"Amber?  Amber?  I'm not tired anymore Amber.  I'm going to go out and see if Santa was here."

I took this as my cue to follow her, and stumbled out of bed.  I groaned quietly to myself when I realized the time, 7:30am.  With only four hours of sleep after playing Santa's elf and wrapping every gift my parents bought (with the exception of mine) I  ( Read more... )

Today was cookie-baking day.  Today we baked peanut blossoms, peanut butter, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, sugar cookies, and chocolate croissants.  The "we" I speak of is myself and The Bug.  She actually spent the day working with me in the kitchen.  She asked me questions about why we did things the way we were.  She loved helping me by ( Read more... )

children excited for Santa ( Read more... )

For some reason my alarm did not go off today.  I'm not sure why but it simply didn't buzz.  This caused me to wake up later than usual and having to make a decision: do I shower and grab breakfast from a coffee shop, or do I eat and risk feeling a little sluggish all day?  Once I remembered there is a Caribou Coffee on the way to work, I opted for ( Read more... )

Hello, my name is Amber and I am a...Grinch ( Read more... )

Color-coordinated Chrismtas trees.  They're everywhere.  Every apartment building, office building, and shopping mall has one.  It looks perfect.  It looks pristine.  It looks...manufactured.

Our Christmas trees have never been that way.  If it has ever been color-coordinated it was by sheer accident, and I'm fairly positive it has never looked ( Read more... )

The Bug has been asking questions about Santa this year.  It's usually only one question every two or three days, but today's caught me off guard.  "What does he do to the children who are bad?"  She then sang the second verse of "Santa Claus is coming to town" to me and said very matter-of-factly "He know's who is bad, but doesn't say how he ( Read more... )

::: Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!:::

"Amber, Amber, wake up!  I heard Santa last night!  He landed on the roof, and the jingle bells, and he ate our cookies!  Everyone was really good!  Come see!"

The presents swarmed the living room, the stockings were stuffed, and Bug was completely excited for every single one of them.  She read the names on every ( Read more... )

May your day be merry.
May your spirit be light.
May your family be happy, healthy, and together.
May your heart feel joy.
May your little ones have faith.
May you find magic.

Happy Christmas to all!

1. Load up the iPod with Christmas music
2. Pick up the rental car
3. Crank up the music and hit the gas pedal
4. Travel 270 at 80mph
5. Arrive home safely.
6. Don't let my family drive me crazy...

Yeah, that will be an ongoing process through the weekend.  I hope everyone who is travelling arrived at their destinations safely, and for those of you with ( Read more... )