Random Christmas bits

More odd things happened around Christmas.  Someone at work lost their mom to a battle with cancer.  A friend of Steve's family lost their dad on Christmas Eve.

But we were able to celebrate the joy of the season - first by surprising my parents (well, more my mom) on Christmas Eve with my brother, who had furtively dodged the question of what he was doing fofr ht eholidays for several weeks.  Dad had figured it out because I made a wise crack about my present being better than his.  She almost figured it out because of a comment Kyle made to her but didn't want to get her hopes up.  It was fun because we surprised her at work, even getting her friend Karen in on it since the receptionist wouldn't let us go up.  I thought about just bolting up the stairs but we didn't want to get in trouble with only 2 hours left of their 3 hour work day.
That afternoon, Steve, Beca and I drove to Wilmington.  Beca had so much fun playing with the kids of Steve's cousins.  We ate, opened presents that had our names on them and then played Dirty Santa or Chinese Christmas or whatever they called it.  Steve had an early number and kept getting his items stolen until he opened a clock and thermometer set - pretty nice pair.  I had a late number and got a gift card to dollar tree with some candy!  The best part was that we each took a Snuggie and Steve's great uncle stole one of them from a family friend so we convinced her to pick the other one!  Steve's aunt and cousin always do a crazy Christmas present and poem to each other but once that was over, the kids were all getting ready for dancing sugarplums in their heads so we headed home. No matter how tired Beca was, she wouldn't close her eyes and go to sleep until we were home.  But we made it, she went right to sleep, and we finished the wrapping, etc. that needed to be completed - well, I pulled all the wrapped presents out that I had and Steve had to wrap stuff from him (basically, the presents for me).

Christmas morning, Beca woke up and told us Santa had come, even though she hadn't been down stairs yet. We made it down and let her open her presents from Santa only - she got a Tiana doll AND a Prince Naveen doll (from the Princess & the Frog), and an easel with art supplies.  The rest of the presents from us and others she got to open once my parents and Kyle had arrived and we had gotten some breakfast to eat.  Zoe was completely confused, as Christmas usually makes her.  We were a pretty dreary bunch though, matching the weather.  We watched White Christmas (at least twice it played through), Mom and I built a Cinderella's castle 3D puzzle that we started on I have no idea how long ago, ate steaks and cheesy ranch potatoes, and just relaxed.  Beca waited until Daddy got to sleep during nap time and then she snuck out of the room to come find the rest of us.  She kept telling us she wanted more presents and we kept telling her she had enough.  she also managed to convince Oma, Pop-pop and Uncle Kyle to play her new Horton Hears a Who game with her, which means you have to wear an elephant hat and use the trunk to get a little clover to stick to it.   It's really funny and hopefully I can remember to get the right memory card in so I can get pictures on here!




True story from Christmas day - as emailed from Melissa's mom, Kristen.  Melissa's big sister is Beca's BFF Kate and Melissa is 2-1/2:

Melissa Rose was a bit tired Christmas morning. After all the presents were opened and my whole family had arrived and was eating brunch, Melissa was clingy and grumpy and wouldn’t eat. She kept pointing up to the kitchen desk. I finally lifted her up so she could show me what she wanted. She reached for our basket of Christmas cards we have received. I brought the basket closer to her. Melissa reached in, pulled out the card from the beautiful Cottle family, and held it against her chest. She smiled, asked to be put down, and walked around for a good 15 minutes holding the card near her heart. After that, she put the card back in the basket and was pretty happy the rest of the day.  You have special powers.

Haha!  That made me so happy - at least I could make one kid happy on Christmas Day!

weird day

Without using any names, it was a weird day.  I didn't work a whole lot but had to cut a conversation off that had gone on way too long with someone who was just killing time.  Since I was the only one in my area, I was the one he was killing time with.  Oh well.  It was a good conversation.  Then I had a meeting with someone and I mostly just shook my head at how inefficient the use of many different programs and spreadsheets for one task that should be easy to pre-populate or at least run some nifty Excel macros on.  For the short term, I taught someone the magic of format painter and offered to answer any questions whenever I could.
Then I had lunch with a good friend and we had a great time talking about kids and an organization that we both have in our hearts but it just can't fit in our lives.  It basically boiled down to "if everyone would just listen to us and do things like we wrote the list out, then there wouldn't be so many problem."
I've had a friend have a miscarriage recently.  One of the most difficult things a person ever has to go through.  There really is no explanation, no cure, no one to really blame.  1 out of 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage.  That's 25%.  I'm doing better than average in that case.  Or worse, epending on your point of view, but that just means someone else doesn't have to go through it if statistically it all washes out.
Then I had a friend tell me a grandparent had passed after several medical issues over the weekend.  So much sadness for so many at this time of year.  But it's one of those things that you have to look at and say "yeah this sucks right now, but that doesn't mean that Christmas is ruined forever".  You have to look for the smallest of miracles in every situation.
Steve and I got to pick up Beca from school a little early, which is always special for her - she loves it.  and then we went to run an errand to buy something for a dirty Santa game and bought something that I NEVER thought I would purchase.  We were in the middle of Crossroads plaza and pulled a fast one on all the yahoos in the parking lot by scooting around the back of REI and ToysRUs and coming out at a green light - Breakin' the law, breakin' the law!!  well, not really.  but it felt so sneaky...  Beca and I voted for Red Robin for dinner.  Nothing odd about that, except that all dinner plans we had made for tonight had been cancelled due to family tragedies and all we can do to help is pray for continued healing and comfort.
And then it got really weird when we got home.  The banshee inhabited Beca again and she kept screaming at Steve that he needed to stop screaming for her to go get her pajamas and put them on, in between yelling about how cold she was.  I couldn't here what he was saying from downstairs but I could hear every word Beca shouted at him.  An out of the blue phone call and a comment posting from people I haven't talked to in ages made the top of the weird list of the day.  Plus a call to tell me that a plane with a very special package was arriving tonight on schedule!!
And now I'm realizing fully that tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  Other than Beca's presents, I have no idea where I put half of my stuff, I need to find some more bags or something, there's tons of laundry that needs to get put away (which is the absolute hardest part for me for some reason), there's tons more laundry to actually do, we don't have anything really for Christmas Day to eat in the house, and oh, I don't know what all else.  Don't you just love Christmas time????

a certifiable

I'm certified - again.  Both through ASQ (American Society for Quality).  It just means I can take a multiple-choice, open-book exam after almost 10 years out of college and in quality.  It also means I might actually be retaining some of the statistical rhetoric I have been fed in class after class at various jobs.  This time it is for my Six Sigma Green Belt, which is supposed to be a good way for me to assist others in improvement projects, I think.  I need to see if there's something around the house that I could apply this stuff.  Nothing at work fits the normalized bell curve.  Kind of hard to evaluate the capability of a process that way.  Which I actually learned when I was certified the first time - that one is my CQE (certified Quality Engineer), which was one of the hardest exams I think I ever took because I was about 11 weeks pregnant with Beca and I couldn't stand the smell of the paper in the books so I gagge every time I had to look up a question.  And I really shouldn't trivialize this stuff.

Beca favorites

Last night, I had the best time listening to Beca during her playtime in the bath.  She was playing with her Ariel and Cinderella bath Barbie dolls and she was making them each be the Hanes sisters from the movie "White Christmas".  I couldn't tell which had to be Betty and which had to be Judy but she proceeded to sing the entire song "Sisters", stopping only for a few moments to sing the same word over and over until she correctly remembered the rest of whatever line she was stuck on.  She was even doing the motions.  It was great!!  Of note, she has watched "White Christmas" in its entirity at least 10 times since the beginning of December.  I really enjoy when she sings "Back in the Army" too.  One of these days we'll get that on video.

Another favorite is saying "delicioso" with a very dramatic flair every time she believes something is particularly yummy.  This word apparently hails from about 5 different languages, including Dinosaur.  She  picked it up from the PBS Kids show "Dinosaur Train" but changes what language it is in every time I ask her.

Beca's magical season

Besides the typical 4 year old doesn't understand the whole spirit of the season (it's about giving gifts, not getting them), Beca has been so much fun to watch with lights and decorations for Christmas so far.  She needed to be intricately involved with every aspect of helping with lights on the tree and putting ornaments up and setting up her own little tree in the bonus room and checking on Daddy's professional light job out front (those blasted LED's are bright!).  And today we got our first Christmas card from my aunt and uncle (Beca's godparents) and my youngest cousins, Andrew and Rachel, who Beca's just calls her cousins because its easier and they are much closer in age.  I read her the outside of the card "It's for the Cottle Family" and she said "ooh, that's us!" and then I showed her the card.  "That's my Aunt Dee and Uncle Troy and my cousins Andrew and Rachel and oh, look at their cute little puppy.  Awwww." The rest of dinner and after, she kept saying "I got an invitation from my cousins Andrew and Rachel.  They are my cousins.  Did we get any more invitations for Christmas for the Cottle family?"  Isn't that sweet???

On the other side of her magical season is our Elf, Smith.  Smith sits on the shelf and then he reports back to Santa Claus each night on whether the kids in the house were good or bad.  Smith was named after a joke in Mary Poppins (if you don't remember it, watch the movie again - it's good for the soul to sing along).  So we have to remind Beca that we can talk to Smith and we can tell him good or bad things.  Some of the tantrums are shortening significantly with Smith around.  I'm going to miss him when Santa takes him home to the North Pole.

Clear My Head

Usually I think products that certain doctors and such carry is "crystal-gripping, hippy nonsense" (per Kari on Mythbusters).  But my PT's office has one that I love!!  It helps me sleep all night.  It is simply called "Clear My Head" and it's a combination of oils and herbs in a jar.  You just open it on your desk or wherever and then close it up when you go away to help maintain it.  And it really clears my head!  They've also got this little roll on for headaches.  That has worked for certain kinds of headaches pretty well.  So, if you are looking for something to clear up the stuffiness in your life, try this stuff.  And I haven't found it cheaper online than what Total Body Rehab in Cary is selling it for.  Kelley probably owes me money for this.