12 days in 1

12 the time i get off work tonight (yes, 12 AM!)
11 pages done already in sky's new favorite book he got in his stocking 10 cups of hot chocolate consumed in this house in the last 2 days
9 thousand lego pieces (or so it seemed) put together by pants and sky 8-year-old sky bought a jeweled key chain and turned it into a necklace to give me for Christmas 7 candy canes hung randomly around the house by sharkey6 hours in a row sharkey went without taking off the new gloves he got in his stocking5 the number of new toy storage bins i ran out and bought today
4 train sets put together to form a winding, never-ending track around the dining room3 number of times we ran the dishwasher on Christmas day2 kids with colds1 chocolate orange left (but not for long!)

the eve

just got back from picking up some last-minute things...off to do a quick cleanup before putting out some fresh sourdough bread, aged sausage, and assorted cheeses for dinner (thank you trader joe's!)...probably have a nice latte or a fun drink and some popcorn and chocolate orange slices later on...can't wait till the kids are asleep to put their gifties under the tree! ps - this was just too cute...sharkey has been in love with this one particular little tiny Bible for the last 2 days. i took this picture in the car at a stoplight with my phone (hence the bad quality) - he said he was 'reading' about God, and he was like, poring over the pages (which are just words, no pictures). too much!

that's twice this month you've slipped deadly nightshade into my tea and run off.

ok, so technically it's a five-second rendition of a spongebob Christmas song. but it's still cute.

i don't want to sleep on the hide-a-bed with fuller.

our sweet pal mikey just left yesterday after staying with us for over half the week, and i miss him already. wah! we always have such a great time with mikey, and the boys LOVED having him around. sharkey in particular was a little obsessed with him. one time i dared to mention michael's (actual) nephews, and sharkey goes, 'but WE are mikey's boys!' sooo cute.

perhaps what really won their hearts was when michael gave the kids an early Christmas gift of oh, only just ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY star wars action figures that he had been collecting since he was 15 years old. each still in their individual original package. oh my.sky says he doubts any other Christmas gift we get him will be as cool as this one, and these little guys seem to have taken up permanent residence on the dining room table. i'm partial to the specialty guys, myself.and the food we made! talk about yummy times. mikey and i cooked up a Christmas feast both friday and saturday nights, and i have lots of recipes i will post soon!

apple tart (made with dmoms pie crust recipe!)

mikey's famous scotch eggs w/hollandaise sauce

the beginnings of our apricot/cherry/pomegranate chutneymikey cookin' up some chicken in bacon drippings yummy cocktails
tastes like Christmas!

we also baked and decorated Christmas cookies one afternoon.sky was really into blue frosting.

and these are some of sharkey's masterpieces he is insisting we save for santa:

the rest of our time was spent listening to Christmas music, shopping a bit, and in general just hanging out. mostly on the couch in front of a holiday movie in a food-induced stupor. (that seems to happen a lot at our house.)

when they found out i was keeping that bird in my locker

so i've been feeling a little depressed this week...probably just tiredness from sharkey's daily 5am wakeup calls, and having to deal with almost all of the parenting/ cooking/ cleaning/ never-ending cycle of daily life by myself (pants was out of town, and hasn't been around to help with the kids as much lately). i've also been frustrated with gaining a little weight but not having any uninterrupted workout time to fix said weight gain, and it's all starting to make me feel bored or dissatisfied or something. i think maybe i just need some time to myself. alone. just to breathe easier a little. which i have to say pants was nice enough to give me this afternoon by taking the boys out and about for awhile.

oh - here's something that actually made me start to feel a lot better! last night a friend called and asked me to go with her to a big clothing sale that was being held early this morning - somehow she got word that they were selling brand-new roxy/quicksilver/billabong clothing for six dollars a pound. my boys wear a lot of these surfer-type clothes, and they are NOT cheap, so i was like, i'm in!! so 3 of us girls went this morning (at 6:30am! of course, i was already up before 5, thanks to the darling shark), and i was hoping to score some good stuff for the boys.

but when we got there, there weren't that many kids' clothes, but they did have TONS of women's clothes! in my size! so i got a couple things for sky and pants that i could find, but the rest of the stuff i got was all for me! although of course, i felt slightly guilty, which is dumb because the prices were SO phenomenal, and i needed some things anyway. (i actually don't own very many clothes. it may seem like it, but i really don't. and i only have a few pairs of shoes, too. which is weird, since i LOVE clothes and shoes. now pants, on the other hand, has a closetFULL of clothes/shoes/whatnot, and he doesn't care a lick about what he wears. what is going on here?!)

anywho. so here's the lowdown...i got 2 super cute purses, 2 sweaters, 6 pairs of shorts, 2 pairs of pants, 3 hats, 2 dresses, 3 skirts, a pair of shorts for sky and a pair for pants - all new, high-quality brands - for under sixty-five bucks. oh my gosh, you guys! that is like, waaaay cheaper than even the thriftiest thrift store prices (which is where this frugal gal normally shops). seriously, i probably saved at least 600 dollars. totally worth standing out in the rain early in the morning! and it was fun to 'get out with the girls'!

so anyway, it made me feel better. which is probably really shallow. but i don't care! it also made me realize my body isn't in as bad of shape as i think it is...i just need to work on a few trouble spots. and maybe stop eating so many of these:in other news...
earlier today sharkey told me he needed to 'just ride his bike in the rain for a minute'...hmm...and yes, it's now official. i am the proud owner of an 8-year-old: