So, today, about 6pm, I finished the secret Christmas stitching. Now that it is done, and one has been delivered and the other two recipients won’t be reading my blog, I can tell you that I was crocheting stockings for Micheal, The Clone’s boyfriend and That One. I am exhausted, but they are done, and for that I am glad. And oh by the way, do you know how hard it is to keep a secret in a house of ten? Really, really hard. Of course, I did do one right under the recipient’s nose, but I don’t think he realizes it yet. I hope. LOL.

We got the tree decorated last Sunday night, but it is still package-less, since we aren’t opening presents until The Clone gets here in January. I imagine I will spend some time wrapping things on Saturday, while the kids are with their dad. I always enjoy the time right after Christmas the best, so that suits me. I like the reverence of the season and not the bustle, so this delayed Christmas pleases me quite well.

Tomorrow, however, is the big family party on my dad’s side. It’s always fun. Or at least it is since I decided to quit worrying about it and just have a good time. That’s only been a few years ago, but now I only have a few minutes of nervousness instead of days of it. The children’s clothing is all together, thanks to Mama, and while it’s not quite as clever as these outfits by TeaCollection.com, it’s cute and fits their personalities for the most part. The littlest girls have the cutest little plaid jumpers! Of course, I work tomorrow, so I won’t get to see them until I get to the party.

Yes, yes, I know I need to put up pictures: Hat the First, The Stockings Three, The Tree and the cute babies. But first, I have to find a camera card. And before that I have to work. And before that I have to sleep and before that, I have to write another post while I wait for my hair to dry so I can go to bed, which I have been ready to do for a couple hours already.

That would be me. I know some of you are holding your guffawing sides, reckoning that I would never be more than 23 feet from electircal lighting, kitchen faucets and central heating and air, but you are wrong. I did actually take my plump little self into the woods, and I hiked 2.6 miles with the Cub Scouts. And I had such a good time that I volunteered to go back again with the church youth.

In knitting news, not much–you didn’t have any recommendations, and what with the woods and all, I haven’t had time. Plus, I am almost through with a book, so I want to see how it ends. And the tree is supposed to go up tonight, so I may not knit until sometime later this week.

In beading news, we did better at this weekend’s sale than at our previous sale. IOW, we haven’t given up yet. I was hiking instead of selling, but I am told that someone purchased one stitch marker. Apparently to decorate her cell phone. Yeah, I don’t unsterstand it either, but that’s ok. I don’t have to understand. No one bought any bookmarks, but I did sell a few necklaces in addition to the lone marker.

On a mostly unrelated note, I took my husband to get a cat scan yesterday, as you may already know, if you read my personal blog. I’ll find out if he’s sick or merely crazy on Monday. It’s kinda odd to hope his shunt is messed up, but I do. Mostly because the other alternatives are vastly less pleasant.

You know, I was thinking. Not so very long ago, this blog was all about babies and milk and my love/hate relationship with the Medela Pump’nStyle. *Shivers of horror* And now, DaBaby is almost three, and we aren’t expecting. That just feels weird to me, because always before, I’ve been almost ready to pop with the next baby, or even already popped. In fact, I have given most of my baby stuff, including those trendy maternity clothes from 1993, away. Yeah, quit laughing! What, did you go out and buy new Ingrid and Isabel each time you had a baby? All eight times?

I did keep a couple of things, though. I kept the Original Baby Basket that my husband slept in as a child. We slept five children in that basket, and it will go to Country. When we were expecting Drama, the baby basket was declared no longer safe for baby use, and so we got a new bassinet. She will get that bassinet, but both Drama and DaBaby were placed in the OBB for a photo. How could we not?

I also kept the blankets that I made for each one. Along with the quilts made by their great-grandmothers. I guess it’s ok to admit that I am already looking forward to eventually seeing those things used again, though I am not ready for any of my children to be parents quite yet. I’m old fashioned enough to want them to do things in a certain order: first the hoiorse, then the cart, not the other way around.

And I’ll bet they will all be relieved when reading this post that I don’t have any maternity clothes left to hand down. I’m sure Juicy Maternity is going to be much more their style than my old stuff, LOL!

I had a great weekend, and I thought I would share a couple of pics.

My kids and my cousin’s kid playing a game together:

Beading with my aunt, her grand-daughter and Drama:

The beading was the bulk of the crafty type stuff, though I did knit with some old yarn that I am firmly convinced, based on the burn in my pointer joint was 100 percent plastic. Ouch. YOu can read more about the weekend on Midlife Musings, later today.

where the yarn is carefully contained in bins and baskets, and the fabric is folded neatly away in the cabinet, while the reading pile is teetering precariously on the corner of the desk, and I have lost the light bill somewhere in there, I am electing to spend more time reading and less time stitching. Besides, it’s a little warm to hold a sweater on your lap!

I’m thinking that if I am diligent, I can clear that pile by the end of the weekend, and then we can get back to the regular scheduled programming around here. And yes, there are actual knitting books in that pile, ya’ll.

I am going to avoid getting all mushy here and talking about how wonderful my husband is, and how sweet he is to me, and how much I love him and all that. I won’t tell you about the back rubs, and the pats on the behind as he walks by, or the way he slips his arm around me as we pass each other and just such. After all, it might embarrass him or you or something, and we can’t have that can we?

and so I did. Finally. Click to embiggen.

Did I really take 5 days off from blogging? It seems to be the case, though it hardly seems believable, even to me! I spent more time reading and cleaning while my computer was in the shop. And I am fuming mad because they didn’t fix it. See, I bought the two year warranty when I got the laptop, and I had not had it long when DaBaby knocked some coffee into the keyboard, which made one of the keys freak out, and now when it boots, there is a keyboard error. I never called about that, because I accepted that it was caused by my own child and was therefore my problem.

However, I fully expected that they would fix the issue that caused the backlight to cease functioning the very first time I ever used the Fn F6 key 10 days ago. I mean, boom, press the key, and the monitor never came up again, except for an occasional flicker. Instead, they opened the computer, saw that it had had a liquid mishap and buttoned the machine back up without even finding out what was wrong. Now, if I go get the display fixed on my own dime, they will cover the display after that. Provided I have a receipt.

Now, my husband is a certified computer tech. That’s how he affords our extravagant lifestyle (ha), and he assures me that this problem is in NO way related to a liquid spill that occurred 11 months ago. But there’s more. I can’t even have him fix the computer to get it back under warranty. The receipt has to be issued by a “computer repair company”.

So. I let the nice lady at customer unservice know that I was very unhappy, and I wanted to cancel that warranty, and I wanted that cancellation backdated from the time of the spill. And I told her I was not interested in writing a letter and supplying a copy of the receipt, given that they KNOW I have the warranty since that’s how I came to be talking to her. And she said she couldn’t do that. I told her I wanted to talk to a supervisor, and she assured me I would be contacted within 48 hours, since the supervisor was unavailable. And I told her quite calmly that if that didn’t happen, I would begin my personal campaign to let 500 people per day know that Wal-mart Warranties Suck.

Guess what? It’s been 4 days now, and no one has called me. That would be 96 hours. Walmart warranties suck. They are not worth the paper they are printed on.

There now. I’ve done my part. I’ll let the search engines and the people who use them do the rest. Although, if you want to help spread the word, that’s fine by me as well.