10th Dec2008

There is no such thing as Santa Claus

by The Boss

With the holidays approaching I can’t help but think about my childhood. My dad was really big on Santa when I was a kid. Looking back at all the toys Santa brought me as a child seems a little excessive now that I am a parent.

I was always suspicious about the existence of Santa. He just seemed too good to be true. My parents assured me he was real over and over again. Still I doubted, so I would make them promise he was real, and they would.

I was 7 before I found any hard evidence that Santa didn’t exist. I remember looking around that Christmas Eve very carefully, paying attention to the tiniest details.

In the morning, the first thing I noticed was a closet door that was slightly ajar. I pointed out to my parents that the door was completely closed when we went to bed, and they just tried distracting me with my new presents. Later in the morning, I found the wrapping paper and colored tape that had been used to wrap my presents. My parents said Santa wrapped the presents while he was putting them under the tree. I couldn’t break them, they had an answer for everything.

The following Christmas came as quickly as they all seem to. This year, my parents weren’t together and I stayed with my dad on Christmas Eve. I fell asleep as soon as possible. The next morning, I had a feeling that Santa just wasn’t coming. I lingered in bed just a little while longer until my curiosity got the best of me. My suspicions were right. Santa had not come.

I went back to bed, and stared at the ceiling. I think I even felt a little foolish. About 2 minutes passed, and I heard my dad jump out of his bed and run out the front door. A few more minutes passed and I heard him come back in. I suspect he knew I had already been up and seen that Santa had not come. He had to act quickly so he yelled out, “Thanks Santa! See you next year!” Santa had brought me a new bike.

I never said anything to my dad about that morning. I just let him think he had tricked me again. He likes to think he’s smarter than me. But I knew, if I said anything I would not be getting anything good for Christmas the next year.

04th Dec2008

I push the button!

by The Boss

There is this stuffed animal on our Christmas tree that sings a Christmas song and I never knew until the boys squeezed that toy 30 times while we were decorating. After putting up the Christmas tree, we all sat down on the couch to watch it twinkle. Andrew would run up to the tree, squeeze the stuffed animal, and try to run back and sit on the couch before it stopped singing. I guess he was trying to set the mood. He realized that this wasn’t working, and then Zion volunteered to help. They were running in circles trying to make this happen. It wasn’t long before the tree was swaying back and forth, so I told them to stop. Andrew had to try one more time. Then he was told to step away from the tree, but he felt the need to try one more time..eventually I had to drag him from the tree. It was like he could not help himself. He knew that he was going to get in trouble and could care less when it came to the musical styles of this tiny stuffed reindeer. “Just…one…more…time….mom.”

After that, we were at the table and Aidan looked up with a super disappointed look on her face and said, “MOM! We forgot to celebrate Hanukkah!” So I explained that Hanukkah and Christmas had nothing to do with each other, they just happen to be celebrated around the same time. She seemed relieved.

01st Dec2008

I missed you guys.

by The Boss

I am super excited today. I haven’t blogged in days, bet you guys never even knew, right? I feel like I have so much to tell you. I don’t even no where to begin…

Thanksgiving was amazing. First of all, when I walked into Laura’s she told me to close my eyes and open my mouth. Then she put some spinach artichoke dip in my mouth. I fell in love with her. While we were eating, Friend Ben’s mom told us amazing stories of Little Friend Ben. Things like, he would read books to his little brother and that he had an imaginary….should I be telling you this? I mean..what’s Friend Ben ever done to me besides put a photoshopped picture of me on facebook. Which was just retaliation of the picture of him I put on Facebook. I give Friend Ben such a hard time, ALL the time, maybe I shouldn’t tell you that he had an imaginary friend named Regganounce when he was a boy. I guess I’ll have to give that some more thought. After we ate, we went on the longest walk known to man. Not really but when you’re out of shape and super full it might as well had been.

Friday I had planned to put up my Christmas Tree, but that never happened because we got a crazy idea to pull up the carpet in our Family Room…and we did. That was an all day project, even though I distinctly remember telling Ben that it wouldn’t be. If time would just listen to me, everything would go much smoother. My mom called and told me she needed all this help at her new office. She couldn’t get her printers to work. When we got to her office, I pulled an envelope out of the printer/copier that had gotten jammed then I plugged it up. It worked fine after that. I don’t know a lot about electronics, but what I do know I give all credit to my mom. If it wasn’t for her not knowing anything she would have never MADE me do all the electronic related things growing up. Actually, she was always trying to make me do weird things growing up. Once, I had spent the night at a friends, and at 7:00am she called me and was all, “Come home now.” She sounded angry, but I wasn’t buying it. “Why do you want me to come home, Mother?”
“Just do it Brandice!”
“This is not a Nike commercial mother.”
Then her voice changed from stern to whiny and she said, ” I can’t get this anklet on because my nails are to long.”
“I’m going back to sleep.”

Saturday, we went to visit my family. I went to see my dads mom first. She made a ginormous lunch for us, and I was telling her how her house reminded me of an I Spy! book. The longer you look around, you see more stuff you never knew was there, even though the stuff has been there forever, like MY WHOLE LIFE. She chuckled when I told her, and then she said, “You know I NEVER throw anything away.” After that we went to my aunts house, and I could have stayed all day except for the fact I had 2 more places to visit before I got home. When I got to my other grandmothers, I started looking for Zoe’s formula so I could make her a bottle. But I never found it. That’s because I never brought it. So we immediately packed back up and drove the hour home so she could eat. We didn’t even get to stop by my dads.

Speaking of my dad, when I called him later to tell him why we hadn’t stopped to see him, something amazing happened. His girlfriend, told him to ask me what I wanted for Christmas. He hasn’t asked me that question since I had kids. Trying not to go into shock, I crossed my fingers and said, “LAPTOP!” You’ll never believe what happened next. His girlfriend said, “Wait! we’re buying a new one for Christmas and the one we have is only a few years old.” Then she told my dad he could buy that one from her, for me. I think it needs a little work, but I could have swore I heard the angels singing as the whole conversation went on. Then I laughed because my dad got roped into that one. I love it when he has girlfriends. So, maybe, just maybe I might be getting a VAIO…

.

20th Nov2008

My Christmas Wish List

by The Boss

My Christmas Wish List, also known as the “Brandice your flippin’ crazy, get a job and buy it yourself list.”
And even better, the “It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, get a grip.”

Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (Black)

camera

and a laptop….any laptop that will allow me to blog on my couch…with my feet up.

laptop

laptop2

It’s only 2 things. It’s not like I am being greedy.