In Which We Have a Steve and Blue Day

Yesterday was a lot of fun. First, Chris went to pick up the mail.

"Here's the mail it never fails.
It makes me want to wag my tail.
When it comes I want to wail
MAIL!"

The mail brought a huge package from my Aunt and a paycheck. I sent Chris off to the bank and he returned with deposit slips and cash so I could go shopping later.

Then, we had a mid-morning Pampered Chef party. Chris took the kids and Emily down to the garage so that none of them could bark and jump on the guests.

"Hi! We're so glad you're here today!"

That went well, although it was heck on my diet. Chris ate all the leftovers. He loves Pampered Chef parties.

Everyone went home and Max went off to Brian's house to go sledding and do whatever else it is an 8 and a 9 yr-old do that takes the entire rest of the afternoon. Brian's Mom is On Top of It so I didn't really worry about the details.

I remembered the package from Aunt Charlotte and opened it to find a HUGE Vera Bradley bag and I really sweet note from Aunt Charlotte telling me that this was my 2006 Christmas present (implying that next year's family Christmas name-draw might be somewhat fixed ;). Apparently the bag has been discontinued. It's HUGE. I love it. It's beautiful and completely out of the blue and that's MY kind of mail! Since I'm working on my never-ending needlepoint stocking right now, I immediately put it and all it's stuff in the bag. The stocking is about 22 inches tall in the needlepoint frame. It only peeks out about 4 inches above the top of the bag and the bag's straps are much taller than that. So, it's perfect. I'm thrilled and thankful.

Next, I packed up the twizzles and we went shopping. We went to Wal-mart in search of the cheapest iron skillet I could find. My Navajo friend from Arizona is coming this evening with her family to visit and have dinner and my old iron skillet died a horrible death in the dishwasher before the move. We found that and looked at their winter coats. They didn't have two in Ben and Milo's size. We left.

Next we went to Wegman's to buy groceries for tonight's get-together, stopping on the way at McDonalds where I let Ben and Milo get happy meals. I got a diet coke. They ate their happy meals in the "car" shopping cart, which meant I made good time for once. We loaded up the groceries in the truck and then went to Target. We had better luck here and did LOTS of shopping. Turtle necks were on sale in their size for $2.99 each. I got four. Dress shirts were $7.99 each. I bought one for each. The winter coats in their size were $39.99 and $49.99. This was $5 more each than the ones at Wal-mart, but I bought two of the $39.99 coats because they were the right size. We also got some more fleece mittens and hats. I did finish my mitten set, but it seems that it pays to have more than one pair of mittens per child in an Northern-Appalachian winter and I can't keep up on the knitting with the current flurry of work. [Thank you, God, for sending work AND clients who pay on time.]

They had received some birthday money from the very same Aunt Charlotte, so they used this to buy some Christmas DVDs. I picked up three extension cords and a fourth outdoor lighted tree. I'm not putting lights on the house this year. The ones we had for the old house don't work and it's "enough" out there this year to have lighted swag on the front porch railing and the four Christmas "trees" lighting the front path. I LOVE a big outdoor display, and I fully intend to embarass all the neighbors with my lights as the years go by, but we'll add a little something each year. After all, we are never, ever moving again.

Then we went to Barns and Noble to spend some gift cards they received from Aunt Karen and Uncle Jason. They picked out two noisy make-me-crazy books with the buttons that make those obnoxious noises and two coloring books. I let them, but I told them they had to save the coloring books for church.

Well, it's 8:27 am. Time to wrangle the crew into their winter coats and head off to church. Happy last day of Thanksgiving break to everyone.