Random Bits

I wanted a specific thing.  This is not a NEED but a WANT, I am well aware.  But I knew it would be too much $.  I've been saving (and the $ from my xmas bonus at work was earmarked for this thing).  At best, I thought I might get a check with $ toward the purchase of this specific thing.

My parents splurged big time and got the specific thing for me.

I have some new tech to play with (omg - I got *exactly* the specific thing I wanted!).

Plus my 5.5 y.o. nephew was extremely excited that he got to pick out gifts to give everyone, and was SUPER EXCITED to give me earrings (which probably sparked the whole family debate of whether or not I have my ears pierced.  My brother thought I did not, my s-i-l insisted I did.  For the record, they are double pierced - and have been at least single pierced for the last twenty-five years.).

I have never seen a little girl SO EXCITED to get a pair of boots (exactly the UGGS she wanted) as my almost ten y.o. niece.

It has been a super exhausting, but super good day.

Spending the morning with my brother's kids. By the time they left Nephew L (3 and a half) was desperately NEEDING a nap - K said he's been wound up all week in excitement and besides that he's at the age where nap-taking is difficult and sort a hit or miss proposition.

G, turning ten-next-week, is a goofy goofy kid. She is not a girly girl - prefers jeans and tees and sweatshirts to any thing else. Cares not a jot about her hair (which is very curly like mine, but a pretty golden brown like my brother's). But then she also spent some time using the cast off wrapping paper to make a "gown" and swan around the room in it acting silly (my mom got pictures).

B, will-be-eight-in-february, is all about the shine and sparkle and bling. Apparently, she was wearing a shirt her Nammy (her mom's mom) got for G, but G never ever wore it - it was a pretty soft grey shirt with a large slightly wonky heart shape in black. K said she finally put it in B's closet on Saturday, and made a bet with my brother "she's going to come down in that this morning - its new!" sure enough it was "Mommy - look, a new shirt - I found it in my closet!"

Their Nammy also took all the granddaughters to get tinsel in their hair the weekend after Thanksgiving - even K got some. B's tinsel strands were purple and lavendar, G's were crystal and silver, and K's were reddish bronze. It is a fad, I guess, that is not-quite-here (as in there are only a couple of places in the wider New England area that offer it). And the each only got one bit of it (about four strands in one spot). I guess celebrities have been seen with this stuff? I don't know.

The thing they got was something they couldn't stop playing with was from me. I found these moldable filled with not-sand rubber covered "heads" that could be shifted and pinched and pulled into forms and then "whacked" back into neutral. They had two eyes made of stickers and a bit of yarn glued to the top for hair. They are washable. I got one in pink and one in blue and figured Luca was a bit too young. The girls loved these strange things! I found them at a night market in Taiwan and paid less than $3 US for each. I had no idea this would be the thing they couldn't keep their hands off of. My mom gave them extra stickers for eyes (they kept falling off because little fingers kept poking, prodding and picking at them).

They're off to DisneyWorld today - their Ogo (mom's dad) is taking the whole family via frequent flier miles (that is Nammy, Ogo, M, K, and the kids G, B, and L - that is a LOT of miles)! But then Ogo has been traveling for business nearly every week for years. Plus - four adults and three kids? ALMOST the right ratio of kids to adults! K's grandmother and great aunt live in Florida and are traveling up to stay with the family in Orlando for the week and spend time with the great grand children.

My parents gave the kids bean bag chairs - ginourmous ones. Ones they could lounge on with a couple of other kids and all still be comfortable. B had asked and asked for one for Christmas, and my parents got it for her.

G has been lobbying on behalf of her little brother for an electric jeep he can ride around in. For months she's been talking about it and when she helped him write his letter to Santa she asked for it. I guess this summer, their cousin E had one that L just adored - and G has been going on and on that L would love something like that. Well, he got it!

I know B's gift from Santa was an iPod Touch. I don't know if G got one too or not, she didn't say. It didn't seem to me that G was all that concerned about opening presents - she wanted to see everyone else open theirs, but she didn't seem to want to open her own. Goofy goofy kid.

After they all went home, I spent the rest of the day with my folks.

It was a good day.

So the North East is braced, and waiting for snow. Out Thursday storm dumped about nine inches of snow in my area starting at about noonish. Knowing it was going to be bad I worked from home. After listening to the horror stories that the Thursday Commute engendered, I thank the impulse that said "y'know what? Just don't go out."

I didn't. And my next door neighbor (the sane ones, not the crazy ones) was out snowblowing his driveway late (the storm petered out at about 10ish) and he used his snowblower on my driveway too. All I had to do was clear off the car and shovel out the head of the drive (where the plows plowed me in) and be on my way. So nice!

I know that Gwen's commute, generally about an hour or so on public transportation took her just over four hours in the storm. Some people spent four or five hours trying to drive under fifteen miles. Terrible!

So because I haven't had the time to do any shopping for the holiday, I got up this morning insanely early to go to the mall. There is really no one around at just before 8am at the mall. I was done in about an hour. All told, I got home from my pedestrian errands and shopping trip around noon.

I've been watching the day turn from bright sun to overcast, and am expecting to see snow at any moment. It is supposed to get really really messy. So I've ticked all the adults off my shopping list and I just need ideas for the wee relatives. Next weekend I'll roam a bit farther afield I think...

Everyone doing okay? Don't let the weather get you down!

Its is that time of year! The dance studio's annual Nutcracker show. There are only eighty children (ages 6-18) in this year's Nutcracker. The lights were very easy - I played during the dress rehearsal this morning, programmed all the cues in at lunch. First show went fairly smoothly. Tomorrow we just have two more and that is it! The three girls sharing the sugarplum fairy role are very good. They are some of the students I can pick out in whatever number they do because they are so good. These are the kids taking four to seven dance classes a week.

Shopping returns... suck this time of year. My brother got me a really nice sweater for my birthday, but it is too large. I need the next size down (both my brother and sister in law are twigs, so they tend to over estimate clothing for those of us who are real-sized people - which makes me say, but I can estimate *your* size correctly, why can't you see I am not as fat as you think I am?!?).

Anyway, I took the sweater back, to get the right size, and the sweater comes in black and red. I like the red. No one, no where has the red in my size. I mean, WTF? I can get it in any size but mine. I *like* the red. I have too many black clothes as it is, and it is a lovely shade of red (on the blue side of the red-scale, so it makes me look pink-cheeked and not sallow). I hate having a birthday this time of the year. It gets lost during Thanksgiving (I was told I couldn't have a party for my tenth birthday because the holiday season was too stressful. I still bring that up to horrify my mother. I was also a brat as a teenager making everyone celebrate *on* my birthday, *for* my birthday even if it *was* Thanksgiving day. Yeah, I can remember my brother's birthday parties as a kid far easier than mine. He was born in May, and beautiful May days a lot of the games were outside. Mine were held in the basement due to cold/rain/snow. Our basement is not finished. Yeah, unresolved bitterness...). Anyway, I ended up not exchanging it for the black in my size, because I am thinking I might be able to find one in red after christmas.

Which brings up a whole other "thing." Christmas and my lack of funds this year. I am likely to scale way back. I've got one joint gift for my parents, and I am making gifts for the girls (I just need buckets of time to finish). My brother and sister in law are gonna be a problem... I have no earthly clue.

Okay, I am done whining. I think it is this headache, and I am fighting a cold so I am more likely to whinge on. Anyone seen "Happy Feet"? Any reviews? Liked it, hated it? Tell me, please!