Holly Jolly Christmas

Well, here it is Christmas eve morning. The cookies have been baked, the cupcakes are still waiting to be iced, but the pumpkin spice cake, the cinnamon rolls, the brownies, the Texas Trash and the fudge are all done. My hands look like they have been put through a meat grinder. All the washing, the drastic dropping in outside temperature and just general use have left them cut and scraped and red and chapped. I have cuts on almost every knuckle from scraping my hands under my kitchen cabinets, there is a deep cut on the inside of my left palm from the aluminum foil box, and my right thumb knuckle and most of the back of my right hand are healing from a very unfortunate altercation with my micro plane zester. Isn't baking fun?? How does Martha keep her hands so nice??


Tonight I am preparing dinner for my inlaws. The main dish will be wonderful yummy chicken parmesan bundles and I am serving a salad and PW's olive cheese bread on the side. I hope they like it. I just love cooking for people - it's too bad I am not better at it! lol!

I can't believe Christmas is here. It just happened so fast. Kiddo is of course enjoying all the family coming to visit. He cried for a while after my parents left yesterday, but all was well again when Grammy and Happy arrived. They stopped by briefly and then went to their lodging to unload the car. We met them later on at a restaurant for dinner. After dinner, we got back in the car and Kiddo was thinking we were going to follow them to their place. We told him that G&H were going "nite-nite" and that we would see them in the morning and surprisingly he was ok with that.

When we got back home, Kiddo told me it was time for a bath, and drug me into the bathroom. Now if you know the Kiddo at all, you know that bath time is always a struggle, and he never wants to go, even after much prompting, cohearsing and/or threatening. So for him to instigate bath time was quite strange. He got himself undressed, played for a few minutes and then was ready for his "scrubbin'". I bathed him, dried him off and he brushed his teeth for a minute and then let me brush them without the usual fuss.

Once that was done, he played with Hubby for a few minutes while I prepared his drink and shut down the house. I was expecting us all to hang out in my bedroom like we normally do, but instead Kiddo met me in the hallway and told me it was time to go to bed. He wouldn't even go in my room for a minute, so I put his jammies on him in the dark and then he piggy backed to my room to tell Daddy goodnight.

I was just amazed at his initiative. We laid down in his bed, said his prayer and I started in on my usual story (every night it is the same - Cars). While we were laying there in the dark, the cat came into Kiddo's room and jumped into the bed with us.

Now I don't often talk about the cat. She kind of keeps to herself and can't often be bothered with the humans in her life. She rarely ever needs anything more than feeding and watering, and spends most of her days outside or asleep in some out of the way spot in our house. However, lately she has been more present than usual - maybe due to the cold outside or the fact that she might not be feeling up to snuff, but whatever the case, she suddenly loves to sleep with the Kiddo on cold nights. Most of the time she will jump in his bed and curl up behind his legs and almost immediately go to sleep. Last night though, she jumped up and stepped in between Kiddo and I, putting herself in a prime spot to get some stroking from me while I told Kiddo his bed time story.

As I ran my hand along her fur she purred and kneaded my leg gently, making sure to retract her claws with each push. It was sweet, and I was reminded of how much I loved having cats as a child, and how they always brought me comfort when they were sweet and loving. After a few minutes, the cat got up, turned around and headed toward her usual spot behind Kiddo's legs.

But before she departed to space between Kiddo and I...

she farted.

Now, I can honestly say that in all my years of animal ownership, I have experienced my fair share of animal flatulence, but I cannot recall ever, ever hearing or witnessing a cat pass gas.

I was in shock for a moment, then went back to my story while the cat settled into the warmth of Kiddo's legs.

And then, it hit us.

You know what I am referring to - the dreaded Green Cloud.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I was trying so hard not to choke and tried so hard to keep on track with the story, but Lord Have Mercy my eyes were watering. Kiddo was laying there, happily sucking on his sippy-ed drink and listening. But I couldn't take it any more. I gagged slightly and whispered to him, "do you smell that?"

That was all it took. Poor Kiddo must have been lying there, desperately trying to think of words to express what he was experiencing and all it took was me breaking the ice.

He burst into the most hysterical laughter I've heard from him in a long while.

Remember when you were a kid and you had a sleepover, be it with friends or family, and someone gets tickled and everyone just can't stop laughing??

Yeah, we laughed for probably 20 minutes. We couldn't stop. Hubby finally came into the room to see what the hysterics were about. And in between gasps I tried to tell him the story. Soon he was laughing just as hard with us.

It took forever to get Kiddo settled back down, but eventually he went to sleep and I went back to my room.

Hubby and I laughed about it some more.

And when Kiddo got up this morning, the first thing he did was start to giggle and said "Mi-mi cat is stinky!"

Oh man, what a Christmas tale. ;)

Until,
D :)