Is there some holiday this weekend?

Ohhhhhhhhhh!

OK, I kid a little. My Sweet Prince has done an excellent job over the years with this holiday. Roses (both live plants and the cut flowers), jewelry, teddy bears – all very lovely things. But by and large I do tend to look at this as a huge gretting card industry endeavor. Because couples should do thoughtful things for each more frequently than once a year for sure.

The real pressure though, is the dinner out. No matter what day of the week it falls on, finding a restaurant to celebrate is something you better have though of in January. Otherwise you wont be having dinner until after 9pm – I know this from experience But this year it is a Sat night. Prime dinner out night as it is. Since I am really not all that wrapped up in this particular holiday, I was happy to give SP a rain check on the dinner scene. I would much rather spend a quiet, slow dinner at a nice restaurant two weeks from now than the rushed affair that will be tomorrow night as every place tries to maximize seating and turn around. Thank you, no. And if you have kids, how the devil do you find a babysitter for a Sat night V-day?

So what will I really be doing tomorrow night? Well, weather permitting, SportsBoy and I will be up in LA for a baseball tournament. His last game of the day should end around 6:30 or so. Meaning that 12 families will be heading out at prime dinner time to find a place to eat. On a Sat night. Which is Valentines Day. I’m thinking that the fast food craving I had earlier this week will be satisfied! I mean, where else are we all going to go?

And I do have to say that if I cannot have a nice, quiet, romantic dinner with SP, then spending it with SB and the baseball families is probably the next best thing right now

So what are all of you doing? Will it meet the standards of romance that everyone thinks it will be? Or will your night be a little more reality based like mine?

Oh, and lest you think I am too cynical to enjoy the holiday – this was delivered to me earlier as a bit of a bribe for some work that was dropped off with it . Heck yeah,  I am always happy to partake in the special treat part of the day!

Almost over – odds & ends from winter break

Sigh…the long, lovely vacation is over. Back to school and work tomorrow. We are bummed Of course, *today* MusicMan cleaned out his pile in the garage so after trash pickup tomorrow I could get moving with my own clean up. Ah well. Just gives me projects to work on before LL kicks in right? Because I needed that (ha. ha. HA)

Hey, did you see that I got my birthday wish? Oh right, I was twittering but hadn’t yapped in here about the Chargers. Yes, football. Sorry. You know I do love my sports along with my politics (which I’ve relaxed on since the election to clear my head). The Chargers started the season out horrible so I wasn’t about to mention them. It was looking like the entire San Diego sports year was just going to be a huge bust and frankly, we are used to it here! Then in December, they woke up. And were lucky to be in a crappy division battling a team on the decline for the top spot. They killed the Broncos last weekend to earn a playoff berth. Which ended up being a home game against the every present Colts who they knocked out of the playoffs last year. These two teams ONLY play tight games that come back to the last play. They did not disappoint yesterday and I seriously wondered if I would make it to see 45 at one point my heart was so stressed!! But they prevailed in the end and my birthday was perfect:

I’ve had this house for 5 years and have used the fireplace plenty of times, but for whatever reason yesterday was the first time I noticed how the flames reflect in the granite:

A common thread I’ve seen reading other sites this past week. Nothing was more fun for kids and cats than the box your favorite item came in:

Do Over 09?

Can we have a Do over on the whole BringIt09 concept? Perhaps BringIt was too much of a challenge? Because according to a couple of emails and a phone call things are not quite starting out with that whole positive twist we were shooting for. No, not at all. So, let’s try this AGAIN shall we?

Happy New Year!! May 2009 be filled with health (dammit!), happiness (dammit!) wisdom (double dammit!) and most of all NO F’in DRAMA. OK? OK!

Good thing I didn’t make any resolutions

BringIt09!

I noticed a common thread yesterday. One that I have seen through the year actually. For many of my Real Life and Internet friends, 2008 was not so great. In fact, on the blogs a couple of different people started referring to it as Suck It ‘08. Grandy, Dawn and the writers on Mother Talkers. Grandy followed up with the BringIt09 mantra and I fully support that. I love fresh starts. Re-arranging furniture. De-cluttering (when I can!). Turn the page on the calendar. To all my friends for whom 2008 really was sucky – I hope with all my heart that 2009 is a HUGE improvement. Meanwhile, I am enjoying my new toy:

With the TV now off of the cabinet, I have more room for pretty candles and knic knacs! I suspect that holiday cards will appear there next season Meanwhile, it is back to watching hockey being played on a baseball field in HD with the stereo sound working nicely. Way warmer than those folks watching it live in Chicago!

Christmas Day mayhem

Presents were opened (once all were found!) Games were played. Food was devoured (ooh, the roast in the crockpot was amazing and won raves from everyone. I promise a recipe post tomorrow with all the things I’ve mentioned this week). It was a lovely day.

Santa still has a few tricks up her sleeve!

I fooled the boy!! This year he needed to be educated on the ways of Santa – I thought it was not a good idea if he went to school and told his 7th grade peers that Santa brought him a new bat, ya know? But I told him that Santa just had to tag parents once kids got too old because otherwise there would be too many kids even for his special brand of magic and new babies are born.  I took him to pick out the bat he wanted because I needed him to do that. The little turd got out of his room last night to ask him something and saw the Wii Fit box that I had tucked next to the tree. However, he had asked Santa for three things. And I hinted last night that it had been too much.  And item #3 was still hidden out of his view when he came out. So rather than set it in full view, I put it on the sofa next to the tree and covered it with the blanket and pillows. Which was a challenge because the box is kinda big!! But it fooled him because he came down already and didn’t see it. I had to get up to put the roast in the crock pot so I had already turned on the tree lights. He stumbled down, looked at the Wii Fit box and bat box, but didn’t touch them. He passed right by the stockings without a glance. I suggested that he put on a shirt so he went upstairs and then says “I think I will just go back to sleep now ’cause I am tired.” And he DID! It’s all quiet in the house again at almost 9am!! He has no idea that sitting under all those pillows is Rock Band 2 for Wii.

Christmas Eve baking

I started with some cookies that August mom Mimi shared a couple of years ago that we all love – Lace Cookies (I’ll pose recipes Friday, I promise!)

Delicate and..well..lacy!! Basically oatmeal and brown sugar. OH yeah.

Then I moved on to some sugar cookies courtesy of The Food Groove:

I made a basic vanilla sugar and then the chocolate version I linked to.  Both are so so yummy.

The current version of the mantle is up above. The tree has just enough packages – meaning it is not overflowing for once. Though, it will once the larger items requested are put out!

The house has been cleaned, groceries are here for the meal tomorrow. Yep, ’twas the night before Christmas right here in my house

Merry Christmas to all my sweet friends who drop in here.

LED report 2008 version

Last year I started the process to replace all my holiday lights outside with LED’s. By the end of the season I had replaced all but the lights on the roof line. This year, I was apble to replace those and the only non-LED lights outside are the 4 red bows at the top of each wall post. I even replaced the lights on the mantle. The tree is still old style. I am happy to report that from the same period in 2006 which was all old style lights, to this year, my electric bill went down $70! W00t!! No grievance there

More reality vs creativity

I think the creative juices are on pause until the practical things are done to prepare for next week. Things like buying gifts at stores that you thought were going to be shipped in time but then you get an email on Friday saying “shipping 1/23/09″ which causes you to curse out loud. Thanks a lot!! And the recepient of the gift is with you today so that just leaves tomorrow to get it. Tomorrow when you should be baking for an office holiday pot luck. Tomorrow when you have a 5pm party to go to. Tomorrow when you know you will be sleeping in late due to staying out late tonight at a holiday/birthday party.  So to clear time for this last minute shopping trip that means you gotta get a ton done TODAY.  Christmas menu is planned. Baking items are planned and ingredients purchased. One last office gift is purchased (though still needs a gift bag since you forgot!) Gift dropped off to Kim who has been doing your nails for almost 20 (!!) years. Last unclaimed silent auction item from last week is dropped off.  More holiday cards are received so the re-sorting continues on the mantle (above) and piano:

Winter wonderland theme up there, with more traditional reds and greens on the mantle.

Oh by the way – you need to figure out stocking stuffers – any ideas out there?

Hopefully tomorrows shopping trip is successful and then baking can begin. Which will be the topic for tomorrow Pictures will be taken and a report given on a recipe shared by an August mom months ago that causes drool simply upon reading.

More childhood holiday gift memories

Have you noticed the header? Yeah, I am updating it periodically as more cards arrive. Watch for yours if you sent me one!

I feel the need to balance out the ultra girly Velvet/hair post with a more realistic representation of the true tomboy that I was as a child. So if you really must know what made my eyes light up as much as dolls, it was this:

Every year I asked for something Hot Wheels. Sometimes just new cars. I had enough of them to need one of these:

I just *loved* building tracks for the cars with these classic orange pieces:

When looking for these photos on The Google I saw a note a guy wrote about how the track was also fun to use for ’sword’ fights with his brother! Hah! I kinda remember doing something like that with other kids in the neighborhood too. But the coolest thing was when you got just the right combination of car and pitch on the starting strips to get it to do that 360 loop. Sweeeet!