A Blog Jog

The weather forecast is a snowstorm. Maybe there will be a snow day tomorrow but for now the sun is out & it is brilliant. I will go for a blog jog.

I throw on my long underwear, running pants, my trusty red outer layer (just as old as my son) and my 1/2 mits, 1/2 gloves plus any old hat. Here I go. The best part of running is deciding which way I go.

I turn right today and go down the hill. Going down a hill feels so good. I turn the corner and watch out for the ice. The snow feels like sand as I slog through someone's unshoveled sidewalk. God but the sun feels good although I should have worn my sunglasses.

I am out of the sub now and looking every which way so I can cross the street. The light is red on my side and the cars are stopped. I go. Beep, blare, beeep! What is wrong?! Somebody wants to turn and I am in their way! I look up and shrug at them. My fingers are in my 1/2 glove, 1/2 mits - the shrug is my only way to show them that they are wrong!

I am listening to my public radio station but it is just droning in my ear. My thoughts come and go about next week and how do I get my husband to wrap all those presents with me? I turn into the next sub and go by all of the familiar houses. At 4 p.m. it seems nobody is home and all is quiet.

I am crossing the street again to do my longest, yuckiest loop. This street is nowhere near plowed. Argh! I am done with this loop and going around the local high school. Ah, plowed pavement. O.k. I am more than halfway done.

I go through the next sub and cut back to my sub. I know my son's bus is near because I see parents waiting for their own kids. I start to run a little faster because running gives me an excuse to meet my 10 year old at his bus stop. And he still looks cool. I turn the corner and there is the bus. I am done and my son has a tin of popcorn from his teacher. Yes, this makes running worth it!

Crafty, chocolatey goo

I think I am not so not crafty. No, I know I am so not crafty. I had great visions of beautiful chocolate covered pretzels drizzled in white chocolate to give out to everyone but in reality, they look sad and lumpy. Tonight, we attempted a few of those gorgeously drizzled chocolate covered pretzels. Well, they are pretzels and they are covered in chocolate but they do not look pretty.

I did this last year and took me 1-2 days to get the swing of it & make halfway decent ones. My pretzels turned out o.k. eventually. So why did I do it again this year? Why do I dream in Martha Stewart but wake up to a lumpy, chocolate covered reality?

O.k. so I am not crafty but wait for it, when you make chocolate lumpy messes they taste just as good as Martha Stewart's & nobody cares!

Living life by the holidays

It is true what they say about time going faster. I look at my 13 year old & still see the baby trying to walk. This Christmas marks a lot of lasts for us in terms of time. This is the last Christmas that we will have to play "Santa". He will still come but we do not have to play it up it anymore.

My husband and I walked by all of the parents madly waiting with their ideal children for a chance with Santa. That was not even brought up this year at our house. I did not have to go in 1 toy store for them and there will not be 1 action figure or Lego kit or doll anywhere near our tree.

New Year's Eve is having a revival at our house. We have for years been with the kids and just enjoyed the night with them. This year we are getting together with other adults and we will be having fun.

We won't even mention the dreaded birthday this year.

This Valentine's day may be the first dating situation for my young son. He seems to love the girls right now. I keep wondering does this mean he will want to buy a valentine for a special someone?! No more Valentines made of doilies and with children's love for me.

Whatever the holiday coming up, they seem to come and go too quickly. I have less time now with my oldest one as she will be going to college in a mere 4 years. I take out less and less for each holiday as the kids now pick & choose what should come out. We do have our traditions and stick with them. But there is less Easter grass in the cracks in the floors in my house and now the Christmas cookies are actually frosted and not all eaten all at once.

I can't believe time has revved up. I can't believe I am sitting here watching my kids do and be all on their own. I can only be happy for them and hope that they have cherished all of the time too. Even if they can't remember every little moment I hope that these memories have stacked themselves as a base so their life can go on strong.

Most Excellent

So I have to start with the Playmobil nativity scene that we bought years ago. It only comes out at holiday time. My kids who are 10 and 13 by the way, still love to set it up and play with it. I believe there should be a few toys in kid's life that only come out once in awhile. They are special and cherished like our nativity scene. The only question becomes who will get it when they are older for their own kids?

My friend had a box of toys that she could only play with when she was sick. She said it actually made her feel better. This can be created for rainy days and bored days too. I also made sure that nothing that was at either grandparents house was duplicated. Those toys were special because they were only there.

My husband & I did our annual Christmas shopping & dinner date last night. First stop was the mall. Yikes! We have older kids & it is now a necessity to go there. Urban Outfitters was a great store to buy kitschy presents for all of the teenagers. I especially liked the long photo display for the 16 year old that I need to buy for. Plus the table ping pong set might be good for my 14 year old nephew who has everything! Oh these kids today!

Ping pong: http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&navAction=jump&id=15212475&search=true&isProduct=true&parentid=SEARCH+RESULTS&color=00

I also can't wait for my sister to get here today to enter this contest for $$.
It is a wildest holiday card contest. I think between Sue & myself that we can do something cool.

http://wileydesignchallenge.smugmug.com/

I am thinking of a silhouette of Rudolph drinking out a martini wit a red nose. Shine on into the new year!


Everybody likes Christmas cookies but I am always in the mood for hot chocolate this time of year. I like to experiment too. I am big on cinnamon & vanilla right now but I am willing to try anyone of these:

http://coffeetea.about.com/od/chocolate/tp/tophotchocolate.htm

I am seriously nervous about two whole weeks off with my kids. I have a list of things to do but I also found this web site. I know we can find 1 or 2 things that they may want to do or create.

http://crafts.kaboose.com/crafts-for-teens.html

The countdown to Christmas begins....enjoy!

Let us all eat cake and then some more cake and maybe some more cake

Blogcation is officially over. I ended up having a long week, as predicted, but it is over officially too. On Sunday, I woke up sick & in denial. I decided I would just get rid of my sickness by running. As I limped back in the door after a few miles, I went straight to the computer to find out when the walk-in clinic opens.

The clinic made it official. I was sick with a sinus infection & nothing sounded good but cake. I did not want it to be just any cake but cake with lots and lots of icing. I wanted cake with lots and lots of flavor. And dangit, I wanted it fancy.

Of course, I went to work on Monday but I knew what to do. I was meeting up with friends at the end of the week and I called bringing the cake! That day I went to the fanciest, schmanciest high-end grocery store called Holiday Market in Royal Oak & stood in front of the cake display for a few long moments trying to decide on just one cake.

What to get? What to savor? What to enjoy? What can I eat the whole of? Voila, here it is the Kahlua mudslide cake with inches, yes inches of flavored whipped cream. It was divine. It was delicious. It was delectable and it was mine.

The evening was awesome with lots of wine and needless to say, lots of cake. I had 2 slices of that cake (a record for me) and also laughed and laughed with great friends. And the next morning, I woke up, went running for the first time in a week and then came home to breakfast of leftover cake!

Need a blogcation

I think I am mentally gearing up for finals plus my own students grades were due this week. I am literally spent. I hope you are all getting ready for the holidays. We did get our lights up this week & they are keeping me happy & sane. I will not be posting until next Monday after my final. Feliz navidad!