Timber!!!

I finally got around to taking the Christmas tree down yesterday. As you can guess, it literally fell down in the process.

Milo was sitting on the couch watching me take the last of the lights off the tree. Then it was time for me to get underneath the tree and loosen the screws in the stand. I thought that I did it so if the tree toppled, it would fall against the wall. WRONG! It fell over, pinning me underneath it, and slopping water all over the floor in the process. How typical, you know?

Of course, I couldn't get out from underneath the tree. I told Milo to go to the cellar door and holler for Corey to help me. So Milo yells, "Daddy. HELP!!! Mommy's trapped and needs your help!" I can only imagine what thoughts went through Corey's head when he heard that. He came running upstairs, saw me, cracked up laughing, and lifted the tree off me so I could get up. I'm glad he was home when that happened, otherwise who knows how long it would have taken to extricate myself. It wasn't so much that the tree was heavy, it was just so spiky! I didn't want to lose an eyeball trying to wriggle out from underneath it.

Christmas is officially over, and it certainly went out with a bang :)

Guess what Lily ate today

You'll never guess what she got into today. We were gone for less than an HOUR, a quick trip to Lowe's and back, and I thought the dogs were safely locked in the kitchen and occupied with their chewies. WRONG.

They were still in the kitchen, but apparently Lily decided she was bored out of her skull, so she chose to unravel the small area rug we keep by the back door. Now the rug has a large bald spot right smack in the middle of it. I don't think she actually ate any of the yarns (fibers, what is the word for long pieces of carpet thread??) because the unraveled pieces seemed to all be still attached to the rug. I cut them off, shoved them up Lily's nose and yelled at her good. Milo scolded her too, by just repeating what I said, which was mostly "OOOOOO. You are A BAD GIRL. DON'T EAT THE RUG, you idiot!" (I must sound an awful lot like Yosemite Sam when I'm hollering at the dog. All I would have to do is throw in a "darn fur-bearin' varmint. My biscuits is burnin'!") Lily skulked around the house for a half hour or so, and then forgot about the whole thing. When I mentioned it to Corey, Lily heard me say "rug" and went into her belly-up groveling pose. I would have forced Lily into time out outside today, but it was way too cold.

To make my day complete, later, when I was scraping up the frozen poopsicles out on the patio, the handle broke on the shovel. At least I didn't step in dog crap, or drop the shovel in dog crap, when the handle gave out. That particular shovel was always short. I think the handle had broken before and had been reattached. It came with the house, and was probably the same shovel the previous owner used for poopsicles. Now the shovel is really stumpy!

Resolutions

I don't generally make New Year's resolutions, because usually I forget about them by Jan. 2. However, this time around I've thought about it for awhile, and decided there are two things I need to change in my life:

1. Improve my posture. Holy cow, I never realized how swaybacked I was until I was looking at a picture of myself from Thanksgiving. No wonder certain upper chest body parts of mine are sagging to my knees! So I will try to sit up straighter and not slouch around like an orangutan so much. Heh, as I type this, I realized that I was practically lying down in the chair, I'm so slouched out.

2. I will not use my credit card anymore. Thankfully, we don't have any actual interest bearing credit card debt, because we pay the bills in full, every month. I realized though, that I use my credit card like a magic cash tree all the time, and don't really pay any attention to how much it adds up, until I have to pay for it. I bet if I knock off the credit card usage, we'll have lots more cash at the end of the month. I'm going to try it, just to see what happens.

Happy New Year!!

Let me be the first to wish you a happy, healthy 2009, and a year full of laughter and love.

Our New Year's Eve plans are...well, I'm sitting here at the computer, so you know we're not doing anything exciting. Corey had to work something like 28 hours today (it seemed like that anyway) and he has to go back to work early tomorrow morning, so he has no energy. Me, I'm up past midnight half the time anyway, with insomnia, so staying up late is no big whoop to me.

I know...I've been away from my blog for a WHOLE WEEK. Just winding down from Christmas and getting back in the groove of everyday life, mostly. Christmas is exhausting, to say the least!

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were lots of fun for Milo. Corey had to work late Christmas Eve, so Milo and I did all the getting-ready-for-Santa stuff before Corey came home. We put out cookies for Santa, and made sure the present was where Santa could find it, and went outside and sprinkled seeds and carrots for the reindeer to nibble on. Then, after supper, Milo and I sat at the kitchen table and made lots and lots of construction paper snowflakes for Santa. Milo was so proud of his. I'll bet Santa's tree was smothered in those snowflakes when he took them home for Mrs. C to hang up. :)

Milo finally went to bed around 8:30pm on Christmas Eve. We gave him 15 minutes of getting-drowsy time, and then I sneaked out the front door with a string of jingle bells, and jingled my way around the house, and made sure to make extra noise outside of Milo's bedroom window. I tiptoed back in, and asked Corey if Milo said anything. Corey said that Milo didn't say a word, so I stuck my head in Milo's room to see if he was still awake. He was, and had the blanket pulled up around his ears. I asked Milo if he heard anything, because I was downstairs doing laundry, and thought maybe I heard Santa go by, but I wasn't sure. Milo said, "Yeah, Santa went right by the house. We have to get in bed so he comes here!!" I said okay, and kissed Milo goodnight. Five minutes later Milo was asleep, so Corey and I could run around doing all the Santa evidence: eating cookies, opening the present, leaving a note, picking up the snowflakes, and of course, leaving lots and lots of gifts under the tree.

Santa was here!!

Christmas morning we were all up by 6:30 am, and Milo was most impressed by all the stuff under the tree. Every present that he opened, Milo said, "It's perfect, it's just what I wanted!" We were starting to think we could have wrapped up a pair of dirty socks and said it was from Santa, and the kid would have been happy. Anyway, Milo got everything he wished for, because he was such a good boy: Lots of Transformers, especially Bumblebee, the Speed Racer remote control car with a guy inside, a space station, Legos, a Wall-E robot and a Hess truck. Then we were off to Grandma Carolynn and Grandpa Bob's for breakfast and more gifts from Santa. Besides, Wall-E, Milo is into Buzz Lightyear right now also, so Santa thoughtfully left Wall-E's girlfriend, Eve, some Buzz toys, and some Batman toys at their house. (He got a Batcave. That is so cool! We play with it lots, and use all kinds of action figures for the bad guys. Bionicles from McD's make really good bad guys, if you're interested.)

After that, we were off to Grandmom and Grandpop's for lunch, to see them, Aunt Heather, Jordan and Mister Don. Santa left yet more Transformers stuff at their house, along with the Wall-E movie! Jeez, the kid really did have an in with Santa this year. Then we were home in the afternoon, and we opened up all the toys and made a huge mess in the living room and watched Wall-E while Corey cooked us a fantabulous prime rib for dinner. All in all, it was a really good Christmas, one of the most fun for me, just because of how much Milo enjoyed himself.

Then, this past Sunday another Christmas miracle occurred: I took the outside Christmas lights and decorations down. This is an unheard-of happening; usually the lights stay up until at least March, and some of them have been out there since last year. It was such a nice day on Sunday that Milo and I decided to take advantage of the weather and spend a couple hours outside. We took down everything we could reach, and left the way-high lights for Corey to tackle. I'm terrified of falling off the ladder, so anything that was more than six feet off the ground stayed up, which were the lights along the roof and up at the top of the tall pine tree in our front yard. By the way, I was out there in a short sleeved shirt and jeans, no jacket...at the end of December, in NJ. (and today it's windy, cold and snowy) Bizarro! While I was taking the lights down, Milo was pulling all the seeds out of the flowers in the front flowerbed and planting them throughout the front yard. We will have some interesting landscaping come springtime.

There are videos of Christmas Day, but I haven't gotten around to downloading them yet. They will be coming soon, I promise. I know you're breathless with anticipation :)

Oh yeah, for Christmas dinner's dessert, I made a totally awesome coconut cream pie. I am way proud of my mad pie-making skills. Who knew I had it in me?