I have been slacking on the blogging lately, because honestly? It's a whole lot easier to just update my Twitter status than it is to sit down and hammer out coherent thoughts at length.

Plus my hands and wrists are BEAT UP from all these years of working at a computer, so I'm trying to limit my keyboard time. Just ordered a new keyboard last week, so hopefully I can update my poor ergonomics and sit at a decent workstation setup again. Laptops are very convenient, but they are MURDER on your body. If the keyboard is low enough to not inflict damage on your wrists, then you will have to look down to see your screen and kill your neck as a result. Move the screen up to the perfect viewing height and now your typing fingers are up by your chin. It's impossible to work safely on a laptop for any length of time. Guaranteed to destroy your body eventually.

I am recovering from the Christmas holidays. Already took down the tree, it was shedding needles like mad and Adrian finally pulled it over. Goodbye! I was feeling guilty about not putting up the Christmas lights outside this year, but hey, it sure does work out in the long run! No need to take them down now. Hooray!

This year Julian got a totally sweet bike for Christmas, which is what he wanted. There was some drama first though, before the happy ending.

I went to our fave local bike shop and had this Electra Mini-Rod all picked out (except no training wheels):

but then the bike shop dude on duty said, "Hey, for a 5 year old you should get the Rat Rod instead."

It looked big, but I didn't have Julian there with me (the surprise element, you know), so I wasn't sure. I figured the bike dude would know. Except he doesn't know that I have a very petite *almost* 5 year old, and that makes quite a difference.

The Rat Rod was super cool-looking, so I snapped it up and put it in the car, thrilled that I had such a great present for Julian. Then I found a really nice drum set for Adrian, the kind that you can sit at and play, with a foot pedal and cymbals and everything. And I was done! Two big presents, that was all I planned on doing, because last year I got a bunch of little presents for the kids and half of them broke within a month and the other half morphed into the Least Interesting Items Ever to my kids within the same time frame. Waste of money and resources.

Best quote from Christmas Eve came from Dan, who wins the award for "Unclear on the Concept". We had just gotten back from a lovely dinner at Firat and Martina's house with lots of wine and food, and put the kids to bed. I asked Dan to bring in the bike and the drum set from their secret hiding location in his office so that we could set it up under the tree and he said (drum roll please)......

"Oh, I'm too tired to bring that stuff in here tonight. Can't we just do it tomorrow morning?"

GONG! Sorry, Jewish guy. You need to go back to remedial Christmas 101.
I set him straight on the whole "finding presents under the tree, not waiting for late-rising Dad to bring them inside after he has a cup of coffee first", and he brought the stuff in.

Christmas morning came and Julian was all over it. "Mommy! There's a bike next to the tree! It's for ME! And a drum set for Adrian!"

I rolled out of bed, made sure that everyone went potty first (no puddles of excitement on Xmas morn, please) and then we set out to investigate. Julian was in awe of his bike, but D'OH! He could not get on or off of it by himself. I'd call that a major safety hazard. He could pedal OK, with the seat at its lowest possible level, but couldn't straddle the bar. UGH.

He was a real trooper though, and wasn't too disappointed. Also, it was raining cats and dogs outside and gusting enough to blow the bamboo in our front yard almost completely horizontal. So not much of a bike riding day. Still...it would have been nice to have the RIGHT SIZE BIKE, and I was kicking myself for just going with the flow and not sticking with my original choice.

We unpacked Adrian's drum set and it was a big hit, except that the freakin' FOOT PEDAL for the bass drum was missing from the box. I was envisioning going back to ToysRUS and explaining to a brain-dead customer service person about how the foot pedal was missing, and asking for *just* the foot pedal, and trying to wrangle that, and I was not pleased at the notion. Luckily, Adrian totally did not care. But I was bummed.

At this point Dan came out and started playing with the kids and their defective/dangerously oversized toys, and he noticed something that I did not....a puddle of rank liquid DOGSHIT right in the middle of our white, fluffy, wool rug. The ONLY rug in the living room, I might add, and a small one at that. Our dog has lived with us for over five years now, with not one single accident in the house, but when he *does* decide to blow liquid mud indoors in the middle of the night? He chooses the single spot where it is guaranteed to be the most difficult and disgusting to clean.

So then I spent about 45 minutes gagging and dry-heaving while spraying poo pudding out of the carpet and dousing it with enzyme treatment. Foul utterly foul. Thanks for *that* Christmas gift, you lousy beast. Yeah, your tummy was upset, whatever. NEXT TIME CHOOSE THE HARDWOOD FLOOR, IT'S EVERYWHERE. What a dick maneuver, crapping on that white rug. Asshole!

We had a lovely Christmas Day feast with my cousins Anni and Hana, Firat and Martina and their daughter Claire.

A big ole crab feed with mussels and fresh-baked bread and stuff. The crab was not nearly as good as it has been in the past, so I was kind of pissed about that, because hello, it's XMAS and it's supposed to be THE BEST EVER, but oh well. The company was good.

The next day we went to the bike shop to exchange the bike, but they were closed. Major upset for Julian. Sorry kid. So we went to ToysRUS to get the missing foot pedal for Adrian's drum. I was really dreading that whole procedure, as I mentioned. When we walked in I had a bright idea and went over to the music section. There in the middle of the aisle, as fate would have it, was a thrashed, opened drum set box. I reached inside, fished around, and found the missing foot pedal. Hooray!

I tucked that under my arm, and since I felt a little bad for not going through the usual channels, I went and bought a Wii Sports game attachment set and a rechargeable battery set for our Wiimotes. Then I left. Hooray!

The next day the bike shop was open, and I exchanged Julian's bike for the appropriately-sized Mini-Rod. He immediately hopped on it as soon as we got home, and he has barely gotten off it since. I have it all tricked out with a bell and super-bright lights on both front and back (for when he's riding at dusk). He LOVES it.

So in spite of a slight delay in fulfillment, we managed to have a merry Christmas after all. The bike gets ridden almost every day, the drum set gets played almost every day, the kids are thrilled, and that's wonderful. We did not clutter the house up with junk. We got to spend the day with family and friends (although we *sorely* missed my mom, but here's to next year!). We didn't have to work too hard. We played a lot. Too bad for the carpet, but overall...a resounding success!