hard work around here

I seem to be drawing the short straw!

So far today:
up at 6
baked cookies, made frosting
nobody else woke until 8!!
to Costco and Kroger with Mother and Dillo (9:15-10:30)
ate lunch (leftover pizza for me)
caramelized sugar and glued gingerbread house together (with two watching children)
wrangled Dillo for a bit before his nap
made pie crust (trying the CI vodka recipe)
began boeuf bourguignon (lardons, cutting up and searing beef, making bouquet garni and putting the whole thing in the fridge to marinate until tomorrow, involved dishwashing, too, and de-greasing most of the stove after)

Meanwhile mr. flea raked some leaves, did some dishes and got food into the kids, now is dissertating (Christmas Eve he decides it's a good time to work??). Mother and Casper decorated the gingerbread house and cookies, then did some more leaf work and now are off to children's service at the Chapel. Mother's husband did what he does best, which is sit in a chair and read the paper and stay out of the way, then go back to the hotel for a nap. He has a date with the dishes after dinner, though.

Since the glueing of the gingerbread house and the searing of the beef are both high-stress tasks for me, I now have a sore lower back. Despite drinking a small glass of the marinating wine while I was searing. Now I am drinking hot cider and in approximately 15 seconds the Dillo is sure to wake up from his nap and need wrangling.

I am for sure not cooking dinner, I tell you that much.

um, okay...

So, things were going okay until I came in to find my mother had just posted to my livejournal. "You left it open!" she said. Um, no. I told her so, and she just left WITHOUT DOING THE DISHES.

Also, now I don't know what the plan is.

And Casper isn't going to bed.

Okay, mr. flea just told me the plan. They are coming back with presents in a little while.

I hope Casper falls asleep soon.

I also hope they do the dishes.

all is calm

Casper fell asleep, suddenly, in the middle of her procrastinatory singing.



They came back. They did the dishes.

Stockings are stuffed and out.



Tree is be-presented. (Minimalism, hah.)



Doll house is hiding behind the big pink chair.



mr. flea is wrapping presents in the bedroom, and I can't go to bed until he finishes. That's my husband!

Looking out the window at the big round moon.