Christmas carols and road rage

This was one of the most frustrating days EVER!!! I decided to take Nathan into Savannah to go to the Boy Scout store. We needed to get a Wolf book, plus the patches for his new pack here. According to its website, the store is open on Saturdays 10-2. Now, I could have gone earlier in the week, but I thought the traffic wouldn't be as bad on the weekend. SILLY ME! Got stuck in an 8 mile traffic back up. I know how to get to Abercorn street in Savannah, and that's it. I was trying to make it to the store before it closed, and I was afraid that if I got off Abercorn, I'd just be lost in Savannah (which has happened before). Thought for sure that there must have been an accident or construction work. But NO!!! The back up was due to people getting to the mall...

Now, please believe me. If I am planning to going shopping in the month of December, then I am prepared. I already know that there will be lines, no parking, and lots of waiting. I embrace the suck, and I can tolerate the hordes of people. Today, however, I wasn't anticipating mall traffic and nearly went ballistic. I said several words that I don't want Nathan to repeat (several times), and glared at a lot of people who cut me off and nearly sideswiped me. I barely managed to avoid flipping the bird at least twice. Now, in the back of my mind, I knew that the road rage was out of proportion to the aggravation. And that it was the height of irony to be so irate as I was listening to my favorite Christmas CDs in the car.

We did mange to make it to the Scout store about 30 minutes before it closed. My blood pressure did not subside, however. Apparently, according to the side on the door, the store isn't actually open on Saturdays after all. I was so upset I was about ready to cry. I'm sure by the time I GO BACK on Monday, I will have my angst under control, and I won't totally flip out on the store staff for their erroneous website. Maybe.

Nathan and I did go onto the bookstore to pick up a present. While we were there, he found a dragon model painting set, which you see here. Unfortunately, we did not get back in time to go to the battalion Christmas party at the YMCA.

The other picture is from his boy scout meeting this week (before he got his glasses). The den is providing a table decoration for the banquet on Tuesday, so they were making a gingerbread house.

Mom and Dad, and Aimie, we got your deliveries today. I did get all of Nathan's presents wrapped on Monday. Made me think how not green Christmas is. All that paper. Gift bags are the ultimate in green gifting, but if you're trying to keep the kid from peeking, you gotta wrap. And could kid action figures be any harder to wrap? The packaging should all be required to be squares or rectangles. And those people who go all out with their light displays? Please, don't even get me started! I saw one person whose electric bill goes up $1000 a month for the holidays! WHAT? Are you kidding me!>@>#?

I'm probably really out of sorts because my laptop battery finally died. I've had to order a new one online, and it will take a week or so. I knew that Eric would be taking the laptop with him to ANOC, but I wasn't expecting it to just die on me, without me being able to take stuff off of it first. Good thing I'm not really doing genealogy right now. All my stuff is on there. It's just not the same blogging on the other computer, and having to share it again with Eric. The minute one of us gets up, the other one slides into the chair. Which isn't fair, because Eric has another computer upstairs in the radio room.

You just can't deny genetics

it was bound to happen sometime

Nathan's orb

Nathan decided we needs orbs for the tree, so the two of us went to get some. He really liked the 2 colored orbs, so those were his pic. When I told him I wanted to take a picture of him in front of the tree, he insisted that one of his orbs had to be in the picture as well.

Christmas activities have begun. Eric and the band had to play a concert at a VA hospital/nursing home on Tuesday. The 3 hour bus ride was an eye-opener for him. Apparently, the leadership takes the opportunity to have a training meeting while they're on the bus, so everyone of a lower rank sits towards the back while the upper NCOs sit in the front. (I didn't realize there was a seating hierarchy in the band. Who knew?) And of course, those not involved in the meeting were smarting off in the back. Eric, being the kind of guy he is, is thinking to himself, "but, but, but - I wanna be in the back, too."

The post tree lighting ceremony was on Thursday. I dragged Nathan to see it while Eric and the band played pre-music. It was a great night out, mild temps, lots of people. Bad lighting, so none of my pics of the band turned out. Afterwards, they had set up the Stewart Club for kids activities. Crowd control, however, left a lot to be desired. Rather than letting everyone come in at once, they had staff at the door regulating how many could come in at one time. Luckily, we were in one of the first waves. You can see Nathan decorating a Christmas stocking. The crush of people was getting to Eric by that time, so he went outside for a little while. But the bouncers at the door wouldn't let him back in - they wanted him to the back of the line. He called me and just said he'd meet us outside. By the time we left the building, there were still about 300 people waiting to get in. (My holiday spirit wouldn't have been up to waiting outside that long. I would have bailed after about 10 minutes...)

Eric and the band marched in the Hinesville parade on Friday and the Richmond Hill parade on Saturday. It was just cold enough that neither Nathan nor I were interested in going. Sorry, hubby!

Nathan managed to get 2 skinned knees and a skinned elbow yesterday, running up and down the sidewalk. Took 5 band aids to cover it all. He's walking around today like an old man with arthritis. He doesn't want us to take pictures of his wounds. He threw up Friday night big time, which is pretty unusual for him. No repeat occurrences, so I'm going to chalk it up to something he ate.

Big 12 Champs, baby!

It's beginning to look a lot....

Got the tree up, the decorations out and most of the Christmas cards mailed. (There are advantages to not working at the moment) Of course, the disadvantages come at the gift-buying side of the equation. Nathan shared with us what he wrote in his letter to Santa at school. Kid has expensive tastes. He thinks it's a guarantee if he tells Santa. I told him that Santa makes the toys, but Mommy and Daddy still have to give him the money to make them. I have no idea what to get Eric. Usually I've got a pretty good idea, but I got nothing this year. I'm not buying a carburetor or engine for Rufus, which are the only things I can think of that he'd want.

I'll have to take a pic of Nathan with the tree when he gets home from school today. He's so proud of his decorating skills. We put up the ornaments that we had - which come to think of it, were mostly hand-me-downs from my mother. Nathan said we needed orbs - meaning the colored balls. So we had to go buy some before the tree was perfect.

He and Eric finally went to a Cub Scout meeting last night. Now we need to get him involved in some sort of sports program. Guess looking into that will be my task for the day. Something that will work with his tight hamstrings....

Native American Heritage Day

Just want to point out that today is Native American Heritage Day. It's not a recurring event. No, no, no. Just for this year. (As Eric would say, "just another example of the white man keeping us down).

Now, neither of us check off the Native American box when we fill out paperwork. We both have more European, WASPy heritage than anything. I don't get anything from my tribe, and all we get from Eric's is the car tags. But still, I want to point out that my 5/64 Cherokee-Choctaw degree is more than Eric's 9/128 Potawatomi. That makes Nathan 19/256. Yes, it took me awhile to figure out the fractions.

So, in honor of our heritage, here are some pics from both sides of the family.

Thanksgiving

Hope everyone out there (all 4 of you who read this) had a great Thanksgiving. We enjoyed ourselves. Certainly wasn't the chaos of a big family gathering. We all contributed to dinner. Nathan made the mashed potatoes and gravy. He decided to write down the ingredients so we wouldn't forget the recipe. I made the cheesy broccoli and rice casserole. Thanks, Aunt Kaye, for the recipe. I have never in my life cooked with cheese whiz before, but it came out pretty good. And Eric made the turkey. It was the most fantabulous turkey EVER! So tender! So moist! So flavorful! Now, Eric usually downplays his efforts in the kitchen (it's okay, it's mediocre, meh). But this time, he was actually impressed with his own cooking. Enough so that we might have to buy another turkey for next weekend. (We only bought a 6 pound turkey, so he's already polished off the leftovers this morning.)

4 hours of cooking, then 2 hours of clean up and sanitizing for 10 minutes of eating. But the impressive part is that we all actually ate at the same time at the same table. Can't remember the last time that happened.

We'll probably drag in the tree later today.

Shout out to my parents on their wedding anniversary today and to my aunt and uncle on theirs yesterday. Love ya!