December 26, 2005
nine hours of Wiggles later . . .
On Christmas Eve morning, my sister-in-law and I went and had our nails done (she had a pedicure and I had a manicure). It was lovely, except for the fact that the nail salon had the televsion tuned to ESPN and turned up ALL THE WAY. I like ESPN, I really do, but there is something not right about the combination of a manicure and the story of Randy Moss’s crappy season. In addition, the woman who did J’s pedicure was extra surly; J had picked out some lovely wine-colored polish and she said something about having nice red toenails for Christmas and the woman snapped, ‘This isn’t red. It’s dark.’ Well okay! I had the salon manager do my manicure, which was fine, except that I’m always a little freaked out when I have a man do my nails (although it did explain the ESPN, yes?). But he did a fine job and our nails looked lovely and we managed to drag the whole experience out for over two hours (because, you know, after the nails are done they have to dry, and Starbucks is a good place to let the drying occur).
In the afternoon, I went with my mother to pick up the take-out for dinner; she had ordered eighteen tamales and an enchillada casserole from our favorite local Mexican place. Easy enough, yes? No.
Girl At Cash Register: Okay, and you have two dozen tamales.
Mom: No, I had a dozen and a half. Eighteen.
Girl At Cash Register: Okay, but a dozen is $18.95, and we’re not sure how to charge you for a half dozen.
Mom: ?????
Girl At Cash Register: Anyway, it’s cheaper to get two dozen!
Mom: ?????
Girl At Cash Register: So, is that okay?
Mom: Can I freeze them?
Girl At Cash Register: Sure!
Mom: Okay. Whatever. How much do I owe you?
The whole way home, I kept saying, ‘We don’t know what half of $18.95 is! Okay?’ and my mom just laughed. In the end, of course, it was good that we had the extra six, as we ate every single one of them. And I feel confident that should I ever need to go back to work, I can call this particular restaurant and get hired immediately, as I can divide $18.95 in half correctly IN MY HEAD.
Yesterday was a long day of I don’t know what. I never actually got dressed, I just went from pyjamas to sweats, and I never left the house. We opened presents for about two hours, and at the end we still hadn’t opened anything not for the kids. They didn’t get all that much stuff, but they had to play with everything as they opened it. My mother gave our niece a new baby doll, one that comes with it’s own diapers, and Tess sat on the sofa changing the baby’s diaper for probably 20 minutes. She would put the new diaper on and announce, ‘She’s POO-PY!’ and start all over. My sister-in-law finally said, ‘Okay, I think that’s enough poopies for one day!’ Poor baby doll.
The kids played and the adults drank and ate and then everyone napped (oh, except for me–I spent the ENTIRE nap time looking for Charlie’s binkie, which I had somehow made up in the bed that Wade and I were sleeping in, and he was crying and saying, ‘I need my binkie,’ and I felt terible about losing it. But then I found it and rewarded myself with a martini. Because I had earned it!). In the late afternoon, the men took the children swimming and the women stayed behind; when Wade started talking about going to the pool, my mother said, ‘I think I’ll stay here and drink.’ God I love my family.
Today we’ve all sobered up and are back to the regular routine. Although I am still on vacation and I might have to squeeze in one more Bloody Mary before the day is over . . .
Posted by Susan @ 2:23 pm • Uncategorized
RSS feed for comments on this post.
TrackBack URI
December 26th, 2005 at 6:24 pm, Chag Says:
Sounds like you guys had a great Christmas!
You guys only have one pacifier? We have four hundred (we called them bobbles) scattered in the deep corners of our home. Unfortunately, we’re lucky to know where one is at any given time.
December 26th, 2005 at 6:48 pm, Susan Says:
No no, not a pacifier (which is a ‘nuk’ in our house)–I lost his blanket, the special hand-knitted $85.00 one my mother-in-law bought before Henry was born and stashed away until SOMEONE had a baby. It cannot be replaced, in part because it’s pretty much a mess of ratty strings now and because they don’t make that particular blanket anymore. Oh god a pacifier would have been SO. MUCH. EASIER. I could have bought the boy a new one.
Ho ho ho! Good times for all! Where’s my drink?
December 26th, 2005 at 7:34 pm, Nothing But Bonfires Says:
“I think I’ll stay here and drink” is the BEST get-out-of-jail-free card I’ve ever heard. I’m going to use it any time someone asks me to do something I don’t want to do. Including at work.
December 26th, 2005 at 8:54 pm, Jenorama Says:
Susan? How did the blanket get to be a binkie? I thought it was a pacifier too! LOL!
We had apple martinis after dinner, wine with dinner, and G and T’s to start…
December 27th, 2005 at 6:03 am, Mary P. Says:
Blanket= banket, binket, or bankie= binkie. See the slide?
I’d never heard those things called binkies, until I started reading American mommy/daddy blogs.
Here (which is Ottawa - lord knows what they might be called in BC or Newfoundland or Inuvit) they’re soothers, formally, then often called a “sooss” or “soo-soo” for short.
My brilliant girlfriend, when pregnant, went out and bought five of one kind of baby blanket, just to protect herself when the kid became attached to it. Of course the kid, once of an age to decide these things for himself, latched onto the towel they kept in the kitchen to clean up the leak from their fridge…
December 27th, 2005 at 7:04 am, Kara Says:
sounds like fun for all!
back to our regular routine is exactly what i need now but the inlaws may have decided to stay for (gasp of horror!) another night!.
AAAARGGHH!
help me.
December 27th, 2005 at 8:24 am, The June Cleaver Diaries Says:
On another note, you know how weird it was to have a guy doing nails? A MALE massage therapist called from the gym I used to go to and asked if I would like to come in for a free massage. He was drumming up business, and I was so stunned by the prospect of Free Massage that I said “Of course!”
So I’m suppossed to see him tomorrow, but now I’m a little creeped out by a guy (whom I won’t be sleeping with)giving me a massage. The fact that he sounded a little odd on the phone didn’t help.
Can I just say that I’m sure if the genders were reversed, that a guy would JUMP at the chance to be massaged by a woman who wasn’t his wife???
December 27th, 2005 at 8:59 am, Felicity Says:
Do you think that that is why MY daughter loves ME so much? Because no matter what is suggested, if I don’t want to do it, I ALWAYS say, “I think I’ll stay here and drink.”
Something funny happened at my house and I thought of you, saying, “It’s funny because it’s TRUE.” But I don’t recall now what it was. Maybe because I was probably drunk.
December 27th, 2005 at 7:50 pm, ieatcrayonz Says:
Heh heh. At least Tess isn’t fooling herself about how many poopy diapers come with motherhood.
Man, how do you divide 5 by 2? That’s some tough math. I can see her sawing the penny in half now!
December 28th, 2005 at 7:03 am, Alison Says:
We went out of town back in November and my MIL and I had a pedicure (”luxury”) and a manicure. They had a TV on, but it was only playing a video on facials (very relaxing! made me want one!). It was on so low that you couldn’t hear it though and they had a radio playing instead. The BEST part of the whole thing was that they served us wine while we were having our pedicures!!!!! I thought they would maybe only let us have 1 or 2 glasses, but NO - we had at least 4-5 EACH! It was pure HEAVEN I tell you! Especially for me having a 3 year old and a 19 month old. THREE full hours of being away from them too…..can’t wait to do it again!
December 29th, 2005 at 5:20 pm, Candace Says:
Oh, lordy, I can’t do that math in my head but I sure as hell can do it on a freaking CALCULATOR!