Thanks For Nothing, Santa!

It had all been a bit stressful, but with the help of online shopping and using every spare minute to get what I needed, I was all done shopping.  I was so happy!  I wanted to stop shopping and start drinking ... hot chocolate.

It had been challenging, but I felt like I had tried my best to make sure all the gifts were fair for each of my three children.  With different ages, this can be hard, but I felt like I had worked it all out.

And then it happened.

My daughter came home from school and told me excitedly that Santa had gone to her class that day.  She told me that she asked him for a Christmas Barbie doll, and that he told her he would get it for her.  She said, and I quote: "I know I'll get it because Santa said so."  She was very happy.

I, on the other hand, was not.

Let's just say I wasn't feeling very festive for the next few moments.

What was I going to do?  I had all the Santa gifts sorted out!  If I added one thing for one child, it would send everything off course.  But my daughter still believes in Santa and I'm not going to be the one to wreck it for her.

I finally figured out that I could have the doll be from her mom and dad, and just say that Santa knew she was going to get it so he didn't need to get it for her.

Then I went looking for the doll (which, incidentally, she hadn't mentioned wanting ever before).

And it was nowhere. Absolutely nowhere!  It was sold out in every store I tried.

One salesgirl told me that she didn't know if it would be in, but I should just continue to check back into the store every day.

I almost lost it.  I wanted to say to her, 'Do you honestly think I have time for that?  I work full-time and I have three kids and we live in every hockey arena in town!  Honestly!  We don't stay at our house, we just drive from one arena to the other and grab snacks on the way!'

Luckily for the salesgirl this all happened in my head.

Anyway, I was getting desperate.  I couldn't even find it online; it was out of stock everywhere.

Finally I had a friend who is a shopping whiz help me.

We managed to find it in the U.S.  I bought it for a ridiculous price even though I had to accept that it may not be shipped in time for Christmas.

Thank you, Amazon, because I received it yesterday.  I love you!

As for you, Santa - thanks for nothing!

That Would Send Me Over the Edge, But It's A Short Trip

I was at a garden centre getting some items to make my Christmas urns.  Yes, they still weren't done even though it was December 15th.  And the only reason I was finally doing it was because I had company coming over that night, okay?  I actually still had mums in my urns, that's how bad it was.
(In their defense, they still looked pretty good!)

Anyway, I was grabbing some curly willow (I LOVE curly willow) when I overheard a man asking for help from the staff.  Apparently he and his wife had agreed not to buy each other anything this Christmas; instead, they were going to make their gifts.  He had decided to make a terrarium for her.

I felt like saying kindly to him, "You don't have kids, do you?"  (Or they do, but the kids are in university, or living out of province.  Or perhaps they both just work at home and have tons of time.)

And maybe it's just me, but that would send me right over the edge.

I'm finding it stressful enough just BUYING all the gifts I have to get and do all the things I have to do for Christmas without making anything. 

I know it's environmentally friendly and more thoughtful, blah, blah, blah - okay, it's a good idea.

It still stresses me out!

(And no, the picture above isn't my urn.  It's someone else's.  Mine don't look that good.  But I did make them.  Maybe my husband would accept them as his Christmas gift?)

 

I Love Tinsel, But This Is Getting Ridiculous!

I have always loved tinsel.  It's very festive, isn't it?  However, we haven't used it for years because of the kids.

As my one friend said, once your child starts getting mobile and putting everything in his/her mouth, you look around what you thought was a child-friendly home, and realize that the entire place is a death-trap!

That's why we stopped using it.  It's not very Christmasy when your child chokes on a piece of tinsel.

Now, though, all of our kids are old enough to know that tinsel isn't a very tasty snack.  (Although, probably if I served it for lunch, my one son would put ketchup on it and love it.)  But with it just lying on the ground, it's fine.

That's part of the problem.  The tinsel is lying all over the ground.

And the furniture.  And the cat. (He wasn't amused.)

I got out of the shower one day and there was some on my leg.  Maybe it was in my hair, which is entirely possible.  There's some in our bed.  It's an interesting phenomenon.

The best one was my husband, whose colleague at work finally mentioned to him at lunchtime that he had tinsel on his butt.  He was really happy that he'd been walking around all morning meeting with families with tinsel on his rear end.

It's all part of the Christmas fun.  Who's with me?

Worst. Parent. Ever.

I hate to admit it.  But I, after nine years of trying to protect my son from nuts due to his anaphylactic allergy to nuts, I gave him a chocolate with a nut in it.

It was an accident, of course.

I was rushing through the grocery store (I'm not kidding, I was literally running through the aisles) as we were on our way to a party and I had to get a few things.  I also picked up some Hershey kisses for the two boys' hockey teams.  I picked up two bags - the caramel and milk chocolate ones - read the labels, and then picked up what I thought were two more of the same bags.

We had the Christmas party that night, got home late, and had an early hockey game the next morning.  After the game I handed out the Hershey kisses.

My son said, "What's in the middle of this, mom?"

It was an almond.

I was freaking out as much as you can in a dressing room in a hockey arena, surrounded by kids and parents.

I could not believe what I had just done!  After all the labels I have read, the kinds of food I have checked, the things I have gone through! I prided myself on the fact that I could read labels upside down and in different languages.  Yet I had HANDED him a nut.  It was unbelievable.  He had never had an almond in his life.

The fact is, what he is really allergic to are cashews and pistachios.  But initially we were told to avoid all tree nuts.  And I still do, in case of cross-contamination.  Still, did I mention he had never eaten an almond in his life before?

After apologizing profusely to my son, and simultaneously checking off in my mind that I had two Epi-Pens in my purse, I asked him how he felt.

He said he felt fine, and he looked fine.  However, I know that allergic reactions can take up to two hours, so I basically stuck to him like glue for the next two hours. 

I was a real nuisance.  He would be trying to talk to his friends at the arena, and I would be hovering nearby, lifting up his tuque to see if his ears were swollen.  I kept staring at him in case he broke out in hives.

Luckily he was fine, and didn't seem to have an iota of a reaction.

The whole episode took years off my life.  Years.  Every time I talk about it, I get all stressed out all over again.  It's exhausting. I've got to go lie down.  (After I double-check more labels!)

Hitting Stress Quotient Before 9:00 a.m. = Not Good

I hit my stress quotient before 9:00 a.m. this morning.  It wasn't pretty.

I have to take some responsibility.  I've been letting things slide in the morning.

I used to be really good about enforcing the rule that the kids have to have all their stuff done before they play video games.

My kids get up pretty early so it isn't usually an issue.

This morning everything seemed to be going very well.  (This should have been my first clue.)

I had even put beef stew ingredients in the crock pot AND remembered to turn it on (always essential).  I was congratulating myself on the fact that although I had to work that night, I had still managed to make dinner.  I know; pretty impressive, right?

Anyway, the time crept up on me.

Suddenly it was time to start the 'Ten Minutes Before Leaving Rush'.  I called, "Time to brush teeth everyone!"

Then I looked around.  There were no breakfast dishes anywhere!  Nothing was cluttering up the couch or the kitchen table.  That could mean only one thing.

No one had eaten breakfast!

That was when I started yelling. 

It just went downhill from there. 

I burned the toast (breakfast) while I was making the lunches.  My one son forgot his agenda.  My boot zipper got stuck.

As I was yelling that the next day nothing would happen until they were dressed and had eaten breakfast and gotten ready, my one son said to me, "Are you just cranky, Mom?"

I'm sorry to say that set me off again.

I need to start meditating. RIGHT NOW!