I’ve just been grocery shopping. It was fun! Although, I think someone ran over a squirrel in the commissary parking lot. It was hard to tell, there was this little gray pancake with a long, curved, slightly furry line coming out of it. Perhaps someone just dropped a pipe-cleaner in some gum. I doubt it, but who can say?
Anyway, they’ve put up all of the Thanksgiving ingredients and many of the Christmas ones, which (although I wasn’t buying any) put me in the holiday mood. I spent the whole shopping trip singing – albiet a bit under my breath – that song from that Rudolph movie they show every year. You know the one – “It’s the most…wonderful tiiiime…of the yeeeear.” I couldn’t find a link to just the music, or to a Christmassy video with the song but you can put this up in another window and listen while you do something else (Please excuse the giant robots.) so you can get your Christmas on!

Now, Mom, I know that the rule is ‘no Christmas carols before Thanksgiving,’ and I know that many people (myself included) have strong feelings about the way that stores try to sell you Christmas trees in September, but somehow ingredients for Christmas have slipped through the cracks. It’s the loophole!

Don’t blame me. Blame the nutmeg.

Speaking of baking, I picked up five gorgeous Granny Smith apples while I was shopping. I had meant to get a few for snacking, but they were so big and beautiful that I got five (I can only assume I was under the influence of the nuts and egg nog), and I have an urge to bake something with them. We’re trying to eat healthily, though – anyone have apple ideas that are not swimming in sugar? Please do share, but for now I’m going to listen to the song again.

Yeah. That’s right, I’m talking to you. You bloggers who are reading this instead of posting something. How am I supposed to procrastinate effectively without my daily reading material? No, no apologies needed, you just go post something, then come back. I’ll wait.

Doo-deedoo…

No, I’m still here…

Okay, good. Like I said, I’ve got to have something to read – I get bored when I’m shirkin’ my workin’! On to the post, then.

Today was a good day, in terms of mail. I got a package of paperbacks that I bought on ebay (fiiinally ;)), and I got a package from my grandmother. She sent a lovely bedtime book for Max, and a quilt for Charlie. I think she is taking it upon herself to single-handedly provide baby quilts for the entire clan (she made mine! I still have it. It’s covered in hot-air ballooning teddy bears). It reminded me of a thought I had around the time when Charlie was born – a crafty woman’s child will never go cold. Apparently the same goes for grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on, lo – even until the fifth generation’s toes are nice and toasty. Or something like that.

Anyway – oh, what the heck. Here are some photos. First we have a concerned Charlie, with his new blanket featuring clouds and stars and rainbow-colored flying zebras –

Followed by a Max who (although you can’t really see it here) was hamming shamelessly for the camera. Dragons and castles and bears, oh my! Yummy.

Anyway, it’s a good thing Grandma is providing quilts for these kids because…I don’t really quilt. She taught me how when I was a teenager – I even have a few in various stages of progress – but I just don’t do it. I think the problem is the lack of a proper workstation. The last time I worked on a quilt was actually before Max was born – it turns out that taking the sewing machine out, setting it up, working with it and then putting it away before the kids get up is a terribly inefficient use of crafting time. That may no longer be a problem in the new house – the nursery has a lovely walk-in closet with a full-sized window, and there’s plenty of room in it for my sewing table.

Did you hear me? The nursery has a walk-in closet with a window. No lie.

That closet is actually the reason that Charlie will be sleeping in that room and not the one Max is getting. Everyone knows that “nursery” is just another name for “mama’s room that she puts the baby to sleep in.” When he’s old enough for a big-boy bed, he’ll be moving in with Max whether or not there’s another baby yet, since I think that sharing rooms is a valuable part of being a sibling. Besides, I want my workroom. Even if my workroom is only a walk-in closet, it’s bigger than the one I have now (and by that, I mean a corner of the couch).

Besides, it’s got a view.

Anyway, I hope you posted something, or I’m going to have to go pack more. Or – heaven help me – clean something.