User:	piggy_suckfish
	Date:	2009-12-28 09:38
	Subject:	christmas
	Security:	Public

It was a lovely Christmas.

Today marks the beginning of my 24th week of pregnancy. Time is flying by now and I think both M and I were acutely aware of the fact that this is going to be our last lazy, quiet Christmas season for many years to come. We went to his father's house for dinner Christmas Day to see family, but the rest of the weekend was spent mostly with just us. Which, was especially sweet since we haven't had much time alone together this basketball season.

I left work early Wednesday and we went to see 'The Blind Side'. Thursday I made a big pan of lasagna and my family's traditional Christmas salad with blue cheese, walnuts and dried Michigan cherries and we ate dinner and opened gifts in our pajamas. Friday I walked to church early in the morning, and came back and made a big plate of homemade waffles for brunch. Saturday we spent the day running errands and went out for lunch at Flat Top Grill, which we had never been to before and I loved. And yesterday we met friends for dinner at Tex Tubb's.

He's leaving this morning for a basketball tournament and won't be home until Wednesday night. It's seriously crazy how much I miss him when he's gone now. There is a very special sweetness between us now that I am totally treasuring.

We're celebrating New Years with our friends who are visiting us from Minneapolis, Chicago and New York and all staying with us. The house is going to be filled with a big bunch of our favorite people and their kids and I can't wait. The last time we saw this group was in August when we spent the weekend with them up north and I was a stressed out she-bitch. Thankfully, I've mellowed since then.

	User:	piggy_suckfish
	Date:	2009-12-27 19:07
	Subject:	surprise gift
	Security:	Public

My aunt and uncle sent us a set of wine glasses for Christmas. Yesterday I went to put them away, and as I unwrapped each one from bubble wrap, I discovered a special message.

	User:	piggy_suckfish
	Date:	2009-12-23 12:35
	Subject:	1 day to go
	Security:	Public

Last weekend was crazy busy. After the insanity of Saturday morning and afternoon we drove to Milwaukee to have dinner with M's Dad for his 70th birthday. And then Sunday morning I got up early and drove back to Milwaukee to attend the annual gigantic family Christmas party for M's family. (He had practice so I was representing on my own.)

My father-in-law is the oldest of six, and those six have 18 kids between them, and now those 18 are reproducing fast and furiously. Our baby is going to be the 18th cousin in his generation - and all of these kids (with the exception of two older step cousins) are nine or younger! Coming from a smaller family I love it and I always love the Christmas party. There are now too many people to fit in one house so it was held at the Polish Center of Wisconsin, which was lovely. (On the way there I learned one of M's uncles is the past president of Polish Fest and the family used to all have to work the festival each year. I wish I was around for those days.) There was lots of singing and sausage (which I'm learning are staples at any good family gathering of the in-laws) and a visit from Santa.

Our baby even got his first family Christmas present from Santa with all of the other kids!


(It was a bunch of baby balls. Awww....)

While I managed to finally get some time in at the gym after the party I still had more baking to do Sunday and Monday, which is why last night I was sound asleep in my favorite chair by 7:30. M had made dinner, I didn't do any baking or wrapping, and it was blissful. I must have slept for 10 hours.

Things are finally coming to a close. I have a few things here and there to finish but Christmas is just about here and I'm ready to kick back and enjoy. After work last night, a man I passed on the sidewalk randomly wished me Merry Christmas. It was softly snowing and has just gotten dark, and much like my post office experience there was definitely holiday spirit and good cheer in the air.

Christmastime, I love you so.

	User:	piggy_suckfish
	Date:	2009-12-22 15:00
	Subject:	...and counting
	Security:	Public

Baking to-date:

- 2 batches of caramels
- 3 pans of fudge
- 4 trays of peppermint bark
- 4 big rolls of cookie dough frosted with 64 oz. of powdered sugar
- 4 lbs. gained since my last doctor's appointment two weeks ago

	User:	piggy_suckfish
	Date:	2009-12-21 15:57
	Subject:	going postal
	Security:	Public

Saturday was a stressful day. Because I send my family lots of homemade candy and cookies, I have a very small window where I can make everything, package it all up, and get it off the the post office (priority - ugh) so it arrives right before Christmas and things are still fresh and tasty. After spending the morning finishing a batch of fleur de sel caramels and wrapping gifts, I set off for the post office only to find it so packed I had to wait in the parking lot for 10 minutes just to park. (double ugh).

Throwing my trusty blue IKEA shopping bag filled with 20 lbs. of boxes over my shoulder, I got inside to find the lines there were even more ridiculous. There were at least 100 people packed inside the building, shuffling along every few minutes, looking around aimlessly with glum expressions.

I finally made it into the inner vestibule of the post office where the counters are located (the back half of the line snaked back through the post office boxes), only to find the room filled with people committing postal errors of all kinds. Some weirdo tried to cut in line behind me (before I shut him down and set him to the back), a woman got all the way to the counter with a shopping back of wrapped presents and no boxes and had the post office employee box it all up for her, two 'window closed' signs sat on the counter where there could have been two additional employees working to expedite things...I started to grow more tense by the minute. And then, to top it all off, a lady a few people behind me started to sing 'Away in a Manger' in a very annoying, high voice. It was sighing and eye rolling time for sure.

But then a strange thing happened. Three rows of people back, another woman joined in the singing and started to harmonize. And this one had a good voice. One by one, more and more people joined in until there was a chorus of about 20 people singing together. 'Away in a Manger' turned into 'Silent Night' and when that was over they started taking requests.

At this point, I had made it to the counter and the woman who was helping me was super friendly and laughing how this never happened. And I found myself smiling and laughing back. 45 minutes of waiting and being in a totally sucky mood completely evaporated away and by the time I walked out of the post office, I was relaxed and felt great. It was like something out of a movie. Like in 'Elf' when everyone has to sing together to give Santa the power to fly, or when the Brady family sings together at the mouth of the cave where Mike Brady is trapped inside, to give him the courage to crawl out, in 'A Very Brady Christmas'.



M is always asking me why Christmas is so special to me. This kind of stuff - as cheesy as it may sound - is exactly why.

	User:	piggy_suckfish
	Date:	2009-12-15 15:10
	Subject:	old timer
	Security:	Public

I had a meeting last week in Baraboo, a small town of about 10,000 people. I was meeting with an old timey, retired small town sawmill owner who was selling us some land. He showed up wearing an Elmer Fudd type hat and told us a story about how his Dad grew up so poor, when he was a little boy his mother gave him one or two bullets a day and told him to go out a shoot squirrels for dinner - that's how they survived.

Listening to him tell stories of growing up in Baraboo was like traveling backward through time. He spoke with the same cadence as my grandparents, and of the people he spoke of all had old timey names - like men named Laverne.

As I listened to him, I couldn't help but wonder what he must think of life today, and one of the first things that popped into my head was what in the hell would he make of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians"? This man comes from an era when men were men and worked in the woods for a living, cutting down timber in the freezing cold. Watching Bruce Jenner and Scott Disick alone would be like the coming of the apocalypse for a guy like him.