1. Monday was the feast day of St. Nicholas. When I was a child, we had a tradition of putting our shoes outside our bedroom doors in hopes that St. Nick would leave us our favorite candy. And not a lump of coal, of course. The whole shoe thing was very European of us, but we did live in Germany when I was a little girl. So it was fitting at the time. And it's a tradition I still want to carry on with our family. Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas. But it's fun to celebrate the actual feast day of St. Nicholas too. So I set out with lofty goals in my mind of having the boys set their shoes out beside their door and explaining the tradition along with more about who Saint Nicholas was, coloring pictures, etc.
That was until I decided to pick up the stomach bug and couldn't peel myself away from the toilet, the couch, or a bed for the entire night and day. So none of what I planned happened. Instead, the boys were really, really good for me, pulled out every toy and book in the entire house, tried not to get in any squabbles and were very understanding of the fact that Mama was sick. I spent the whole day thanking God that I don't get morning sickness. There's nothing worse than throwing up! I just can't take it! When Mark gets sick, he does his business and feels better right after. Not me. I feel better for like three minutes and then it starts building up again. Ugh. Glad it's just a twenty-four hour bug!
2. It's official. I absolutely hate doing laundry in the winter. It's so demoralizing! In the summer time, when clothes were half the size of what they are in the winter, I was able to get all of our laundry done in one day. Mine, Mark's, Kolbe's, and Rudy's. Now, no matter how hard I try, it always over-flows into a second day. Or third. 'Cause see, on day one, I'm energetic and bound and determined to get it all done. When the morning of day two rolls around, I'm offended that it didn't happen and usually turn a blind eye to the piles and piles on our couch. By the afternoon I decided I better go ahead and finish it off but by then I've underestimated how much was left and realize that finishing on day two isn't going to happen either. By day three I'm just annoyed that when I peer into the closet, the hamper is already nearly full again. It never ends! Really, I don't think I would hate it as much if there was somewhere to process and store it all. I end up folding it on our couch, the same way my mother always did, and building stacks along the top edge of the couch. I suppose I could put each stack away after folding each load, but can you imagine how much time that would add to the whole process!?! In an ideal world, laundry rooms would all come with processing centers where the folding and stacking could go down without being in the way. And washing machines would be big enough to hold a whole week's worth of a family's dirty clothes. I'm just saying.
3. Mark's office Christmas party was last night at a steakhouse here in Lubbock called Las Brisas. We're not used to having a date night in the middle of the week. (ok, really, we're not used to having a date night ever...) But I wasn't going to pass on a chance to get a steak from there. A free steak. Have I ever mentioned that steak is my favorite meal? Really, there's nothing better in my books than a well-cooked steak, caesar salad, a baked potato, rolls, and a good margarita. I know. I sound like a man. Other than the margarita part. This restaurant was a little more up-scale so the rolls and baked potato were replaced with steamed asparagus, some type of cheese and garlic mashed potato dish and a lobster tail. But man, the steak was fabulous. I resisted the urge to ask for ketchup, my usual topping of choice for steak. Yes, steak. And I passed on the margarita in exchange for a virgin strawberry daiquiri. Really classy, I know. But it was fun to get out in middle of the week with Mark. Sometimes with his high-stress job it seems like it's hard for us to connect during the week. This was a nice little chance to do that. Not to mention that I got to meet lots of his co-workers. The boys stayed with Mark's mom and had a blast as usual. Now if I could just figure out a way to sneak a visit to that restaurant into our budget before it's free again next Christmas....
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