27 years ago...

 I had a baby girl!  We already had four boys, and four girls, so our tie-breaker was little Miss Margaret Cheryl.  I came home from the hospital on Christmas Eve, and the big question was:  Are we going to Uncle Bob's?  My older brother, a dad of ten himself, always had an open home, and Christmas Eve at his place was the APEX of the year to the kids.  

I was only 31 years old, if I did my math right, with nine kids.  Home from the hospital, and yes, why not go to Uncle Bob's?  Problem was, little Mariel started getting sick, so Paul stayed home with her.  I had a girl staying with me to help out, but shh, we know how that goes some times.  She WAS sweet and fun though.  Anyway, I packed up the rest of the kids and that newborn baby, and drove that 15 passenger van over to my brother's house, where my sister and her husband were with their seven daughters, and my other brother and his wife with their how-ever-many they had at that time, they eventually had 12.  It was chaos and fun and those kids would sit so nicely waiting for their presents.  I would bring a gift for each of the cousins, and their parents too.  (Remember, I was young).  

Anyway.  Today Miss Margaret is 27, and has three kids of her own.  She was going to bring the little guys over to spend the night, Wulf and Tennyson, so she could celebrate with Adrian, but Wulf's ear hurt last night.  I wouldn't mind so much being awakened, but what if he wanted his mom in the middle of the night?  And I lied, I hate being woke up ha.

Last night, Little Miss Sunshine woke me up by...ahhem, barfing.  Dogs.  They eat things.  She was hacking and hawking, and I was pretending like I didn't hear a thing.  Because I wasn't getting up at three o'clock for a puke cleaning party.  The whole rest of the night my sleep was mixed up with questions:  would Paul get up to go to the bathroom and step in it?  Would I forget it was there and step in it?  

Well, I got up before Paul, and stepped stealthily around it, and what do you know?  After she came in from outside, she started in again, right in front of the couch.  I tried to stop her, to get her to come to the door and go outside, but she took the scenic route through the living room, over near the presents, behind the coffee table, into the kitchen, then over to my new kitchen rug, um NO, I got her collar and led her over to the door, and out onto the deck, where she started barking her head off at something really scary, like a bird or a squirrel.  BARKBARKBARK as I was armed with paper towels and cleaning spray, leaning over and cleaning up a trail of yuk.  BARKBARKBARK.  I stood up, put my hands on my hips, and said to the dog who couldn't hear me, I hate you.

I don't really hate her, but my inner two year old came out, I guess.

I actually feel horrible for her, because she obviously didn't feel so great, but good enough to bark.  

She's fine now, as dogs usually are after a tummy bout.

Anyway.  I made gluten free molasses cookie dough, did some cleaning up and other exciting things, then went to Walmart with Kathryn.  Achilles fell asleep right as we were five minutes from the store, so we went to Starbucks, so he could sleep for longer, and because blonde roast iced Americanos with heavy cream, mmm.  

Walmart was a ZOO.  But.  It was pleasant, if that makes sense.  I had Jamieson in my cart, feeding him Cheerios.  He likes to carry on a conversation.  aaaah, he says.  aaaah, I say back.  He smiles at people and cheers them up.  We saw an old old man choosing a red sweater for $17.98.  We got stuck in traffic and heard a young man in an American flag hoodie saying to an older guy, "I thought no way, these Jesus freaks are so weird, no religious nut-jobs...but guess what?  I'm different, they're not so bad, things are good..."  I stood there, blocked in by an employee hauling a huge-0 cart of merchandise, listing to this young guy, and crying.  Happy tears.  I almost yelled amen!  

I bought a few stocking stuffers, and off we went.  Achilles and Rhys were really good, so they got bubble gum and a Matchbox car for Achilles.  He's trying to learn how to blow bubbles with his gum so that's great fun.

Home....ahh, home.  Sonja had cleaned up the kitchen so that was a treat.  I made the molasses cookies, then the dairy free cut outs...I frosted those, too. 

Took keep them distinct from the other cut outs I made with butter, I used different cutters.  

Last night was Christmas movie night, some Hallmark type with Sir Cole, A Knight Before Christmas maybe...Sonja had gotten Chipotle for the kids, and they were all comfy watching....I stayed up with them, got in bed at 1:03.  

The kitty on Sonja...:)

Charlotte Claire:  there were puppies visiting at school.  no, no way, no how.  But wait, I want one.  

My sister and I had a nice time with our Aunt Barb.  There are only two aunts left, two siblings of our father's left out of 12, and our other aunt is developing dementia.  Aunt Barb lost her husband years ago, and never had any children, so she gets lonely.  We went to Panera and sat and talked for a bit.  Their family was dirt poor.  But my grandmother used to say soap and water are cheap, there's no excuse for being dirty.   Her house was apparently spotless.  

Anyway.  After lunch, Cheryl had a Target pick up, and I had to run in to Target for gluten free flour, and who did I see in there?  Sonja, Char, and Cam!  I had put a few things in my cart, since they are always with me, I thought I'd get them a few things, and ha, I think they saw.  

Cheryl and I moseyed over to Price Chopper, where the donuts get marked down to $2 for a half dozen after four o'clock.  We got only a few things, then stopped at Tops, where I ran in to get ground beef for $2.99 a pound, for our Christmas Eve meatballs.  There were packages of pepperoni for buy 2 get 3 free, so 5 packages for $7.18, not too bad.   They also had Pepsi buy 2 get 4 free.  I got a few Pepsi Zeros, and ginger ale, and diet Mt. Dew...we don't drink soda very often at all, but a diet cola once in a while is so yummy, so I got it for Christmas. 

All that running around, home for dinner, I had leftover chicken taco soup and the kids ate their Chipotle.  Paul cooked some venison, happy as can be.

Sorry I seem to be going on and on this evening, so much to say with nothing really to say.  There's still so much to do, but I find I work better under pressure, at least that's how I console my procrastinating self.  I have some things to wrap, stockings to fill, and the food...still some to prepare, and I want to make fudge.  They're eating the cookies up too, the rascals...they love the gingerbread ones.