I didn't think that I'd be too affected being alone this Christmas, but I really missed my kids and wife yesterday. I don't want that to sound like I'm searching for a pity party, it's just how I felt. It's nice to know I still do love my family!
It was nice to have the cat with me. Deed was so cuddly with me all day. For the most part I slept and watched movies just because I didn't want to get up and move her from my lap. When I did get going, it was mostly basic cleaning to prep me for the larger cleaning of the garage and "office" (the other 1/4 part of our bedroom).
I had eaten the rest of the lasagna leftovers Jay made before she left -- it was suppose to last for 2-3 days. It didn't get past Christmas Eve (I didn't want to share with Santa). Anyway, after I had chocolate truffles and a few Idaho Spuds for Lunch, I decided it was best to have a healthy meal for dinner. Working and sleeping all day didn't have me very motivated to do any cooking, so I debated whether I could/should go get take-out. The pros were obvious: laziness. The cons... Jay would probably kill me because we vowed to not waste $ on eating out. But I had an Ace up my sleeve: Justification!! I mean, Jay was in Idaho Falls with her family, eating wonderful meals by Sherwin and having pot-luck-ings on Christmas Eve at her Grandma's house. Didn't I deserve to have a nice meal? Of course I do!! Chicken noodle is not going to cut it for a Christmas dinner!
So, out I went. Seeing as Deedee was being so cute and affectionate with me all day, I decided to take her on a car ride with me. We got in my bosses car I had borrowed since Jay had the Toyota in Idaho Falls. First stop: Jack-in-the-Box... Why does JitB have their lights on when they are closed?!? Pulled up through the drive through just to check ... yup, closed. McDonald's would never be closed.. they're a large corporation without personal values, right? Wrong! They did have their lights off, but their drive-thru menus were still flashing advertisements making me even more hungry. Well, if McD's is closed, not much else was going to be open. I knew there had to be Chinese food open somewhere. They're typically more expensive and don't have $.99 - $1 menus, but I was hungry. It's amazing how generous my wallet gets when I get hungry...
All this time, Deedee was sitting in the passenger seat. On the search for a Chinese restaurant, she had come over to lay in my lap as I drive. She used to do that when she was a kitten and we'd go on long trips to Utah with her. Then I heard it. A muffled *huck, huck, huck, wreetch!* ...I suppose this means Deedee doesn't like driving anymore. I began to feel a warm spot on my leg under her mouth. Passing under a street light, I got to see the goods: About 3/4 cups of expanded and mushed kitty food dancing partially on my leg and some spilling over on the car seat. I didn't panic for I knew there was nothing I could do. I didn't have any Kleenex within reach and there was no way I was touching it. Then the noise came again... desert decided to join the regurgitated dinner on my lap.
By this time, I had lost my appetite for the moment (as have you if you're eating reading this, right?). I pulled a U-turn (sorry, Jay... I know it's illegal in Idaho, but I didn't want to wait until the next intersection) and headed back home. It was a cold night, but that didn't stop me from cracking a window once the aroma of condensed kitty spew began to permeate the car.
This is what I looked like when I realized what the cat had done.
Poor cat. The moment I opened the car door in our garage, she weakly got out of the car. I had to keep my right leg in sitting position while getting out of the car. Once our, I left it splork to the concrete floor where I found a plastic spoon and Wal*Mart receipts to clean it and what was still left in the car. No sooner had I finished when I heard crunching by the cat dish... At least someone got to eat!
Well, I did eat, eventually. I found eggs in the fridge, so I cracked 4 and mixed them together. Then I found a cut onion we use for cooking with our ground beef in the fridge... There were also leftover olives from tacos we had the previous week, and a lone tomato as well!!! Wrapper in 3 tortilla shells, I had a nice omelet for Christmas dinner. And to top it off? Egg Nog!
In the words of Bill Cosby, "I told you that story to tell you this one."
We haven't really taught myson about Christmas. So we wanted to share what had happened at our Christmas party in an attempt to show you all how cute our son is (cuter than yours, Nyah, nyah).
--I just broke my delete key...--
We were in the very front of our ward cultural hall, being furthest from the stage. When Santa came to visit, jingling his bells, we asked myson, "Who is that?" I was mildy surprised to see him get excited, figuring it was just because I asked the question with enthusiasm --there, it's working again--. I lifted up Hyrum so he could see who it was and you could tell that he locked on the man in red once he was past adult head levels. They announced that they would form a line at the front and you wold have to go through the door to get on the stage to see Santa. I put myson down and asked if he wanted to go see him. "YEAH!!" was his exuberant reply and off he darted down one isle of tables without us. He got near the front only to see that the way was mostly blocked by adults in chairs and big coats blocking his view. He ran back to us where he veered of to his left having no regard for any obstacle that would get in his way down another idle of tables. I would have warned him had I not been so amazed at his excitement. It was not long before he had reached the stage where he realized he could not get to Santa that way. He burst to the back of the line of kids which had already begun to form. Once he saw that the door to the stage was open, he darted through two kids in line and dashed into the open door. Seconds later you saw a red faced, bashful Hyrum standing next to Santa's chair -- the first kid there. Santa hadn't even gotten comfortable to accept any children yet and there was no adult to monitor the on-flux of kids -- myson had beaten them all.
Oh, it was so cute. We felt a bit bad about not teaching him about Santa, but he obviously picked it up somewhere. I'm sure we've mentioned him a few times, but never in the "Santa rides and sleigh with reindeer and he comes to give you presents if you're a good boy and he eats cookies left out at night and kisses your mum and laughs jollililly" way. I would have taken pictures but by the time I got to the front to get a good one, myson's turn had been done, had his candy cane, and my phone was out of memory, anyway.
Emily has finally started to crawl up on her knees. She still prefers to inch around on her belly, but maybe she'll get used to crawling in the next few days and do that more often. She has also started to pull up to standing. It's a little frustrating for me because she'll pull up to something and then get stuck and scream. She doesn't like letting go and falling on her bum. I figure she'd better get used to it or she'll never learn to walk!Last Sunday, we couldn't get Emily into her old dress. She's just gotten too big! We were about to resign ourselves to dressing her in her best casual clothes for church until I remembered an old hand-me-down dress from when I was a year old! My grandma Page made it for me when I was a baby, and I've had it ever since. It's still rather large on Emily, but she got a lot of compliments from the ladies at church. I was going to do a side by side comparison of me in the dress and her in the dress, but I couldn't find the picture of me I was looking for. Maybe my mom can help me out with that one. Till then, here's Emily. 
