In Which Capitalization is Overused For No Good Reason

I come to you from the brink of the eighteenth century, by which I mean I am going to try to get this blog post written and posted before the storm of the century hits and we are without power and modern conveniences and the interwebs for the duration of our stay in the Pacific Northwest, which luckily is only another 36 hours or so. The media are throwing around words like "apocalypse" and "end times." OK, not really, but the storm that is supposedly roaring toward us is "historic." Not that I want them to be right, but earlier this same week they warned me that we would be getting inches and inches of snow, and we did. But not until about 36 hours after the 99% chance of snow they promised us. And tonight, as I sit in front of the computer next to our lovely, LED-lit Christmas tree and hear some channel surfing over my shoulder, I should be at A FANCY PARTY IN SEATTLE WITH GROWN-UPS ONLY WITH DINNER AND AN OPEN BAR FOR WHICH I BOUGHT A NEW DRESS AND A STRAPLESS BRA AND WENT TO THE EXPENSIVE BROW-WAX LADY, which we decided not to attend because we were worried that the storm of the century would hit while we were there, and our kids would be freezing through a power outage while I attempted to hike across Lake Washington in my open toed heels. Which by the way would not have flown anyway because I couldn't get my toes to a pedicure place because the entire town (minus the expensive brow waxer), including the schools, preschools, and daycares, has been shut down for three days because of the snow, or in the case of Wednesday, the pathological fear of snow. So no, I don't want the storm of the century to swoop in and knock us back a hundred years, but if I don't see some tree branches on the road tomorrow morning, I know a certain National Weather Service who owes me two or three glasses of wine, some passed hors doerve, and a salmon dinner that involves no cutting up of my food into tiny bites to pass on to a toddler. I'm just saying.

It has been a while since I posted, and as we are off to AZ on Monday, and I am unlikely to post while there, allow me to messily pour out the contents of my head. Figuratively. Ew. Anyway:

• Open house! We had our annual Christmas open house, a tradition which I started when we moved here in an attempt to get to know our neighbors. This year was the most successful yet, though we had only one neighbor house in attendance. It was a good turnout, a diverse group, I got everything done far enough in advance that I wasn't stressed out at all (which is a Christmas miracle, in a nice small local sense), and it was actually really fun. Now that I am all grown up it never ceases to amaze me how much better a hostess I am when I'm not, shall we say, in my cups. Live a little, learn a little. Oh, and still no one from my job. Next year, if I have to invite the whole place, I will have a coworker at my shindig!
• Sick kids! Mostly it was Muriel, and she was pretty sick. I have this issue with waiting too long to take my kids to the doctor, and by the time we get there I often hear words like pnemonia, and what to look for right before I drive the kid straight to Children's Hospital. Which does not make me feel like a good mother. She was not herself for a full week, and even after that, very sleepy. She stayed home for a week, and when we finally brought her back to school, her new post-illness persona convinced them that she was not well enough to be at school, so she stayed home on Tuesday. And on to...
• Snow! Wednesday was the day in which a phantom snowfall that never came shut down the school district, meaning I got to work from home while attempting daycare. Thursday, real snow, ditto working from home. Friday, same snow, cold weather, ditto working from home. Summary: Cabin. Fever. I was trying to figure out today why I was so punchy (I will not embarrass myself with any examples), and I realized I have not really been out of the house for days and days. But soon I will leave my house to go to...
• Arizona! We'll be there for a week, and if it is snowing there, so help me... Just kidding. I hope to have another open house, to get together with some people I don't see often, and I am so excited. Not to mention seeing family, which will be a lot of fun. But mostly, getting out of my house... aaaaahhhh.
• Holiday Excess! There is a lot of talk of simplifying Christmas, which I understand in the context of people who buy ridiculous amounts of unneccessary stuff, or get completely stressed out about calendars and events and decorating and affording things. But a friend and I were talking about how the point of Christmas (aka, the big winter feast day) is to live it up a little, and however you define that, it's worth it to go to a little trouble to make it happen. That is the point. Back in the day it meant you saved up your lard and your sugar for special corn cakes or whatever. Now it means you strain yourself a bit to get everything together, to get your cards out on time (or not, in my case), to make cookies with your kid, to buy presents, if that's your thing. I don't know where I'm going with this- I don't think people should feel guilty as if they are not trying hard enough at Christmas, especially with the economy, I get it, etc., but I also don't think people should feel guilty for extending themselves. That's just this year, though, I could swing back in the direction of Grinchy next time, who knows.
• Mystical Exercise! I had a weird but good experience at yoga last time, doing the something or other second triangle pose- it was hard work, so maybe that was it, but on the last go I had this burst of heat, like I was catching on fire, but you know, in a good way. I guess you had to be there.
  
• Favorite Things! This is a Christmas song for some reason, and I sometimes think of favorite things more relevant to me when I hear it all the more often this time of year. So, some of my favorite things are: When I am looking at a sign or a license plate holder and read a word and hear it right then spoken by the person on the car radio (yeah, it's dumb, but these are MY favorite things, and we have no bright copper kettles); When I hear Naomi calling Muriel, "Honey," when she doesn't know anyone is listening; Crunchy toast; Pea tips (a vegetable you can get at Chinese restaurants); Eating chips and cheese dip with a margarita at least bi-weekly with my homie; Hearing from old friends; Hearing from any friends, really; Taking a hot shower; Going to bed in clean sheets just after said shower; Getting a lot of work done; Whiskey with ginger ale; Sleeping through the night; Hearing Muriel say any of her endless supply of new words. These aren't in any order, and of course there are others. But yeah, my life is full of raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.

And now, the wind is picking up, so I had better post a couple of photos before it's too late. Merry Christmas, Dear Readers.





Naomi loved the snow. LOVED IT!



Muriel was flummoxed by it.



I just included this one because it's super cute. SUPER CUTE! OK, that's all. BYE!