Friday, December 21, 2007

Out of Control

For some reason at work, our department always has snacks. When I got back after my maternity leave, I found that person who replaced me had brought in an M&M dispenser that, when you pull the arm of the Peanut (or is the the Plain?) dispenses candy from his golf bag. Sometimes its full of M&Ms, sometimes other small round candies like Skittles but we try to keep it topped up. The rest of the company knows that they can rely on us for a mid-afternoon candy break, so we get more visitors than we otherwise would because we are, by and large, an anti-social lot.

Anyway, since Monday the Christmas gifts have been dribbling in....mainly client and supplier "Thanks Yous" and they have been 100 per cent edible. Here is a rundown of what we have had in the office this week:

1 box (2 layers) of pecan "Turtle" knockoffs
1 box 20 Timbits
1 tin chocolate covered Oreos
1 box Turtles (the real thing)
1 box Chocolate covered baklava
1 tin filled with 4 boxes of Lindor Truffles, interspersed with some Clementines (to stave off scurvy, no doubt)
1 box chocolate covered butter cookies
1 box bittersweet chocolate Pastilles
1 box Hazelnut Seashells
1 box Turkish delight
1 Sweet Marie Chocolate Bar each

Right, now there are two people in the office, and there is one more person coming later. The only things that are gone are the Timbits and the Turtle knockoffs (they came earlier in the week). And we have 6 hours to get through the rest. Thank GOD for maternity pants...this is going to get ugly.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Done! Done! Done!

I have achieved something resembling success in my Christmas preparations - which is good, considering tonight is my last night before tomorrow's Pre-Christmas Christmas in Burlington, and we leave at 6 am for Boston on Saturday.

Last night, Eric thoughtfully cleared his schedule so he, Kieran and I could have the evening to finished up the shopping, without me having to take the child on my own. We decided to pick him up from daycare and start to shop immediately in order to maximize our time before baby meltdown. After the first store, where the scenario I blogged about yesterday in regards to taking our son shopping immediately began to unfold (crying, insisting on walking, wandering off and then loudly - and embarrassingly - resisting all attempts to rein him in) we left the store empty handed and called in an emergency babysitter. Smart move.

After child and babysitter were safely at our house, we had enormous success. Shopping is now officially completed and all that is left is wrapping and packing for the trip. I'm even thinking about putting my cookie baking back on the list tonight. Unheard of success!!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

I have found a great way to reduce my Christmas to-do list. Its quite ingenious really....as the days tick by and deadlines loom, I simply start to drop things I was going to do.

For example, I was planning on making another few batches of cookies to bring to my brother's house....now, its off the list completely. So are various things I was going to make for our "pre-Christmas Christmas" at my other brother's house this Friday. My Christmas card list is getting smaller by the day and is teetering on the point of complete oblivion. And, you know what? I'm not stressed out about it any more. Instead I'm going to concentrate on the things I MUST do...like finish my stupid shopping.

And you know what else? I'm just going to come out a say it. I LOATHE shopping with Kieran. Since the day he was born he has been a poor shopper. I cannot remember a single time when he sat quietly in his carrier while I shopped. I see other parents with their babies who are nestled in their car seats fast asleep while their mother leisurely reads the label on the organic baby food and I seethe with jealously. In my case, for the past 18 months every trip to the store has been like that old "Supermarket Sweepstakes" game show. For the first year or so I had a 10 minute window where I just tore through the aisles throwing what I needed into the cart before his window of goodness would slam shut with a ferocious scream.

Now that we are well into toddlerhood, it's even worse. I avoid taking him out by myself whenever possible because he's just a menace. He hates his stroller (and always has) and, yay for me, hates sitting in a shopping cart even more. Even though his face is about 5 inches from mine, he holds up his hands in heartbreaking agony, sobbing uncontrollably until I pick him up. Then, naturally, he wants to get down and he's off like a shot on some path of baby destruction and danger. So, last night, in desperation I took him to the store, where within 2 minutes the above scenario started to unfold, and to make a long story short, I wound up throwing things into the cart to the tune of $100 at the checkout while having bought almost nothing that I actually went to the store to buy. I came home frustrated and even more frazzled and praying that Baby #2 will be a stroller-lover, or at least have a 15 minutes goodness window.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Dirty Kicking

So, after my flurry of activity last week, I have basically come to a standstill as far as Christmas preparations go. I still haven't even done my Christmas cards and I even got special photos of Kieran for just that reason. Sad. Tonight though, after the child is in bed, I'm going to sit down with my list, a cup of of tea and plate of Christmas cookies, turn on the Season Finale of America's Next Top Model and write them all.

But, at least I've been busy with other things that are NOT Christmas related. My girlfriend and I went to see Dirty Dancing, the musical, last night. Highly, highly enjoyable. The only problem really was that the character who played Johhny (the Patrick Swayze role) had a curly mullet that was supposed to make him look like a bad-ass, but instead made him look like a loser. Otherwise, they did a good job of adapting a movie to the stage. The crowd loved it....mainly because it was full of 20-40 year old females who grew up with the movie like I did. I was tempted to buy a baby bib that said "Nobody puts Baby in a Corner" but didn't because they only came in pink and blue.

The baby also LOVED the show. Kicking like crazy almost the entire time, which I take to be a sign that I'm going to give birth to either a girl or a gay man. I guess the kicks could have been interpreted as "can you turn that down, I'm trying to sleep" but since this is my child, I know they were kicks of joy.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

The Pressure!

So, I'm starting to feel the Christmas (sorry, Holiday) crunch. I keep thinking of all the shopping, baking, wrapping, packing (since Christmas is always spent at my brother's in the US) that all still waits to be done...most of which hasn't even been started.

In an attempt to feel like I'm doing something, I spent last night, baby free (well, toddler-free at least) tramping around the mall, wondering why all the stores now seem to only be expensive clothes stores. We barely stopped anywhere because I'm just currently NOT in the market for overpriced designer clothes or trendy teenage clothes. It was very odd....no wonder people head to big box stores in droves. Aside from minor stocking stuffers, all I bought were some new maternity clothes. (Where , incidentally, I had an exact repeat at the Bay as I had a few weeks ago - seriously, that store cannot figure out how the match sale prices on the rack with the prices that come up at the register. But I finally got the frazzled clerk to honour the sale prices, got rid of my Bay gift card and now will never have to subject myself to that colossal hassle again.) Merry Christmas to me!

Still, though. The pressure is building. I advise no one to be around when the explosion happens.