New red coat!

John's dad sent me money for Christmas. I have to say, money is always a great gift. I like opening special presents that were picked out specifically for me. But money? It is a guaranteed success every damn time.

At first, I planned on saving my money. But it was calling my name. Every morning it taunted me. It alternated between telling me to "Go buy a new coat!" and "Go get your hair cut and dyed!" This morning I finally caved and headed to the mall. After looking for TWO years, I found a winter coat that I actually like. And it is red! I have never owned such colorful outerwear. I think it looks pretty spiffy...

And the lining in the hood is super cool...
I think I am in love.

Weaning myself off Christmas

Christmas is a powerful force in my life. It encourages me to spend frivolously, to eat plentifully, and to be lazy. And frankly, I am sick of it. I am counting down the days until the new year.

Christmas is a crazy time. Trying to balance finances and gift giving can be a challenge - even for the best coupon clipper. Although I tried desperately to keep spending under $200 this Christmas, my husband blew the budget. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my new Sony Reader. I have already downloaded 17 books to read! I just wish we could have spent less on gifts and spent more on paying off debt. Not to mention that my gift to him now seems lame in comparison. I kind of feel like I should go buy him something cooler.

Christmas has also encouraged me to eat like a pig. I had this really great plan, which involved lots of baking for my neighbors. Unfortunately my kids wouldn't stop puking, so I thought it might not be wise to give our entire block virus infested cookies for Christmas. But I had already purchased a shitload of flour and sugar for delicious cookies. So, being the fatty that I am, I went ahead and baked lots of cookies for my little family to enjoy. And I made fudge too. I have been gorging myself on sugary crap for over a week. I can feel myself getting fatter.

And finally, Christmas has encouraged me to be a lazy bastard. I was so sick of scrubbing vomit out of carpets, that I decided to take a few days off from my normal cleaning duties. After all, it was Christmas. I deserved a little break too - right? But now things are just gross. Toys everywhere, sticky coffee tables, overflowing laundry hampers. Ugh. There is so much to do. I don't even know where to start.

So, I am looking forward to making a fresh start on Friday.

What I didn't mention...

The entire week leading up to Christmas was miserable. John, Porgie, and Izzy all had a puking/diarrhea virus. NOT GOOD. I tried to pretend that everything was fine, because I wanted Christmas to be great this year. But things just kept getting worse and worse. On Christmas Eve, we ended up at the doctor's office. By that point, Porgie had been vomiting for four days. I was terrified that she was going to end up in the hospital with dehydration. The doctor seemed to be afraid of the same thing. He prescribed her an anti-nausea medication, which worked wonders to help her keep down liquids.

Although we got the puking under control, Porgie was a nightmare on Christmas day. She was being really mean and selfish. She wanted to play with all of her toys and all of Izzy's toy too. Whenever he picked up a toy, she would basically collapse into a pile of mush. Tears, snot, crying - the whole nine yards. It was soooooooo incredibly frustrating. I felt bad for her because I knew she was sick, but I couldn't let her ruin Izzy's Christmas too. So Porgie spent a large amount of her day in Time-out. She even had to go to bed early for being mean. Poor kid.

And when the day was finally over, John and I settled down on the couch to relax. It was very nice, until I heard a gagging sound. I ran back to Porgie's room and found her vomiting a fountain of mashed potatoes. It was everywhere - blankets, pillows, sheets, carpet, walls. FUCK! After I cleaned her up, she didn't settle down and fall asleep until after 11pm. No resting and relaxing for mommy and daddy.

So, Christmas was the exact opposite of everything I wanted it to be. But I did get an AWESOME gift. My husband is too good to me.