fa ra rara ra ra ra ra ra

part two. AND FLEA. I supertag Flea.

Fa rara ra ra, ra ra ra ra!

Deck The Halls Meme

Swiped from Baby Tunnel Exodus (I even took the photo because I didn't know if it went with it or not-- sorry Whitney if I nicked your picture)

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Yes please.

Does Santa wrap presents or set them under the tree? Sets them under the tree sometime around groggy-thirty am.

Colored lights on tree or white? white on the years I win.

When do you put your decorations up? While the turkey is roasting and the pies are cooling. Thanksgiving Day in our house opens the gates for Mom's Christmas music too.

What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? You're supposed to eat something other than dessert? Just the good-for-you stuff? Isn't worry-free eating why we have Thanksgiving?

Favorite Holiday memory as a child: I'm not sure it's my favourite, but it's the most vivid. I was about 8 or 9 and just got a new bike. I rode out in the neighborhood to find some kids to ride with. No one was out (might have been a big board game year). A teenager that was normally not very nice to me, played with me all day.

When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What truth?

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes, and somehow try to manage a reading of the Nativity in the excitement.


How do you decorate your Christmas tree? With ornaments, silly. Oh, you mean traditions? It's mostly me doing it when the kids are preoccupied. It's terrible, I know, but they're boys and they don't really care.

Snow! Love it or Dread it? Yes. Certainly hope for the white stuff at Christmas time, but like Whitney before me, if it comes anytime after Valentine's Day I'm not so thrilled.

Can you ice skate? Like a pro. Ok, maybe not exactly like a pro, but I can get from one side to the other without killing anyone.

Do you remember your favorite gift? Yes, even my old brain can hang on to last year...

What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family

What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Uh... I like the concoctions with jello pudding and cream cheese and whipped cream on a graham cracker crust. Don't know if it's a favorite. I LOVE peppermint ice cream, but don't see that happening here.

What is your favorite tradition? Driving around to look at Christmas lights with the Christmas music blaring. In Flagstaff we'd drive through a live nativity with carolers. In NM, we drove through the area called the "blue light district" where an entire neighborhood decorated in blue lights and we'd all drive with our lights off to gawk in wonder at their walks lined with luminarios (sp?). We'd then visit the wonderful "Santa on Juniper Street" (a neighborhood guy that would sit in a chair --spotlighted, waiting for excited children to approach him for a candy cane and last wish before going to bed).

Which do you prefer, Giving or Receiving? Giving. Absolutely the biggest high.

What is your favorite Christmas Song? Away in a Manger. When it's sung slowly and contemplatively, it makes me cry. Usually the by the time I reach the part...

...I love Thee, Lord Jesus
Look down from the sky
And stay by my side...

...my eyes are seriously leaking.

Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? I loved them until they started showing up stuck to furniture. They're fantastic on brownies frosted with peppermint & chocolate frosting.

Ever recycled a Christmas present? Um, not saying.

Don't Be A Scrooge! Tag 7 friends to Deck the Halls...
Snooty of course.
Chris, Feel free to post as yourself or under your secret alternate identity: Sharon.
Kathryn, you don't do memes but you do Christmas and you have additional reasons to really enjoy this season, so are you in?
DO I have seven friends?
Footy Mum (she'll have no idea what I'm asking her to do-- we speak a different language)
Gingela5 because I'm sure she'll be able to incorporate Lexi and Sadie in a way that makes me smile.
Straight to your Heart needs to share what she and her gorgeous family do to Deck the Halls.
Chantal, maybe you fit a marathon in during Christmas?

Who Hoot! I found seven people (who may or may not ever talk to me again). Feel free to steal this from me if you weren't tagged. I did.

Just the Facts

I have five children.
The oldest is 2o years old.
I have been a parent for a little over twenty years.
The first 18 of those years, I only had boys.

Boys wipe boogers in places you don't discover until AFTER guests have gone.
They poop in unusual places as well.
When they walk in their sleep, they will sometimes pee in places that can be unsettling.
Some boys have an amazing gag reflex that can cause vomiting in theaters and restaurants.

Armed with this information (ie: I am not a brand new mother of my first child and just now experiencing the "joys" that come with parenting),

can someone please tell me,

does anyone else out here have a toddler they think could just possibly do them in?

Itching to Say...

There's a rumour going about that I am avoiding my blog and bloggy peeps (it's even been suggested I was fishing for comments-- shame on you KD) ;-)

You know rumours are never as good as the real thing...

Seriously, I'm knackered. Just catching my breath with this exciting, glamorous life I lead.

Take today. Please.
Today started like it usually does with the exception that four out of six of us living in this house are now infested with head lice.

Yeah, go ahead and say it. EWWW!

Which means all bedding, stuffed toys, over-sized pillows, sofas, carpets etc... need tending to.

Our tiny dorm-sized washing machine is already going all day every day and I just added about three weeks worth of laundry to my utility area. Comforters won't fit. I can't even wash a flat and a bottom sheet together, so forget pillows. One can bag those things and set them in the garage for a couple of weeks to suffocate the little buggers (sue me), however it's stinking cold here and I kind of like comforters (we're expecting snow and sleet today).

I also have the joy of Miss Ky destroying whatever room I have finished treating. Today as I was on the phone warning our good friends (who had Miss Princess for an entire day last week), she poured her entire cup of orange juice on the sofa table and began "cleaning" with it. Unfortunately, some made it to the carpet as well. Quite a bit actually.

She's gotten used to watching me cry while I clean up her antics, so no worries there.

The icing on the Christmas cookie today was trying to keep her still long enough to remove the unwanted head guests. I bribed her with chocolate and am now wearing proof that she consumed most of two Hershey kisses while in a prone position hanging on for dear life to one of my breasts.

*********************************************************************

Last night was the annual Christmas Card madness. There were 90 cards dedicated and autographed (One with a heart-- the five year-old is starting now), and none of them were for my family or friends. That was JUST the obligatory school cards. When the three boys were nearing the end, it was then discovered that A2 had addressed several cards to the same kids. Three of his friends received three cards each, who knows how many of his other classmates received one.

This post was all typed up as I waited for laundry... the one child we thought was unaffected by the infestation at the beginning of this post has coughed up four little friends hiding on his scalp. NIX for all of my friends, please.

Admit it. You envy me. You want my life, don't you?

NOTICE

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