End of November and the house is ready for the holidays...well, almost. I have always decorated early, usually after my November vacation to New Hampshire as I always return with great Christmas decorations that I don't want to store away so I have to get on display. The house literally could pass as a Christmas store, there is hardly a corner that doesn't have something related to the season - a tad of an over kill perhaps, but Darren said he was going to throw out / give away anything I didn't use - Well, I showed him. There are tree's in the bathrooms, every bedroom has something, and again, not a corner bare! That threat just worked in to a challenge to find a home for everything...HA! It's kind of like the silly comments about spending money or shopping too much - just makes me want to do it more. Maybe if he was smart he would tell me I'm not spending enough and I'd actually look in to things and realize - Holy Shit - there is a minus sign in my bank account...
This has been a tough year for Christmas shopping because I don't have a clue what to buy people, we all seem to buy what we want when we want it, so it makes buying gifts so much more difficult and I just don't like giving gift cards but may have to resort to that in a few weeks time. Greta was easy to buy for, we purchased big items for her that she'll need, High Chair, Walker (not the old lady walkers but the learn to walk walkers, this one is a baby carriage so dual purpose, and a few other well thought out toys that won't annoy me with screeching sounds, beeps, music and clutter. I'm mean, but I just don't want to have toys everywhere. We are actually giving her a toy room, that is the big gift, a room with two doors (my small office off the great room) that can hide all the items and a new toy shelf to keep everything. Currently however this room is Xmas central, where I am hiding all the wrapping paper, extra gifts, gifts to be wrapped and JUNK. Having a room like this allows my house to look clean and organized by allowing me to throw baskets, boxes and baby items in it.
I have actually been very busy preparing for the holidays, I was honoured that a friend thought of me and our home when looking for houses for an upcoming Christmas House Tour, a fundraiser for the Stratford Community Choir. I have decorated other peoples homes and tree's in the past but never was in a tour, but this coming Saturday our house will be on display for a few hundred people to walk through and visit. Ironically the night before I was asked to participate in the house tour I mentioned to Darren, as we sat looking at the Great Room decorations, that I do all this work and no one ever comes to visit, well, now they are coming. 99% of them will be strangers, but that is okay!!! I am looking forward to it, and I enjoyed having a deadline to work with and keep me motivated to get the house ready for the holidays, but it proved to be a challenge with a 5 month old. I don't like to stop a tree half way in, so I was timing decorating around food and play and boredom and definitely did a lot after she went to bed or when Darren got home from work. Greta thankfully has been quite good and thanks to Baby Einstein, she learned about the orchestra and all the different instruments as I decorated trees and cleaned. We have also discovered the she can ride around in the stroller room to room as I decorate and she watches or plays with toys. And better yet, she has been napping (in the stroller). When I see she is getting tired in the day now I put her in the stroller and drive it around the house a few times and off to sleep she goes, it's been wonderful. Why didn't we think of this before!!!
Time is definitely flying by and the individual days go by so quickly. I have managed to decorate 4 large trees, 5 small trees, cleaned, scrubbed, Xmas gifts bought / wrapped (well, still have gifts to buy for the impossible to buy for people on the list), baked, cooked, out for visits, out at least 3 days out of the week, kept up with Emails / Facebook all with a 5 month old and a failing liver that is causing a lot of pain and agony these days, and for annoyance, I'll add my puffed up body that is depressing as hell...Now, not saying it is always possible to do everything I want, I can't always attend things, and believe me this week I do have a lot on the go, but at the end of the day, it will all get done. Last night Darren and I were looking forward to a dinner out with our friends Garry and Gwen and a Christmas Fundraiser for Toys for Tots at the Confederation Centre. Well, Darren realizes he is on call, so Mom, who was going to babysit for us, came to the show with me, but we all, including Greta went out to supper beforehand. Successful dinner out for Greta, she just played in her seat and eventually fell asleep (phew). The show was good, but both Mom and I were exhausted, but the toys donated filled the lobby which was wonderful. I had bought some toys specific for the event, but I actually took toys I had planned to give away to kids on my Xmas list and donated them too. I figured all the kids I know have so many things that they can't possibly play with everything they own and will be spoiled by many, so I gathered 8 toys in total that I had purchased for the kids on my list and took them all to the event (In other words, don't be shocked when I'm not giving kids presents this year, I made a donation in their name!) On a separate note, I can't get over the Xmas Wish lists for kids nowadays...iPhones, iPads, DSIs (I think that is what they are called), laptops, cell phones...holy moly, I know a lot of adults who would like these gifts too, I can't wait to hear some of the calls to Santa this year, Santa needs to get stock in Apple or an electronics store to keep up. I guess we would have asked for this stuff if it was around when we were growing up too, although I'm sure if we asked for a $1000 gift on our Santa's Wish List growing up we would have been told to go get a job.
SO, I now find myself at 10:30am still in my pjs. I just put Greta in her stroller for a nap, her eyes are almost closed and I'm multi-tasking by moving the stroller with my foot and still typing this blog post, but I must get going. Mom is here for the week, I have gifts to deliver, hopefully some shopping this evening if Daddy wants to spend another night with Greta, I have a sweet party on Friday to prepare for, I have to check in on my flower arrangements that are being made for Saturdays open house (although I may just trust the florist, she told me to come in and see if I was happy with them, but I will be, so I don't think this is the top of my to do list), I have to clean the house (or find a house keeper who can come in on Thursday)...get my hair done, buy new clothes (mental breakdown yesterday when I realized my puffy body has made all my clothes shrink!!) And of course, have 200-400 people to the house on Saturday...Fun times! Phew, I'm tired out already.
As you can see, I didn't build up many fun Greta stories in the past 2 weeks, she has been a very good little girl and didn't embarrass me in public along the way. She is growing, still fairly tiny but strong and determined, she gets annoyed if she can't do something like turn a page of a book or grab a toy on the exercauser, but she is so happy, she smiles all the time, still doesn't cry or fuss much and with a few exceptions, doesn't seem to make strange yet when new people come her way. She has a closet full of clothes ready to wear, I just need her to grow a tiny bit more, she is still wearing her 3 month wardrobe, but some items will be retired to the sell bin very soon and we'll make room for the 3-6 month items. I hope we have a long winter, I have a few 9 month outfits that are too cute and it will be pretty darn hot in the summer to wear a knit top and pants! And I am convinced she has worked out a secret code with Daddy - one that somehow allows him to escape toxic diapers, he is either in the shower, or just walked out the door and I can smell the child from across the room, he left for a coffee the other day, 5 minutes max...and lord, I was cleaning toxic waste out of her belly button, it was the worse so far...GAG, I can't even write about it, GAG....lord, I'm having a flashback.
So that is what is happening in our neck of the woods, if you have any interest in the Christmas Home Tour - tickets are $10, it's this coming Sat, Dec 4th, and I have a few tickets, but you can also purchase them at various locations in Stratford, just send me a note and I'll help give you the details. There are 5 homes in total, 4 in Stratford and ours in East Royalty, we are the "normal" house on the tour, we do have a large home, but we are the smallest on the tour and I would say the most realistic, one is my Vet's house...I'd love to go see his, I'm sure I must have paid for the granite kitchen with my vet bills from this past year alone...ha!!! Enjoy your week, get the Christmas decorations out, seems many are decorating early this year, I'm convinced it's because the stores start to decorate before the Halloween candy is put away. It's now 10:55, Greta has been sleeping for 25 minutes, may have another 5 for a quick shower...
Toodles....
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