Catching Up After the Holidays Becomming a Teenager and a Harry Potter Evening

My holiday was very nice in spite of the fact that I spent all of it sick.  Today is the first day that I have not woken up with a chest full of goo -  hip hip hooray.  I still feel rather punky, but its at a “nasty head cold” level as opposed to bronchial now.  Aside from my overall gratitude at simply feeling better - I am so grateful to not be needing to take so much cold medicine as it tends to trigger horrible bouts of tachycardia and anxiety which then feed off of each other in a lovely spiral.

We made it to my cousin’s house for Xmas Eve and I spent the whole night wishing I was home in bed.  Xmas Day dawned and I managed to pull off being chipper and cheerful and cooking the entire spread in spite of wishing I was, you guessed it, back in bed.  The only thing I didn’t manage to pull of was taking as many pictures as I usually do of the whole visiting family and present unwrapping stuff. 

The kids accrued a pile of loot (most of which was either a gift from other people or purchased on clearance) and seemed to have a good day overall.  I have made it a point to sit down and play some of their new board games with them as the whole point behind them - whether the tag said they were from Mom & Dad, Mr. Grumpy, or from Santa  - was the implied promise of more family time. 

Their favorite gift, by far, was from Mr. Grumpy - SingStar - they got 3 music collections - Pop, 80’s, and Amped - as well as the required microphones. They spent most of Christmas Day and night playing with this one gift and broke it out the next day as well. I really like this game because scoring is based on accuracy of pitch and timing so it actually builds vocal skill as opposed to games like Guitar Hero which teach you to memorize button combos.

GamerDude and I don’t exchange. It takes one pressure away from the season and we’d rather spend the money on the kids than on ourselves. This year though I bought him an inexpensive bottle of cologne which I thought smelled nice and GamerDude gave me the gift of finishing, staining, and sealing a walking stick that a friend had given me a couple of years ago. Our primary gift from my father was exactly what we had asked for, Mr Grumpy gave us some needed repair work on our car.   

In other news, my friend “M” made it down this year for Xmas and it was very nice to see her and catch up. It had been about a year and a half since her last visit which is for the record way too long. I am hoping that we can get together with her over the summer for a weekend or something.

Miss Angst turned 13 on the day after Xmas.  She spent the morning hanging out with her Aunt “M” as I had to work a half day and in the evening, after “M” had returned to her own family, we did presents and cake and took her out to dinner.  Dinner was Mr. Grumpy’s treat in spite of his (having caught my respiratory bug) being too sick to accompany us.  We went to a local Hibachi place, ate with chopsticks, and overall truly enjoyed our meals.  Miss Angst’s best friend “J” came with us and more and more of late she is becomming the 3rd child I never had - especially when she refers to us as her “other family”.  She loves being here and she’s generally a pleasure to have around.  She’s a true friend to my daughter and for that I can’t help but love her.

I worked the rest of the week and a Saturday shift as well.  After work yesterday my friend Mel came over and we did the whole Winter Holiday thing. She picked up items for each of my girls which really reflected their personalities and got us incense and a beautiful tea light lamp. Her gift to the family was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

She was really sneaky as she told me she was bringing the movie and something small for me but neglected to mention how much she was actually bringing.  So I wound up feeling a little light on my end.  I got her some dark chocolates and a Radica Harry Potter 20 Questions Electronic Game. The later was a huge hit and we had a good bit of fun playing with it. We also watched OOTP and finished up the night playing with one of Miss Angst’s presents from Christmas Day - Scene It? Deluxe Harry Potter 2nd Edition.

Overall my holidays were very nice.  I am stressed now with the worries attatched to everything I spent and how I am going to catch up on my bills.  But, aside from this week in which I lost 2 day’s (Tuesday and today) pay I am still entitled to overtime.  So I will be working as much as my body will allow. 

I was supposed to have New Year’s Day off and Lady Rose and her crew were supposed to be coming over for our little Yule but I am now working.  I am at once disappointed at not seeing her and relieved that the universe is providing me with some of the money I need.  5 hours of overtime is a good good thing.  I am hoping that we can get together on the 6th as I will be home from work by 1:30 and not required to be back at work until 12 noon the next day.

That’s about it in a nutshell.  I hope each and every one of our readers had a lovely holiday.  I am off now to work on a project for college that is due in 2 short weeks related to the time I spent in classroom observation. That is my primary task for the day when I am not playing with my girls.  I think today we’ll be breaking out Cranium Wow and High School Musical Mystery Date.

Brightest Blessings

May 2008 be better than 2007!!!!

Mama Kelly