When Tuesday feels like Monday

Thanksgiving is over, and we survived having everyone here for dinner again.  We also survived the rainy five-day weekend.  Barely.

Did you know that if you do something holiday-related with children just once it becomes an unbreakable tradition?  Choose your Christmas morning breakfast carefully, is what I'm saying.  I was not at all ready for our 'tradition' of decorating the house on the Monday after Thanksgiving, but there I was, shoulder-deep in our holiday decor closet.  I did take the opportunity to ditch a trash bag's worth of broken/nasty crap treasure.  SHHH.

I plan to go to the post office today and finally mail my CDP.  An added bonus for the recipient is that the longer it takes me to get it in the mail the more stuff I add to it.

Our leftovers are almost gone.  I'm going to make a double batch of Catherine Newman's Yamberry Muffins today with the last of the cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes.  I also have turkey bones in the freezer for soup.  Other than that, it's time to start cooking again.  *sigh*

We let the kids each choose a kind of Christmas cookie to make, and Eli wants to make gingerbread men.  I cannot wait to give him these ninjabread men cookie cutters.
(Which were only $7.50 when I bought them.  Oh, Amazon.  You and your wacky price changes.)

Speaking of Eli: "Mom, how come in stories the future is a place, but in real life it's just what happens next?"  Indeed.

Tuesday

• I made slow cooker baked potato soup the other night, and it was so. good.  And it makes a ton.  I used 1 package of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and 1/2 a container of Tofutti Sour Supreme instead of the two packages of cream cheese the recipe calls for.
• I had my yearly checkup with our GP yesterday.  Sitting in the exam room reading all of the posters about prostate cancer and COPD and gout always makes me feel young.  Plus, when I checked out, the receptionist said, "Let's see...Doctor wants to see you again in...a year!  Well!  Good for you!"  I'm a healthy young sprite who inherited freakishly low blood pressure. 
• One of my friends has been Ebaying for years.  She's been selling some items for me, and I love it.  It is totally worth it to me to give her a Very Reasonable fee for taking the photos, listing the items, mailing them, etc.    Found money!
• Kevin the parakeet was chirping away yesterday morning and Helen told him to be quiet.  She then turned to me and said, "I told Kevin to be quiet because he was beakin' at me."  Why yes, I will be adding 'beaking' to my vocab, thank you for asking.
• I just started watching "Grimm" on Hulu, and I really like it.  Very Buffy-esque.  (More so than the show with Buffy actually on it.)
• Graham is officially walking.  No more excuses: I have to go dig through the clothes closet and find him some shoes.  Send help if you don't hear from me soon.

Spooky

I began Halloween being splashed with toilet water, and not the fancy kind.  Our toilet was leaking down through our kitchen ceiling onto the counter.  GAH.  I called our beloved plumber's wife, who said she'd let him know.

Meanwhile, Eli had his first substitute teacher experience.  His Kindergarten classmate who likes to tell him, "I'm going to kick your butt," took this opportunity to repeat his threat. 

Me: What did you do?
Eli: I raised my hand.
Me: What did the substitute teacher do?
Eli: She didn't see me, so I said, "Excuse me but I need to tell you something."
Me: What did she say?
Eli: She didn't answer me.
Me: !!!  So what did you do?
Eli: I just tried not to look at [Bully].

We recounted the story to Katherine when she got home. 

Katherine: What was her name?
Eli:  Mrs. ___________
Katherine, with big eyes:  Mom!  That's the SHHHH!!!!!! Lady!
[Scott: I can think of another name for her.]
Katherine: She's the one who doesn't know the school rules and just says SHHHH!!!!!! all the time.

Poor Eli.  At least he has a big sister who commiserates with him.

That evening, I was on the phone and wasn't able to switch over to an incoming call fast enough.  The message said, "Sarah, this is [Plumber].  I was just finishing up a job on your street and thought I'd check in, but I guess you're not home, so I'll call y--"
I hung up on voicemail and went running outside just in time to see his truck turning off of our street.  I went running down the street after him, yelling, "MR. [PLUMBER]!!!"
In the rain.  In my socks. 

I dialed his home number and his wife answered.  I said, "YOUR HUSBAND JUST CALLED ME AND I DIDN'T GET TO THE PHONE IN TIME!  HE JUST TURNED OFF OF MY STREET!  PLEASE CALL HIM AND TELL HIM TO COME BACK!"

Silence.

"Is this Sarah?"

She did call him, and he spent the evening fixing the leak. 

And that was a scary enough Halloween for me.