Letters to Beth {smog, binkies, and Christmas}

Dear Beth,
That story of you holding smith and bear at the therapist office, and Smith slipping out of your arms with you yelling for help was too funny. I could almost hear your cute voice yelling for the therapist. I want to eat the schnitzel, and glory be that chocolate sounds amazing. I may have to read Little Women next. I am embarrassed to say I have never taken the time to read the actual book, but I did grow up watching the movie. The waitress Paige is starting to grow on me in my book. She is not as skanky as I thought. Her character is developing more and more, and I'm beginning to feel some empathy for her life experiences. Nicholas is still a big fat jerk. I am glad he has not been in the last few chapters. Her high school boyfriend {I think his name is Jacob, no relation to any vampires} is a dream, although he was kind of jerky at first too. I am so angry with her for leaving him. He turned out to be madly in love with her, but I understand why she had to go, even though I would have stayed. Nonetheless, Little Women is next. Thank you for the recommendation.  

The corn snow is falling this morning. We have had almost zero snow this month and 100% smog. The air has been so gross. No storms to clear the air out. Cough. Cough. On Monday we drove to Park City, and I gasped when we started driving up the canyon. We drove up out of the smog, which my eyes had started to believe were actually clouds, and into gorgeous blue skies. Driving home was depressing. Down out of the clear, sunny, blue skies, and into the polluted smog. BARF. My grass is still green. I am so envious of all of your snow. We are supposed to get a few inches today. I just hope they don't melt away by Christmas. I really will take whatever we can get though. Every morning Brennan wakes up and asks if it's Christmas yet. I told him it has to snow, and there have to be presents under the tree. The weather may make me half a liar. I haven't wrapped any presents yet. I promised myself last year that I wouldn't wait to wrap the presents until Christmas Eve ever again. It appears I may be heading for that same fate. Have mercy.

Last night I made my oreo balls. Note to self: make two batches next year. They are tasty as ever. Lemon bread is next.

I completely overspent at Costco for our Christmas food. I could barely push the cart by the end and had to forgo getting Sean's compressed air that I had missed on the loop through. With both kids in the cart, and all of the food, there was no way I was going back. I was just trying to not huff and puff. He forgave me when I showed him the Mexican coke in the bottles.

Did you ever get my Christmas card? I want to see how long it takes to get a letter to Germany. I sent it last Wednesday. I'm guessing a week is not enough.

The nesting bug is taking over. I organized my pantry about a month ago. Then last weekend I went to brush my teeth and 2 hours later we had two very organized closets upstairs. Every time I go into my bathroom I open the closet door and admire my work. Organizing never felt so good. We are talking 6 bags of trash and 6 bags of donations for the D.I. Sean's first question was what did I throw out of his. Smart man. I was proud to say almost nothing. A few scarves I had never seen him wear, but that was it. The rest was all mine. You wouldn't believe how much stage makeup I had been holding onto from high school. Old sample lotions from Clinique. Dingy travel sized bottles. Things like that. I have no idea why I waited this long to get rid of it all. I was sad to see the pink caboodle with my name on it go, but there was just no reason to hold onto it anymore. It was the one my mom bought me for clogging in elementary school. I always felt so grown up carrying that around at competitions. I did save one little red makeup tote with blush brushes and mirrors for Max. I did wrap that present, and I can't wait to give it to her on Christmas. She still thinks Santa and Mrs. Claus are the scariest people alive. I absolutely think it is the funniest thing to put her on their laps and take pictures of her screaming. Cruel? I think not. Comic relief:)

Brennan is leaving his binkies for Santa on Christmas Eve, along with the milk and cookies. He's been telling us he wanted to leave them for Santa to take to the other babies b/c he was a big boy and didn't need them anymore. In return, he would like a spiderman bike. We of course were the ones to feed this information to him in the first place, but he sounded sold {and very excited about his spiderman bike, might I add.}. Well, last night when I was putting him to bed he started whimpering about it. Told me he didn't want to grow up. Wanted to be a baby forever, NOT a big boy or a man, b/c he just couldn't part with his beloved binkies. I couldn't help but think of Peter Pan and the lost boys. I asked him if he was scared he was going to miss them. He said yes. So I asked him if every time he missed them after giving them away to Santa for the babies that don't have binkies in the world if he would like to come and get a hug from me to make him feel better. He said yes, that would be nice. Man, this growing up stuff if rough. I just know it's time for the binkies to go. It hasn't been before, but now it is.

We are picking my mom up from the airport in about an hour. She took the redeye from Hawaii last night. I am so excited to have her here. I can't wait to see those stockings filled and presents filling in the floor under the tree. I hope you have the merriest of Christmas's with lots of really good food, fun, and laughter.

Love,
Emily