I haven’t felt much like writing. I was off work last week (one thing Big University really does right) and it was fairly uneventful (not a bad thing at all). Christmas was OK. We started doling out Peanut’s toys the Thursday before X-mas, one per night. I think when my dad was a kid they did something similar between Christmas and Three Kings Day. He’s mentioned “Little Christmas” before. Our family and friends were very generous to him again and he has a bunch of cute plane and transportation-themed toys including a little Jay-Jay set, a transport plane that carries tanks and trucks, a fire helicopter complete with water cannons, an RC car and bulldozer, and the favorite, this year’s He$$ truck and helicopter. We’ve replaced the helicopter’s battery 3 times so far.

A couple weeks before Christmas, I started going through his old toys and separated out the ones to put in the attic and ones to donate. A mom and her kids that fell into bad circumstances are living in the church rectory, so I asked if she’d like toys for her youngest, who is just 2 weeks younger than Peanut (she has 5 kids and one on the way. I can’t imagine how exhausted she must be – she has a wonderful attitude but looks absolutely beat down). She was happy to have the toys and I spotted two of the younger kids playing with them after church!

Mom was a downer over the holiday. She spent an extra day at our house, which was a day too many. We got into a stupid argument Christmas Eve over laxatives. I told her just to pick whatever and I’d pay for it, she kept searching for something cheaper, and after 15 minutes of hemming and hawing, I wanted to get out of there. Christmas Day she got her feelings hurt because I wasn’t sure if she made enough stuffing and was talking about making extra and neither Hubby nor I wanted to eat the fruit-concoction pie she made. (Last year it was the nasty jello-whipped cream-fruity thing. It’s become a tradition.) So I took her home before we even started dinner. I was livid, she was pissed, we didn’t speak at all during the car ride, it was bad. I called after dropping her off and found she has been in a lot of pain, so making the food was a big effort. But rather than tell me, she pulled the pouty act as usual. I told her well before Christmas that she didn’t need to prepare anything, yet she insisted on it.

We brought leftovers to her that night and visited with Best Friend and her family. That was one of the best parts of the day.

I took Peanut into daycare for partial days on Weds and Thurs and got some housework and chores done. Thursday I finally had the massage and facial Hubby got for my birthday. It felt wonderful, but they’re using new facial products and the damn stuff gave me a rash. Eh, I shouldn’t complain. I still enjoyed it.

Peanut and I visited Mom again during the week and sort of made up. He was so excited to see her and insisted on holding her hand while we went for a short walk.

We spent a quiet New Year’s Eve at Best Friend’s. The kids had a blast running around and getting into loud trouble. We left around 10:30 and Peanut finally fell asleep in the car (bedtime last week was between 10 and 11 pm most nights. Not good.)

New Year’s Day we hung out with other friends and Peanut had a great time with the kids there. We stuffed ourselves on a delicious meal – our friend came down with a stomach bug on Christmas Eve, so he missed out on all the good Christmas food. We scored with a big replacement dinner.

Now we’re settling back into the usual routine. Peanut moved into Sullen Teacher’s classroom. So far so good. He’s happy and she’s making an effort to be better. We’re trying to get the sleep issues resolved (getting him to stay in his own bed over the holidays went out the window. I was too tired to get up several times a night or sleep on his floor.) It took about 90 minutes to get him to go to sleep last night – Hubby fell asleep propped against Peanut’s bed. Hubby had a little discussion with Peanut this morning about the importance of a good night’s sleep, sleeping in your own comfy bed, going to bed early so you can wake up in the morning for school, and that we’re going to work on getting him to bed earlier. To which Peanut replied “No!” So we’re putting the baby gate up in his doorway tonight. He can climb out of bed all he wants, but he will not be joining us on the couch or chasing cats around the house. Tonight sounds like a good night for a bottle glass of wine


Oh, the Nativity set is even cuter IRL. Of course, Peanut just wanted to play with the palm trees and lob all the people.