Some "Hoopla" and Some News

My new blogging buddy, Andrea, from Lifesong has created a new Christmas meme; but we aren't allowed to call it a meme. She has made the executive decision to heretofore refer to it as a "hoopla". I like it. The word "meme" has never made much sense to me. She has tagged me for the meme hoopla so I'm going to attempt to do this today. I'll post her instructions for the hoopla here and if I tag you, you'd better do it, y'here?? So, here are the rules:

1. List 12 random things about yourself that has to do with Christmas

2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word

3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.

4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

So, are you up for it? I hope so. This could be hard for me because the juices that flow to my brain just aren't doing their job as of late; so we'll see how it goes!

12 CHRISTMAS THINGS ABOUT ME

1. I have to have my Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. Before is, obviously, too early. And after, to me, is just unacceptable. The sooner I can get Christmas spirit flowing through my house, the better.

2. The more lights, the better. And they have to be multi-colored; and blinking, if possible. None of these plain, white, non-blinking lights for me, thankyouverymuch.

3. I don't care if it's 70 degrees in December; if at all possible (i.e. I have firewood at my disposal) I must have a fire in the evening to go along with the lights and festive-ness of the Christmas decorations.

4. I don't bake at all much at Christmas time. I feel like such a schmuck, too; especially this year when that seems to be the big thing around the blog-o-sphere right now. Man, my poor kids. Now that I have more time (more on that in a little bit), maybe I can do a little more baking.

5. When I was a kid, we always opened our presents on Christmas Eve. In my family, the kids open their gifts on Christmas morning. (Except for the grandparents gifts, which they open on Eve---whichever grandparents we happen to be spending Eve with).

6. I didn't believe in Santa as a child. Not that my parents ever said, "Santa does not exist". They just never did the Santa thing so we didn't know any different. Until other kids would talk about Santa.

7. My kids do believe in Santa Claus. And I love living vicariously through them. They write letters to Santa every year, and I (as Santa) write them letters back. They look forward to checking the mail every day until they receive their letter from Santa. I think it's about as much fun for this mama as it is for them.

8. One of my favorite things to do when I was young (and still to this day) is drive around looking at the lights on people's houses. We would always try to find the houses and neighborhoods with the most lights and drive around for hours looking at them while we played Christmas music in the car. I have passed this most favorite tradition of mine onto our children and they love it just as much as I did. In fact, this is our plan for the evening after I get home from work. They can't wait.

9. We always had a real tree when I was growing up. I love, love, love the smell of pine that comes with a real tree. Alas, as an adult, I have a fake tree. We had a real tree for a couple of years, but the difficulty we had getting one that would stand up straight, plus the fun of keeping it watered and not drying out before Christmas was just too big a pain. Of course, now we have a fake tree that literally takes me almost two hours to get put together, so I'm about to scrap that idea and go for a real one again next year. Who knows. My kids want two trees. They don't ask for much. (Probably cuz Grandma has two trees......)

10. I can't stand tinsle. And I mean that silver, stringy stuff that gets all over the house and rarely stays on the tree. I won't buy it.

11. I am notorious for leaving my tree up for a good month after Christmas is over. I have a horrible time letting go. That and the fact that it's much more fun to put it up than take it down.

12. I can't remember the last time I travelled anywhere for Christmas. I prefer to stay on the home-front.

I DID IT. Can't believe my brain came up with 12 things! Now it's your turn.
I tag:

Pea
Mom (Grandma Dawn)
Joey
Diane
Sherry

And now for some news. I visited my perinatal specialist's office again yesterday. They want to continue to "keep tabs" on the babies since one, in particular, is measuring significantly smaller than she should. As it turns out, they are both measuring significantly smaller than they should, which has them concerned. Apparently (and I never knew this--in fact, I've learned more about pregnancy through this one than I probably ever cared to know), there are two arteries that flow from/to each umbilical cord. They believe that the reason the babies are measuring so small has to do with the fact that the blood flow from one of these arteries to each baby isn't quite doing its job as well as it should. They don't believe the babies are in any immediate danger, but are concerned that because of this, the girls might just decide, "Screw this....let's get out of here" much quicker than they should. I'm right at 29.5 weeks. Wayyyy, wayyyy to early to have these children. So, basically, I was told under no uncertain terms that I am "not to be working 40 hours a week anymore". And today, as a result of Dr. Hobbins frustration with how difficult this is becoming to accomplish for me, he is almost flat out saying he doesn't want me working at all. Needless to say, he's justalittleirritatedwithmyemployers. So, anyhoooo.....that's what's going on with me. I don't know what my official schedule is going to look like, or if I'm going to have one at all. Every day is an adventure and a mystery in my world.

Please pray for little Emma and Kate that they'll grow and stay put for at least another 7 or 8 weeks at least. Oh, yeah. Did I forget to tell you? Emma and Kate. Those are their names. Their real names. I don't have the brain power to come up with clever nicknames for babies I haven't met yet and I'm tired of calling them squirts. So, it's Emma Faith and Katherine Hope. (Kate). I guess the baby name game can be officially over. I had a lot of fun reading everyone's suggestions and I appreciate all the input. Hope you all like the names we chose.....although I'm sure it's impossible to please everyone!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!