My Second Home

My second home lately has been Walmart! I've seen the same Salvation Army volunteer sitting in the same wheelchair ringing the same bell for the last three days. And each day she smiles at Elizabeth, tells me how pretty she is, and wishes me a Merry Christmas. And each day I smile at her, tell her thank you, and wish her the same. Well, today I actually dropped a few dollars in her bucket. Anyway, I've been making my Christmas candy (this year it's chocolate truffles coated with various things) and I've forgotten something every day! Yesterday I went to the baking aisle to look for chocolate sprinkles (one of the coatings). Ok, I find them. Then I proceed to debate which size to get, the small bottle or the big tub. For some stupid reason, I grab the small bottle, check out, and head home. When I get home I realize that I need the big tub...I've only got a bizillion of these truffles to make...how far can the stupid little shaker go????!!! GRRRR.... Do I return the shaker, do I want to waste those precious minutes waiting in a customer service line at Walmart...those minutes that end up turning into hours around Christmas...No. I'll keep the shaker and just go buy the tub, too. Good. Decision made. I pick up a few other things that I'm pretty sure I'll need for next week when I do this all over again and get home.

Before I left for town, I put my truffles in the fridge to cool. So when I get home they're waiting for me. No problem, I'll put Elizabeth down for a nap and get to work. NOPE. Elizabeth doesn't want to take a nap. She also doesn't want to play on the floor in the kitchen or sit in her high chair and watch. She wants to cry. A bottle later we try the nap again. Finally, sleep. She should be down for a good couple of hours, right?? It is almost 2 p.m. and she hasn't had a nap today. NOPE. Up in one hour. Great. I'm up to my elbows in truffles and I still have a chocolate cake to make for Christmas in Pearland tomorrow. Again, no floor and screams in the high chair. Well, she finally got over being upset in the high chair after I bribed her with all kinds of good things to play with...like empty baby food containers. Yay! The cake is baked and it only took hours longer than it should have! During this time I had also opened up the carton of eggs which tipped over and 3 of them fell onto the floor, breaking and spilling egg everywhere. Do you know how hard it is to clean up egg off of the floor. I swear it took a quarter roll of paper towels. Gross.

Anyway, I could go on and on about all of the 'fun' things that happened to me today, but what made it all better, ironically, was a Tickle Me Elmo. Gawd, I hate those things! At least I thought I did until Kate sent one for Elizabeth from a friend of hers in New Jersey. Elizabeth loves it. Probably thought it was the best thing since room temperature teething rings. (She's not a fan of refrigerated ones.) She laughed and squealed. It was just the best thing ever. Makes me forgive her for being the most difficult baby ever today! So I did forgive her, she had a wonderful bath time and then went to sleep with no major difficulty!

I also have pictures of our live Christmas tree that I have sitting on the porch. I still don't know if I'm a fan of the bows, but I didn't want to buy any lights and those shatterproof ornaments that I've found are just ugly. You can see the seam in the plastic and also every imperfection. I'm too picky probably, but oh, well. And yes, those are pumpkins from the garden spray painted red. Grandma Schigut always has red pumpkins sitting on her front porch, so I borrowed the idea. Like I said, I don't know about the bows, but I like the look over all.
Alright, I've still got to put the truffles in the tins, finish folding clothes, and get some of Elizabeth's stuff packed for tomorrow. We leave at 8 a.m. Travis is still in Weslaco. The truck driver who is delivering the Jatropha harvester was way delayed up north due to weather and will get there somewhere around 1 a.m. After unloading it, they (Travis's brother Stephen is with him) will drive home....so roughly 3 1/2 hour trip...one o'clock, unloaded by one thirty or two....hopefully he'll be home around 5 or 5:30 a.m. He'll then probably take a shower, bed by maybe 6ish and then have to get up in time to dress and get us all to his parents by 7:45 a.m. At least we don't have far to drive!! Oh, he's going to be a Grumpy Gus tomorrow, but he can sleep in the car!