Happy Christmas to all...

In this week between Christmas and New Year's, let's take a moment to pause and contemplate the wonders of the season. We have had fun so far. Where to begin? I suppose with Christmas Eve day as that is when our general Christmas festivities start. As I have mentioned before, it has become tradition to be part of the Children's Christmas Eve mass and pagent and Emma was to be a shepard. After attending all rehearsals and practicing her song (Away in a Manger) to excess (she is in that I-sing-so-well-that-everyone-surely-wants-to-hear phase) at home, she was ready for the show. We barely arrived at the church on time on Christmas Eve afternoon due to my tendancy to take on too many tasks at the last minute, but arrived more or less in one piece and were not the last ones to arrive--thank you very much! After depositing Emma downstairs to dress, I joined the other parents in the rush upstairs to secure prime locations for the service.

Here is what it looked like downstairs:
Note the girl in the very center of the picture dressed as the angel Gabriel. She has been eyeing this part for years and said that she did not want to be Mary because the costume was ugly--she was much more interested in the beautiful angel costume. She took her part very seriously.







Emma was ready to go:

Unfortunately, she did not get the stick she was desiring. I think they didn't have enough sticks for all the kids or maybe Emma just forgot hers when it was time to come upstairs--both are possibilities.









After the children came in during the gospel reading, the priest gave his homily and asked the kids various questions:

Though most of the kids started out VERY focused on their task, they were not warned that there would be a quiz and most of them gradually zoned out, moving closer to horizontal as the homily went on. And some of them answered questions but with answers that had nothing to do with the question. A few of the older kids redeemed them all with correct answers. All in all, the kids did a great job! It is definately a great way to usher in Christmas.




As for Emma next year, although the role of the angel Gabriel is the flashier role, I think she will want to be Mary as that is more likely to snag her the Oscar.

After mass, we headed to the Cincotta's house--long time family friends who we have been spending Christmas Eve with for maybe 20 years. We had great Italian food and the matriarchs took their grandchildren on a walk to find Santa. Alas, no Santa but there were pretty houses and they had a great time.

The Cincottas also gave me my best Christmas present--a stomach virus...

Making Merry...

The drinks flowed

Antics ensued



And fun was had by all!

Hold onto your hats, folks--two posts in two days!

Just wanted to say that I started my job at West Elm last night. After some frustration getting here, I have finally gotten in the door and I think I'm going to have fun. Come by and see me!

'Tis the season when we are nearing our most hallowed of Christmas rituals--the children's pagent! For many parents, this remains the reason we send our children to Sunday school every week (that and taunting our beloved Shaun, who, as I have mentioned before, is a teacher). It is the time of year when we all get to lovingly look at our dolled up children and then laugh our asses off. We get to take blackmail-worthy pictures. And we get to witness grandparents curse other dolled up children for blocking their own lovely ones from view.

This is our third Christmas pagent. This year Emma graduates from angel to shepard per the rules of order--preK are angels, kindergarteners are shepards. For the boys, this is wonderful. They have decided since turning the wise age of 5 that angel costumes are not for boys. Their are a few girls who are not so happy--in their wisdom, they have decided that shepards are definately boys and they would rather be angels. As for Emma, she is very happy. She wanted to be a shepard last year and was disappointed when she found out she had to be an angel again. Here's how the conversation went:

Emma: Mom, I don't want to be an angel again. I want to be a shepard (looks longingly towards the shepards).
Mom (Janet): But your in preK so you are an angel. Come try on this costume.
E: But I REALLY want to be a shepard.
M: But you look great in this costume. You get wings. (Pause) Why do you want to be a shepard?
E: Because they get sticks.

That's when I look over at the shepards and find that they do indeed have sticks with big hooks on the end with which they are hitting each other.

M: Next year babes.

So that is what the pagent is to a 5 year old--it is all about the weapons. This year is Emma's year! Stay tuned for pictures!

We've all heard of Murphy's Law but what is the law that states that all appliances/electrical devices/etc will fall apart at the same time? Why does this happen and why at Christmas when my monetary resources are focused elsewhere.

Our washer and dryer are continually acting up with more regularity during the last year. Why? Because they are 10 years old and it should be expected. However, in my mind they are not that old. The latest--the washer motor needed new brushes (again) and when it still didn't work, we found a wire had worked its way loose so no power was getting to the motor--thankfully an easy fix. Actually the very latest is that I just noticed that the dryer had tripped the local switch--signaling several months of headaches to follow. This has happened before and the problem was never properly fixed since we never were able to really figure out why the dryer was continually tripping the breaker. It means that I have to run up and down the stairs to switch it back on every now and then. Pain in my ass!

The other day I went to get a CD out of the car radio and found that I couldn't. I had been able to about 30 minutes earlier but somehow during my driving, the radio had lost whatever it is that commands it to spit my CD out. This sucks especially since the CD that got stuck in there is a Christmas one--not a bad one but Christmas music gets old fast as well as that whole seasonal thing. At least the Barbie CD didn't get stuck in there. And now I have an excuse for not putting said CD into the player.

This isn't our only car issue. A couple months ago our car check engine light came on. We have had more problems with our damn car in the past year or so. We took it to the shop and found out it was a simple fix requiring an inexpensive part--a part on backorder that wouldn't be available for 90 days. But the car was running okay and the shop said it would slowly deteriorate. If slowly means fine for 2 months then within 24 hours going from fine to driving like you have the emergency brake on, then I guess it went slowly. Now I am the little lady on the highway who can't get the car going faster than 55. Don't curse at me if you come up behind me on the highway.

Two days ago Shaun came out of the bathroom and said simply "The water heater is leaking". If any of you know Shaun, you know that he doesn't usually say anything simply. He usually has a lengthy diatribe/joke/explanation/etc. It is also interesting that he even noticed in the first place. We haven't even had much time to determine if it is really leaking, if we have some condensation issues, or if the pressure valve is blowing.

This is only the latest in our bathroom saga. If you have seen our bathroom, you will say that we have lots of bathroom issues since it isn't even finished and we have Tyvec on the wall in the shower. But our hot water handle on the sink faucet finally gave out. We simply turned off the water supply but that was unacceptable for guests. So we replaced the faucet and, while doing that, the sink came off the wall and onto Shaun's head. He put it back on but then had to realign the drain which is a pain because it is old. We were having leaks there for a while and now it seems to be clogged. Fun!

There are of course other things including old kitchen appliances, Shaun's bike needed almost all new parts, and just the general whole-house-needing-to-be-finished thing. Can anyone tell me if it ever ends? And don't be pissed when you open your Christmas presents and find McDonald's gift cards!

So I got a job at West Elm for the holidays. I haven't actually started yet--I go for training on Monday. The whole ordeal has already not gone as planned so we'll see how it turns out. After putting in an application like 3 weeks ago, I immediately (the next day) went in for an "interview". This consisted of the manager asking questions like "If a customer came in to buy a sofa, how would you approach the situation?". Having shopped extensively myself, I passed with flying colors. There was a training session the next evening but they still had to "process my application"--which meant they had to call my references to make sure I was all that I claimed to be and, you know, didn't drool or anything. No problem right? Wrong. Somehow it took them 2 more weeks to contact my references. They finally did, called to tell me to come to training. But the training was scheduled for a full week from that call. So now my holiday job that I had hoped to start before Thanksgiving will now start next week giving me only about 3 weeks of work until Christmas. Hardly seems worth the hassle!

However, I do get 40% off at all the Williams Sonoma owned stores! So, come visit me at West Elm in Atlantic Station and try to still act surprised when you open your presents.