The Queen's Rambles

Mike had his holiday party tonight. I tried to find a sitter, but finding someone on a week night was impossible. After the sixth rejection I gave up and took it as a gift. I have discovered that I really don’t like spending a shit ton of money on appropriate clothing and a babysitter, then going and making small talk with people that I can’t relate to on any level. Being a bookish stay-at-home mom in a room full of career driven rocket scientist computer nerds quite frankly sucks.

Last year it was ok because one of my best friends was there. We finagled Mike into hiring her husband so she wouldn’t have to move to New Jersey. This year she has a newborn and she doesn’t want to leave the baby alone with any of her regular sitters. I don’t blame her. I wouldn’t either. That just meant I was back to having no one to talk to, since Mike would be off schmoozing.

It was very freeing to say no to this party, but it did mean that I had the kids by myself tonight. Mike is usually the one who gets stuck putting the kids down a few times a month while I’m off doing MOMS Club and PTA stuff. I felt very incompetent at the job since Elsa kept crying and asking for her daddy. Usually Mike gives them a bath, then I take care of Erik and Mike takes care of Elsa. Poor Elsa was heart broken that her daddy had abandoned her.

Since I knew it was going to be a long day, I had the elf tell us to go pick out special Christmas ornaments. I do this every year and it is becoming really fun to pull out the box of ornaments and see what Erik has picked out (this year was Elsa’s first year of being part of the ritual). I took them to Kohl’s since I had a 30% coupon and they had a line of super cute bakery based ornaments. I was sure I was going to be able to get the kids to pick out something yummy looking, but they foiled my plans. Elsa picked out a very pretty turquoise ice skate and Erik picked out a plush wolf.

I was disappointed but tried not to show it since they have the right to pick out what they want.

Then I realized something.

I’m a grown-up. If I want a friggin’ cupcake ornament, I can put a friggin’ cupcake ornament in my basket and BUY it. I don’t need an imaginary elf to give me permission. I can do things to make myself happy! So I bought THREE yummy looking ornaments and made myself happy. Take that, self denying self!

Speaking of self-denial, I seriously need new towels. Our newest towels are at least 10 years old. They are starting to fray around the edges and look pretty worn. I used to hate the gross, holey towels in my childhood home and swore that I was going to buy new towels every single year.

Hahahahaha.

They absorb water just fine. They work. I can’t seem to make myself spend money on new ones since the current ones are perfectly serviceable.

But it would make me happy.

Maybe that will be a project for January. We have to get through Christmas before I spend money to replace something purely for aesthetic reasons.

I think that’s it in the exciting adventures of Carrie. Guess I better sign off and go to bed. I got really spoiled after two unexpected sleep-in days (school was cancelled Mon and Tues).