Anything your heart desires will come to you.- When you wish upon a star

Alright so here's what's been going on. The week after Thanksgiving we went to Disneyland with P & A and their two kids. I had about a million post ideas that I completely forgot in the ensuing craziness, which I'll tell you about in a minute. But here's the short version...

 Disneyland was fun. It's Disneyland what did you expect? Fiona rode the roller coasters and had a blast but for some reason is now afraid of the people dressed up as characters. If you ever get the chance to go to Disney (land or world) at Christmas time I recommend it.

 And here's the most important part. My SIL bought us all hats (okay just the kids and me) and I wore them all day. I was unaware until we got home that there was photographic proof of this but ya know what, I don't care. I'm just a big ol' kid when I'm there. FYI they are Kermit ears though you can't tell from this picture.

Okay so then we came home and I was expecting to settle in to my routine and get all the Christmas stuff done when BAM. I get notification that I have no more unemployment benefits. This did not turn out to be the case but I spent the last couple weeks in a perpetual state of anxiety unsure if we could afford a tree or to buy any more gifts.

This week I found out yes I still have benefits at least for a while. There are two jobs I'm in the process of interviewing for and it looks like I have a good chance at getting offered one or both of them (fingers crossed).  And Wednesday was Fiona's 4th birthday.

So now I can breathe and I'm finally getting excited about Christmas. Fiona and I just baked pumpkin cranberry muffins, next up is gingerbread, then those peanut butter ones with the Hershey's kiss on top. Tomorrow will be chocolate chip cookies and Dave's making a pecan pie. I'll make the pumpkin pie on Sunday morning and Dave's making dinner and of coarse there will be gifts and wine and all the usual holiday trappings.

I hope everyone has had as nice a week as I have. And I hope you have a great holiday (whatever kind you celebrate). If you're in Sacramento, come on over and have some cookies or muffins or eggnog.

Oh you better watch out, you better not cry, better not pout, I'm telling you why, Santa Claus is comming to town.-Santa Claus is coming to town

Okay last weak was.....

See what happened....

I'll tell ya about it latter, honest, but every thing's okay now.

Christmas is still on.

If human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween.-Doug Coupland

Happy Halloween! We still have a lot of pumpkins. I rendered five, there are four that have been sitting on the porch as fall decorations for months, there are ten(ish) sitting in the entry hall as decorations for tonight, we gave six to P&A, and we carved six of our own.

Dave did Mickey House but I did the rest.

The stars go all the way around

This was the first one I did and even though it's super simple I think it's my favorite. Classic ya know?

This was from one of those kits. I'm not actually a fan of those. I mean they look cool but every house you go to has pumpkins that look just like every one else's.

 Fiona thinks this looks like Vladi

Any how have a safe and fun Halloween and don't eat to much candy.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.-Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

Saturday we went and picked strawberries.



We'd never done this before. Surprisingly a white skirt is not the best choice ever for doing agricultural labor (I know I was shocked too) but I expect I'll be able to get the stain out.



Alright I've got to admit something here. Since I was old enough to say "cheese" I have never been totally natural if there was a camera around. I like to have my picture taken. I like to see pictures of myself. I am all kinds of vain and a complete ham. I can't help it, if I see a camera I WILL pose. Which is why these pics are kinda great. I honestly didn't know Dave was taking pictures. They are totally and completely candid, and also kinda sweet.





When we were done we had about 200 pounds of strawberries.



So naturally we needed a cake and some whip cream. Dave culinary genius that he is, made an angel food cake from scratch. He told Fiona it was a Mothers day cake which I guess confused her because she kept trying to sing me Happy Birthday.



Sunday I got flowers, a balloon and this card.





Which apparently Fiona insisted was the one she wanted. It's so very not me that it makes Dave and I both giggle uncontrollably so I think it was a good call on Fiona's part.

Dave decided to make jelly out of our gazillion strawberries. I made the labels.





Then he cleaned the kitchen and took Fiona swimming.

I also got to have this conversation:

Me: Well yes she's a Mama if she has babies.

Fiona: Ooooh...I was a baby.

Me: Yes you were. You are what made me a Mama.

Fiona: Ooooh (thoughtful pause). You're welcome!

It was a nice weekend. Hope you all had a great Mother's day too.

Here comes Petter Cottontail. Hoppin' down the bunny trail.-Gene Autry

Allow me to be sticky sweet for a moment.

This is the first holiday Fiona has really gotten. She kinda understood Christmas. Who doesn't like getting gifts? But she wanted NOTHING to do with that scary house breaker in red.

Over the last week or so she's seen all the Easter candy/toys in the stores and asked for a chocolate bunny and bunny ears. I explained that the Easter bunny would be bringing her some stuff. Every time she asked for something I reminded her the Easter bunny would be here in 4 days or 3 days or tomorrow. So she understood last night that the Easter bunny would come after she went to sleep and leave her gifts.

When she got up this AM Dave and I were still asleep. I woke to, "MAMA THE EASTER BUNNY BROUGHT ME THINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!" In a tone that said, I thought you were pulling my leg but it's true, how could I have ever doubted you? Weeeeeeel we'll revisit that one again in a few years in a conversation that includes Santa and the Tooth Fairy as well as Mr. Cottontail. Due to my excellent relationship with the Easter Bunny as I had promised her the basket contained both a chocolate bunny and bunny ears. She raised her face to the ceiling and called, "THANK YOU EASTER BUNNY!"

She had a blast hunting for the plastic eggs which were hidden cunningly in plain sight. Once she had them all gathered she screamed(every thing has been loud this morning), "NOW WHO WANTS CHOCOLATE?!" She is insisting on sharing with us (not bad with coffee) and I feel a bit guilty that when I was a little girl I only "shared" the black jelly beans with my folks.

I hope your Easter is as much fun as mine has been.

An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.-Charles Darwin

It would appear I've been domesticated. I like to call myself a stay at home Mom rather than housewife or unemployed. However since I am at home I've been keeping the place clean and...cooking.

One of the other things my Grandpa gave us was a monster bottle of Brandy. Since we already have two open bottles (for Eggnog) I thought I'd better look up recipe's that called for Brandy. Valentines day seemed like a good time to try my new fancy recipe. It came out pretty good.
Grandpa also gave us the hideous table cloth. I'm using it because it's the kind you can wipe off with a sponge. I'll have to get a less ugly one soon.

Fiona wanted to have a "Glass like Mommy and Daddy" meaning a wine glass so we gave her one of the brandy snifters I used to use for chocolate milk when I was little.

I'd like to do a Christmas album. I've never done a Christmas album.-Tanya Tucker

My two favorite Christmas songs are:

What are you doing new years eve, which isn't really a Christmas song but so what I like to sing it and think it's romantic.

and

I'll be home for Christmas, which makes me cry every time I hear it. Seriously I teared up at least a dozen times in Disney land when it came on.


The Christmas song I HATE PASSIONATELY!:

Mele Kalikimaka. When I was little I took dance lessons. Tap, Jazz, Ballet, and for some odd reason Hula. This is where my hatred of Mele Kalikimaka comes in. 1) it's a total earworm and I mean the chopstick kind not the good kind and 2) despite the myth that it's always warm in California it gets quite cold in winter and performing in a bikini outdoors is really really unpleasant.

So here's hoping your Christmas is free of discomfort and embarrassment and full of warm and/or alcoholic beverages and people you love. Oh and here are some videos, don't click on that last one if you don't want it stuck in your head for the next 30 years and counting.

Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.-Angela Carter

On Friday we experienced a tragedy of epic proportions (that's me being dramatic don't worry I'm not about to lay something really bad on you). I noticed in the AM that the tree was leaning a little bit. I guess this is why it usually takes two people to set up a tree. I figured I'd get Dave to help me fix it when he got home.

Fiona and I went to the store. While we were there I grabbed some Pillsbury cookie dough telling Fiona, "We need to make cookies for Santa. If you don't leave him any cookies he won't leave you any presents. That's the deal."

We arrived home to discover the tree had fallen over. Fiona said, "Oh no the tree for Santa! Santa not gonna bring me presents." That last bit said in a tiny sad voice that would break any ones heart and devastated me being the person who put that wrong idea in to her head. Yeah minus a million Mom points for me there. I promised her we'd fix it and that Santa wasn't going to punish her.

When Dave got home he helped me set it back up. Luckily I hadn't put very many breakable ornaments on and even then most of them survived. The only one that really made me sad was a one legged (she'd been dropped before) glass ballerina that my Gramps and Milly gave me when I was a little girl and taking ballet. Gramps and Milly are both gone so it's a bit sad. But that's the nature of Christmas ornaments you can't get too attached since they will break eventually.

The thing that made me really panic was the gifts got wet from the stand spilling. The majority hadn't gotten wet but I did need to re wrap a few. Luckily the only one that got really soaked was....wait for this....a shower curtain (What? It's got Mickey Mouse on it. It's a great gift!)

Even as an adult I find it difficult to sleep on Christmas Eve. Yuletide excitement is a potent caffeine, no matter your age.-Carrie Latet

When I was growing up my parents always insisted that the Christmas tree had to "hang out" for 24 hours after we bought it. I'm not sure if this was because we generally bought the kind that was all wrapped up in netting and it really was all squashed up but my brother and I were convinced it was just to torture us. See once the tree was up and decorated it wouldn't really be done until there were gifts underneath for us to poke through.

I had the gifts all ready to go but no tree to put them under.


What? It's made out of a tree. If you look closely there's a bit of my under ware sticking out. Thought I'd better just go ahead and point that out so no one sees it and feel embarrassed for me.



That's better! Fiona and I went and got our tree yesterday. Little side note I got it home, in to the house, in the stand, and set up all alone. I don't recommend doing it that way. Then as I was trying to clean up the pine needles our vacum cleaner died so I guess I'm going to get a new one today.

If you look closely you will see the Wizard Of Oz ornaments that I believe came from my Mom's family when she was a little girl.

Fiona was upset we didn't put all the ornaments on the tree. Believe me they wouldn't have fit. So I came up with a solution we were both happy with.

There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.-Erma Bombeck

A few things

#1 the post from yesterday was supposed to publish this morning. Either I or Blogger screwed up. Ooops. Oh well bonus for you.

#2 I got a comment asking if it was okay to quote me if they put a back link. Unfortunately there was no way for me to contact the questioner but yes that's fine. I'm obviously a fan of quotes so as long as you give me credit I'd be honored.

#3 I know two anti-Christmas songs so if you are the bah humbug type feel free to come on over to my house and request them. I'll serve you gingerbread and eggnog by the fire (where we store a warm kitty for cuddling).

Family love is messy, clinging, and of an annoying and repetitive pattern, like bad wallpaper.-Friedrich Nietzsche

I don't know if I ate something wrong or if I've just had the worlds worst case of PMS (and there's your daily dose of TMI. You're welcome) but I haven't left the house in two days and awesome as Fiona is there's only so many cute conversations with my two year old I can publish.

Interesting that was all one sentence. I'm not gonna fix it 'cause ya know what? I don't care.

I have nothing much to say today. I just want to lay around and drink tea until Dave gets home then I'm going to lay around and drink wine. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! And for the handful of international readers happy Thursday that does not involve eating to much (unless it does which is your business).

Perhaps something interesting will happen that I can tell you all about on Friday. Although this year we're not seeing my family so my stories probably won't involve me telling anyone to bite me. Though I make no promises.

Do I need a quote? This is pretty much for family.

I wish I had lashes like that
I've no clue what this pose is. Also tonight the part of the glass slippers will be played by Sketchers.

Something I pulled out of my closet

I took before during and after pics but Dave configured the CF card so I lost all the before and during buuuuuut Fiona picked all the parts to make the jack o lantern face and Mama carved it.

Oh, for the good old days when people would stop Christmas shopping when they ran out of money.-Author Unknown

A new personal record.

I like to do my Christmas shopping early. Partly to spread the cost out over as long a period as possible and partly because I HATE dealing with the crowds in the mall. My personal best was the year I had all my gifts bought and wrapped before Thanksgiving. I've never even come close to that again. However yesterday I was going through in my mind the things I'd already bought for Fiona's stocking and wondering how much more would fit. Since I had the house all to myself and I knew exactly where the stockings were stored (advantage of just having moved) I thought I'd to a test stuffing. I was shocked to discover I had to work hard to get everything in. So while I don't think I'll finish the shopping before Thanksgiving (could happen but not holding my breath) I did get Fiona's stocking done before Halloween.

I know I'm nuts.

Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.-Ambrose Bierce

Pumpkin Patch 2010

I didn't like this pumpkin patch as much as the one we went to the last two years. Dave wanted to check this one out because they had a record setting corn maze but since the maze was supposed to take 1 1/2-2 hours we didn't do it. Maybe we'll go to the other pumpkin patch later this year.

They had these cute little houses which we eventually noticed had exposed rusty nails. NICE!


Dave rented this little pedal car and tells me it was quite a work out. I preserved my dignity by offering to take the pics rather than getting all sweaty.


Because it was about half way between our houses P&A came down with Cousin (seriously that's what we call her in our house). When the waggon was rolling we told Fiona to hold on to Cousin so she wouldn't fall over and Fiona promptly grabbed her around the neck. But they looked cute!


Am I wrong or do the pink flamingos completely destroy the ambiance?


No I'm right


But with careful cropping I got some better pics.




And here is a rather nice one Dave took of the sun. Don't look directly at it.

Happy five year anniversary Dave. Looking forward to the next 100.

Thirty-five is when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart.-Caryn Leschen

A list of things I DON'T want for my birthday

To have a star named after me

Any kind of shirt with an animal printed on it

The soundtrack (or anything else) to Love Never Dies (the sequel to Phantom)*

Lederhosen**

To acknowledge in any way that I'm now 35



*Sadly I would put money on my Mom buying this for me if she ever hears of it's existence.

**Just kidding that would be awesome

There's nothing like a mama-hug. -Terri Guillemets

Thank you Princess

Love Mama

And Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms!

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.-Charles Dickens

Show of hands, how many people have started Christmas shopping?

I bought my first gift last week. It was from the dollar bin at Target but still....

Money may talk, but chocolate sings.-Author Unknown

When I was a kid on Easter and Halloween and other candy filled holidays I would give my parents the candy I didn't like.

"Daddy you can have ALL the black jellybeans."

"Here's some candy corn for you Mommy."

I honestly thought I was being generous. I hope either Fiona is more generous than I was or she decides she doesn't like chocolate and carmel.

Resolutions

I don't like resolutions. It's not that I'm opposed to taking a look at your life and deciding to make a change for the better. What I'm opposed to is setting an arbitrary deadline to force yourself in to making promises you don't actually intend to keep.



In that spirit* my resolution for the last ten years or so has been to stop smoking. As I've never smoked a cigarette in my life this has gone very well.



I've decided that this year I would make a list of things I have no intention of stopping and of coarse I'm sharing it with you. Fair waring at least one of these falls in to the category of TMI.



#1. I will continue to sleep with teddy bear. Her name is Johanna and I've had her since I was ten.



#2. I will continue to have way to many pets. Clearly failing at this one would be very sad.



#3. (TMI warning) I will continue to do a little naked dance while I wait for the shower to heat up. When it's cold this is a necessity but most of the time it's just fun.





*Strange little side note somehow I originally typed spitting instead of spirit and that made me laugh