Boy, the things you learn at preschool.

Yesterday I learned that bears do not poop when they hibernate. They do, however, poop a lot as soon as they wake up. That's how you know that the bears are awake....if you were looking you would find lots of bear poop.

I guess it's pretty apparent that yesterday was my day to co-op in Alison's class. They were talking about bears. The good news is that Alison wasn't really paying attention to that part of the discussion. :)

The Christmas season has begun.

I think I'm in pretty good shape. A third of the Christmas presents are bought, wrapped and, soon, on their way to their recipients. Another third of the Christmas presents are bought, but not wrapped or on their way yet. And the other third of the present? Well, some are bought but none are wrapped. Fortunately, they don't have to be mailed, so I'm not on as tight a deadline. :)

We weren't home to take advantage of the gorgeous weather this weekend, so Kevin is taking a day off this week, probably tomorrow, to put up the outside lights. He'll probably get the tree down and set up, too, and we'll decorate it later. I put up two wreaths yesterday. On Friday, I'll hang up the candy tree that I got from my mom over the weekend. It's a relic from my youth and Alison is old enough to enjoy it. I have to replace one of the pieces of yarn because it's still tied in a bow and is stuck that way from some old candy, but otherwise it's in pretty good shape for having been packed away in the basement for probably 20 years.....can't remember how old I was when we stopped using it.

And Christmas baking has begun. We make a lot of cookies here at Christmastime. We do about 7 different kinds and most are double batches, so there are cookies everywhere. We do send a lot of them to our neice and nephews, so that cuts down on the amount that we're actually eating here. :) Yesterday afternoon my "assistant" and I mixed up the Swiss Cookies and after supper she and daddy put them on the cookie sheets and decorated them. They turned out pretty well, and taste great (I broke one, so of course we had to eat it!). Today, Raspberry Thumbprints are on the agenda. I'm hoping to a different kind every day so that we can get them and the present in the mail by the middle of next week. We'll see how that goes.

If all goes according to plan, we will be ready for Christmas in plenty of time to enjoy the season and not be rushing around like crazy people a week before the big day.

One year ago, at 10:04 AM, you were born. Four hours and 50 minutes later, you were gone. But you will never be forgotten.


Happy Birthday Matthew.

This morning was our town's annual Santa Parade. Now, we have lived here for 12 years but, for whatever reason, we have never gone to the Santa Parade. Alison has decided that she likes parades again --as long as she is wearing her big earmuff ear protection-- so we decided that we were going to go this year. Since it was on the parade route, we decided to play it smart and park in the Kroger/Rite Aid parking lot and found a nice spot to sit right across the street. We weren't even thinking that there might be candy for the kids, so we weren't exactly prepared in that regard. If I had been thinking, I would have run into the store real quick before the parade got to us and bought something so that Alison would have had a bag for candy. It really didn't matter that much, though. We did have her backpack with us (and it's a good thing, because right after the parade started she had to go to the bathroom...so we circled up the chairs and pulled out the little potty and the crisis was averted) so she would just pick up whatever candy she could get and throw it in her backpack. Alison's friends from dance class were going to be in the parade with their preschool's float, so we were on the lookout for them. As luck would have it, they were on our side of the street so Alison ran out say hi and give hugs. There were some really creative floats, several equestrian teams, one of the high school's marching band (we have two high schools in town) and the usual police cars, fire engines and ambulances driving by with sirens blaring every now and then. And bringing up the end of the parade was Santa and his sleigh.

So we had a good time this morning. The weather was pretty good. It was cloudy, but at least it wasn't raining. And it was chilly, but at least it wasn't freezing cold or really windy. I'm glad that we went and we will definitely have go again next year. Alas, we forgot the camera, so we have no pictures. :(

There was one thing that bothered me, though. The whole candy thing just pointed out how rude and greedy some kids can be, and how oblivious their parents are, too. Alison still has enough Halloween candy to last her through Easter, so getting more candy wasn't really a big deal, but as the candy was thrown, the kids on either side would rush to get it and if they could get it all, they would, without even giving Alison, standing there in her braces and clearly having trouble picking up candy off the street, a thought. And their parents never said a word to them. We, on the other hand, are trying not to raise a greedy brat, so when a handful of candy landed in front of Alison, she would pick up a couple of pieces of candy and let the other kids get some, too. A couple of times she even went over and gave the little kid next to us some candy. She gave him her balloon, too, since she really shouldn't be playing with latex balloons

Tonight I am back at home after being gone on a girls' shopping weekend. Two of my friends from church, C -- who is also my neighbor -- and L and L's sister-in-law headed out to Birch Run early yesterday morning to hit the outlet mall there. It was Deer Widow's Weekend, so there were a lot of good deals to be had. One store was giving out coupon packets to the first 1000 people there, a couple of which had $500 vouchers in them. None of us won, but we were glad to have the coupons. We spent the day shopping and just generally having a good time. L's sis-in-law was unable too, but C, L and I were planning to stay overnight and hit the rest of the stores that we didn't have time for yesterday and then go shopping in Frankenmuth today.

We could have shopped well into the evening, and hit all the stores we wanted to last night, but instead we decided to go to a movie. So at around suppertime, we split up with L and her sis-in-law going to hit one more store and then try and get us a table at Applebees and C and I going to the movie theater to buy the tickets so we didn't have to stand in line later. We hit a bit of a snafu when C and I made it to Applebee's before L and her sis-in-law. With a 35-40 minute wait we wouldn't have been able to eat and still make the movie, so L's sis-in-law decided to go ahead and head home and the three of us went to check into our hotel and just hang out and eat some snacks. It was nice to just hang out for a little bit, and then we were off to see "Santa Clause 3." I thought it was a really cute movie....not a waste of money as some can be. There was more funny stuff than what was shown in the trailers, and that's always good. I may have to take Kevin to see it, so he doesn't have to wait until it comes out on video next year. :) After the movie, we finally made it to Applebees. Since we had all just eaten a bunch of popcorn (me less than the other since I managed to spill almost half of mine on L), we decided on appetizers and desserts, rather than a whole meal. Good choice. :)

After staying up late Saturday night, we were up early this morning so we could be one of the first x number of people at Tommy Hilfiger and get whatever coupons and stuff they were giving away. The $5 gift card voucher, which we were really interested in, ended up not being valid until next year, so we couldn't cash them in this morning. How stupid is that!! We still had a good time shopping and by lunchtime were had pretty much hit all the stores we wanted to shop in and we headed off to Frankenmuth to get a chicken dinner.

Now, we only live about 40 minutes away from Frankenmuth, so we could go any time we want to, really, but we never seem to get down there. I think it's fun to look through all the specialty shops down Main Street, and it's always fun to stroll through Bronner's. Frankenmuth is also famous for two restaurants and their chicken dinners (not exactly sure why, but they are) and even though I have lived here for 12 years now, the only time I have ever had a chicken dinner was when my mom and I vacationed in Michigan the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college. So I had one today. And I have to say, it was pretty good.

After lunch we hit the shops on Main Street. None of us really bought too much. In fact, I think we mostly bought little personalized trinkets to give our kids as stocking stuffers. Then we headed off to Bronners. We wandered around in there for about 2 hours. We all picked up things here and there. I got Alison a new Christmas stocking, with her name embroidered on it, since the stocking that she has is very small and with stocking stuffers come from two "Santas," it didn't really hold very much. I had already knocked off most of my shopping list at Birch Run, but I found a couple of more things here, too, leaving me with only 4 of my "have to mail the presents" family members left to buy for. And it's not even Thanksgiving yet. How great is that!!!

After checking out pretty much everything in the store, we decided that it was time to head for home. After taking L home and dropping C off at her house, I was home at about 6:30. Kevin and Alison were at church for UMYF, so I had the house to myself for a while, and that was nice. Alison came running in saying "Mommy, you're home! I missed you!" And that was nice, too.

Now, since "vacation" is over and it's back to the daily grind bright and early tomorrow morning, I'm off to bed.

In other news today....

I went shopping again today. I took Alison shopping yesterday to pick out a Christmas dress because we are getting pictures taken Friday. Then I took a quick tour through the ladies' department to find something for myself. Alison had swimming lessons, so we were running short on time, and I was only able to find a top for me....found some pants that I liked, but had grabbed what I thought were a size 14 and a size 12, only to find that I had grabbed two 14's and they were too big. I had also intended to pick up some "winter" pajamas, since it's cold now and my current pajamas are a cap sleeved top and capri length bottoms, but in my hurry to get us out of the store and on our way to the pool, I forgot about the pajamas.

So I found myself back at the store this morning, after dropping Alison off at school. I picked out some new pj's and then set off in search of the pants. It took some searching, but just when I had resigned myself to trying on a pair of size 10 and knowing they would be too small, I found a 12. That was exactly what I needed. And just to see if I was really a size 12 or if it was just the style of pants, I grabbed a pair of jeans and they fit, too! I haven't worn a size 12 since, approximately, my sophomore year of college.

Oh, I tried on the size 10 pants just for the heck of it and yes, they were too small. But they weren't way, way to small. Keeping in mind that it wasn't that long ago that I wouldn't have been able to get size 10 pants up past my knees, I was able to get the on, waist buttoned and zipper zipped. They were still too tight in the seat, but it was great encouragement to work on losing the 9 pounds I have left to make my goal weight.

Yesterday was election day, and so I took myself and my four year old down to our precinct's poll location and voted. The plan had been for me to plop her in her stroller and walk there, since it is conveniently located at the end of our block, and then she would have been confined and I wouldn't have had to worry about her wandering around (she will still sit nicely in a stroller, believe it or not!). Unfortunately, by the time Alison was up from her nap, a misty rain had started, so we drove instead and didn't use the stroller at all. I was slightly concerned about how it would go, since the parking lot was pretty full when we got there and I didn't know how long we would have to wait, but with a little bag of animal crackers in hand, Alison walked into the building and stood quietly in line until it was my turn to vote. She finished her animal crackers just as we got to the front of the line, but agreed to stand quietly with her hands in her pockets until we were done. She even got a sticker when we were all done.

We used a new voting system this year. In the past we had used punch cards, but in the wake of hanging chads, we now have a large paper ballot where you connect the two parts of the arrow of the candidate or issue that you are voting for. Then the ballot gets fed into a scanner and read that way. At least there is a paper trail in case there is any question about tampering or whatnot.

I'm happy to say that in the statewide races, I voted for the winning candidates, and 3 out of the 5 issues went the way I voted, too. However, most of the rest of the people I voted for didn't win, unless they were running unopposed. That's not really all that surprising, seeing as we live in Republicanville and I'm not a Republican. But at least I voted!