monday morning headache....

It gets more challenging to be thankful for everything when I have a horrible headache. I didn't have my coffee yesterday before we left, since of all days, I fell back to sleep and had only an hour to get everyone ready and get out the door. Paul always makes me an egg on toast on Sunday morning to eat on the way, and as I grabbed it and the diaper bag, everyone was already in the van, and I considered pouring a cup of coffee quick, and I should have. So what if they had to wait two more minutes....I finally had a cup at two in the afternoon and found out last night it was decaf. My head hurt all day, and I should have taken something when I went to bed....because by early this morning, I was in agony....I took two ibuprofen as soon as I got up, and it is still pounding. Bleh. I had to get the kids ready and out the door, and Jonathan had to have snow pants and snow gear because the kindergarteners are going over to the high school to see Santa Claus, a high school kid dressed up. I still remember when I was in kindergarten and I woke up when it was still dark and went to school early because we took a field trip to a downtown department store, long closed now, to see Santa Claus. I don't remember many details, but I remember the excitement. With my head pounding this morning, I tried to just plain be nice and patient, thinking that for Jon, this is an exciting day, and I don't want his memories of it to be tainted by a grumpy mother. It IS an amazing responsiblity we moms have been given.

Anyway, I won't be lounging around waiting for it to disipate, this headache. I WILL be taking 2 more ibuprofen soon, usually it is the second dose that knocks these headaches down a notch. Today we are doing our Christmas grocery shopping, and I want to get Margaret a birthday present....I don't know what the hurry is, her birthday is tomorrow, not today. And I need to get Abigail something for Christmas. It sure sneaked up on me, Christmas. Probably the fact that we spent the first week of December in a hot sunny place didn't help.

It is SO nice having Emily home. (I will try to get a picture of her today)....she loves the kids, she has so many interesting stories to tell. She visited France, England, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, and a stop in Iceland on the way home, which didn't count on her passport. She has some job interviews set up already, and when she starts working she will be moving out, wah. I know, I know, she is almost 25 years old. But.....

So today we will be getting food for our Christmas Eve celebration. Chicken wings cost more than roast beef now! I remember when they were so new, people were skeptical. PAYING money for the wings? Buffalo is not very far from here, when we were there with Aaron we saw the bar where they were "invented", with Frank's Hot Sauce. We want to have some on Christmas night, they are $2.60 a pound! Way back when, when we were first married, they were thirty-nine cents a pound! Oh well.

One thing we are planning is to have some tropical fruit, which I cannot eat, due to allergies, but the kids love it. And we are having a nice salad. We don't want it to be too heavy, it is nice to munch, but when it is all so calorie packed, yuck. Well, yum, but the results are yuck. I have realized that I simply do not get full. And I like to eat. So I just plain have to be careful. I have gone on the treadmill every single day except for the days I have been shopping alot. Yesterday I came home from the feast and walked briskly for 15 minutes. It isn't much, especially because I did have some of my friend Kathy's delicious cherry topped cheesecake, and some of my almond joy fudge, and one of Mirille chocolate mint mini-cupcakes. Plus I had a few more of those last night. ugh.

Oh, the almond joy fudge recipe I have used for years has disapeared, and when I looked it up online, I could only find recipes that called for the candy bars cut up. So I improvised.

I used two cans of sweetened condensed milk, two bags of milk chocolate chips, one bag of semi-sweet chips, a dash of salt, melted it, stirred in one teaspoon of vanilla, some coconut (maybe four ounces), and some sliced almonds that I had toasted in a saucepan on the stove. I also stirred in 6 mini Almond Joy bars (yes, they come in an eight pack, when I was unwrapping them I ate one. Then Sam came along, so I gave one to him.) Anyway, stir it up and put it into a buttered pan, I used a glass 13 by 9, and refridgerated it. It came out nice and firm and so so good.

Well, time to get moving......