Like a basketball court in our basement

The thing about this time of year is that we can't get outside with our son and run around as much as we'd like. Sure, we can go in the snow, but it gets dark early and sometimes it's too cold or sloppy.

Luckily we have a nice playroom in our basement, and we sometimes play a little soccer with a light ball down there.

Thanks to Hasbro and the great people at Litzky PR, my family was given a chance to try out Nerf Wall to Wall Basketball.

Assembly was simple, once hubby and I got past our problem with putting the nets on the rims. That was definitely more our problem than a problem with the directions, as once we actually looked closely at the directions, we got the nets on with no problem. We installed one net on each of two opposite walls. We put them at different heights, one that would be reasonable for our son right now, and one that he will grow into.

We played a family game of basketball for about 15 minutes, and it was so much fun. It got us running in the basement, and even though the basement isn't all that long, it felt like we were getting some good activity.

My 6'4" husband was like a wall when it came to blocking, but my son and I got a couple of shots past him. My son suggested that hubby squat when playing defense, but hubby determined that his knees wouldn't take that.

This is a great toy to give your kids a little physical activity on a rainy or cold day, and if you don't have a long enough room to build yourself a little court, put the nets next to each other for a free throw contest.

It's reasonably priced and available at your local toy store. Perfect for a last minute gift!

Two weeks

I've gone two weeks without posting. Not sure I've ever done that before. This might be my last post of 2009, so think of this as a year end recap...Or something.

Last week our living room looked like it exploded, thanks to a strange cycle of a gift from my mom leading to us buying something else which led to us buying a tv stand and selling the old stereo and cabinet I bought in 1992 that was being used as a TV stand. If reading that didn't frazzle you, seeing our living room in the midst of that would have - CD/DVD stand moved uncomfortably close to the tree with DVD player and VCR on top, stereo cabinet pulled away from the wall, two large speakers in front of the couch, TV on the floor, large box containing oak TV stand that required two hours of assembly also in front of the couch. Small area remaining in which to move.

By Friday, all was as it should be, except that the TV stand has uneven doors...We have decided to live with this. Monday through Friday I felt very disorganized and overwhelmed...Then it was fine. :-)

The Christmas countdown is in full force at our house. The Advent chain is nearly completely unraveled, the moose or reindeer with a little chalkboard proclaims that there are 3 days until Christmas, and our son is thoroughly excited.

Also exciting: 11 days of no work coming up soon.

2009 has been a wacky year. A good year. For anything that might not have happened exactly the way we would have planned it, we have been blessed with several things happening beyond any expectations or hopes we had.

I will go into 2010 feeling optimistic, happy, blessed and content. I wish the same for you. Merry Christmas!

By the way - Pop quiz - Two thousand ten or twenty ten? I'm hearing a lot of twenty ten, but if that's going to be the case, then why wasn't it twenty oh nine?

Giving

Last year we ended up donating a toy to the Toys for Tots box at Toys R Us. Our family is very blessed, and we like to give back during the holidays. We feel this is especially important to teach our son, as it is easy to look at the many gifts under the tree and forget that some people are much less fortunate.

Prior to choosing to give to Toys for Tots, we attempted to get a tag from our church's angel tree. The only tags left were for adults, and we were looking for one for a child so our son could pick out something he would really like to have to give to someone else. The requests on the adult tags struck me as odd: "Karaoke machine" "Gift card for CDs". We expect to give toys to kids in needs, but for some reason for adults in need, it seemed different.

The next weekend, I was speaking to a friend of mine whose place of employment "adopts" a family at Christmas. Her opinion on the matter made a lot of sense to me: "They might be able to afford all their necessities, but not extras. They're being given an opportunity to ask for something they want, so why not be frivolous?" After that conversation, I was all for asking for donations of karaoke machines and the like.

My mom recently brought up a similar situation, where an adult in an "adopted" family at her work was requesting things like a Glamour Shots gift certificate (is Glamour Shots really still around?) and a gift card to a fancy salon. I brought up the point that my friend had shared, saying why not ask for something you want when you can afford only what you need. My mom brought up yet another valid point, referencing her own struggles years ago, and how my dad worked 18 hours a day to still barely make ends meet, and they never would have considered asking someone for something so frivolous should the opportunity arise.

When she makes it personal, it's hard to not accept her point as well. She made another good point: If the people can afford their necessities, why not ask for a grocery store gift card, then spend the cash they don't have to spend on groceries for that something frivolous, and then the givers wouldn't be involved in the frivolity.

It's a tough one. People should give with a happy heart...But I can see how donating a fancy salon gift card to someone in need when you yourself don't go to a fancy salon could be challenging.

The funny part is, I don't even think twice about this when it comes to children. If the person in need was requesting socks for their child, we would give them socks and a toy to go with them. Why does it somehow seem different to donate "toys" to adults?

Tis the season to get crabby while waiting to talk to Santa

We took our son to see Santa at the mall yesterday. Santa arrived at noon. We arrived about 11:40, and the line was already forming, as expected. The wait was about an hour total. All the children seemed to be waiting very patiently, but my goodness - The parents. The way I look at it, if your child is able to be patient while waiting in line, then surely you should be able to.

The first thing that happened was just kind of silly. We weren't really in a position to see where Santa would be, but I said to my son "I think he's going to get here soon!" The man in front of me turned around and said "Oh - He's already there!" That might not have been so strange had the man not been in line alone, and finally left the line after about a half hour of waiting. Apparently he chickened out on the notion of a grown man waiting to see Santa on his own.

Several people behind us was a mother and daughter. After about 10 minutes of waiting, the mom said "This line is too long. Let's just leave." The line is only going to get longer later in the day and closer to Christmas.

Several people behind us, I overheard a mom say to another adult, while pointing at the overhead screen that advertised events in the mall "They should really be showing a movie up there. There should be a movie. They should show Nemo or something." All the while, her child seemed perfectly content to wait.

But the best, best example of adult impatience? The grandmother who was there with her daughter and grandchildren. She was not actually waiting in line, but wandering around watching the other children meet Santa, making comments and actually looking over another mother's shoulder as she looked at her child's photo with Santa. The grandmother's family was waiting behind us, and at one point she came over and said to the people behind us "I know what's taking so long! They're letting people take as many pictures as they want. One couple spent 15 minutes taking pictures of their kid with Santa." This had to be untrue, because if any one family had taken 15 minutes, the line would not have move as quickly as it did. She then went on to say "I hope they heard me. I said this is ridiculous and that people shouldn't be allowed to be there that long. I hope they do something about it." Because everyone knows the Christmas spirit is all about making passive complaint comments in hopes that they will be overheard and that action will be taken.

My son had a lovely visit with Santa. This must have been the same Santa as last year, because again my son was told "I have all those items in my workshop and I'll bring you everything you asked for." Um, really Santa? While that is completely feasible this year, what about the kid who asks for a big screen TV and an XBox?

After the boy before us was done visiting with Santa, Santa stood and had a conversation with the boy's dad while the boy stood with his mom, which was kind of funny. They seemed to be exchanging information in hushed tones.

Stay away scrooge

For those who asked about the car, it's a Hyundai Santa Fe. It is actually a 2009 model, but it was previously a rental, so it isn't new, but has very low miles so it's as good as new but less expensive. :-) We were looking something with good cargo capacity for camping gear, and decent towing capacity for the hopeful eventual purchase of a popup camper. We also wanted all wheel drive/4 wheel drive, and this vehicle met all those wishes, as well as being a Consumer Reports recommended vehicle. We are thrilled with it!

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One of my bosses came up to me yesterday and said "You got a new car? We must be paying you too much." And walked away. Isn't there some old saying about if you don't have something nice to say don't say anything at all? Yeah. Well, anyway.

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For segue from car to crabby people to Christmas, I'd like to talk briefly about my place of employment. As many of you know, I've been working on a forced reduced work schedule for most of this year as a result of the economy and slower business. Everyone here has been. I have worked here for over a dozen years and am the newest person here. Basically, we've all been here a long time. For most of that time, the economy has been good. The current owners, as well as the previous one, have always been very generous with us during good times. When things are good, we get really good bonuses. We get good wages and benefits.

Last year, things were not good, but somehow we still got bonuses. Not as big as before, but still wonderful - and unexpected. This year, things are worse, and basically I am happy to get a paycheck.

That being said, each year, employees have contributed a decent amount toward gifts for the owners. No one initiated it this year, and I didn't figure any of us really felt we could contribute like before, but remembering over a decade of generosity, I still wanted to do something. I suggested a baked good platter of sorts, where each of us contributed some sort of homemade goody and we combined them for a tasty gift. Most of my coworkers were receptive (acknowledging that their spouses would probably be doing the baking), but one in particular was surprisingly negative: "I don't bake and I don't want to do anything."

Sigh. I know he doesn't bake. His wife cooks/bakes by vocation. As far as not wanting to do anything? I have benefited from many years, as has everyone else here, of goodwill and generosity. The situation stinks a bit right now, and one of the owners in particular tends to take his frustration out on us, which I can't stand. But? I really don't appreciate them any less. When it comes down to it, they are sacrificing to keep us here as much and as long as possible. They were the first to have their own hours cut before anyone else's were touched. They pulled a bonus seemingly out of a turnip for us last year. If they have poor attitudes from time to time - Well, that's not for me to judge. I have choices. I choose to stick it out. I choose to be thankful, and I choose to celebrate Christmas. If that means making a batch of cookies or something to share with them, and making our homemade goody bags for coworkers - Even the scroogey one - Then bring it on.

I do bake, and I do want to do something.

Thankful...and then some

Hope everyone had a great holiday. Ours was wonderful. We did the quiet just-our-family Thanksgiving dinner (went and saw the inlaws at another gathering on the weekend). In the afternoon on Thanksgiving, we went and fed ducks and geese at a local park, who seemed quite appreciative of visitors bearing food on a cold, blustery holiday that seemed to yield no other park visitors.

We went to a store that was open on Thanksgiving and took advantage of some sales, but other than that, we went to no stores the entire weekend. Take that, Black Friday!

Not to say that no shopping was done - I made some online purchases and yesterday we made a major purchase - We got a new (to us) vehicle! It was something we had planned to do this past spring, but with job situations as they were, it was not practical.

We got some great news last week that hubby will be starting a new job soon - A job he has been after for a long time at a company he was previously associated with. This is huge news for our family. He will be doing something he really enjoys, and it goes a long way toward easing any burden that may have been felt as a result of my employment changes/uncertainty.

We have been truly blessed this holiday season, and I wish the same for you. :-)