EverAfterLand

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas....

"Everywhere you gooooo!" I serenaded my husband at the breakfast table on a recent morning.

"Stop singing that. It's nowhere near Christmas." Mr. Gloomypants retorted.

"Take a look at the five and ten....glistening once again.....with candy canes and silver lanes aglooooow!" I chortled on, relishing in my own personal Christmas festivities.

"Ugh! It is too early! Knock it off!" begged ol' Scroogey McScrooge.

"I am looking forward to Christmas," I explained, "because we are about to move into this house soon, and I'll be knee-deep in unpacking, which I am not looking forward to and will take forever, so I am skipping to Christmas, when everything will finally be unpacked and settled and festive!"

"Well, I guess that's alright," Sir Grumps-a-lot responded, mercilessly stabbing the scrambled egg on his plate. "Just do it with less singing."

Little did I know that I was not the only one with Sugar Plum Fairies dancing in her head. Check out this....

I snapped this pic just a couple days ago, smack dab in the midst of October, inside one of the local malls.

And yes, that is a Christmas tree Miss Priss and Lil' Miss Sunshine are seated in front of.

A two-story-tall Christmas tree, to be exact.

Check out all those big, shiny balls!

And the entire mall was decked out in similar adornment. Greenery around all the railings. Glistening green/red/white decor strung from the ceilings. A second, equally tree-mendous tree (yeah, I said it!), complete with Santa's Throne placed before it. (Although Santa was nowhere to be seen....yet.)

I guess when you're a country like Honduras that has no Halloween to satiate that sweet tooth or a Thanksgiving to bust a gut with, then you might as well skip straight to the holiday that supplies both.

Which is fine by me!

Although I'm not sure if the Christmas music I am bound to hear in every store and around every corner, will be in English or Spanish.

No matter....

"Está comenzando a parecerse mucho a la Navidad

Todos lugares que vayas....."

 

Santa Love

Many of you are aware of Miss Priss' love/hate relationship with Santa Claus.  And although Christmas has since passed, I knew all of you would want to know how this year's visit with Old St. Nick went.

This time around, we got a little smarter.  We started off with a Practice Santa, a free one at the Holiday Party on base.

Boy, was Miss Priss excited!

 

The WONDER!!  The JOY!!!

 

We waited and waited.... and then the big moment was here!

Apparently I grew a tail, because suddenly there was something stuck to my backside!

I really didn't want to be in these photos.  But it's just the Practice Santa, so that's OK. 

Hey, at least the baby's holding up well!

 

As soon as Miss Priss left Santa's Lair, she wanted to go back and tell him what she wanted for Christmas.  "Too late," we told her, "you'll have to wait till we visit him again!"

A couple weeks passed.  Weeks filled with stories of Santa and his List and how wonderful it'll be to tell him all your wishes.

The girls got all gussied up, and then we were off to Santa's Mecca - The Mall.

So how did it go? 

I'll let you decide...

That would be my hand you see holding Miss Priss.  Once again, she tried to turn into my tail, but Daddy picked her up and forcibly set her down in front of The Big Guy.  She finally succumbed to standing beside him (she even looked at the camera!), but she wasn't about to turn around and face him!

Lil' Miss Sunshine, on the other hand, had no beef with the Jolly Old Man, and sat like a polite young lady throughout all of Priss' antics.

Did Priss finally tell Santa her wish list?

On the way out, she turned and yelled at him, "I WANT A BOOK ABOUT PONIEEEEES!!!"  And promptly high-tailed it outta there.

Good thing Santa already had her list - courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service.

Dashing Through the Snow....Hope We Get It There!

THIS...



is the calendar on the United States Postal Services website that CLEARLY
declares Saturday, December 20th the LAST DAY to mail packages using
Priority Shipping and still have it reach it's final destination before Christmas.
 

THIS...



is the box of gifts I found in our guest room on Sunday. 
Yes, THAT Sunday, the day AFTER the LAST DAY
to ship Priority through the Post Office.

THIS...



is the louse who forgot to include that box with the rest
of the boxes that were taken to the Post Office on Saturday.
(Keep in mind this is the same "louse" who wrapped most of the presents
in said box, and the same "louse" who leaped out of bed the other night
to get me a glass of water because I was coughing and couldn't sleep.
Yes, THAT louse!)

And THIS...



is our dear First Born that had to be sold to UPS in exchange for delivering said box
by Christmas Eve so my cousins and nieces and nephews would not be left
in tears over the absence of our gifts on Christmas Day.
(On the plus side, more presents and cookies for me!  But she will be missed.
A little manual labor should be good for her!  I have a feeling brown will
become her least favorite color very quickly, though.)

What is it those football coaches say?  "You win as a team and you lose as a team."
So I do accept my part in this little mailing fiasco.  If I hadn't waited till the last minute
to get these gifts out the door, there would have been time to find the box and make
another trip to the post office.
So THIS...



would be Louse #2.
(Oh, and UPS, if you could just give that sweet girl right there a couple of
frozen waffles, toasted, every so often I would really appreciate it.  Thanks!)

Operation Stocking Stuffer

It's the final days before Christmas, folks!  And if you're anything like me, you're scrambling to get those last minute gifts and stocking stuffers. 

Hubby, you're not allowed to read this one so GO!  SCAT!!! 

I know you're still there.  Turn it off NOW!!!!

I love Christmas!!!  (Sorry, just had to throw that in there while we wait for Hubby to LEAVE!)

OK, so Miss Priss and I headed off to Marshall's and TJ Maxx, just the best stores to find the interesting and random gifts, perfect stocking stuffing goodness!  Here's a montage of both trips:

We found an item for Hubster right away.   It's a cooler to set his laptop on.  I didn't even know they made this stuff!

As we were checking out the Lounge wear in the Men's Department, Priss was hiding in the racks   while I tried to figure out what this was.  Yes, it's from the Junior's Department, and it scares me for two reasons.  1) It's a strip of sweater that is not large enough to adequately cover ANY part of a young lady and 2) somebody was actually HIDING this in the Men's Department so nobody else would buy it before they had a chance to!  Honey, don't you worry, I think this one's ALL YOURS!!!

Then we moseyed around the Christmas decorations.  I got a beautiful Lenox ornament for our tree, and I found the perfect little set of ornaments for Priss, Kitty Cats!  And they're UNBREAKABLE!  She'll be thrilled!  Of course, I'll probably have to let her play with them for a while - I don't think she'd understand that they are meant to just dangle from a tree branch and nothing more.  And I was thrilled to find some new pieces for my Lenox Christmas China Collection. Sure, they're small, but I consider butter spreaders ESSENTIAL to a proper dinner!  (Or breakfast or lunch or whatever you use your China for!)  And I was floored when I found this  .  These pieces are made in Deruta, Italy (I double-checked the bottom to be sure!) and the pattern is very distinct.  Hubster and I honeymooned in Italy and bought a whole box worth of this stuff while we were in Deruta, enough to outfit our kitchen.  Unfortunately, boxes don't travel well under a plane on international flights, and most of our pieces were broken.  We salvaged a few things - salt and pepper shakers, some canisters, a spoon holder.  What I found in Marshalls is not EXACTLY the same, it's made in Deruta, but probably a different factory than the one we purchased from.  I did get a gift for Hubster (you'd better not be reading this or you're dead meat!) though.  It's a chip & dip plate that looks the most like our set.  He'll be so surprised!  And I think I'll go back and get that pedestal bowl in that photo.  Do you have any ideas as to what to do with a pedestal bowl like that?  Make sundaes???

Anyway, I also spotted these for two bucks!  Hubster is the pancake maker, and I know Priss will be tickled when he makes her some heart shaped pancakes!

Priss found a few items of her own mini rolling pins!  Which is why the first rule of shopping with a two year old is to ALWAYS check the cart before getting to the register.  There's all kinds of surprises in there!

We headed to the Toy Department, where Priss perused the books while I found this little gem on clearance.  It's NEMO!!!  And I had to spend the rest of the trip telling Priss no, it was NOT Nemo and she was just seeing things!

We had so much fun finding all our stocking stuffers!  TJ Maxx and Marshalls are perfect when you don't know what to get (ie: The Hubster) but want to make it unique.  I mean, how can you NOT love a store that has a candelabra sitting next to a bull statue that's beside a large piece of tree trunk?  Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Giving wood for Christmas!"  (I see you laughing Hubs - you are NOT supposed to be here!!!)

Cause I'm Really Just an Old Lady Trapped In a Young(ish) Body...

If you haven't been paying attention lately (which I'm sure is impossible because you all sit at your computers, just waiting for each and every post I create!) then you may have not noticed that I LOVE Christmas!

I love everything about it.  The decorations, the lights, the music, the shopping, the wrapping, the presents, the good wishes and cheer - it all puts me on Cloud 9!  (A pretty little cloud, with kitschy Santa Claus decor and red and green flashing lights, made out pumpkin pie, of course.)

But there is one piece of Christmas cheer that I have been told I am NOT allowed to partake in. 

As decreed by my sister, I am never to be seen with the true testament to all things Christmas - the embellished sweater.

Yes, folks, I'm looking forward to someday being sixty years old so I, too, can don a bright red cardigan (roomy, of course!) with a sequined Christmas Tree on one side and a puffy Santa Claus on the other.  Perhaps it will have flashing lights!  Oh, one can dream!!!

But for now, Sissy informs me that I am not even allowed to own one. 

She says I can't be trusted. 

<Sigh.>

But there is one piece of Christmas that Sissy has agreed to give me fashion control over - Christmas Morning!

Here is a photo of Miss Priss' very first Christmas, two years ago, when she was just a scant two months old....

Those boxers say "Merry Christmas" all over them, by the way. 

You know, not too many women are able to pull off this ensemble.

And I am 97% sure I am NOT one of those women!

(I think we all realize why Sissy gets to call the shots in the fashion arena!)

But look at that doll baby in my arms!  Was she EVER that small?  Anyway, back to the point....

It is another Christmas, and time to put together an equally FABULOUS Christmas Morning Ensemble!

As I was reading Carol over at She Lives terrific post about "giving back" during this holiday season, I got inspired.  But since all of my Christmas shopping is through, I thought that, perhaps, there was still a little philanthropy that I could accomplish through this last Christmas task!

Through Box Tops 4 Education, I am able to purchase my very posh, uber chic Christmas Morning Ensemble, and still have a percentage of my purchase go to the school of my choice!   And the Box Tops 4 Education Marketplace is full of fantastic stores like Victoria Secret, Kohl's, Target and Old Navy - which, coincidentally, is where the above outfit was procured (I don't know if that's a good or bad thing for Old Navy.  I expect they will contact me to request their name be removed in any connection with the above photo.)

Now, I wasted spent most of the morning hunting for the perfect outfit - these decisions can NOT be made lightly, after all - and I'm still undecided.  You, my devoted followers, will have to wait till the Christmas Post for the Big Reveal.

But I will give you one hint.  I am leaning toward these very subtle, subdued, I'm sure very flattering leggings...

Oh yeah!  Santa's gonna wanna stick around for this Hot Mama!