I am multitalented, you all.  Also I have priorities: nails, lunch, packing.  Oh wait still haven’t done the packing.  Eh, whatever.

Sarah and I wore the same outfit to lunch — matching J. Crew pea coats, turtlenecks, skinny jeans tucked into boots.  We made D take our picture, standing by a pine tree outside Saturn Grill.  Sarah said, “It’s like those high school year book photos!”

We’re so cool.

We set up our Wii today, the one that Wade’s parents gave the boys for Christmas.  We also hooked up the Wii Fit they gave me (thank you, Bob and Eileen!!!).  Henry insisted that my Mii be named “Mom,” which seemed kind of charming until I did the fit analysis thing for the Wii Fit and the damn thing kept calling me MOM.  And then it asked me if I had trouble walking without tripping, because apparently my balance is poor.  And THEN it told me that while I weigh less than I thought I did, my Wii Fit age is 45.

FORTY FIVE!  Holy hell.  Clearly it didn’t see me in my skinny jeans today.

My bed is piled with clothes, mine and the kids, all of which have to go in a suitcase sometime in the next twelve hours.  That’s a lot of time, though — I think I’ll sit here and admire my nails for a little longer.

December 20, 2008

top this, Uncle John!

Yesterday we made gingerbread houses, mostly to kill time while we waited for Santa to call us.  I told my neighbor what we were up to when she stopped by to deliver the homemade baked goods she had spent all day yesterday assembling, and she said, “Look at you!  I’m so impressed!”

“I  bought kits, at Target,” I told her.

“Oh thank god,” she said, “I was starting to worry a little.”

I didn’t know how the gingerbread house assembly would go; there was a distinct possibility that at least one child would come unglued, either because the whole thing was too hard or because he had icing on his hands. But you know what? It was a lot of fun, and no one cried! Not even me!

Charlie ate most of his decorative icing, which was just disgusting. By the end of the project, he looked like a wee little vampire, with red stuff all over his face. Gross.

Henry really got into decorating his house; he figured out how to make icicles and spent a lot of time carefully adding them to the eaves. He also meticulously decorated the house’s little tree, with green icing and carefully placed candy balls. It was amazing.

Best of all, though, he got icing ALL OVER HIS HANDS and just licked it off. It’s a Christmas miracle.

Charlie’s house was more of a mess — one of his snowmen kept falling over, leading to some possibly inappropriate egg nog related jokes — but he had a huge time eating the icing and jabbering along in a sugar-induced frenzy of cuteness. And when he finished his snowmen, he held them up and said, “Look, Henry, they’re BROTHERS!”

I may have teared up a little at that. Possibly.

And then! just when we thought it couldn’t get ANY better! Santa called!!!

We put him on speakerphone, which was a whole big fun thing for the kids. They were amazed because he knew their names, and what they were doing in school, and what they wanted for Christmas. He told them about the elves and the reindeer and how cold it was at the North Pole.  He laughed a lot and said, “Wonderful!” to all their crazy news about what they were up to.

We set up our call with Santa through Santa Speaking — you can read all about it here.  But I will tell you this right now — that call from Santa easily bought us one more year of Christmas magic; Henry is just at the age where his friends are starting either to doubt Santa’s existence, or to know for a fact that he’s not real.  And honestly, we’re not ready to give that up; we’re not ready for the kids to be so smart and worldly just yet.

This morning my kitchen smells like gingerbread, which is nice, even if it is completely inedible.