Busy Holiday Season

Like everyone, times are really busy for the Mushett family these days. I have been extremely crazy at work and then with all of the typical holiday activities thrown in the mix - not to mention hockey games, tennis matches, basketball games and much, much more - I just have not had much time to write.

We did finally get our Christmas stuff up in the house, but not without a few disasters. We bought a real tree this year (which we always do), but with the temperature near 0, it was frozen. So we finally brought it in the next day before going to church. Of course, when we arrived home from church, Reagan says "Oh no." The tree had toppled over and was laying on the ground in our living room with water everywhere (or at least I think it was water since we did leave Corby home alone with it - you never know if he decided it was warmer and easier to relieve himself on the tree in the house rather than on one in the cold), but I digress.

We got the tree back up again and started to decorate it when it decided to fall over again - this time with all the ornaments on it - and of course a strand of lights in the middle of the tree shorts out. Just so typical. So once we replaced that string of lights, I put the ornaments back on and ever so slightly tapped another string of lights. That strand decided to start blinking - even though they are not twinkle lights. Needless to say, I gave up and now we have some lights that twinkle near only the top and a tree that is being held up by a bungy cord. Nice ... it was like my very own Christmas Vacation - I am just waiting for the squirrel to come out of the tree next.

The holiday mishaps just keep coming (you cannot have just one). I was making fudge last night, trying to multitask, when the sugar creation I made boiled over the top of the pot and crystalized on my ceramic stove top. Nice ... I have tried three different times to get it off - with not much luck. If anyone has any suggestions, please send them my way! Andrew couldn't stop laughing of course. Ugh!

Speaking of Andrew, he is leaving on Sunday for Ohio to spend four days with his dad and siblings. It should be a fun time for all of them and hopefully some comic relief for his dad since he is bored out of his mind. He is feeling good and should be able to ride a bike soon. They are also bringing Andrew's sister's new puppy up to Cleveland so that should be fun. He is a cute thing, but he loves to chew on stuff (like Uggs, Barbies and tennis shoes). He chewed the hands off Reagan's Barbie at Thanksgiving and she said we needed to go to the store to buy Barbie some new hands. I just laughed and told her I didn't think they had those at Target (her favorite store).

Reagan is great. She is hoping for a pink guitar and ice skates for Christmas, but she is too afraid to tell Santa. We are going to try again this weekend, but I do not see it happening. She has been helping me with all of my cooking projects (thank goodness she did not want to make fudge last night) and she helps wrap every present I do (so when you see the tag in the middle of your gift - that was courtesy of Reagan!).

She also has stopped taking naps during the day at school. It has really helped in bedtime for us, which has been great. She is asleep by 9 p.m., instead of the 10:30 or 11 p.m. it had been. She still manages to catch a few extra Zs on the weekends though (which mom likes). She is really doing great.

Happy Holidays to everyone as I am off running again. A few last minute presents and a lot of wrapping that has to happen tonight.

Gotta "go, go, go,"
Reagan's mom