Comes in three's, right?

Christmas day? Rather peaceful. Seriously. We were done with presents by 10:00. All but the babies were up at 6:00. There was unwrapping to be done! We took a break for an hour and forced them to eat something besides chocolate and candy. Santa, don't ya' know! We opened gifts one by one, ohhhed and ahhhed appropriately, took all the damn twisty crap off the back of a zillion things, inserted batteries, constructed Lego sets, and played. It was very nice...and peaceful.

My sister and her husband arrived around 2:00 and in anticipation of their arrival, there was mopping to be done. Naturally, Santa came a day too early or I mopped a day late, because my mop broke. Ahh, well, I always enjoy a good scrub, on my knees...

The next day, the washing machine broke. With the holidays, laundry was backed up a bit. That, coupled with the additional "nice clothes" for the various holiday celebrations and all the bedding- (everyone needed clean sheets for Christmas)- and then the two extra loads of sheets from a midnight wetting, and... You get the idea. There was a lot of freaking laundry to be done at our house. Turns out 26 loads, to be precise. The first load of the day sent the machine over the edge. The repairman was called and arrived the next day. After 4 hours at our house, he declared he should have the part in 7-10 days. Whoopee!

Turns out the washing machine repair man had to fight for a parking space in front of the house because there were three other trucks blocking his path. (No, no new cars for Christmas.) It was the other repairmen. It seems that the regular technician wasn't quite enough. The senior technicians needed to be called. And we had called in a second opinion to see just how much carbon monoxide might be blowing into our house.

In the end? No heat for the downstairs of our house. See, by law they have to disable the unit if there is a crack that is leaking carbon monoxide. Should be fixed in, oh, 7-10 days, maybe. It's supposed to be 33 tonight. And the duct system underneath the house which probably cause the part to malfunction in the unit? Needs to be redone.
(They took a look at the upstairs unit as well, and declared it "old, inefficient, and not up to code" and also mentioned that the duct system upstairs "was not doing the job properly and should really be redone")

I think perhaps Santa lost the $25,000.00 check he was sending me for Christmas. I'm sure it will arrive after the new year

And the laundry? Done. Käri spent the day at the laundromat, where she counted, 26 loads.

Did I mention we took a trip to the Bay Area yesterday? There and back in 13.5 hours.

Never a dull moment...






Oh, right, the mop...still need to replace that.

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I Am Alive

I've conquered Strep- again! The virus/cold is still hanging in a bit and the sinus infection is pretty much gone. Thank goodness for antibiotics! I was sick enough that I ventured out to the doctor in my pink pajama bottoms, slippers, t-shirt, rust orange fleece sweatshirt -that I only wear in the house- and that's it- Oh, wait I did wear a hat to disguise my hair... A lovely sight, to be sure. I picked up my antibiotics at a local swanky grocery store in the same outfit, as well. Oi. Oh, well. I didn't care, until the next day.

We've been busy elves around these parts. Dinner is made for tomorrow, gifts wrapped, guest bed up, kids have been threatened to death if they get up before 6 tomorrow, we'll see.

Merry, Merry!!

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The Cutest Elves Ever!

Hi! This is Käri. Tricia is sicker than a dog. She's got strep throat again and the crud on top of it all (thanks to me), so I thought I'd post something cute for her. We've gotten many emails with a link to this cute little elf dance. I thought I'd give it a try and sure enough, it's damn cute! The cutest elves ever are: from left to right, Ruby, Lily, Julia and Mason. Lily and Mason are our friend's cute little ones. Lily is a month older than Ruby and Julia, and her brother Mason is just three months older than that. When they're all together (which they are often!) it's like quadruplets! Quadruple the fun that is! Look at them dance and enjoy your holiday!
Merry Christmas!

Watch the cute elves dance!





PEACE and JOY from our family

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The Santa Visit

The Santa photographer was able to capture a bit of a better image- though the babies are screaming and Gus looks like he's on drugs. We bought it, we'll frame it and add it to the collection on the mantle.

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Header image

Is the header image all messed up for you all too??


Edited to add: I messed with it, forever and fixed it the best I could...html- holy cow... It's not centered- I can't seem to figure that part out. Maybe another day. But the picture is back, and that is the most important part.

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