Huge Post with Life Updates

You know, this Christmas I didn't go anywhere and I didn't do much, and yet I still felt very overwhelmed. Seriously. I didn't have major company come. Didn't even really decorate much. What have I been up to?

Well...

1. I made several batches of sugar cookies and several batches of The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls (soooo yummy...though I did modify the frosting). Speaking of the cinnamon rolls, I'm not 100% sure how this happened, but every time I'd make a fresh batch (because, look at the recipe...it makes SEVEN tins of 'em), we'd have horrific weather and I'd be too afraid to drive by myself to deliver them on the slick roads. Thankfully, Super J did get some new tires on the Red Rocket, but still. Here's a terrible truth: because of the weather, several sets went to nearby neighbors instead of other friends who lived farther away. I feel terrible about it. I don't know if anyone knows they didn't get rolls (though Shari and Allison do now...I promise I'll make it up later!). And let's not spend too much time on the sets that went out a few days after they were made AND then got frozen in the car while waiting to be delivered. I kid you not. UGH. Oh well. Next year, I'll just give scented candles. lol.

2. I went Christmas shopping for that jolly old elf up in the north. For reasons stretching back into his childhood, the Christmas season tends to bring out the Scrooge in Super J. It's the weirdest thing. So I end up doing all the shopping for everything until just at the last minute when (much like Ebinezer Scrooge in fact) Super J gets bit by the Ghost of Christmas Present and realizes tis the season to be jolly, not sulky. This year, it happened even earlier than normal (normal usually being Christmas morning), so that was a gift in and of itself! ANYWAY. I don't mean to tattle on him, but I'm just saying that things got postponed and postponed until the week before. Luckily, Super J took daughters A, E and O off to a Christmas get together for his family, and I and Miss Q hit Wal-mart (yes! WAL-MART) on the Saturday before Christmas. Ohhhhhh Procrastination is my middle name. Miss L Procrastination Peters. Nice ring, eh? ANYWAY! Went to the Wally-world and got many gifts and groceries in many bags. When I got home, I just put away groceries and unloaded the bags o'gifts in the special hiding place (aka: my closet) and cleaned the house (which stayed clean, btw, until everyone arrived home. It gives me hope that one day I WILL have a maintainable tidy home...one day) and watched all sorts of chick flicks (Mama Mia: B; The Women: C-; Traveling Pants 2: B+). The next day, Sunday, we get home from church and Miss A asks for a peanut butter sandwich. No problem! I bought peanut butter yesterday! So I go to get it, but it's not in the PB spot. Hmmmmmmm. I sneak upstairs and go through all the bags....NO Peanut Butter. Yegads. I hunt for my receipt and check it...yes. I definitely bought PB, but where is it? And where are four other items that were bought and paid for? Ohhhhhhhh dear. They are elsewhere, as in, NOT in my home. Yes. I left one of my many many bags at Wal-mart. So, I call up the store and tell them what happened. They tell me that things have been crazy so just come in and bring the receipt and they'll let me go get the stuff. And that's what I indeed do the next day. sigh.

3. Did the whole Christmas thing and breakfast and dinner. That was fun and relatively low key. I forget how much I enjoy a nice spiral ham between Easter and Christmas.

4. I got a flu shot. Yep. Last but not least in my family, I have been shot with the vaccine and guess what? Yes. I had a reaction to it. My arm, after two days, still has a bumpy red splotch and feels hot to the touch...like a fevered bruise, if you will. Yesterday (the day after I got it) I ran a fever and had chills and was achey. Not sick sick, but just enough that I felt lousy for most of the day. Today was better, but my joints still have that weird ache to them. I hope this means that I won't succumb to the actual flu, because if I get some other weird flu virus, I'm gonna be HASHED I tell ya.

5. We went to Target today to get some last minute "Christmas" gifts for Super J's family (who DID go out of town and were the reason we had Abby and Bo...oh yeah. We dog sat. Floors looked great. They went home yesterday...I sure missed them this morning after breakfast). While all six of us were there, we had two different people comment on how we had "all girls." sigh. "Gonna try for one more boy?" No. Don't think so. One person to comment on it was the cashier. She actually was pretty cute about it. She told Super J, "I'm the oldest of four girls." Sweet.

6. For F.H.E, we set goals for the New Year. But that's for another post.

7. Miss O is definitely getting ready to potty train herself. She keeps telling us when she wants to go to the bathroom and tonight she pooped in the toilet (wahoo!), though it was a happy coincidence that I caught her before she went in her diaper. It's gonna happen, though, and I'll be happy and sad. Happy because that's one more daughter out of diapers. Sad because it means mad dashes to bathrooms for the next two years. Sigh. Oh well, I guess it's time. It's soooo much easier when THEY decide to do it, let me tell you.

Well, goodness gracious (or goondess gracious as I just typed). I could actually go on and on for a while, but this is long enough as is. And I haven't even shared about the nasty stink that was in Miss O's room that was finally discovered tonight. Or the loose teeth that Miss A and E have (which is good because two of Miss A's teeth are already sprouting up BEHIND them. Argh). But I'll wait and post more later. :) It's my gift to you.