Cock-a-doodle-doo!

For some reason my body woke my brain up at 4:45 this morning. I'm still waiting for my brain to respond fully, so if I write something totally incomprehensible, bear with me. You blog readers were the first thing I thought of when I realized I wouldn't be getting back to sleep. Isn't that sweet? It won't be sweet this afternoon around 3:00 when I've worked my fingers to the bone painting trim and I'm dead tired, but for now, I figured I might as well get up and compose an entry while the house is quiet.

Since I haven't had my coffee yet, I think I'll resort to my beloved bullet points.

• The kids participated in their first Christmas play at church yesterday. They were so sweet and did such a good job. I generally cry whenever I see children performing in any venue, but especially when they're enacting spiritual truths. Their simple faith cuts through all the crap of life and consistently makes me teary eyed. It was a good Mommy moment... one of those memories I tuck away in the bank of my mind. I'll withdraw it someday when I need a pick-me-up...
• Remember all that snow from a couple of weeks ago? It's still ALL here. We've not seen temperatures about 30 degrees since then, so the trees are still covered in heavy blankets of snow as though it just fell yesterday. The parking lots around town are literally skating rinks and the side streets are all still totally buried under sheets of ice. I don't know if the city is trying to save money for future snow storms, but the plows never made it to the neighborhoods. It's crazy. The nice thing about it being so cold is there hasn't been any nasty slush to deal with yet. The bad thing? You take your life into your hands every time you step out of your car. I have had several near death experiences in my past involving ice (okay, only one was truly near death, but the others were either physically painful or mortifyingly klutzy) and I don't care to repeat any of them. It's treacherous out there. But it's still pretty, as long as you don't have to go out in it.
• I was hoping to get the tree up yesterday... but since the kitchen table is still totally blocking the door into the storage area downstairs, it was postponed. Asia said he'll take some time off this week to help me get it set up... Now, you should know, we have fought annually about the trimming of the tree. It's just not a good marriage builder in this house. In general, Asia is about as Scrooge-y as they come, and trying to get a tree up is not his idea of fun. Things improved dramatically when we made the switch to an artificial pre-lit tree... now we only argue if the tree isn't straight and he doesn't want to crawl underneath it one last time to straighten it for me... We used to fight about picking the tree, sawing the bottom off, getting it into the stand, dealing with the pine needles, hanging the lights, and of course, about my expectations that tree trimming would be something we'd do together (just like a Hallmark commercial...) I've given up trying to get him to help me decorate it and have fully embraced the decorating as my own little gig. The kids have their own tree, so the big tree is mine to bedeck as I see fit. Asia just gets it out of the box and sets it up and then I have my own little party as I festoon the big green beast. Maybe Wednesday...
• I desperately wish Starbucks delivered right about now. My coffee maker is buried somewhere and I'm pretty sure even if I could find it, my creamer is frozen solid. Turns out, having your refrigerator on your back deck when the temperature is below freezing for weeks on end means all your food will turn into solid blocks of ice... the fridge doesn't have a heater in it to warm things up to 40 degrees... silly fridge. I'm even all out of my General Foods International Coffee instant yummy creamy coffee drink... I'm about to die. I may have to run out before Asia leaves for work and get a latte... or maybe I can talk him into bringing one back for me before he heads down the hill to his office...
• I've taken to referring to "Stripey" whenever I want to tease Asia about his girlfriend... remember the striped underwear? It's probably not good for our marriage, but it's sure funny.
• I got an email confirmation for my CHA tradeshow registration... I'm going to Vegas, baby! Early February. YAY!
• Three of my girlfriends are coming over Wednesday afternoon to help me move into my cupboards... they're all organizing mavens, and I thought it would be great to have a well-thought-out plan for putting everything away... I can't wait for them to see the kitchen and to share the fun of arranging my new spaces.
• I'm almost finished with the extended family Christmas shopping... S. and I went out Saturday afternoon and busted through the list like pros. She was infinately patient with me as I hemmed and hawed about what would be the perfect gift for each person... now I've got to squeeze in time to wrap everything. I need hired help.
• K. wants to go see Narnia for his birthday this year. Being a Christmas Eve baby, he's prone to feeling gyped on his special day, so we try really hard to make it memorable for him. I haven't talked to anyone who's seen it yet... I hope it lives up to the hype.

Speaking of K., he just came upstairs. I can't really listen to him gibber-jabber and concentrate on writing, so I'm off.

Happy Monday, friends.