Cute and Tired

I'm tired.  I'm so damn tired.  My house is still full of Christmas and I'm tired.  We spend a month talking about the holidays and getting ready for the holidays, wrapping crap for the holiday's and baking and cooking food for the holidays.  Then we spend a day or so celebrating a holiday, ten minutes unwrapping crap and twenty minutes minutes eating copious amounts of food.  When it's all over, all the decorations that made me so happy just days before are now a little annoying.  

So yeah, I'm really tired.  Christmas was lovely.  My husband and my father-in-law cooked our traditional "Curry Christmas" meal.  It was delicious.  Santa brought my kids these:

Meet Bun Bun Snow Sparkle and Yellow Spot.  They are cute and cuddly and best of all, don't live inside my house.  The kids adore them.  That Santa sure is clever.  

But that's not all the cuteness we have had going on over the past few days.  Before I had kids I had visions of doing all kinds of clever craft projects with my imaginary children.  We would create memories over glitter glue, sequins, pipe cleaners and pom poms.  Then I actually had children and discovered that I am really not very crafty at all.  And actually doing crafts with my kids makes me want to squirt hot glue in my eye.  

Despite my aversion to crafts, I decided to make place cards with my kids for our holiday dinner table.  I scoured the internet for ideas and found these.  I braved the craft store for supplies and sucked it up and got to work (or rather, I sucked down a couple of glasses of wine and we got to work).  The project involved paint, glue and sculpting pipe cleaners... my worst nightmare.   I gave the kids very little direction and let them do their own thing.   Here are the three that I made:

The whole experience really highlighted my kids different personalities.  Sejal asked a ton of questions and wanted me to help her.  She lost interest after doing a couple of antlers and asked me to finish the others for her while she went to catch up on some Arthur episodes.  Here is the one she finished:

Jayne did not want to hear any of the craft tips I had to offer.  She knew what she wanted to do and I was only getting in her way by not handing her the pipe cleaners and the Sharpie fast enough.  If I told her sister she was doing a good job, Jayne would pout and ask me why I didn't like her reindeer.  She took the longest to finish and was incredibly proud of her handiwork.  Notice the unique antlers and fancy graphics around the red nose.  She wasn't messing around.

And then there was Raj.  He sang his own version of "Deck the Halls" while he worked and made sure each cup was packed full of candy canes.  His antlers are a little wacky, the nose is crooked and the eyebrows are crazy.  But I think they look awesome and Raj loved it.

So go figure, we bonded over brown paint, googly eyes and red pom poms.  Dare I say it... it was fun.   But all the fun, celebrating and cuteness has me wiped out.   Aaaaaaaand I have a bunny cage to clean out.

Fa La La La La and A Ho Ho Ho

Hope your day was merry and bright.

10 Reasons I Am An Awesome Parent, Homemaker, Wife & All Around Great Person

1.  For at least six months before my son was born I "washed" my families laundry with fabric softener instead of laundry detergent.  I kept buying the fabric softener thinking it was detergent.  While I was in the hospital with my infant son recovering from my c-section, my mother-in-law was at my house taking care of things.  She called me to ask where the laundry detergent was.  This is when I realized my mistake.  I had been washing everything (except towels and sheets) in cold water too to preserve colors and such.  So we had really soft, somewhat clean clothes for six months.

2.  I use the word awesome too often.  It's overused (especially in the blogosphere) and sounds a little juvenile, but I can't think of a better substitute.  I tried fantastic for a while, but now I'm tired of that too.  My thesaurus was unable to provide any good alternatives either.  I'm open to suggestions.

3.  I barter with my husband when he wants sex.  I'll say things like, "you'll get lucky tonight if you help with the dishes and take out the trash."  Sometimes I make good on my promise, and sometimes I don't. 

4.  My daughter dropped her toothbrush the other day and immediately said, "oh crap!"

5.  I drop my kids off at school in my pajamas more often than I care to admit.

6.  This is Jack, our Elf on The Shelf. 

He's awesome (SEE, I can't stop with the "awesome").  We got him a few years ago as a gift.  He magically appears each December and watches to make sure the kids behave.  He flies to the North Pole each night to report to Santa and tell him our Christmas wishes.  Each day he sits in a different place in the house and the kids love trying to find him each morning.  That's all well and good and a lovely holiday tradition.  But for some reason, my kids got it in their heads that Jack brings the candy in the advent calendar.  So once he left them some new pencils and stickers by the advent calendar.  Then he started bringing a little something extra each day... an activity book, lip gloss, new pajamas, a holiday DVD, an ornament or a book.  This is great for my kids, they get a little present each day in December until Christmas.  But HELLO!!  What was I thinking starting this?!?!  Like I don't have enough to do during the holidays, I have to make sure Jack has enough little trinkets to leave something for all three kids each and every day.  I am an idiot.

6.  The sink in our master bathroom has been clogged for about a month now.  Every time something goes wrong with our plumbing we hate paying to have it fixed because at some point very soon (God willing) we will be moving out and remodeling all our bathrooms and the kitchen.  So we've done nothing about the bathroom sink.  It is starting to become a real pain though, and a little bit stinky.

7.  I let me kids watch TV while I cook dinner.  It's the only way I can prepare a meal.  I could get them involved in something or have them help me, but mostly they watch TV while I cook.

8.  I am not a big fan of fast food.  It really grosses me out.  I only feel a little bit guilty when I feed it to my kids though.

9.  I have very little patience for my family when they're ill.  Especially my husband.  I would make a terrible nurse.

10.  I spend my son's nap time writing or reading blogs rather than folding laundry, planning meals or cleaning closets. 

An Avery by Any Other Name...

I have a post up over here today.



Go forth and comment.

And don't even think about naming your child Avery.

Sunday's Simple Pleasures IX

At the beginning of December, I have a wall that looks like this:

At the end of December it looks like this:

A whole wall filled with family and friends from different times in our lives.  I love checking my mailbox in December.   Simple as that.

Aaaaaaaand with this post and the post right before this one, my little Christmas Cardapalooza is over.  Thanks for indulging my obsession with holiday greeting cards.

The Great Bloggy Holiday Card Exchange of 2008

Do you ever wish you could send your holiday card to all your Internet friends? Never fear my friends because Meghan at AMomTwoBoys has come up with a great way to share your card with all your imaginary friends.

On this day all who wish to participate can share their holiday cards on their blog and all the links can be found here. Be sure to go to Meghan's place to check out all the other cards.

I've decided to take things one step further and show you our holiday cards through the years. I realize some of these have our real names, and I'm OK with that. Just don't tell my paranoid husband.

So here is this year's card. Christmas 2008. It was painful getting this photo, but it turned out OK.

Here is Christmas 2007. I loved this card. So much so, I picked the exact same color scheme for this year. Hopefully I will remember to switch it up a little next year. This was a professional photo.

Christmas 2006. I had an amazing part time nanny at the time who inserted the photo into all the card for me. At the time I thought it was tacky not to personally sign the cards, so I wrote a note in all of them and signed them myself. I have since changed my opinion on this matter.


Christmas 2005. Raj's first Christmas. We had some professional photos taken. I still love this picture.


Christmas 2004. I couldn't find the actual cards for any of the years before 2005. But these are the photos we used. I spent days trying to get a decent picture of my two year olds together in cute holiday outfits. In the end I gave up and used this picture of them in their onesies eating wooden fruit. To this day it's one of my favorite pictures of them at that age.

Christmas 2003. At least they wore the cute Santa hats for me that year.

Christmas 2002 is as far back as I'll go. This photo is small because I just had twins three months earlier and I still can't believe I sent this photo out to everyone I know. I look terrible. Of course no one noticed me since all anyone ever commented on was our dog.

I hope you enjoyed our little trip down memory lane. Be sure to go here and check out all the other bloggy holiday cards.

Did you know we are in the middle of a recession?

In case you live under a rock, we are currently in a recession. My husband has been predicting the downfall of the American economy for at least the past two years. He's been imploring me to stop spending money on things like new underwear for the kids, shampoo or God forbid anything from Target for quite some time now. Now that the gloom and doom is plastered all over the news he's been eating it up. As if it proves his point that he was right all along and I am a total idiot for not listening. It's not that I didn't listen really, it's that I didn't show the right amount of shock and alarm and desire to hoard every penny that he earns in anticipation of foreclosures and bread lines.

I do understand the gravity of the situation our economy is in right now, and I have cut back significantly on my spending. I haven't bought the kids new underwear in I don't know how long. I no longer go to Target once or twice a week since I can't leave that place without spending at least $100. It's not that I don't care about the recession, I am just sick and tired of hearing about it.

For someone who was a Business Administration major in college, I really do not have very good financial sense. There is a reason Jay takes care of all things financial in our house. We don't have a mortgage we can't afford and we have zero credit card debt. I am grateful that we will most likely survive these tough times. I'm incredibly grateful.

But here are some things I am tired of hearing...

Me: It seems like there are fewer Christmas lights out this year.
Jay: People don't want to pay to light their houses in a recession.

Jay: Is that a new pencil sharpener?
Me: Yes. The girls are always looking for a pencil sharpener when we're doing homework.
Jay: Can't you just sharpen them with a knife? We're in a recession you know.

Me: Wow, it was packed at the grocery store today. Even for a Saturday afternoon two weeks before the Christmas.
Jay: Well you know why right? People are eating out less and buying more groceries since we're in a recession.

Me: I'm stopping by Old Navy today, do you need any t-shirts or anything?
Jay: No. But check and see how their stock of fleece is. I think people will be buying warmer clothes instead of heating their houses since we're in a recession.

Me: Did you make our hotel reservations for Disneyland yet?
Jay: No, I'm waiting until the last minute. I'm sure there will be some recession buster deals.

Me: It sure has been cold lately.
Jay: God is conserving heat since we're in a recession.

You get the idea.

Sunday's Simple Pleasures VIII

Today's Sunday's Simple Pleasure is the radio show This American Life.  It's like reading blogs, except it's on the radio and I can listen in my car.  I download the podcasts and listen on my iPhone while I'm grocery shopping, driving or just generally wasting time.   I'm listening today as I do a major purge of my kid's playroom and closets. 

If you don't already listen, you really should check it out.   Some of my favorite episodes are this one and this one.  Definitely worth a listen.

Simple as that.

*photo courtesy of  www.thisamericanlife.org 

Mommyblogging and Recipes

I am decidedly a "mommyblogger."  I write about my kids, I post endless pictures of my kids, I go on and on about how much I adore my kids, I go on and on about how much my kids drive me to drink.  Blah, blah, blah.   I'm OK with that.  I started this thing as a record of our days for my kids to read someday.  It has morphed into more of a personal journal.  The fact that anyone besides my sister reads it is just icing on the cake.  I read a lot of other blogs, mostly written by other parents, some written by people with no kids.  Some are very mommybloggy and some are just writers who happen to be parents.  But most are a mix of the two.  

There was some discussion on Twitter yesterday about whether people liked or disliked the word mommyblog.  It has a lot of negative connotations for some, but it doesn't bother me.  I like hearing about other people's experiences of parenthood.  I sometimes like reading about the silly things kids do and say.  I like reading about other parents experiences with other @sshole parents at school.  I like getting craft ideas or hearing about fun kid-friendly outings.  And I am a sucker for a good birth story.  Do I really want to hear every detail of every child's life from every mommyblog that I read?  Not really.   Which brings me to my point.   I realize that not every post I write will be interesting to everyone.   Do you really care that no one in my house wears diapers?  Probably not.  Do you really care what we had for dinner?  Maybe.  I still enjoy reading about other people's adventures in potty training and I love hearing about what other people are having for dinner.   

My point is, I don't think mommyblog is a bad word.  I don't think sharing ideas and thoughts on motherhood/parenthood is a bad thing.  Reading mommyblogs makes me feel less alone.   It makes me think back to right after my twins were born and I was having a hard time adjusting to new motherhood.  I am surprised that none of my family suggested anti-anxiety medication actually, because I was on the edge of losing it.  I found a super supportive mom's of twins group and I survived without medication.  But if I looked online and all of your happened to be blogging six years ago I would have found a community of parents who love their kids to pieces and want the world to see how f-ing adorable they are, but at the same time do not enjoy every second of every day with them and sometimes want to throw them out the window.  It would have saved my sanity, as it does today.

So in celebration of mommyblogs, I am going to do something very mommybloggy and share some recipes.   Yesterday I made three pans of mint fudge for the teacher holiday luncheon at my daughter's elementary school.  I tweeted about the fact that I had fudge under my fingernails and I got a few requests for the recipe.  It was the easiest fudge I have every made and it came out great.   I got the recipe in my all time favorite cooking magazine, Cuisine at Home.  The other is my holiday standard.  I have been making these sugared almonds at Christmas time for the past six years and they are always a huge hit.  I give them out to friends and family in little gift bags and also to my kids teachers.  It's one of the few recipes that I know by heart and they make your house smell delicious.  I can't even remember what magazine I got them from.  Try them, I guarantee you'll love them. 

No-Fail Fudge

2 cups chopped semisweet chocolate (12 oz)

1 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate (6 oz)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Optional extras:  chopped pistachios, macadamia nuts, walnuts, sweetened coconut.  Or my personal favorite chopped after-dinner mints (such as Andes)

Line an 8-inch square baking dish with a 12-inch square of foil; coat with nonstick spray.  Combine the semisweet and bittersweet chocolate with the milk in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.  Cook until the mixture is smooth, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.  Off the heat, stir in the vanilla and any additional extras.  Spread the fudge in prepared baking dish, smoothing the top.  Refrigerate until firm (at least 2 hours).  Invert the fudge onto a work surface, peel off the foil, and cut into one-inch squares with a sharp knife.

Sugared Almonds

4 cups raw almonds

Butter to grease pans

1 egg white

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 Tbs. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread almonds in a single layer in baking pan. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly toasted. Remove from oven and cool completely, about 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees. 



2. Generously grease 2 baking pans. In a large bowl, whisk egg white until foamy. Whisk in sugars, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in almonds; toss until well coated. Divide nuts between pans, spreading them out in a single layer. 



3. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, stir, and separate almonds that are stuck together. (Nuts will be very sticky now but will become crisp as they cool.) Return to oven and bake another 10 to 12 minutes, until nuts are a pale golden brown and appear dry. Remove from oven and let sit for 3 to 5 minutes. 



4. When nuts begin to harden, quickly loosen them from the pan with a metal spatula and spread out on waxed paper to finish cooling. Separate into individual pieces or small clusters. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Enjoy!

Close Encounters of the Oprah Kind continued...

So sorry I kept you waiting over 24 hours for the conclusion to this story.  I'm sure you all have been on the edge of your seat wondering what happened.  So let me recap in case you missed the first part of the story.  Childhood friends, always there for each other, recently graduated from college, one gets engaged and starts taking herself and her wedding a little too seriously, the others can't relate.  

Mary, Lynn, Kate and I decided with two months left until Ann's wedding, it would be best to sit down and clear the air so everyone was happy and no one was bitter at the actual wedding.  She deserved bridesmaids that weren't talking about her behind her back.  And we loved each other, we had the best of intentions.  

The sit down and talk it out never happened.  My memory is a bit fuzzy, but Mary may have said something to Ann since she was the maid of honor and we didn't want it to seem like we were ganging up on Ann.  I remember a flurry of phone calls after their talk and Ann asking each of us if we felt the same way.  Then a "meeting" was set up at Ann's mom's house.  

We went over there thinking we'd leave after a few tears, but we'd end the night laughing like always.  Instead we were there for about 10 minutes.  Ann sat us down at her mother's kitchen table and told us she wanted us to sign some papers.  She handed each of us a pen.  I don't remember what exactly she said, but the conclusion was that she didn't want us in her wedding anymore.  She was giving us the boot.  I'll let that sink in for a minute.

She kicked us out of her wedding.  But that's not all.  The paper she had us sign gave her permission to pick up our bridesmaid dresses since we'd already paid for them.  It also had a little paragraph at the bottom stating that we agreed not to attend her wedding or cause any trouble.  That was the kicker.  The fact that she would think we would even consider hurting her or "causing any trouble" at her wedding was insulting.   It felt surreal.  Like at any second she was going to say, "just kidding... you guys suck!  Let's all kiss and make up."  

We signed the papers and left.  Kate said something to Ann like, "if you do this, there's no going back."  I don't think Ann even answered.  And just like that, she threw away 20+ years of friendship and history.  We all went to Kate's house to try to figure out what just happened.  We were bewildered.  Kate was pissed.  Even her parents were angry and puzzled.   They'd watched Ann grow up alongside their daughter.  This was just strange.  

Ann went ahead and got married with her sorority sisters as her bridesmaids and none of her childhood friends in attendance.  Mary, Lynn, Kate and I went ahead with our lives.   We all got married... first Lynn, then Kate, then me and then Mary.  We were all bridesmaids in each others weddings.   We would occasionally hear about Ann from mutual friends, but none of us had any direct contact with her.  

We never really had any closure to the whole situation.   We thought we were having a little tiff, a bump in the road.  What would bring her to kick us out of her wedding?  Enter Oprah.  About two years after it all happened, I wrote a letter to Oprah telling our story, complete with pictures.  A producer contacted me and asked if we were interested in reconciling with Ann.  At the time, I really, really wanted to meet Oprah.  But I also wanted an explanation.   Lynn and Mary were on board.  Kate took a little convincing, but she was up for a free trip to Chicago.  I have no idea how the producer convinced Ann to go on the show along with us, but she did.  

We had our plane tickets in hand, bags packed and the Oprah limo waiting for us at the Chicago airport.  The show we were to be on was about wedding disasters.  Mary and I were sharing an apartment at the time and just as we were about to walk out the door, the phone rang.  Ann's grandmother was in the hospital and she wasn't going to be making the trip.  The segment didn't make any sense in a show about weddings if there was no bride.  My opportunity to meet Oprah was thwarted.

I think Ann was relieved we never made it onto the show.  I can't say I really blame her.  I'm sure it felt like four against one and it was an emotionally charged thing to talk about, let alone talk about on national TV.  The reality is we really did miss her.  We shared a lot of history.  We decided to contact Ann anyway and see if she wanted to meet with us.  She agreed.   We met, we talked.  I don't remember exactly what she said and I don't want to put words in her mouth, but I think she felt like we just didn't understand what she was experiencing and she decided it was best to move on without us.  

We walked out agreeing to try and mend our friendship and see if we could salvage what we had.  It worked for a while.  We had dinners out, attended each other's baby showers.  I remember inviting her to my wedding, but she didn't come.  She still invites us all to her annual Super Bowl party.  We still exchange Christmas cards.  But she's more of an acquaintance than someone whose wedding I was supposed to be a bridesmaid in.  Kate was never able to give the friendship a real chance again.  Mary and Lynn put the most effort into reconciling, but neither of them see her on a regular basis any longer.   

I was reluctant to share this story.  Partly because it is probably the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to me.   But mostly because it seems such a classic example of "girl drama."  Can you imagine this ever happening to a group of men?  It's the blessing and curse of being a woman.   I can't imagine going through life without my friends.  Friends from my mom's group, friends from college, friends from my old job, friends I know through my sister, friends whose kids are friends with my kids and my dear friends from high school.   I share different things with all of them, and sometimes there still is talking behind someone's back or hurt feelings over a nasty comment or whatever.  But who else but my closest friends would put on a sari and attend not one but two of my weddings on the same day, or spend 24 hours in a hospital waiting room waiting for my twins to be born, or bring me food after I had surgery, or watch my kids for me so I can go to the dentist or let me bitch about how hard the transition to motherhood is without doubting I love my kids.  I cherish them, I really do.   But sometimes it might be nice to just solve our arguments by calling each other assholes, sharing a beer and moving on.

Close Encounters of the Oprah Kind

Since it's the holiday season, ask and you shall receive.   I will share my Oprah story... or rather my Oprah story that wasn't.  

I can't believe I haven't told this story before.  It really just occurred to me the other day that it would make fairly good blog material.  It's not at all in the forefront of my mind.   To be honest, I find it a little embarrassing.  Granted, I was thisclose to telling the story on the Oprah Winfrey show, but that was 15 years ago. 

I have this group of girlfriends that I have been close with since high school.  There are five of us.  Myself, Ann, Mary, Lynn and Kate (not their real names).   Ann, Mary, Lynn and Kate have known each other since kindergarten.  They played Barbies together, had lemonade stands, took piano lessons and swapped lunch box treats with each other on the playground.  Ann and Mary promised to be each other's maid of honor in the second grade.  I went to the same church as Ann and we would see each other at Sunday school and later two or three times a week during confirmation classes in junior high.   

I didn't know any of the others until high school.  I had a terrible time in Junior High and entered high school looking for a fresh start and a new set of friends.  Ann and her little group of  girlfriends took me in like one of their own.  We became our own little inseparable clique.  We dated several of the same boys.  We saw each other through failed cheerleading tryouts, painful breakups, parent's divorces, parent's deaths, learning to drive, first tastes of alcohol, lots of other firsts, proms, homecomings, writing papers, college applications, etc. etc.  We all had other friends as well, but we were a core group of five.  We celebrated the end of high school with a trip to Hawaii together.

Us on our Hawaiian balcony (1989).  That's me with the frizzy blond hair in the hot pink number.  Take a good look, because I plan to take this picture down within 24 hours.

Mary and Kate went to the same college and ended up as roommates.  Ann, Lynn and I went to different schools.  But we all remained close.  I spent many weekends visiting Mary and Kate.  Ann and Lynn spent several weekends in my dorm room as we got into all kinds of trouble.  Every summer we'd pick up right where we left off.  I had no doubt we would all be friends for a long time.  These were my girls.   Their parents treated me like one of their own children.  We knew all each other's secrets.  We fought and talked behind each other's backs like most girls that age.  But we always made up.

When we were seniors in college, Ann got engaged.  I always figured she'd be the first to get married.  Ann was just a touch more serious than the rest of us.   She seemed more anxious to get one foot into full fledged adulthood and leave the keg parties and girl's nights out in the past.  But we all adored her fiance and we were thrilled when she asked us to be bridesmaids in her wedding that would be in the fall after we all graduated from college.   We went wedding dress shopping with her, got fitted for bridesmaid dresses and all the other stuff that goes along with being a slave to the bride.  We were so young though, all just barely 22 years old.   We didn't even have full time jobs yet.  This was silicon valley and getting married fresh out of college wasn't exactly the norm.   We were still trying to figure out which bar had the best happy hour and the cutest boys.

Ann on the other hand had moved on from the college lifestyle and tiny cracks in our rock solid friendship were starting to form.  We threw here a wedding shower, which considering it was out first and we were 22 years old, was rather lovely.   However, Kate and I may have had a few too many glasses of champagne and Ann may have been a little annoyed.   It was like Ann started to move in one direction and the rest of were perfectly happy hanging out where we were.  I think she started to think we didn't take her wedding or marriage seriously.  We started to see her as a stick in the mud and somewhat of a bridezilla.  

I won't detail all the little things that led up to what finally happened, but the final straw was the wedding guest situation.   Her wedding was a couple of months away and Ann told us that Lynn could bring a date to the wedding because she had been with her boyfriend for over a year.  Mary's boyfriend was not invited because they had a new, long distance relationship.  Kate and I were not in relationships at all, so no date for us.  We were pissed.  How dare she!  Remember, we were 22 years old and had no experience with weddings or wedding budgets.  

Lynn, Mary, Kate and I decided we should have a talk with Ann.  We'd tell her we thought her wedding was turning her into a bitch and she needed to chill out.  It had always worked before.  We thought we'd have a good "let it all out" session, call each names and kiss and make up.

It didn't work out that way.

To be continued.

Sunday's Simple Pleasures VII

Today's Sunday Simple Pleasure comes with apologies to my friend Devoted Mom to B.  I am about to get seriously Christmasy.  I love the month of December.  I love Christmas music, Christmas cards, Christmas baking, Christmas decorations, the chilly weather, my yearly trip to church, our advent calendar, cozy pajamas, tiny reindeer, candy canes... all of it.  Honestly the only thing I am not nuts about is holiday shopping.  I would rather give up Oreos for a year than go to the mall at Christmas time.  I hate it.

But this is about what makes me happy.  My red wreath on my black front door makes me smile every time I drive up my driveway.

The first thing I do before I come downstairs for breakfast in the morning is plug in my banister.   The garland and lights make my 50 million trips up and down the stairs a little more pleasant.

If you drive up my driveway in the month of December you will be greeted by twelve mini Christmas trees.  They were painstakingly installed by Jay.  He spends an entire day each year making sure all the lights work and measuring to make sure they are all an equal distance apart.  This picture is terrible, but trust me they look gorgeous.

Simple as that.

**For those that asked, I will reluctantly share my Oprah Winfrey story.  It's sort of silly and a tad embarrassing, but it is a great story.  More to come.**

I'd Like to Thank the Academy & A Random Meme

I got my very first blog award EVER!  Isn't it pretty!  I love the colors.

Rachel was kind enough to include me in her list of recipients.  Thank you Rachel!   You brought a little joy to my day.  This award comes with some rules though:

1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate 10 outstanding blogs that I follow.
4. Add links to those blogs. 
5. Leave a message to those nominees on their blog.

I'll get to the nominations in later.  I have some other business to take care of first.  I was tagged by the lovely and verbose Kate at The Big Piece of Cake for a meme.  I love Kate's blog and I look forward to reading her posts.  I also feel a special kinship with her since she is a mom of twins and a singleton.  We moms of twins have a secret society where we laugh at moms of singletons.  KIDDING.  

I also really like the graphic for this one.

So here are seven random things about me:

1.  I found out I was having twins on my 31st birthday.  I remember being in a daze on the drive home from the doctor's office.  We had dinner plans that night that we ended up canceling.  Jay and I sat on the couch in disbelief.   I knew there was at least one set of twins on my dad's side of the family.   When I called my grandmother to let her know I was having twins she started naming off several other twins in the family and said she thought either my sister or I would have a set.  

2.  When I was in high school I loved to read true crime novels.  One of my favorites was Fatal Vision.

3.  When I don't know what to eat for lunch I usually opt for apple slices with peanut butter.  I could eat an apple or two a day.  Or an apple pie or two a day.   Or apple pancakes, or apple with yogurt and walnuts, or apple coleslaw, or apple chutney, or plain tart green apples... you get the idea.

4.  I was once almost a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show.  My bags were packed and I was on the way to the airport when the segment involving me and my friends was cancelled. 

5.  I always thought "growing pains" were a wives tale until two of my kids would wake up in the middle of the night with terrible pain in their knees (not at the same time).  It was usually after they had a very active day and they would wake up sweaty and in obvious pain.  A little Motrin and a cold wash cloth seems to fix them right up.

6.  I heart wine.

7.  I used to have a part time babysitter.  She was amazing.  My kids loved her and I loved her.  She was everything you would want in a caretaker for your children.  She also happened to be Alec Baldwin's niece.  I didn't find this out until she had been working with us for several months.

I am supposed to give the lovely blog award to ten other bloggers and tag seven for the meme.  But I am breaking the rules and I'm not going to tag anyone.  I was going to choose randomly from my blogroll, but I'm taking easy way out and not tagging at all.  If you'd like to do the meme, by all means send me a link.  The award I'm keeping though.

What's the Deal?

Remember that Seinfeld schtick "what's the deal with...  (insert airline stewardesses, coffee shops, cookbooks that hide vegetables) whatever."  This is my version of "what's the deal with..."  I don't claim to be as funny as Seinfeld and I hope this isn't a blog about nothing.  If you want to read something really funny you should go here or here or here.  The Trifecta of Funny has teamed up and I guarantee they are funnier than Seinfeld (no pressure ladies).

Anyway, moving right along... what's the deal with strange food items?  I was in the snack aisle at Safeway the other day looking for some tortilla chips.  There were so many options I almost just walked away.  Yellow, white or blue corn?   Organic or non-organic?  Salted or unsalted?  Large circles, small circles, scoops, triangles or rectangles?  Bite size, restaurant style, multigrain or extra crispy?  And did you know there are sixteen different kinds of Ritz crackers?  Sixteen!  What happened to doing one thing and doing it really well?  Is there really a market for sixteen different kinds of Ritz crackers?   People can't be bothered to spread their own peanut butter on a Ritz cracker?  I've decided that's why I have come to dislike grocery shopping so much.  There are so many choices that just trying to grab some milk, bread and peanut butter is enough to make my head spin.

Don't get me wrong, I think choices are good.  It just seems as though every food item worth inventing has already been invented and snack companies are really reaching to come up with something "new."  Take these crackers for example.  Have you seen that commercial?  It pisses me off every time I see it.  They have random people on the street describing the things.  One brilliant woman makes the observation that "it's like a cracker and also like a pretzel."  Really?  Who would have thought?  Another woman so expertly remarks that "they would be really good with cheese or dip."  Alert the media!!!  A cracker with cheese or dip?!?!?!  What a novel idea.  Why did the world need a cracker that is half cracker and half pretzel?  Sure it "combines the versatility of a cracker with the taste of a pretzel" but do people really buy this stuff?

What really annoys me though is fast food restaurants.  It's like they're all competing to see who can think of the newest burger or food item no one has thought of before.  I like bacon as much as the next person, but do people really eat a sandwich called The Baconator?  And for the love of God and all that is holy, who came up with the Loaded Steakhouse Burger at Burger King?  Take a look at what is on that thing.  If that isn't bad enough, some of the breakfast items take yuk to a whole new level.  I mean who can resist "two glorious tastes in one portable package?"  

I am not completely anti-fast food.  Even though I won't eat at McDonald's, but I am not above letting my kids enjoy a Happy Meal now and then.  My whole family likes In-N-Out Burger.  But take a look at their menu.  Simplicity.  They make really great burgers with fresh ingredients and offering grilled onions instead of raw is about as fancy as they get.  Even Starbucks takes it a little too far with the variety of new coffee drinks they are always throwing out.   I do enjoy an egg nog latte during the holiday's, but is it necessary to come out with five or six new drinks every few months?

What food item puzzles you?   Or am I just a simpleton who needs to explore new things once in a while?  Please discuss.

Please note: the makers of Oreos are completely exempt from this rant. 

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

Two boxes for $5 at Target right now.  I need these like I need a hole in my head.  And yet...

A Little of This and A Little of That

This post is a mish mash of randomness.  I don't have anything worthy of a full post on my mind right now, just a little of this and that.  

My Archives
I spent this weekend cutting and pasting my archives from The Candy Cane Forest over here into Norwindia. My sincere apologies to your reader if you ended up with 180 posts from me. It'll never happen again. I promise.  Hopefully.

Mealtime
Why can't my kids figure out what meal they are eating?  Unless it's breakfast they are constantly asking me, "Is this lunch or dinner?" or "What did we have for lunch?" or my favorite, "Is this a snack or dinner?"  Really?  They can't tell the difference between a snack and a meal.   Sometimes I take the easy road and serve carrots with hummus, Ritz crackers and apples for lunch, but really?  We have a pretty set routine and I feel like they should be able to tell the difference between a snack and a meal.  

Never mind the fact that they are constantly hungry.  Especially my sweet little Sejal.  She must have the fastest metabolism on the planet because she is always looking for something to eat.  And the girl is 6 years old, weighs barely 40 pounds and can't keep her jeans up without a belt.  Don't worry, she's perfectly healthy.  She's going to be one of those girls we can't stand who can eat whatever they want and not gain a pound.

TV

What ever happened to October Road?  Am I the only one that liked that show?  The unrequited childhood love made my heart hurt.  I need to know if Nick and Hannah ever end up together.   And what about Close to Home?  I really liked that show.  WTF ABC and CBS?

OK, I admit it.  I am excited for the new season of The Bachelor to start.  It's my guilty pleasure.  I realize they have a pretty piss poor record as far as creating real love matches, but that doesn't stop me from watching.   Why is it entertaining to watch girls profess their unending love for a guy they barely know?  I used to work with the very first bachelor and we all used to watch episodes in the office.  

Books

I love books.   I really hope that my kids grow up to be book lovers too.  I take them to the library often and read to them (almost) every day.  Lately Jayne and Sejal's interest in reading has skyrocketed.   Sejal literally hugs books that she likes and I have to force Jayne to put her book down and turn out her light or she'd stay up all night reading.  It makes me feel like I might have done something right.  

Christmas Cards

I ordered my Christmas cards from here and they arrived before Thanksgiving ready for me to address and send out.  When I was looking for address labels I found our card from last year.  It looks veeeery similar to this year's card.  I guess my taste hasn't changed all that much.  I thought about posting a picture, but surprise, surprise it has pictures of my kids and aren't you a little tired of pictures of my kids?  You can thank me later.