Ok, 1,2,3, Christmas came on hard and fast and caught me unawares.
The tree was up and decorated before I could even say "PLEASE CLEAN UP ALL THAT DANG POPCORN!" (in our house, a popcorn garland on the tree is as necessary as March of the Wooden Soldiers after Thanksgiving. Nutcrackers lined the mantle and had my son singing a song of six nutcrackers every day. Now, I have none of these things we call "traditions", except for trying to make sure I gorge on lobster as much as possible.
I bought all Guy's presents in like two days and we did Spencer the week before, and wrapped all the presents Christmas Eve. We had a dinner party for Guy's office the night before Christmas Eve which snuck up on me like the flu. Luckily, Guy is the party planner, decorator, chef and host for these events, so I just dress nice and act like Spencer's mom. We did Xmas eve together and Spencer got all of Christmas Day and I mean the WHOLE day. Thank god toddlers nap.
We had trickle-down extendo-Christmas with relatives - I didn't see mine until January 2 and we just drove up to and back from Long Island yesterday to see Guy's family.
As far as I can tell, we're done. We haven't had the lights lit in a few days but they're still out there and while Guy has magically gotten the tree out of the house before it blanketed the corner of our living room with a lush blanket of pine needles, the lights I fear will linger on our yard until March, at which time we'll be having our Sopranos "New Season" Party, and we'll be able to light them for effect.
Speaking of NEW: Howard Stern will re-emerge on Sirius Satellite in a few hours, and we're ready. I can technically broadcast the satellite signal in my house to radios. Bye Bye Terrestrial Radio! I am nearly weeping with glee. Which reminds me, don't watch Extreme Home Makeover. You'll cry with happiness for the family who gets all the goodies, and then you'll spit with jealousy over the AWESOME digs these people get while you're sitting in your lounge chair with springs boinging out of it.
More Spencer Vernacular to come. He's almost onto sentences and yesterday spent the entire day carrying around a little book about Santa Clause and a mini-tarot card guide. He looked like a little missionary at Guy's parent's house. He would not put them down. If you ask him his name, he says "Book". I am not kidding.
Segue #2: Bad "fortunes"... To start off the new year right, my PC crashed and from my conversation/testing with Dell (which cost about 200 for the year) today, I determined my hard drive was erased during whatever event caused the crash. I am starting over in 2006 and it appears to be the case whether I like it or not.
