Merry Christmas To All and to All a GREAT Night!

Well the day is almost upon us...in fact for intents and purpose it is! Tonight is the night that my children consider their favorite night...even better than birthdays!

A few years ago our family started a tradition that got combined with a family tradition that my Mom and Dad started. On Christmas Eve, my brother and I always got to open one gift. That gift was always the same but that NEVER stopped us from being excited about opening it. The gift is always brand new warm and cuddly pj's. At our house that tradition continues and we added a new one.

Along with having three daughters that are getting older and finding special people to share their lives with (boyfriends I mean) came the realization that they would eventually have to share the holidays with other families. To accommodate this and to make it easier to let go, we introduced a new tradition that makes the boys all come to our house on Christmas Eve. Yes, that's right....I bribe the men with what no man can resist! (Get your minds out of the gutter! It's Christmas!!!) FOOD!

On Christmas Eve we do Surf and Turf. It started out as steak and then one year crab legs were on special and since then they've become staple. When Matt (Jen's man) came into our family we found he was not a fan of either steak or crab legs so we added shrimp to the menu to keep him happy. This year Rory joins us and he eats all of that...no additions required. Brianne's boyfriend is a young East Indian boy that has never eaten steak...so tonight we will see if he likes any of our traditions....in the 4 months he's been around his favorite seems to be burgers....we may have to add a burger to the BBQ for Manic.

Yes a Mom's gotta do what a Mom's gotta do to keep her babies around for at least one day of the season. I'm not ashamed that I resorted to this!!

After dinner we will open our pj's and a new family game that we will play until it's time to dream of sugarplums dancing in our heads!

So today, I take this opportunity to wish all my Blogger Friends and their families


MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Wii.... isn't this fun!

Eldest daughter Jen wants to give boyfriend (read "the man who will save us all our sanity by marrying her") the Nintendo Wii for Christmas. Jen has been lovingly searching the stores for them with no luck. She has been attempting to win them on ebay with even less success. The Wii is an elusive bugger! Upon arrival in the stores they choose their new owners with no concern for who will care for them the best...first come first serve.

I have been trying to get in the Christmas spirit by listening to Christmas carols and one of only radio stations I get in the office is 97.3 FM. This radio station have been partnering with Winners (you know the Canadian version of TJ Max/Marshalls) to raise money for the needy by auctioning the elusive Wii. On the auction of 3 Wii systems they have raised more than $25,000. That's right 3 kind generous fools have bid on these machines that must bring mucho happiness and they have spent more than I pay in property taxes for these things! I have not been bidding. I did however, catch them when they said that Winners across Ontario would have systems in their store on the 18th of December. That's right Folks...Today!

Being the most best Mama Dukes, I offered to take Jen's credit card and go stand in line at 6am to try and get one at our local store. Driving past the store on my way to get my morning Timmies before settling into the cold line I noticed that there seemed to be quite a few people there and decided to drop in at get a status report. Much to my surprise the sign on the store said "We have 20 Wii systems in stock today" and the Manager was handing out tickets for them while another stock person crossed out the numbers until there would be no more available. This happened before 7 am.

That's right, I am the bestest Mom (okay me and 19 other very cold parents) and I got a ticket! I got ticket number 10. This meant that all I had to do was wait for the store to open at 9:30.

So this year Jen's man will get his game. Hopefully that makes him feel welcome into the family enough to ask Jen to be his wife and will Wii, Wii Wii her all the way home to his house.....Mama Dukes needs a bigger closet!

I love the smell of paint in the morning!

See, he didn't really hate me and since no one called to tell him to stop whining I guess he just decided it was going to have to get done to make me stop beating on him!

If I could only find my camera in my total home reno mess....I would have posted some pictures. So for now you are going to have to trust me that my "Sandpiper Beige" walls with beautiful "Decorator White" trim in the hallway looks absolutely lovely next to my "Sundried Tomato" walls with "Decorator White" trim in the kitchen!

It's done. I can rest easy that everyone that enters my happy little abode will never miss the paint chipped smooshy painted walls that were once mine for 9 years!

Hubby did great work this weekend! He even got the new carpet layed on the stairs so they are looking lovely and cushy as well!

To add to his happiness this weekend, Hubby was just a little pissed on Friday when he found out that all this work he's doing to make our home beautiful before our friends come over for our open house...well he's not going to see the look on their faces cause he has to work that night! Yup that's right, the company decided that he has to work Friday night so that he can have Sunday night before Christmas off! He's working on alternate arrangements as I type....maybe a well deserved vacation day....maybe a new job?
Who knows!

So the countdown begins for me....today is Monday and that officially means I have only two more days of work and my holidays begin. I will be off from December 20th right thru to January 7th! I'm so looking forward to hanging around and spending time with my gang at home.

Only 8 days of shopping left till Christmas....are you done?

He Doesn't Really Hate Me !

He's just saying that because I am a slave driver and he is my slave!

Alright, maybe looking at me is making him crazy these days. All he can think of is the enormous amount of work that I am creating for him.

But let's think clearly on why this always happens at this time of year.

1. In the summer there are always better things to do than paint. He rides his bike, he takes the dog on long jaunts, he sits in the backyard and drinks beer and listens to bad music!
2. In the summer, I make him cut the lawn, water the garden, wash the cars, blow the driveway clean of all the grass clippings. That was the deal....he does the outside and I (the girls and I) take care of the inside.
   
3. In the summer the days are longer and warmer and precious weekend time is taken up by doing the fun things that I mentioned above and he didn't want to paint then!
4. I work all summer at priming him for the things to come! It's not like I just sprung it on him! All summer I said...."I'd really like to get my kitchen and hallways painted! We have been here almost ten years and it's never been done before!" Now that's what I call advance notice!
   

Honestly, I think I'm a very good wife where the "honey do list" is concerned. I don't change my room colours like some change their wardrobes! I'm very good about it! It took me 9 years to figure out a kitchen colour. I haven't bitched that the baseboards in the basement still aren't done! (I did however go out and find them and now will buy them and have them installed after Christmas along with the framing of the doors that he installed in the basement!) All of this will be done with the immensely expensive tools that I have bought and intend to put under the Christmas tree for him this year!! I enlist my talented daughter Aimee to assist wherever possible. She doesn't procrastinate, she just plans and then she gets it done! See kitchen floor for proof of that and in all honesty...she is the reason the basement actually got done! She painted 23 hours straight to ensure that we could use that room for Christmas! She is the WonderChild!! Every mothers dream kid!!

So here is the "Before Christmas Party Dec 21st Honey Do List"

• install the painted baseboards in the kitchen (I will finish painting them tonight so they will be ready for the weekend)
  
• paint the hallway
• install the pieces that will transitions ceramic to hardwood
  
• find a place for the stereo so that it's not on my coffee table!
• replace the carpet on the basement stairs

That's it and he's welcome to enlist any help he can get to get these things complete!

Somebody call him and tell him to stop fricking whining and get to work!!!

Warm and Lovely.....and fricking expensive, what a busy weekend!

All the painting was done in the kitchen with care! It's beautiful. It's warm and lovely and makes me feel happy!

Hubby hates to paint but he does it to shut me up! He is actually pretty good at it but because he can't be perfect at it, he hates it!

I'm not a perfectionist. I appreciate the effort that people put into things and therefore can't find it in me to be critical especially if they are doing it as a favour and not professionally. Now if I hired someone...that's a different story, I would demand perfection.

This is a perfect example of something that I would demand perfection on!

On Sunday we went to get Hubby an outfit for my Christmas party. Hubby is not your standard sized guy. He's got really short legs and arms for a man, but he also has a long torso. So he's your average size guy in height....5 foot 9 inches, but not in a regular fitting way. Anyway, after an hour and a half of trying things on he finally chose two sport shirts and 2 pair of pants (charcoal grey and black). Now keep in mind that Hubby is a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy. He hates to dress up and anything with buttons and a collar is considered dress up. This is the conversation we had in the store:

Me: That looks great on you, are you sure you're going to wear it?
Him: Of course, it feels good. I look good!
Me: Yes, Yes you do! I would be happy if you'd dress like that more often!!!
Him to the sales assistant: Yup, these two pants, these two shirts and the black suspenders.

We go to cash out, pay extraordinary amounts of money for the goods and the alterations and then have this conversation in the car:

Me: YOU my Husband are a spoiled brat. You remind me of our youngest daughter!
Him: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING?
Me: You are spoiled. We just spent an extraordinary amount of money on clothes that I don't think you will ever wear except to social functions at my work and that's once a year! It cost about $60 just to have them altered to fit you properly and you probably won't wear them more than once!!!
Him: Well, you spend money on clothes!
Me: Yeah, but I wear them!!! I would have been more comfortable buying you the one pair of pants and a shirt that you needed for Friday and then going to wherever and spending the rest on 5 t-shirts and 2 pairs of jeans! You Sir, are a spoiled brat and I will find formal occasions for you to dress up, just so that you wear those outfits! When you go to pick up the clothes on Thursday night you need to bring your good shoes and try them on again to make sure the alterations are all good and don't even think about leaving the store if they don't fit you perfectly! We paid as much for alterations as I pay for a good outfit!!!

It really went on for a bit longer than the above but he got the point!

When we got home he bragged to the girls about what he'd gotten and they looked at him with a confused look on their faces and asked a great big "Why???"

He got the point from them as well!

On another note....the Christmas tree is up and decorated and like my kitchen it is warm and lovely!

Tis the season!