While the Shoppers Rush Home with Their Presents

Do you have your Christmas shopping done? I do....almost! Just a couple of key items are yet to be purchased. You know, the ones where every child is getting one and you don't have one yet for a couple kiddos. Those are the ones I'm still on the lookout for.

I want to get all the buying (and consequently spending) over with so I can bake, eat, play, wrap, sing, and enjoy the season without any stress of wondering where I'm going to get those last few things... and I'm really hoping to buy them online so I won't even have to leave my house (with all the kids in tow) searching from store to store for the right size, color and style. I believe that was a run-on sentence. If grammatical errors irritate you, don't bother reading on...I'm sure there will be many more.

The funny thing is I can distinctly remember sitting in front of our dinosaur age computer 13 years ago, waiting for it to upload each page, answering questions for a survey about buying on the internet. Sitting in our one bedroom furnished apartment in Utah, I thought it was completely ridiculous to even imagine purchasing gifts online. Why would I do that, when I could just skip out to my car, go to the store and touch the item I was considering plunking my money down for? How could I possibly trust someone I couldn't even see with my precious credit card information? Why would I risk having my identity stolen? What were they thinking?

Well, I'll tell you what I'm thinking 13 years later. I'm thinking it's been absolutely fabulous purchasing almost every singe item online from the comfort of my own little rocking chair in my room with my laptop which uploads pages at lightening speed while my five (adorable) children work, sleep, play, eat ... or to be completely honest ... fight. I delight in hearing the ding dong of the doorbell (even when the baby is taking a nap) and opening the door to our kind postman (who has caught me hollering at the kids a time or two) to receive a package concealing a Christmas gift which I quickly tuck away into my closet. The kids always ask what it is, who it is for and if they can open it immediately. I tell them it's a surprise and they can go snooping if they want to, but Christmas won't be much fun for them if they do. As far as I know, no one has wanted their Christmas spoiled...yet.

Yep it's true, I LOVE internet shopping...except when I can't find that specific item I'm searching for. But it sure beats driving from store to store, fighting the crowds, freezing my rump off, wasting my gasoline, possible crashing my car and still not finding what I want. I tell you what, this year I'm a Sandra Bullock in The Net. I'm a recluse...when it comes to shopping. My poor husband though, he got volunteered for the few stops that had to be made in town while the kids and I were at co-op. You could ask him about it, but I don't think he wants to discuss it any more. For some reason it wasn't such a pleasant experience. :)

Where are you doing most of your Christmas shopping this year?

A Day of Gifts!

My, I feel as if I've been given a gift today! My children went back to school after 5 consecutive days home because of our lovely ice storm. Yes, this is the same type of ice storm that helped me with my little accident three weeks ago Tuesday. The national weather service is no longer calling ice storms in Missouri rare because we are having them so often....sign of the times? We really tried to have as much fun as possible on our days off, but there is only so much one can do when it is 20 degrees outside and everything is covered with an inch of ice. I feel like I live in Narnia where the ice queen reigns, or is she the snow queen? Well, it sure is sparkly outside.Gift #2: It's 9:00am and my youngest is still sleeping! After several attempts at crawling into our bed last night and being taken back to her own room, she finally won and snuggled down into our covers where she has blissfully slept. What a dream!

Gift #3: We never lost power during the ice storms for more than a couple hours during the night, and so we have no damage to repair, no black smoke to clean off the bathroom walls from using candles, and no propane heaters to put away. My house is warm and cozy and actually pretty tidy. :)Gift #4: I got a call from Mama Jibson last night! It just happened to be minutes after I got done yelling at a child for being sassy and rude and splattering paint water all over my sink, cupboard, counter, dishes and fruit all because this child didn't want to help clean up. Mama Jibson must have been prompted my the Holy Ghost to call me. She reminded me that I too used to be a silly little girl and she told me how wonderful I am and how much she loves me. I guess I need to start my New Year's resolution over and say from February 14th and on I will try to speak lovingly to my children no matter the situation. We live and we learn and tomorrow is a new day.


Gift #5: It's Valentines Day and I get to go to TWO fun parties at school. There, I will secretly eat cookies and candies without William's knowledge.Gift #6: William is off work today and home with me! Cancel that, he just got a call and is leaving around lunch time.

Gifts to my children this week:
We went to Incredible Pizza on Ice Storm Day #1. To our delight there was NOT a bus in sight (school was not in session) and we were one of about 6 cars in the entire parking lot...PARTY! There, we gorged on pizza, pop, slushies, ice cream, pasta, cookies....watched old movies....played arcade games and won tickets.....got silly prized that have all broken by now....and then for good measure shoved some more food in our mouths before exiting the building. I think this is the very reason I gained yet another 2 pounds in one week.
We had a tea party on Ice Storm Day #2. We daintily ate heart shaped egg salad sandwiches, orange slices, crumpets (animal crackers), rice pudding and fruit slushy. The girls thanked me for the gift of juice instead of herb tea. Yes, I'm in my pajamas still. Why get dressed when you won't be going out?All four children got to join me for my weekly doctor's appointment on Ice Storm Day #3. I loved the looks I got as I walked in like a mother duck, waddling with my big belly while four children followed along. Several people actually asked if they were ALL mine. The girls were ecstatic to finally be able to HEAR the baby's heartbeat after seeing him somersault in my ever-growing belly. While waiting for the doctor, we weighed all the children and measured them. Fully clothed with shoes on the statistics are as follows: Claire, 67 lbs and 54 inches. Jane, 57 lbs and 51 inches. Hank, 37 lbs and 40.5 inches. Kate, 31 lbs and 36 inches. I weigh almost three times as much as Jane. Only 3.5 weeks left!

And finally, my gift to give today....for Mama Jibson. I will now allow anonymous comments to be posted on my blog so I may receive the gift that you have to give each time you want to share with me. Thanks for the call, I loved it!

What gifts large or small have you been given this week?

I BELIEVE!

Post and ye shall receive...that's my new motto. I asked Santa for a new digital camera and I got one! Now, it's not like Ali's or Sheena's I'm sure, but it's compact, works and takes wonderful pictures of my beautiful family. Yeah! Thank you Santa! I love it!

And sometime in the near future, when we are not ice skating, baking or playing with our gifts I will post some of the fabulous pictures. Hope you got what you asked for too!

Broken!

I've realized I should stop faking it and just tell you the truth. The reason why all the pictures on my posts have been very old or generic is because I broke my camera! Clumsy, pregnant me was taking a picture of an item on my counter when, slip! The camera somehow got away from me and tumbled onto the counter top. No problem, I thought. But when I picked it up all I got was an error code. It's the same error code I get every time I try to turn the camera on or play back pictures. Darn it!

Dear Santa, Will you please put a very nice digital camera like Ali's or Sheena's in my stocking this year? I promise I have been very good, except when I yelled at the kids yesterday. Love, Marie

What are you hoping for in your stocking this year? or even under the tree? I know my Santa has been sweating it trying to be the perfect man for me this year. He is so sweet and thoughtful and wonderful and my list is WAY too long to get everything on it. My theory is, I can really only handle one new gadget at a time anyway. I mean, if I got a new sewing machine and a bosch mixer and a new digital camera all in the same day, two items would be neglected while I played with my favorite for months on end. Might as well space it all out over the next several years.

So what is it? What do you want for Christmas?