TurtleHead

Why, it’s my birthday too! I’m 38 years old today, and after this past weekend’s trip, feeling every second of it. It was actually a pretty fun trip — we had a great time visiting everyone, and the kids were great. Unfortunately, no one slept at all. I’m at an age now where getting five hours of broken sleep per night requires at least a week of recovery time.

It’s been a good birthday so far. This morning I got some awesome gifts from the kids (this necklace from this shop on Etsy — thanks to facilitation by Mrs Carl Sagan, a set of silicone muffin cups that I really wanted, and a USB storage thingy so I can make that fifteenth backup of my stuff that I must have or else lose valuable sleep at night). Once the older two went off to school, I took Little Miss Sunshine out shopping and managed to actually complete almost all my Christmas shopping — I only have Sir Monkeypants left now. I just finished making cupcakes with the kids (and ate at least a whole cupcake’s worth of raw batter, yum) and then I made brownies and licked that bowl clean, too.

The brownies are for tonight’s PTA meeting. It’s only my second meeting so I felt I couldn’t skip it with the birthday excuse, but if I have to be there for three hours, dammit, there will be SQUARES. And tea too, maybe. I can’t figure out how to bring tea with me, though, other than to brew up a pot and carry it over, which seems a little dangerous. Hm.

The kids are very excited about the coming of my birthday because it is the official marker in this house of the beginning of Christmas season. My mom always had the rule that there would be NO talk of Christmas in the house until after my birthday, so we’ve introduced the same rule here (kind of as a joke, but also kind of to preserve Sir Monkeypants’ sanity). Gal Smiley is already ready to crack out the Christmas music and wants to hang up her stocking FIRST THING tomorrow. At this rate we should be good and ready for Santa’s arrival by November 25th.

I’m so glad I’m finished most of my shopping because it’s just over a month until Christmas, but there is still tons to do — wrapping, newsletter writing, card addressing, decorating, baking, and the inevitable last minute shopping for people I forgot. It’d be overwhelming if I still had to face the mall, as well.

Anyway, the cupcakes are just about ready to come out of the oven so I better be there so I can eat a warm one. Birthday cupcakes are calorie free!