"Should old aquaintance be forgot...."

Well, the rush of Christmas is over. Thank God.
As the kids get older, it's just not the same. There are few surprises. The items get big-ticketier, so there are less of them. Keith and I didn't exchange gifts this year, because of the "lost money" fiasco. We did, however, pull off a big surprise. We got Braden and JJ a four-wheeler. Keith had it hidden at the neighbors, and Christmas morning, after the gifts were opened and the kids settled in to play their new video games, he ran over and drove it over. Braden was screaming like that kid on the commercial, and JJ was breathless. That was the highlight of my Christmas.
Braden hasn't had a meltdown in nearly a week, and things have sort of relaxed a bit here. Just a bit, though. He's still extremely miserable, and very easily frustrated, but no yelling, screaming, hitting or kicking. Part of me is thrilled, and the other part is just waiting for it to happen. I hope the second part of me is the one that's disappointed.
For New Year's, we're going to a small party with some friends. It's the people we vacation with every year. The kids all get along, and the adults will sit around and shoot the shit and have a couple of drinks. It should be a good time, and I'm really looking forward to it.
I hope you all had a great Christmas, and wish you a Fabulous New Year's.

I received a Christmas gift today. It's a cute chest filled with treats and snacks. The problem is, I have no idea who it's from. It came UPS, from Overstock.com, but there's no name on it anywhere except mine.

I saw mommy taking valium.....

I can't believe that a week from today is Christmas. Where did the time go? Where did my holiday spirit go?
I still didn't find that $400. So, we had to take money out of the credit union to cover Christmas, and we really had to cut back. I'm not getting Keith anything (except a couple of small things from the kids) and he's not getting me anything. I'm mostly done with shopping. I have to pick up a couple of gift cards for my dad, and something for JJ's brother, Andrew, who will probably be spending Christmas day with us. Nothing is wrapped, though most of the clothes are now in gift boxes. I made my cutout cookies last night and tonight I'm doing chocolate chip. I have to do my cream cheese cookies, oatmeal cookies and those peanut butter ones with the chocolate in the center. I have a stupid paper I have to write by Wednesday for that training I went to a month ago. What else? Oh, my house looks like a train ran through it.
Braden's been having those meltdowns at least once a week. I took him to the doctor, who's experimenting with different doses of his medicine. If that doesn't work, after the first of the year, we are going to try something new. It's such a horrible feeling to feel like you can't be away from home because you're the one who handles these things the best, yet you want nothing more than to be away from him. Then, you feel guilty for wanting to be away from him. I walk around trying to figuratively clear the path for him, so nothing frustrates him too much. Then, I resent having to treat him with kid gloves. Some days I feel like I'm the best mother in the world for dealing with all this, then an hour later I feel like certainly there's something I could have done different so he wouldn't be like this, and surely I'm the worst mother in the world for wanting to get in my car and drive far, far away. If he had leukemia, epilepsy, or some other more physical malady, I wouldn't have to feel like I have to hide this from people. But, could you imagine if word of this got out? He'd probably wind up with no friends, and be the talk of the town. If stress where worth money, I'd be rich. Rich I tell ya, rich!

"Mr. Bigstuff, who do you think you are?"

I don't know who I think I am, but some people's Christmas lights/displays really piss me off. I would like to have a little tablet of tickets made up and go around and put them on people's doors. They would say, "I've seen your Holiday display and:" then one of the following would be checked off:
1. They're absolutely beautiful
2. Nice job
3. You're almost there, keep trying
4. What in the hell are you thinking? You should have your power cut off so no one has to look at this hideous creation

I know it's petty and anal of me, but it really gets on my nerves when people have horrible looking decorations out. Who DO I think I am?

On another note, I've lost a big chunk of my Christmas money. It was sitting on the island in the kitchen, and Keith said, "you better put that somewhere." and I did. I thought I put it in the envelope where I had the rest of the money, but it's not there. I've checked every drawer, cuppyhole, basket and cabinet. I can't find it anywhere. $400. Down the drain. I don't even know how long it's been missing. Could have been for weeks, since I hardly did any shopping yet, I don't really go in that envelope. It could have been stolen, I guess, or I could have misplaced it. Maybe I even threw it away by mistake. There are going to be some sad faces, mainly mine, come Christmas morning.

Here we go

Okay, I'm using Picasa, since I couldn't get them to post the traditional way.

 
  

Here are a couple of pictures....The first one is the new cat, Baxter. It's hard to get a good picture of her, because she's all black and doesn't show up very well. The other picture is Ed, the cat in the Christmas tree. This is the cat that looks like Emma's Nesta, although Ed is obviously much cuter.
Not much else to post right now, I'll update sometime over the weekend. On Saturday we're going to NYC for the day...shopping, eating, sightseeing, etc. I'm sure I'll have something to say after that.

Hmmm, it wouldn't let me download the pictures....I'll have to try again later.