The Best Laid Plans...

I wore a short-sleeved shirt to work today on the assumption that I'd be spending the whole day in my office, with my heater. I brought my gym bag with me on the assumption that I'd be going to the gym after the morning meeting.

But my office wasn't cozy and warm when I came in. My heater was up on the credenza with a note taped to it. Oh boy, I thought, a scolding from the landlord about leaving my heater running over the weekend. But no, that wasn't it. It looks like my heater shorted out, literally melting the plug and frying the surge suppressor/extension cord that it had been plugged into.

So it turns out my short-sleeved shirt was a bad idea, and instead of the gym, I'll be running up to the store for a new heater and a new surge suppressor/extension cord thingy. Yay. It's a good thing I keep a sweater in my office, even if it is three or four sizes too big, because without my heater running, my office is about 65.

I had a good weekend, though. I can tell, because I'm up two pounds from Friday morning. Whee!

The office party was a great success (except for my having inadvertently pissed off the caterer by not being able to afford to tip her -- I'd assumed it was built into the invoice and blown the rest of my budget already) and I ate so much that even though I skipped dinner entirely, I was still feeling full to the point of being ill that evening.

It snowed Friday night -- not a lot, just enough to get Penny excited.

Saturday was our Christmas party, and despite some last-minute cancellations due to illness and weather (it snowed harder in some other areas) I think it was a success.

While we were partying, it snowed some more.

And then Sunday, we had dinner with my family to celebrate Alex's 2nd birthday. When Sam set the tray of cupcakes in front of him, he made the most adorable startle ever. Like, "Oh my gosh, cake!" as if he hadn't been pestering me for a cupcake all afternoon. And then, for no apparent reason, he decided he needed to try to eat his cupcake without actually picking it up, which was hysterical.

Lots of fun! And a very great deal of food, oh my lordy.

This week will actually be somewhat calmer and simpler, I think. Work looks fairly light and quiet, as could be expected. I need to come in every day, but I'm hoping to be able to take some (or even most) of the afternoons off.

Tuesday we're having a friend over for chili, and Thursday (Christmas Eve) we're having my parents over for soup and sandwiches. Friday will be more hectic, of course, but also plenty of fun.

Half-Baked

So after the kids were in bed last night, Matt had to go back into work to take care of an emergency fix, and I got to baking.

I made a batch of gingerbread -- not cookies. Gingerbread. It turned out pretty well, though it wasn't as dense as I was expecting -- more like cake than bread. I might drop the amount of baking soda by a smidge in the next batch and see if that helps. It tasted quite good, though personally I like a stronger ginger flavor, so the next batch might have more ginger in it, too.

And then I was still feeling pretty chipper, so I decided to go ahead and try out the recipe for cheese straws. That was a bit more time-consuming than I expected, mostly because I hadn't factored in how long it would take for me to roll out some fifty-odd little snakes of dough. But they turned out pretty tasty (butter and cheese -- how can you go wrong?!) and I think it would be a really fun recipe to make with the kids, since the dough is pretty much play-dough consistency, and it will bake into any shape you lay it out in. (My last batch, just for giggles, I made circles instead of sticks.) I'd just have to lay out some ground rules about the thickness of the shapes, and then let them go wild.

I expect you could also roll it out flat, cut it with small cookie-cutters, and make pretty tasty crackers. I might try that some other time. In any case, definitely a keeper recipe, though I'd like to experiment with whole wheat flour, butter substitutes, and/or lower-fat cheese (not all at once!) to see if I can make it a smidge healthier.

But not tonight. Tonight's mission is to make another batch of gingerbread (with less baking soda and more ginger) and cupcakes for Alex's birthday party on Sunday. And to do some initial clutter-control so we can clean up for the party tomorrow. And start assembling the party favors and stuff.

But before that! is my office's Christmas holiday party year-end event. The catering lady will be here at 10:45 to set up (the party doesn't start until 11:30, but she's got three other luncheons to set up today, apparently, and most of my order is sandwiches and other things that can sit at room-temperature). I'll get to give a lot of gift cards away as door prizes, and eat good food and -- I think -- have a really good time.

Delays

This morning has been all about delays.

At 7:23, I said, "Okay, kids, time to get ready to go!" I put my coat on, then got Alex into his coat, and Penny was... still not even in the living room. "Penny, you have until I count to three to get in here and get your coat on!"

"But Mom, I have to go potty!"

...

What the hell was she doing while I was getting my coat and Alex's on, then? I really don't want to know, because the answer would probably just anger me.

Got Alex to school, then took Penny to her school, and she said, "Mom, my throat feels kind of like I'm going to throw up." I took her to the nurse's office. The nurse looked at Penny's throat and took her temperature, and I said, "Boy, I hope you're not really sick, Penny, because if you are, you'll have to miss the cookie party with your class tomorrow."

When the thermometer came out of her mouth, she said, "I only feel a little sick."

Oh, good, because the bell has already rung.

Walking back to my car, I remembered that I'd run out of Splenda for my tea at work, so I detoured over to the grocery store to pick some up. In front of me in line was one of those women who has to completely disassemble her purse in order to dig exact change out of the bottom.

Finally on my way, I discovered... an accident right at the ramp I use, completely covering both lanes of oncoming traffic and the ramp itself.  So I wound up having to drive down to the next ramp. Which, because of some really stellar road planning, is about six miles down. And even then, I wound up doing a mostly-illegal u-turn to get moving in the direction I wanted to go. Possibly, it would've been faster to just wait for the damn accident to clear.

And that's what my day has been like so far. Boy, I hope it improves from here.

Craze

Let's see...

Today between my 11:00 meeting and my allergy shot this afternoon, I'll go out and buy the door prizes for my office holiday party. (Why yes, I am dropping the entire $2000-ish holiday party budget on my credit card that gives me a cashback bonus.)

Matt and I worked out the remaining details on our Christmas party last night, so tonight I'll go shopping for the remaining stuff for that. (Mostly groceries, though we're also thinking of door prizes and -- since there will be kids present -- party favors.) I suspect I'll do that immediately after dinner, which leaves Matt to put the kids to bed by himself, but some of the stores I want close at 9, so waiting until 8:30 to head out is pretty much out of the question.

Tomorrow evening I'll start the party preparations. (Baking, mostly.)

Friday is the office party at work, and then that evening I'll continue the preparations for our party. (More baking, plus some cleaning/clearing and digging out my festive serving platters and such.)

(Along with all that, what started out as a relatively slow week at work turned into insanity, as I've had four  unscheduled documents and not one, not two, but three emergency software releases -- each of which requires a minimum of three documents to be created -- pop up on me.)

Saturday we'll finish the cleaning/clearing, do some last-minute decorating, and assemble all the last-minute stuff for the party. And then actually have the party, which I think will be fun. (We're looking at around 20 people, total, if we don't have a lot of last-minute cancellations. Even if you go by the rule that about a third of the guests will drop out at the last minute, that's 14 or 15 people, about a quarter of which are kids. Not bad!)

Saturday night or Sunday morning, if I didn't get to it before, I need to bake the cupcakes for Alex's birthday party, which is Sunday afternoon/evening. And, of course, Sunday is the usual grocery and laundry day.

Whew. After all that, Christmas week itself will be a snap. It's a good thing I'm starting to recover my Christmas spirit.

Keeping Up

Well, in addition to my annual case of pre-Thanksgiving stomach uck, and my usual pre-Christmas case of a nasty cough (this year's case has yet to turn into bronchitis, but there's still time!) and my time-honored fit of wondering whether I'm the only one who cares and if I ought to just skip the whole holiday thing, I've managed to knock out my traditional saying-something-without-thinking-and-offending-someone a little early this year. Whew, good to know I can cross that off my to-do list.

Since it coincided with several other frustrations and a sneaky bout of PMS, I spent a couple of hours last night thinking (melodramatically, because that's how I roll when the hormone homies are in town) about quitting the whole blog thing entirely. But we all know I'm not going to do that, because I've been doing this journal/blog thing for over ten years now, and I'm not sure I can even function at work if I don't start my day with a post. So I settled for posting some angsty "think I'll go eat worms" messages on Twitter (Twitter! It's the new "getting drunk and calling your ex"!) and then going to bed to cry myself to sleep.

I offer sincere and extremely grateful appreciation to those who responded with concern. Since the most common effect of PMS is to rev up the Mutant Worrybrain with the whole "no one love me" refrain, then every individual message does its part to quash those maunderings.

So I'm better enough this morning to feel like an idiot, but still under the weather enough that I can't summon enthusiasm for much of anything, especially much of anything having to do with Christmas. Hope the hormones dry up in time for me to finish planning the party, or else it's going to turn out kind of half-assed. (You can probably imagine for yourself how the hormones are responding to that.

Home Stretch

No major events this past weekend. We dropped in on my folks long enough to give them some cookies and visit for a few minutes. Matt took Penny out to lunch, and had his D&D game. I dashed out through the pouring rain to buy myself a new winter coat, because I've been too cold in my windbreaker and my old winter coat is the size of a small tent.

(Yay, Christmas sales -- I got a wool coat, a new pair of jeans, and two pretty Christmas fleece shirts all for about $130. The retail cost on the coat alone is almost $200, so I feel pretty good about it. Also, I feel pretty good about the jeans, which are a size 12. I actually only pulled them off the rack to see how far I had to go before I could wear them. Whee!)

This week promises a moderate level of insanity: Matt and I need to finish our party planning and move into the party preparation phase. At some point during the week, I need to go out and buy a whole stack of gift cards for my office's holiday party on Friday, which I'm in charge of organizing. I should also try to remember to have Penny take her gifts to her teachers on Friday. And figure out if we're getting gifts for the daycare teachers or not. Saturday is our Christmas party. And on Sunday is our family party for Alex's 2nd birthday, for which I've promised to make the dessert. (Penny thinks we should have cupcakes, which is fine with me. Though I may not bother attempting to stick to diet-friendly recipes and just go for the boxed cake mix and frosting. We'll see how ambitious I'm feeling.)

Which is all completely in addition to the work I need to get done at work, and at least a couple of trips to the gym.

Let the fun begin!

Open Letter: What I Want For Christmas

I seem to keep having this conversation with various friends and family, so let me lay it out in an open letter.

I'm not participating in the round-robin gift exchanges this year. You know -- the sort where everyone in a group draws a name out of a hat, and that's who you get a gift for. I know why they're popular. It's nice not to have to worry about figuring out what everyone wants, or having to shop for a lot of people, or trying to budget for it all.

But here's the thing: I'm doing most of my shopping online, and the bit that isn't, I kind of enjoy. And I'm lucky enough to have a reasonable amount of money this year, so the budget isn't a huge concern for me. And the crux of it, really? Is that I like giving people presents.

There's nothing quite like the thrill of seeing something and knowing immediately who should have it: who would most appreciate its beauty, or use it with joy, or fully understand its humor. Who would be happy to know that I thought of them. Who would, even if the gift isn't quite as perfect as I thought it was when I got it, be grateful to know that I was thinking of them with affection.

And that's what I want from you, for Christmas: that you think of me with affection, rather than obligation. I don't want anyone to think, "Oh, geez, Liz got us something for Christmas, so I guess we'd better get her something, too." If that's your primary thought, then just cross me off the list. Really. I don't want to be a burden -- financially, emotionally, or in any other way. It's the thought that counts -- but take a minute to consider what that thought really is.  Is it, "Crap, another gift to shop for and wrap and take a bite out of my wallet?" Because that's not a very good thought to be sharing. I don't want that thought.

Here are the thoughts I want from you, this year:

"I want you to do things you enjoy."

"I want you to be with people you love."

"I want you to be happy."

"I love you."
I don't care if those thoughts come attached to expensive jewelry, or Amazon gift cards, or bargain-bin DVDs, or dollar-store scrapbooking stickers, or just a warm hug. I swear, I don't. I got your gift with one of those thoughts in my mind, and you have to believe me that I'm getting at least as much happiness from giving it as you are from receiving it. If you can't give me something with just as equitable a return, then we're probably both happier if you just don't give me anything.