Friday, December 24, 2010

It is just before 11pm on Christmas eve. I am taking a break from wrapping. Merry Christmas to all of my blogsphere friends. I appreciate the few readers and even fewer commenters (commentors?) I have.

Peace on Earth.

Pez

Monday, December 20, 2010

Today is the first day of Christmas vacation, well, "Winter Break" for the kids. I spent the morning baking (and burning) sugar cookies. We'll ice them later. I was planning to make the dough for shortbread cookies next but I am procrastinating.

I am not really in the holiday mood at all. I have left things for what seems like the last minute and am feeling a little overwhelmed. I have a couple of people to buy for still and I have NO idea what to get for them. Aargh. I think I just need to put some Christmas music on and wrap the gifts and that will help.

I have also been eating like there is no tomorrow and have gained a few pounds but what is worse is that I am blubbery! I look (and feel) horrible. Need to fix that stat!

Ok, off to find the shortbread recipe. It is something like a pound of butter and five cups of sugar and five cups of flour. Very healthy.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Pez's Book List

I read a pathetic number of books this year. Ugh!

Pez's 2010 Book List


1. The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell
2. The Associate, John Grisham
3. Too Much Happiness, Alice Munro
4. The Murderer’s Daughters, Randy Susan Meyer
5. The Gatecrasher, Madeline Wickham
6. Blonde Roots, Bernadine Evaristo
7. Prior Bad Act, Tami Hoag
8. The White Queen, Phillipa Gregory
9. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
10. Breakfast with Budda, Roland Merullo
11. Chasing Harry Winston, Lauren Weisberger
12. The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein
13. Jane Austen Ruined My Life, Beth Pattillo
14. Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Stout
15. See Jane Run, Joy Fielding
16. The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
17. The Home for Broken Hearts, Rowan Coleman
18. Pirate Latitudes, Michael Crichton

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

I am sitting in a cold arena while Jax is at a power skating class before his regular practice. Yippee for me - I get to spend 2+ hours here tonight. And I have both Dex and Cars with me while Stephen gets to go out for a fancy dinner tonight with his manager (his manager is taking all of his direct reports out). The kids and I had Subway.

I am slowly getting ready for Christmas. I have mailed most of my gifts out that need to be sent. Fortunately we will be going to B.C. after Christmas so I can take up my brother and my niece's gifts then (what's a few days late, right?). I have written about 2/3 of the Christmas cards that I had planned to send out but I am thinking of stopping the rest. I wrote them all for the family, extended family, close friends and I think I might just stop there. Sorry, Dear Reader, if you are one of the ones whom I do not send one out to.

Part of the Bah-humbug is that I bought some really pretty cards at Co$tco that say "Peace on Earth" (which is what virtually ever single card that I have sent out for the past 17 years say). They are the kind where you add a photo so I chose a good photo of the boys and printed off some copies to put in them. They are substantial and I thought they looked great. However, in my mom's and my in-laws, (and one of my aunts and one of Stephen's aunt's, etc), I put in a couple of extra photos that I thought they would like and the envelope seemed a little heavy so I had to have it weighed at the post office. They were over 2 ounces! First class postage (up to one ounce) to Canada is $0.75. These suckers cost me $2 and UP! The ones with one additional photo cost $1.00. The weight without an extra photos was exactly 1 ounce (not counting labels and stamps!). I am now concerned that the 40+ of those ones will come back to me stamped INSUFFICIENT POSTAGE. I did also have some pretty cards that were not quite as heavy so I ended up using those too and I am good with the postage on them.

We bought our Christmas tree at Co$tco too. We had such great luck with one last year so we thought we'd do it again. For $39.99 we got a 8'8" tree that is over 9' tall with the spire topper. The lights were tricky to get on because we had to use a 6' ladder and the ladder step stool. Then the kids and I put up all of the decorations and tinsel and it looks fantastic! However, we completely forgot to saw off a bit on the end and it is not sucking up any water! Dex was in charge of watering it the first couple of days and failed to tell us that it needed virtually no additional water. I am now afraid to turn the lights on and I hope it lasts until Christmas!

I haven't done any Christmas baking either. Jax has asked for sugar cookies and of course Stephen will make Nanaimo bars and caramel corn. Stephen and Jax also gobbled up the Christmas cake from my mom so I had her send me the recipe and I might make more. I also want to make shortbread cookies (although my sugar cookies have nearly as much butter and sugar that they are almost like shortbread).

Anyway, tomorrow I am teaching Art in Dex's class (we'll make 3D Snowflakes. I made them in Jax's class last year and it was...interesting. Some of the kids were really into it and some HATED it. We'll see how this class does. These kids are also a year younger so not yet smug tweens.

Friday, December 03, 2010

Dex told me yesterday that he was "all better" and didn't need to go to counseling anymore. I told him to talk to his therapist about it so he did bring it up at his appointment last night. It was decided that for the next few weeks he will go every other week and then in mid-January we'll decide if he needs to keep going. He is doing really, really well. He hasn't fallen apart in many, many weeks. Stephen is a bit concerned about how baseball season will be. We've even thought about not registering him this year and finding another sport that might suit him better. The problem is that he really likes baseball even though he, quite frankly, sucks at it.

Actually, he doesn't suck. He did last year because he was so anxious and worried about striking out that he would strike out (would strike out staring at the ball, not even swinging). And again iin the field. You could see the terror in his eyes when the ball came to him - he was so scared that he would drop the ball that he would. It was so heartbreaking and so painful to watch. Anyway, registration ends this weekend so we'll have to make a decision by Sunday night.