Stalking Santa in the Hellmouth

Queen B and I did some Christmas shopping today and one of our stops was the Hellmouth, where I needed to pick up some ingredients for the cookie baking extravaganza that I am planning to embark on once Mom arrives in town.

I was already feeling pretty spirited-QB had helped me find gifts for some of the difficult-to-buy-for people on my list-and I didn't think the day could get much better, but, then! We saw him! The Big Guy! I immediately started following him as he swaggered toward the restrooms (he must have been on a break from his duty at the North Pole display near the electronics department), and, much to QB's horror, I flagged him down for a photo.

Now I can say that I have convinced both of my children to pose with the Hellmouth Santa

 (the Cub got shanghaied into a photo last year, remember?)

This holiday season just keeps getting better and better!

Christmas Is a Time For Miracles

This past Tuesday was December 6th, which, in my household, is St. Nicholas Day. Actually, December 6th is St. Nicholas Day whether your in my house or not, but, that's not the point. The point is, that, since the kids were small, St. Nick's Day meant that Santa's elves had visited the night before, picking up the kids' letters to Santa and leaving both chocolate coins and a trail of elf dust in their wake.

This year, the "kids" are 20 and 18 and only one of them resides in my household, so, the likelihood of them writing a letter to Santa was nonexistent, or, so I thought.

Imagine my surprise when I got up on Tuesday morning and found the Man-Cub's letter tube on top of my computer when, last I had seen it, it was hanging on the tree near his sister's.

Imagine my further surprise in finding a letter inside the tube; an actual, honest to goodness, bonafide, real letter to Santa.

Despite my surprise, I immediately scooted upstairs to place a small bag of chocolate coins underneath the Cub's pillow, because, out of a sense of nostalgia, I had purchased the coins the week before and, thus, had them on hand.

The Cub dutifully pretended to be asleep just long enough for me to complete my stealth mission; he didn't even comment on the rather unusually large size of the elf until later in the day.

Best Christmas present he could have given me.

I feel it is worth noting that the child actually asked for socks. What kid does that? Also, requesting "color blind glasses" with a smiley face cracked me up; bless his colorblind heart.

As for the rest of the items on his list, well, let's just say that "Santa" thinks that the Cub has been a very good boy, and, Santa knows, because he sees everything.

Yes, I DO Realize That I Said I Wasn't Going To Do This

A while back, I wrote a post about opting out of holiday events that stressed me out, or, in which I could see no value; one of the items on that list was the annual door decorating contest at Day Job.

Today, I caved; I decorated not only my door, but the interior of my office as well. In my defense, I went with a design that was neither time consuming, nor expensive, and that allowed me to indulge my slightly morbid sense of humor.

The door was a tribute to my supervisor, who, actually gets a little weak in the knees over Buddy the Elf.

Now, when the door is open, he is directly in her line of sight; it's my Christmas gift to her.

As for the room décor, well, let's just say that while I won't be winning any awards, the amusement that I get each time I step over that chalk outline will fill me with Christmas joy, which, is my gift to myself.

Hey, I said my humor was slightly morbid.

Winter Bucket List

Let's get this out of the way right now; I am not a winter person.

In the style of Gollum from Lord of the Rings, I haaaaates winter. Like, for real. That said, I do like the holidays, and I can romanticize a snowy winter day in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa like nobody's business, so, I am going to soldier on with this list.

1. Follow my usual Christmas traditions, including the baking of approximately ten different varieties of cookies.

2. Conduct a holiday-movie-watching marathon including all the classics and some extra-schmaltzy stuff from The Hallmark Chanel.

3.  Show my mom the best Christmas that I can.

4. Enjoy a few outings with the kids during the holidays.

5. Sledding on Cerro Summit on New Year's Day.

6. Attend all of the Man-Cub's basketball games.

7. Eat less crap, keep moving.

8. Save more money for Hawaii.

It's a pretty mundane bucket list; I'm setting the bar super low because I know how the winter screws with my mental well-being, but, listing some positive things seems a lot more optimistic than having a list that consists of MAKE IT THROUGH THE WINTER WITHOUT HAVING A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN.

Although, that last one is pretty damn important, too.

How About That Fall Bucket List?

It's December 5th, already! Time to come up with my Winter Bucket List, but, as always, before I do that, I need to check in with my list from the previous season, which, in this case, means my Fall Bucket List. Let's see how I did:

1. Attend all of the Cub's football games, host a tailgate party for at least one. I'm going to have to call this one a draw; I did attend every game, but, never managed a tailgate party. Hugh and I did become the official hot cocoa suppliers of each game, however, so, I'm giving myself credit for that.

2. Host a kick-ass team dinner. Nailed it!

3. Winery tour! Ah, the elusive winery tour...some day, this will actually happen, so help me, God.

4. Go on at least a couple of Girl Outings. I excelled at this one; Jana and I did the Savor the San Juans culinary home tour, Kortni and I hunted bargains at Pickin' at the Pea, and, BCPE and I ate our way around a local craft fair, followed by a gourmet lunch. Girl time is fun!

5. Eat my weight in pomegranates. Done, and still being done! The pommies have been exceptional this year, and, every time I crack one open and see all those ruby red jewel-like seeds, I think of my Dad.

6. Replenish my butternut squash soup supply, attempt butternut ravioli in sage butter sauce. Soooo did not happen. I do have four squashes in the pantry, courtesy of my garden, but I haven't quite gotten around to cooking with them yet. Laziness 1, Chelle 0.

7. Epic Halloween decorations. Ha! Flying witches, anyone? Nailed it!

8. Focus on my health, break bad habits. I renewed my gym membership and started walk/jogging on the treadmill. I have a way to go, but at least I started.

9. Earn $1500 toward our Hawaii trip. Three seniors, three families, a wedding, a baby shower, and, yes, my savings is on point!

10. Celebrate the Man-Cub's eighteenth birthday. Well, of course. I'm still recovering from the shock of having another "adult" in the family.

So, all in all, I didn't do too badly on the list. Tune in tomorrow, when I regale you with another mundane, navel-gazing post based on all the things I would like to accomplish over the next three months! Exciting!

And the Streak Is BROKEN!

Yesterday, the boys varsity basketball team won their first game since 2013.

I'm gonna let that sink in for a minute.

Do you feel that you have sufficiently absorbed that statement?

Good.

That's 45 losses, for those of you who like to keep track of things like this. FOURTY-FIVE consecutive losses. You can imagine what that does to the confidence of young men.

Yesterday, the boys started the game with a simple mantra in mind; Not Going To Be 46.

And, in just the first minute of the game, the magic began to happen; the boys played like a team, they played with confidence, they played with joy, which, in this mom's opinion, was what had been missing in prior varsity teams all along.

The joy was infectious, our crowd was pumped, and, when the final score placed our boys 7th in the tournament, you would have thought that we had taken the championship, happy as we were.

So, with, as one mom put it, "the monkey off their back", the boys are free to have the best season possible. I think I speak for all the moms (and dads! And grandparents!) when I say that we are ready for the ride.

Friday Favorites: Basketball in Mayberry Edition

BCPE and I are hunkered down at my mom's house in Mayberry; we got here yesterday just in time for the boys' first basketball game of the season, which took place at a tournament held in a community about thirty minutes to the south. Unfortunately, the boys lost the game, but, not by much and not because they were out-skilled. The referees were a huge part of the loss, but, bitching about that makes us sound like sore losers, so I'll just say that we are hoping for more consistent reffing at today's game.

On the bright side, all of the Mom Squad made it to the game, so we got our first selfie of the (last) season, and that is a favorite for sure.

Also, Mom got to be a part of it, and, since she is a favorite of all the other ladies, that's a bonus.

We have one game scheduled for today and another for tomorrow, which means we traveled three hours for three games over the course three days. If three was my lucky number, I would be in heaven right now, but, it's not, so, it's a good thing that the girls' team is also here for the tournament so we will actually be watching six games over the three days. That makes the economics of traveling this far a little more palatable.

Oh, who am I kidding? I've traveled three hours for one game more often than not and haven't complained. The things we do for our kids, right?

Because our boys are our most favoritest thing of all (new word alert!)