Tag: Gifts

Christmas Eve (and Eve-Eve) 2019

Well it’s here again. Five days ahead of TT’s birthday and the tree is up, presents are under it and both children are sleeping.

So we seem have some traditions forming now. The first is that we go for a nice meal on Christmas Eve-Eve (yesterday). One friend informed me I ought to call it Christmas Adam. I’m tempted. But another friend (who is Danish) informed me that in Denmark it is actually known as Little Christmas Eve.

I love both of these ideas. Tune in next Christmas to find out which I go for.

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings last year. This year we went to Bertucci’s – a lovely Italian chain.

Olive Garden is vile – we don’t go there

And I have my own tradition now:

The kids ate well and I’m off the dairy-free bandwagon. My mental health has been in the toilet this whole month and I cracked like an egg.

But I feel so much better mentally, if not physically necessarily.

And so to today.

We went to the Flaming Grill and Buffet in Malden today for lunch. It’s a Japanese-Chinese-American fusion buffet. It was a resounding success.

My plate:

The hus-creature’s:

TT’s:

#1 Son’s:

All completely different. And everyone ate and ate well.

A resounding success. We will go back there again.

Then we spent the rest of the day at home. Yes, the kids got progressively more and more excited, but not wired.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.

Here is what we left out for Santa:

The apple is for the reindeer – the hus-creature has researched this and apparently reindeer farmers genuinely give people apples to feed to them as treats.

The kiddos went happily to bed and tomorrow will be awesome. Food is planned. Drink is planned. The hus-creature and I will be a team cooking and hopefully the kiddos will be distracted with new things.

And I think they might just have been on the Nice List:

We can confirm that Santa does indeed appreciate macarons and Japanese whiskey.

Goodnight all. See you on the other side ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Post Operative Check – Part the First

And happy Commercial Romance Day!

The hus-creature got me a lovely card and Haribo Gold Bears 💗💗💗

A few of which were used to bribe TT to use the potty 🙄

And while I was asleep this morning he also sent me this:

My heart and my world. 💕

My own daddy knocked it out of the park too by sending my Momma some gorgeous chocolate covered strawberries – great job dad 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Me? I got the hus-creature a mug. See, he has developed a major taste for coffee, and needed his own* mug to take to the office

I got him the one on the right, rather than the pink one 🤣😂

And at 15:30 today (well roughly anyway) I toddled (slowly) up to see my surgeon for my first post-op checkup.

I cannot believe I am only 9 days post. Comparatively I feel great. I thought he was insane to send me home when he did, but he was right.

And yes, I did say that to his face today 🤣😂

He very carefully checked me over, with minimal prodding. My incision is healing fantastically apparently.

He removed the first set of steri-strips, replaced them with a mere two, and has given me orders to clean the area with hydrogen peroxide solution twice a day.

Yes Sir, Dr. Witkowski *salutes sharply*

I am doing exactly what he tells me, because as far as I am concerned, this man is my hero. He has given me a life.

I saw my pathology reports. My insides were indeed a mess. Endometriosis, Adenomyosis, my tubes blocked and scarring up the wazoo.

Most tellingly was my cervix, which was still flagging abnormal cells. But he is confident that he got it all. There’s no need to worry (direct quote there).

He is glad he took everything away. Looks like I was at risk of developing cervical cancer later but no cancer of any sort detected anywhere at all. So all good there.

He wants to see me again in two weeks. The six week ban on all things remains in place, and I am to continue gradually increasing my exercise levels.

Oh, and I’ve lost three pounds.

And only 0.5lb of that was interval organs!!!

I’m counting that as a win!!!

*After sadly breaking a cool one of mine mumble

And then she was two

Two years ago, after a hellish induction, I was staring in wonderment at the most beautiful baby girl in the world.

No, really, no other baby girl was ever this pretty. (The most beautiful baby boy in the world ever had been born three years prior you see).

And now? She’s two.

She’s a stroppy, opinionated, smart, strong bundle of amazingness, and I am the luckiest mama bear ever.

She had her new big girl bed as her main present from us:

With bedding from nanny and granddad and Lola-dog.

(Happy gotcha day Lola-dog)

We then added Aunty Harri’s canopy:

Whereupon she began practicing for the teenage years early.

She bloody loves the bed.

She did refuse to nap though, which ended in her passing out on me at around 15:30:

We then had cake when she woke up – well, when I woke her – she was not impressed. Aunty H came to join us for cake and TT ended up covered. So we had a bath.

With new toys. And bath markers.

Which she ruined by pooping in the bath 🙄🙄🙄

Then we put her to bed. For the first time. And, well, it was not as successful as it was for #1 Son.

TT on the other hand, was up and out before daddy finished reading her bedtime story!!!

She was then up and rattling the door handle after daddy left the room. I resettled her then.

When #1 Son went to bed she was still awake!!!! BUT was under the covers and stayed there while I went to get another bottle (that she requested).

We checked on her at 21:00 and she was asleep, still in bed, and mostly under the blanket. She had unilaterally decided no more sleeping bags dammit. We shall see how this goes – it’s bitterly cold right now, and duvets are not a thing for toddlers here it seems.

When we checked on her whilst getting #1 son up for his middle of the night wee, she was fast asleep, with that second bottle untouched which was great.

I can hear her occasionally drinking from her second official bottle through the monitor.

All in all, not as good as I hoped, but as well as I expected. Well, apart from the poop 🙄

Also, after we washed her hair, through judicious application of tablet, I was able to completely blow dry her hair, which left her rocking the Smokey Quartz (rather than Amethyst) look:

And the curls are dropping out at last!

Christmas Aftermath

Well the children have been thoroughly spoiled and I am so so grateful.

Firstly, it seems Santa got a tad confused and left presents in two places:

The kids were gobsmacked, and TT loved her “pin-gin” paper 💕💕💕

The Big Man listens you know 😂🤣

🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻

But why all this play food and sets you wonder? Because someone dropped a line to him on what her “main” present was going to be:

(Can I admit that I’m more than slightly jealous? 😂🤣)

She has spent all day playing with it, with various play foods. I have extracted her lunch pizza from a pot on the hob, and most play foods have ended up in the freezer compartment!

Not to be outdone, #1 Son has completed construction of his main Lego set:

Even without the stickers he appears as pleased as Punch.

Tomorrow TT turns two. Tonight is therefore the last night for her in her cot.

Tomorrow she gets her first “Big Girl” bed.

Part of me is really sad about this. But she’s growing up. She’s not a baby anymore.

Christmas Day (2017)

Oh what a wonderful day we’ve had.

Santa visited:

#1 Son loves his Lego’s. Not so much his crayons and similar. Ah well.

TT was really happy with her hair bows and dinosaurs and other similar items.

We then had breakfast. TT ended up trying my scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, and she bloody loved it!!!

🙄🙄🙄🙄😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

She cleared that plate! We also watched squirrels for a bit.

After breakfast we opened presents.

As previously mentioned, we left a lot of presents behind, but as a result the kids really enjoyed what they opened.

Lunch was awesome:

  • Pork with cranberry sauce and stuffing – yum! (Too much turkey previously consumed)
  • Macaroni cheese
  • Sliced potatoes – with herbs and other yummies
  • Crab cakes

TT stole a crab cake and scoffed it before we even noticed 😂🤣 and these were tasty cakes (wasabi mayo etc). Guess she’s taking after us more than her brother.

Then came dessert:

  • Chocolate peanut pie
  • Key lime pie

So. Good.

I don’t really like British traditional puddings of Christmas time – mince pies, Christmas pud & Christmas cake etc, so this was amazing for me.

TT stuck her hand in pie 🙄

We shouted.

The dog barked and barked a lot. She was defending TT against us 😂🤣

So she got cuddles and we were forgiven by her loyal Guard of Honour!

TT also had a whale of a time just generally:

Yep, that’s a stocking on each foot 😂🤣

Aunts Domi and Uncle Gary kindly took the kids out for a brief walk with Fluffy (the dog) and they had a really lovely time. The wagon was involved.

We just had a little rest as wow it’s tiring:

I have read a few chapters of one of my presents:

Which is bloody brilliant and hilarious and everyone should read it. Certainly every parent who worries that they aren’t “doing it right”

Because we are – it’s hard and we are doing okay 😘

We are now watching Ozark for an hour or so’s downtime then bed.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL

🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕

A gift decision

Has been reached.

  • We have a small car.
  • Amazon have not delivered all presents yet.
  • We have a small car.
  • Parity of gifts important when away from home.
  • We have a small car.
  • We have very generous friends and family.
  • We have a small car.
  • Our kids can get “present fatigue” very easily.
  • We have a small car.
  • We are going to someone else’s house for Christmas.
  • We have a small car.
  • We will need to bring back presents we take plus Santa’s gifts.
  • We have a small car.

So, with this in mind, this is what we are taking with us:

This is what has been left behind:

Did I mention the wonderfully generous friends and family? Yes they are in my walk-in.

Christmas Eve (Eve)

Busy busy busy here.

The hus-creature braved the wilds of Wegmans to forage for our weekly shop.

Thanks to a very kind invitation, we are heading up to Connecticut tomorrow afternoon to spend a day or two with family and as such don’t have to plan a full dinner for the big day.

However it does mean that wrapping needs to be finished. Which has been complex.

I would really like to know something.

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO GET BIRTHDAY WRAPPING PAPER AT THIS TIME OF YEAR?!?!?!?

Apparently the gift wrapping fairies appear to believe that no one (apart from Jesus) is born in December!

Also, well, at least two different sets of Christmas wrapping paper are called for.

It’s a bit of a logistical nightmare.

So I have this to console me:

I don’t mind if I do 😝

In addition, some personalised merchandise came home from school yesterday:

<<<< that is artwork created by #1 Son 💕💕

And to cap it all off, TT is apparently feeling under the weather today.

Death. Stare.

Random acts of yarn kindness

Well sort of.

I haven’t really talked much about one of my main keeping sane hobbies – my fibre arts.

That’s actually because most of my most recent projects (“works in progress” or WIPs) have been gifts or surprises so I haven’t really been able to publicise them.

I’m planning on getting back into the dyeing groove in the New Year (I am desperately awaiting my warping board) so I thought I might do a “Look Back on 2017” sort of thing.

At least for those projects now safely with their recipients.

So these are from a Swapalong. The idea is that we all completed a questionnaire stating what we were prepared to make and what we would be happy to receive and in preferred (and not preferred) colours.

As I can really only make shawls yet out of the stated options, I decided to make them a bit more special and one of a kind (OOAK) by dyeing up the yarn myself.

So in the summer came this:

This was a crocheted special and yes it truly was that big.

In the winter came this:

I chose the purple rather than the multiway.

Note: the pastels were caused by using a protein fibre dyeing method on a 50:50 Merino:Cotton blend – 50% protein and 50% cellulose.

This one is knitted, and I had discovered knitting with beads by this point.

Such fun to do 😆

As it was smaller than the first, I popped in a skein of the Wonder Woman sock yarn I covet so.

Both giftees seemed very happy.

In parallel to this, I was working on a much bigger project in 80:20 Alpaca:Silk (such gorgeous yarn to both dye and crochet with).

A friend and former colleague was diagnosed with that bastard cancer and I wanted to help, so I decided to make a “you will kick this thing’s backside” blanket.

This is one I am very proud of.

The darn blanket got stuck in customs, but it found it’s way to her in the end.

I’m finally working on something for myself now – I have a yarn advent calendar with an exclusive pattern 😃👍🏻

Our (Festive) weekend

This weekend just gone, a snowstorm was predicted.

As an aside, I have been more than a tad grumpy that there hadn’t been any snow. I mean gloom and doom from predicted from November and it’s now mid-December

Anyway, my prayers were answered on Saturday and it snowed.

But not a blizzard. Just a steady, visually light, constant shower of snow that, by the end of the afternoon, left 5-6 inches on the ground.

It stopped too late to let the kids play in it though. #1 Son was most sad about this.

However, on Sunday, whilst TT was napping, the hus-creature took him out to play in it.

Behold the first ever snow angels.

He had so much fun. Then there was Snickerdoodle hot chocolate.

After TT arose we also decorated our tree. Our real non-fake Christmas tree.

I swear, I was more excited by this than the children 😂😆🤣

Baubles were divided by coloured thread topper:

  • Purple – #1 Son
  • Orange – The Tiny Tyrant

We subsequently found the box of “special” ornaments. You know the ones, every family has them. Either bought for, or made by, the children.

Yes, those are Adventure Time baubles.

TT also spent much of the day being a modern Disney Princess

Ana with a light saber.

It was a good weekend.

The (apparent) aftermath

I am unwell today.

I’ve had killer headaches off and on for over a month – a lot of that can most likely be attributed to my untreated hypertension (started my new medication yesterday – I am now on three pills a day 👍🏻😂)

But at 3am this morning I was dragged awake with a screaming head – to the extent I actually woke the poor hus-creature by sobbing.

And I remained awake for at least an hour.

This beautiful creature kept me company though:

I’ve often said we have a dog-cat 😂🤣

Sadly kitty-snuggles were not sufficient and at 4am I was calling God on the porcelain telephone.

Note: American toilets are not comfy for doing this if you are used to British plumbing.

Oddly I felt better enough to then snuggle down with my furry companion and my cuddly hot water bottle (that would be the hus-creature) and basically pass out until the alarms went off.

I’ve pretty much been a zombie for the rest of the day though. Just mainlining stodge, carbs, sugar and caffeine to get through.

No it’s not healthy but lord has it helped.

My head is still pounding, and #1 Son has a half day today, but he’s being lovely and TT is also being reasonable.

A little Christmas present from me to me arrived today:

Which has helped.

I am so tired of feeling sick and tired. Endometriosis is a bastard, and all the other conditions can get in the sea as well.