Christmas Eve Eve

How festive, Green text...

So, it's the 23rd. We've gone through all the waiting, and Christmas is just around the corner. We've spent too much money on presents, eaten too many treats, and heard too many Christmas carols, and we haven't even gotten to the actual day we're celebrating. This morning I went out and bought Amanda one more present--a game for the Nintendo DS Lite (which Santa's bringing to the kids). The game is called "Cooking Mama," and you're basically preparing foods on a video game. Really, it's more fun than it sounds like it would be. Plus, you don't gain weight and you don't have to clean the kitchen after you're done.

Last night was my company Christmas party. Keep in mind, we currently have 7 employees, and 2 didn't come to the party. So it was fun, only having about 10 adults and our 6 kids. We had a White Elephant gift exchange (the present we brought: a "Heroes of the Bible" Noah's Ark set, and some Bible flash cards).

We have a full Christmas schedule: Sunday morning, church; then we go to my mom's for lunch, then to my in-laws for dinner and a christmas party. Then back home for our own Christmas Eve stuff: we each open a present (a book) and read the Chrismas Story and Twas the Night Before Christmas). Then Christmas Morning, then back to Judy's for brunch, then Amanda works at the nursing home from 2-10pm.

Anyway, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and I hope you have a great 2007.

Now, for those of you who are offended by "Merry Christmas," here's a new holiday carol for all of you: "Merry Christmas, if that's Okay" courtesy of the folks at Mystery Science theater 3000...

Counting Presents: A Peterson Tradition

We all know that the true spirit of Christmas is seen in the phrase "It is better to give than receive." And we all know that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of the Savior. But for some reason, a tradition arose as kids in my home which I have unfortunately taught my kids--this is the tradition of occasionally pulling out all the presents from under the tree and counting how many presents we each have.

Maybe it's the greed of youth. Maybe it's the competitive spirit of siblings. Maybe it's sheer boredom. Something compells me to do it. As an adult, I don't really care about how many presents I've gotten. I'm more concerned with putting the presents back under the tree in an even manner, so that each person's presents are evenly distributed under the tree, not all lumped in one place.

Here are today's present totals (including the 2 presents that haven't been wrapped yet)
Andy: 7
Amanda: 8
Madison: 12
Joel: 12
Abraham: 8
For the family: 3

Let's analyze: Amanda and I have a reasonable # of presents, considering we both tend to buy each other a couple more presents than we're budgeted for. We had to make sure Maddy and Joel got an equal number. There's enough competition as it is. Abe's only a year old, and doesn't care as much, but he's old enough to want stuff to play with. I bought a family present (a DVD) and Maddy made 2 presents for the family.

And now, because I'm reflecting on my youth, here's the opening credits from a cartoon we watched growing up...Behold, "Beverly Hills Teens":

One week 'til Christmas!!!!!!!!!

So, a week until Christmas. Hopefully all the snow that dumped on us over the weekend stays on the ground to give us a white Christmas...really, we've been sorta neglected in that arena the past few years. My kids are SO excited for Christmas, and Maddy claims she's got some sort of "plan" for Christmas Eve night... I guess we'll see what that's all about.

Let's hope it has nothing to do with the fact that one of the kids locked our bathroom door (luckily, we have 2 bathrooms) and when I closed it (to keep Abe away from the draining bathtub) I effectively moved us down to a 1 bathroom home. Why not pick the lock? Well, for some reason, that one doorknob does NOT have a lock hole. So I gues we'll call the Apt. Manager to see if it's OK to break the door down...

Amanda got a new job--she's working in the bakery at the Macey's grocery store down by us. She'll be making more $ than she does at the nursing home AND she won't have to change adults' diapers or shower them (the old folks, not the diapers). She's already said she's NOT going to bring home unsold donuts all the time, though... :(

...In other news, I've been using ellipses a LOT in this post, for which I apologize...We'll say that it represents the hesitant expectancy I feel for the future...the feeling of anticipation I have for change to come in my life. That being said, it appears we have investor funding available to keep our political DVD project alive. Again, I can't say much more about it, but investors and other folks really do seem to be coming out of the woodwork to get involved with the project. When our website is up and running in the next few weeks/months, I'll let you all know, and hopefully soon I can get my hands on a copy of our demo video to show those of you who live around here.

Now please take a few minutes to watch my film, "Star Wars: A Christmas Carol"--and remember, if you do, I earn like 10 cents or something!!!!