OK, I'm finishing off my Mom's gift right now and my Father's gift has to be finished after that - but it will be quick. My older brother and his wife, my sister, and my two younger brothers are all done! I've even managed to get stocking stuffers!

It's 12:30 AM and I'm exhausted but very proud of myself. After the two last gifts, all I have to do is finish packing and I'll be ready to go.

By the way, if anyone is wondering what to get the person who doesn't want "things", this is a great idea.

By tonight, I think I will have finished making presents for three out of the ten people to gather at my parents house this year. How did December fly by so fast?!?
Of course, one of those people is me, so I'm really only making presents for nine people. Whew, I feel so much better...

At least, I know what I'm doing for a couple more... I think... if it all works out... if I can do a marathon couple of nights.

Believe it or not, I am enjoying this. This is a lot better than worrying if I've bought the right gift, if I've spent my money evenly across the board, if I've put enough thought into things.
I've definitely put thought into all of these gifts. They are not perfect, but they're homemade and through all the cursing and frustration, I thought of each and every one of my recipients...

So, as all of you who are done your Christmas shopping sit there and thank god you didn't try something crazy and actually make your gifts this year, you can go wastespend your time making snowflakes.

An exercise for the upcoming holidays...

I got 12/20. It's not as easy as I thought it would be. Give it a go and let me know what you get.

I know this will sound like typical Mother's pride here, but Franklin is growing and learning so quickly! It is both beautiful and incredible to watch.

It seems that the last couple of weeks have been extra special. He is saying so much, and understanding even more. Currently, he's experimenting with new walking styles and it is so funny. At first, he was doing this strange march with his right leg, then he changed to his left. After this, he decided to do a flash-dance type run and pranced along everywhere he went. Now he is walking normally but will suddenly squat down and waddle like a duck.
On top of the crazy moves this kid has, he seems to want to repeat everything we say. We now have to watch the dirty words we have added to his usually benign nursery rhymes - I guess we'll have to saved those for our own bedtime routine, not his.

It's a warm feeling to think that my own parents once watched me go through all these stages. I sometimes wonder if I was as active/talkative/demanding/independent/hilarious/fun as Franklin is. Of course, every kid is different. I met a gorgeous young baby today that is probably one of the most laid back, easy-going kids I've ever seen. My co-workers marveled at him and noted that there was no way Franklin would have hung out and be as patient as this baby was. Most likely, this is true - and it makes me wonder if the personality of a baby is any indication of their personality as an adult. D was a pretty calm kid and is a pretty calm adult. I have seen pictures of me in silly poses and crazy hair and I have a feeling I was a little more on the hyper side. I would also say that I am a pretty active adult - I need to be busy.

The nice thing is, this is something I'll talk about with my Mom when we're home for Christmas. She has a ton of great stories that I never get tired of hearing.

This is hilarious. I actually hated Julia Kristeva with such passion during my bachelor degree that I would purposely choose to analyze her work in order to pick it apart and destroy it

(I wasn't successful very often because I have to admit she's brilliant - just a frustrating writer).

You are a Theory Slut. The true elite of the
postmodernists, you collect avant-garde
Indonesian hiphop compilations and eat journal
articles for breakfast. You positively live
for theory. It really doesn't matter what
kind, as long as the words are big and the
paragraph breaks few and far between.

What kind of postmodernist are you!?
brought to you by Quizilla

This year I have the job to collect money from staff at work for two families we are sponsoring for Christmas. There is a bit of a wishlist for the children so I thought I'd brave the stores this afternoon to get a couple of the odds and ends on the list.

Remember when I mentioned that my Mother had decided everyone must make their family gifts this year? Things are still mostly in the planning stage for me on that issue however... because of this rule, I haven't had to venture into the frenzied Christmas mob at all.

Until now of course.

Holy mother of flaming jesus!

On another note, D and I took Franklin down to Dallas Road to watch an amazingly loud parade of construction vehicles and large trucks all decorated in Christmas lights. D and I were ooohing and awwwing like little kids. It was hilarious.
I haven't had candy thrown at me from a parade for, I don't know, about 20-21 years. It was a funny feeling. I actually had an impulse to throw myself on the ground and collect as much as I could before the rest of the kids around me got their grubby hands on it.

It's an attitude you get when you grow up with 5 kids in your family. If you don't move fast, you'll starve.

Franklin said Mommy for the first time today!

He said it like he has known the word for months but thought it would be fun to hold out on me.

At daycare, we have made him a collage of pictures to post up on the children's family tree. There is picture of me, D and other family members holding Franklin. In the beginning, it used to help soothe him after I had left for work. He still likes to look at it and will walk over to the wall, point up and say "Daddy!" "Bapa!"(Grandma) etc...

Today, at lunch, I was holding him and asking him where Daddy was, where Grandma was, where Franklin was....
Finally, I asked him where Mommy was and instead of pointing to the butterfly next to the collage like he usually does ("Butta-iy"), he enthusiastically yelled, "Mommy!" and pointed to my smiling face!

It was beautiful, amazing and such a personal moment. No one else heard him, everyone was either in the nap room, feeding or changing a diaper.
It was just Franklin and I, looking very pleased with ourselves.

It is very late. It is also the textbook and tradebook departments' turn to make a holiday treat for the staff tomorrow. I'm making spiced almonds.

The reason why it is so late is because every time I need to make something that requires brown sugar I realize that my packet has been left open and the entire content is rock hard. I spend most of my time grinding the chunks down to an acceptable size.

However, I think the biggest mistake I make is whenever I set out to make something that the general public will most likely consume I try out an entirely new recipe.

Why do I do this?

Not only do I have no idea what the outcome will be like, and whether the recipe I am working with is even correct, but if something goes wrong I have absolutely no back-up plan other than stopping by the bakery/liquor store/corner flower stand on my way to whatever function I was "cooking" for.

I had a bit of a panic when it seemed the almonds were not going to coat before the sugar caramelized. I had another panic once the everything began to caramelize and it seemed a little smoky in the kitchen. I finally panicked one more time as I was sprinkling the caramelized, toasty brown, cooling almonds with sugar and I accidentally dumped more on than I intended.

They actually taste good! - perhaps I won't have to pick up any mandarin oranges after all.

We only just got our photo shoot results from the photographer today. I can't really complain, she did it all for free. I think these kind of things can get pretty expensive.

Hopefully this will become part of a Christmas present for my parents.

Soooooooooo, on the painful ass topic....

It's a yeast infection, like most diaper rashes are, and on the advice of another mother at daycare I got a jock itch/athlete's foot anti-fungal cream from the pharmacy down the road. The guy there knew exactly which cream to use. Apparently, it is a must have for the hip, diaper-wearing child these days.

This morning we paid a visit to the doctor as well. She took a look at his bum and prescribed a cream with 1% hydrocortisone and 1% clotrimazole. It is supposed to soothe the skin as it heals.
(I just need to add that our doctor has the neatest handwriting in the whole world of doctors...)

As soon as the doctor came in the room Franklin held up his sock and said, "SOCK!" Then he stood up on the table and proceeded to pee on me.

I smell like pee and it's only 1:15 in the afternoon. Usually I don't smell like pee until way past 11pm...

Franklin's butt has decided to be a little festive for the holiday season. He has got his first bout of diaper rash and it is terrible.

I think this all has to do with the fact that he has weaned himself off breast-feeding. Believe me, I was fully prepared to go the distance. I would have been fine with Franklin, at 5 years, asking me, "Breast please Mom!".
This whole weaning thing was entirely too easy. I remember reading articles and listening to women at La Leche League meetings about how difficult it was to wean their children. This was one challenge I was willing to let slide for as long as he wanted.

Now, because of the tender skin on his bum, that crappy episode of diarrhea and the absence of healing breast-milk, he has a rash that is painful to the touch when I wipe him or put on cream.
D assures me that it will be OK by morning, I've done all I can so far (let him run naked, gave him a warm bath and lathered on the aloe and Penatin). Nevertheless, I have been on the net, scaring myself with clinical pictures of diaper rashes that have met the elevated criteria of a medical textbook - poor baby.