Look what I made!

It will hang on the outside of my house between my kitchen window and the front door. What I love most about it is my husband and I picked out the wreath and all the decorations together, on a shopping trip to Target which we took ALONE, while the kids were at my Dad and Stepmom’s. It has been YEARS since my husband and I got to spend a whole day Christmas shopping together, and it was wonderful. I forgot how nice it is to walk through a store or the mall holding just each other’s hands.

When it’s just me and him, and we can focus on each other exclusively, I see a different side of my husband than when we are with the kids. He is funny, and says clever and snarky things, and gets misty-eyed at the sight of newborn babies bundled up in their strollers. There was a couple walking in front of us at the mall, each holding the hand of a little girl around two years old, and he nudged me, pointed to her and grinned. I knew without him saying anything that he was thinking that would be us next year walking with Kaitlyn.

All and all it was a great day, even if Kaitlyn refused to take her nap this afternoon and was downright cranky in the car on the way home. Tomorrow Chris will hang up the wreath, and carry the boxes up from the basement that contain the Dickens Village pieces I inherited from my Mother, and next weekend we’ll put up the tree. We’ve got Christmas CDs on the hard drive (did you know the Xbox 360 will play music from your hard drive? It’s very cool), and Christmas DVDs in a stack by the TV. I’m putting together the kids’ outfits for the Christmas Card, and planning crafts for the class party at school.

But the best thing happening right now is that my husband and I are getting along, really well in fact, and even rekindling our romance with each other. We’re remembering who we used to be before we had the kids, and remembering why we fell in love in the first place. You can’t ask for anything better at Christmas than that.

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All I wanted was to switch my theme for Christmas to this adorable Winter Wonderland featuring a really cute snowman! I collect snowmen, so it’s perfect for me!

I followed the directions. I downloaded the files and dropped them into my wp-content/themes folder. I logged in, went to Presentation–>Themes, and clicked on the new theme. And got nothing. The only thing that changed was the colors in the margins. No snowman, no snowflakes, nothing. So I switched back to my regular Blue Horizon theme, and it’s all screwed up! I lost the cool sidebar thing that showed new comments, even the font changed.

I want to believe that I am an intelligent person who knows how to follow directions correctly. I want to believe that this isn’t freaking ROCKET SCIENCE and is not that hard. So why can I not even do one simple thing? Grrrrr. Hopefully I’ll figure out what I did wrong and get both the new theme running and also put the old one back to rights. In the meantime, if anything looks wonky to anyone, please let me know.

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Why aren’t more radio stations playing Steely Dan’s “Black Friday” today? I would be. Anyway, I am happy to report that not only did I survive yesterday’s Great Hosting of Thanksgiving, but I totally ROCKED it. I am so proud of myself and my family for the success of yesterday. There were no temper tantrums, and my kids were well behaved too. We got all the food on to the table HOT, at the same time, and it was DELICIOUS. I was so sure the turkey would burn, or dry out, but Check out the golden brown-ness. We rubbed it with olive oil and coated it with poultry seasoning. Soooo good.

I was happy that my Dad, Stepmother and Grandma got along so well with Chris’ Dad and his Grandparents. They chatted together for hours while we got the dinner made. Did I mention that I have apparently forgotten how to count? When you put a turkey in the oven at 10:30 am, and you want it to cook for five hours before taking the foil off, that means the foil comes off at 3:30 pm, right? Except I took the foil off at 2:30, and then wondered why the timer hadn’t popped up, and why the meat thermometer only said 150 degrees. For a twenty pound turkey, it took just about 5 and a half hours at 325. Perfect.

I’ll have more photos up on Flickr later today. I’m kind of in a fog this morning, because I got up at 4:40 AM for :

Black Friday Shopping!!!!! My darling husband, who put me to sleep at 9:30 last night by rubbing my poor aching legs, got my coffee all ready in the machine so all I had to do was stumble to the kitchen and press the button. I was on the road by 5:00, Target is only 5 minutes from my house. The line was around the side of the building about half way when I got there. The County Sheriff and a Security Team were also in place to break up any fistfights, of which there were none, I’m happy to say. I mean come ON, it’s just STUFF. It’s not worth trampling people for it.

6:05 am: Acquire the number one toy on Nathan’s Christmas list on sale for $15.00, more than half the regular price. Plus DVDs for $5.98, like The 40-Year Old Virgin and X-Men Last Stand (for Chris), Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (Ryan), Nanny McPhee (Nathan), and The Polar Express (everyone). There is a mob in front of the DVD wall, and I’m feeling overwhelmed and a little like I can’t breathe. I’ve been known to faint in crowds, so I back up to the book section and bump into a very tall man who is calling out to someone “Lindsey! Grab X-Men!” Without thinking I yell “Lindsey! Grab me one too!” The hell? But to my surprise the tall men yells again “Lindsey! Grab two X-Mens!” She passes them hand over hand, and the tall man drops one right in my basket. I LOVE when people are nice to each other, don’t you?

6:20 am: Get in what seems like a really long line. Notice the man and woman in front of me have a Harry Potter DVD, which I forgot to look for and are on sale for $3.98. The man says “Stay here, I’ll go get you one.” And sure enough, he leaves the line, walks all the way back to the DVD section, just to try to find something for me, a stranger. THEN, I remember that I have forgotten to buy a package of batteries. I know there are always batteries hanging on the dividers between the lanes. I set down my basket and the Transformer, and poke my head around the corner of the divider. I catch the eye of this lady, and ask her to see if there are any batteries hanging there. She says no problem, maneuvers around, and holds up two different packages of batteries for me to pick from. There’s that kindness of strangers thing again. By 6:30 I am back in the car.

6:36 am: Hit the McDonald’s Drive-thru. I’m running on a huge cup of coffee and pure adrenaline, and I know I need some food. A greasy Sausage McMuffin with Egg hits the SPOT.

6:45 am: After driving RIGHT BY the Krispy Kreme with the damn HOT NOW light on (Bastards!), I hit Sam’s Club for a gift for my Dad. Sam’s had free bagels, muffins, yogurt, juice and coffee! Next year, I’ll skip McDonald’s and plan for breakfast at Sam’s for sure. And if anyone is thinking about getting an XBox 360, and you don’t have a Sam’s Club membership, check this out-the XBox, the component and Ethernet cables, a 20 GB Hard Drive, two wireless controllers, a controller charger, and a messenger bag for $449.00. That is an AMAZING deal, and worth the price of the Sam’s membership.

7:10 am: Walk out of Sam’s just in time to catch sunrise over Eastwood Towne Center. Kick myself for not having my camera.

7:30: Home.

I’ll be spending the rest of the day finishing the cleaning up from yesterday. Did I mention I didn’t wash a single dish yesterday? My brother-in-law, nephew and husband cleared the dinner table and did the dishes after dinner! Awesome. Now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s time to start decorating for Christmas, get a photo taken somewhere, and start addressing Christmas cards.

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And for my Canadian readers and blog friends, have a great Thursday!

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Oh NaBloPoMo, my brain hurts. It’s tired, so I’m going for the easy post tonight.

You know what I’m really, really thankful for? My husband. No, seriously, stay with me on this. Do you read True Wife Confessions? I’ve been reading it since the first post, and let me tell you what-my husband is a PERFECT SAINT compared to the subjects of the Confessions. He never gets so drunk that he wets the bed while sleeping (Oh my God that is gross), he doesn’t have a secret profile on a singles dating site (yes, I’m sure), he doesn’t gamble away our mortgage money, or belittle me or our children, or refuse to have sex with me (there are actually men out there who DON’T LIKE SEX. Huh.) So yeah, I’m thankful my husband is normal, respectful, and loving.

Oh yeah, and wicked sexy. You have NO IDEA how hot this man is. Let’s just say I’m a lucky, lucky woman in many ways.

RADIO SHOW TONIGHT!!! Call in at 10:00 pm EST to talk to Jennster, and hopefully me if she’ll let me co-host! The phone number is (646) 915-8654, and normal long distance charge will apply. If you can’t call in, visit Jenn’s BlogTalkRadio page for an archive of the show, probably tomorrow. We’ll be chatting about Thanksgiving dinner, so call in and tell us all about your plans!

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