Like A Kid On Christmas...

..or maybe Christmas Eve, but definitely the kid part. My company handed out Christmas bonuses today. Mister and I had previously discussed my Christmas gifts...or really, the lack there of. Not that it's a surprise to many married women, the Mister does not do very well with Christmas. He only has to buy gifts for me from a very specific, typed list. He often takes the list into a store, snags a store helper, points, grunts and pays. If he gets something on sale, that becomes part of my gift as well. I'm quite the proud bargain shopper. So where was I going with this...so the bonus check was handed out and we'd discussed if it were above a certain amount then I would get the one thing I've been coveting for years. I'm preparing to be the proud owner of this. I've even figured out a way to get it online, despite being a freak of America family that does not have a credit card. Hello gift card!! I've already joined a yahoo group to try and get a jump start on tips and tricks. I am determined to produce a blanket for Peanut with it.

This arrived in a newsletter in my mail box. I think my soon to be born nephew, Joshua will need one. He'll be joining big brother, Justin in February. I think I'd like to try it in a washable yarn, though. I'm so excited we live so close to my brother & sister-in-law now. I'm definitely looking forward to snuggling that little man. I missed out on so much with Justin, but we also had a Peanut the same age to snuggle too.

I used my allowance from a few weeks ago to buy Sandy Miner's new book. It has some fabulous patterns in it. I love Sandy's simple designs. They're sized preemie to adult. The money goes to a good cause. It came autographed with a customized thank you note, bookmark and tea. You don't get such a warm & fuzzy feeling from an Amazon shipment.

Santa is bringing Peanut a Big Girl Bed (aka twin). Who knew BGBs (aka Big Girl Bed) would be so expensive. One mattress shop guy explained that there are only two factories that make the foam used in mattresses and one of them was wiped out by Katrina. A few months ago, we could have bought a fabulous set with our budget...now it'll just get us the very basic set. We can't have the princess on a cheap mattress, so we'll be increasing the budget. Aunt Jack has already spent lots of money on the required Dora The Explorer bedding and matching hot pink, tie-dyed sheets. We're trying to convince Peanut that BGs don't use pacis in BGBs and she should leave her pacis out with Santa's snack so he can give them to babies to use them. She just gets paci when she goes to bed in her crib at home. She doesn't use it at daycare and doesn't get it during the day just because. We've always been pretty strict on the usage of the paci. Now we just need to take the final step and cut ties to it all together.

Mister attended his first swank party with me last night. He did pretty well despite being made to wear "preppy" clothes. They had a chocolate fountain that we made friends with. We got there a little late for dinner but I did sneak a potato martini before visiting the fountain. It was my kind of party. You would have thought someone had yelled "fire!" by the way people ran for the coat room after the end of the raffle. The Admin staff work really hard to plan this event and they can't be bothered to stay longer than to hear the higher ups speeches and who won the flat screen tv.

Have I mentioned how amazing our neighbors are? Peanut goes over there for daycare M-F while we're at work. She loves it. We've seen an amazing difference in her since the change. My Aunt had planned on having a slumber party with Peanut while we were at my company party. Mother Nature had another idea. The massive amounts of snow scared her off and we had to call in for back up. Enter the neighbors! There was no hesitation in the offer to keep Peanut for us. When I called to check on them, I couldn't believe my ears when I heard "I really hope you don't mind but I gave her a bath". Um, mind? You must have me confused with someone else. In talking with her today, they invited us over for their New Year's get together.

And to close this manifesto...our ghost story. We've been in the house two months now. We've had some odd stuff happening. Things moving around, but I've chalked it up to my forgetfulness or lack of organization. The strangest has been the TV. Four or five different times now, I've been watching something and the channel will change to A&E. The remote is rendered useless for several minutes and then switches back to what I was originally watching. It finally happened when the whole family was in the same room watching TV the other night. After witnessing it, Mister now believes me and doesn't call me crazy. Now it can't be the neighbor's because we don't have any 3 sides of the house and the ones we do have, have satellite rather than cable. Here's the thing that has me the most convinced. We were all in the spare bedroom going over Christmas gifts. Peanut suddenly became fascinated with playing in the closet. No big deal. The light was on and we were in there. Mister began to notice that she was talking to someone. He then realized that she kept referring to someone named "Neil". She'd go in the closet and tell "Neil" to get back or hide or sit down. Mister told her to give Neil a kiss, she went over to the closet and kissed the door. Now, our Peanut is only 2. She's really not old enough for an imaginary friend just yet. She's just starting to get into pretend play with her baby or tea set. What we've found the most strange is the name "Neil". We know NO ONE with that name. I checked with the neighbors and they don't know a Neil and confirmed that there wasn't a "Neil" character on any of the shows she watches. So our question is, who is Neil? Jennifer also told of her own oddness with their puppy breaking out of his steel cage in the middle of the night. I've decided that Neil is friendly, no matter what he is. It keeps me from allowing my imagination get the best of me when I hear a bump or creak in the middle of the night.

Here comes Santa Claus...

Ahhh...Winter. It brings lovely thoughts of family filled holidays, making new cherished memories and...the flu. Yep, we've been hit. Peanut started showing signs at 11:30 Friday night. It was a downward spiral from there. Saturday morning brought a call from next door saying Mom, Dad and LittleGuy1 were having the same problems as Peanut. I started with it this morning. Peanut goes next door for daycare, so they were well enough to take her today and I get time to take care of myself. What a luxury!

In a clearing of sickness clouds, we attended Mister's Union Christmas Party. What a party they put on! While standing in line for "peetza!" I noticed a familiar face in the crowd...my roommate from my last year of college! Who would have thought? He was just as surprised to see me as I was to see him. My last year at CMU, I lived in the AKPsi house with 6 roommates....a group of guys that liked to call themselves "The Wolf Pack". Good times were had in that house. The boys definitely prepared me for life with Mister. It was great to see him and I gave him my business card. We'll see if I hear from him.
Santa made an appearance at the party. Peanut did pretty well with him last year. I was able to rescue her from his lap before total meltdown happened. See the pained look on her face? 30 seconds more and it wouldn't have been pretty.

And this was this year...She wasn't even up for giving him a chance. Still haven't decided if we'll have time to make the traditional trip up to Sommerset to see their Santa just yet.

Peanut seemed to warm up to the idea of Santa once she opened her new baby, Sarah Lynn from him. Notice the red cheeks and lack of blue, holiday themed sweatshirt. The Blonde Wonder overheats very easily. Waiting in a hallway for 25 mins with a couple hundred other people did her in. I think this was part of the Santa freakout.

To end this post...I'll include one more photo. Seems that little Miss is obsessed with Pink. We don't tend to push it on her, so I'm not sure where it comes from. Here's a photo of her in our bed earlier last week waiting for me to be ready for work and take her next door.

Pink pretties, sunglasses, angel shirt, pants, socks and shoes.

Blanche

Today I attended the memorial for my dear friend Blanche. I can't express how different the office is without her. It's still hard to believe she's gone. When I take Peanut in to see Santa at our holiday breakfast, it'll make me sad to know we won't stop to visit her.

I was pretty proud of myself. I've cried about 100 times off and on the last 10 days. Then this morning I decided that it was absolutely not what she would have wanted. So, I kept upbeat. I made it through the service with just a few tears. I waited for the crowd to clear before paying my respects to her family...the guy in front of me was crying and talking about how much he thought of her and missed her....I said hello to her daughter and just lost it. I felt so bad. It was just too much. I think a few people are going to propose the company use some of the money the employees raise during the holidays to establish a memorial scholarship. I'll be interested to see if that idea goes anywhere, though.

Mister's dad and girlfriend were in for Thanksgiving. The house was immaculate before they got here. It's still a mess and they left on Sunday. I'm tired and glad we only see them once a year. I know it's horrible...I won't go into the details of their visit.

I'm still working on the shawl for Blanche. She always called herself my work grandma so I think it's only fitting that my grandmother receive the shawl once I'm finished. I know she would have liked that. Or I could send it to her daughter. Depends on how long it takes me, I guess.

I picked up the latest copy of Knit It. I'm making the green baby cardigan (made with VelvetSpun) for my good friend Jennifer's baby, Allyson. Jenn peeks in on this blog from time to time, so I'm not going to say anymore about it.

That's about it. I'm going to go put on some jammies and have a bowl of ice cream.