deck the halls

I LOVE putting up Christmas decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. Especially while listening to Celine Dion and the Beach Boys Christmas Albums. Garrett tested the lights and figured out that you can stack strand upon strand in one light socket. I'm sure he did it safely. We wondered if it was even worth the effort to put up our wimpy fake Christmas tree (leftover from our Wymount days when we weren't allowed real trees). Lydia's just the right age for 1) pulling all the decorations off of it, 2) trying to climb up it, or 3) knocking the whole thing over.

Still, the kids needed a place to hang their ornaments so we put it up. Surprisingly, Lydia hasn't even gone near it.

On the other hand...within one hour of having it up and completely decorated, ETHAN knocked the whole thing over. We had two ornament casualties.

We put it all back together and now it feels, looks and sounds like Christmas around here. Next year we'll get a real tree, but as a stand in, we got a real pine wreath so it also smells like Christmas.

giving thanks

...and I'm done.

okay, not completely done, but almost. I'm still going to make homemade rolls and a couple family favorite side dishes (creamed corn & maple-glazed sweet potatoes), but the rest of our Thanksgiving Dinner is now sitting in my refrigerator, waiting to be warmed and served tomorrow afternoon. . I took this year off. You can imagine the thrill I get out of this. Bring on the pre-feast nap.

squirrels

There are so many stinkin' squirrels around here. I've seen them climbing up my windows, eating our pumpkins, digging up and stealing my tulip bulbs, and the other day when I took the trash out to the dumpster, one jumped out and scared the living daylights out of me. They're so fast and scurry around going about their work. I've really never lived somewhere with such a dense squirrel population. We see more of the squirrels than we do of our neighbors. I don't have a picture of them, so I thought I'd post this one of my own little squirrels. They're much cuter than the gray furry ones...but just as fast and just as much trouble!

wise woman

In her book, Small and Simple Things, Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley wrote: "I love the scripture in Mosiah: 'And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.' Choose carefully each day that which you will do and that which you will not do, and the Lord will bless you to accomplish the important things that have eternal consequences..." (page 104). Thanks, Sister Hinckley. I needed that tonight.

a story by garrett

My Magic Sea Rock

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This is my magic sea rock that I got at the beach in New Jersey. It lives in the midnight zone of the ocean. It's a magic sea rock. See those red specs? They're shiny parts that hurt the fangtooth or viper fish's eyes so that they'll swim away and not eat it.

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The nice fish that didn't want to eat it gave it to me. But not really, when I was there it didn't come up and give it to me. It was an octopus that can go in all different zones. And it came up through all the different zones onto the top of the water and its head sticked out and it put it's tentacle out and threw it far up on the sea shore. Like 50 miles away so that the crabs couldn't get it. They live in the wet sand. The rock was way far away in the dry sand. And that's where I found it. And I took it home with me.

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The End

Mom's note: Garrett told me this story tonight at bedtime. After about 1 minute into it, I interrupted him so that I could get a pen and paper in order to transcribe it for him. Aside from the magic part and the rock throwing octopus, he's accurate. Get your encyclopedia and check him on it- fangtooth and viper fish do live in the midnight zone of the ocean, and octopuses can live in all the ocean zones.

complaining

Top 10 Reasons why I want out of this apartment:

10. No dishwasher plus no disposal in the kitchen sink is such a nasty pain in the neck.

9. I have to nearly silence the boys (or evacuate) twice a day in order for Lydia to take a decent nap.

8. Garrett uses the kitchen/living room/dining room as his personal racetrack on his bike.

7. Hardwood floors; They look nice, but they cover the entire apartment and I'm ALWAYS sweeping. These ones aren't glued down very well either. If you walk around without socks on, some boards stick to your feet and come out. (The boys do enjoy the puzzle of trying to put them back together in the right pattern though!)

6. 3 kids + a lot of laundry + community laundry.....it's getting old.

5. I REALLY want a garden! I'd take any sort of yard at this point, but a garden would just be swell.

4. It's only a matter of time before the upstairs neighbor calls DCFS on me. It certainly SOUNDS like I'm beating the heck out of Ethan when he lets out one of his ear piercing wails when something terrible happens, like when he drops his fork during dinner for example. And since I can hear his alarm when it goes off at 6 am, I'm certain he can hear each and every cry.

3. Sharing a bathroom with toilet training boys...

2. The hallway has become our newest storage closet.

1. In a desperate attempt to experience the elusive 'full night's sleep', we've started moving Lydia's port-a-crib into the living room each night. Then we move it back to our bedroom during the day for naps.

On the bright side...

I can clean the entire place in a matter of hours.

The boys have learned to sleep through pretty much anything (we've been known to rearrange their room, use a power drill, and vacuum in their room after they've gone to sleep).

Paper goods are cheap and Costco sells them in bulk

We don't have to mow the law.

I can call maintenance instead of paying a repairman.

manhattan, monet, and the temple

 Matt gave me the day off yesterday. It was so wonderful.

I took the train into the city and had a peaceful day all to myself.

I did a session at the temple,

strolled around the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

ate lunch at a cute European Cafe (and finished it off with a chocolate eclair, of course).

It was such a perfect day.

Lydia took a bottle just fine, and the kids all had a grand time with Dad.

I came home recharged. .

Matt, thanks for being SO good to me!