We would have slept in nice and late on Christmas morning. The boys being 12 and 13 they don’t get you up at the buttcrack of dawn like little ones do. But unfortunately 2011 will be remembered as Merry Poopmas or Poop-Pocalypse 2011. Rufus the wonder beagle is afraid of boxes. When we’ve moved in the past he has made this quite evident. I think the stress of our recent move and the big boxes for the man’s Christmas presents sent him over the edge. We woke up way too early to a dog who had filled his sleeping crate with poo. So the dog and the crate and the surrounding floor got washed very early. Thank goodness the floor was tile.  He looks so innocent here, but don’t let it fool you.

The boys were very happy with their presents – the big dude had a very video game Christmas. He even got video game inspired t-shirts. I am totally not happy with how fast he is growing up.

The little dude got a lot of wrestling related gifts and tees. He is still all about the wrestling. They even got to go and see the Smackdown taping here in town a few weeks ago. He desperately needs a haircut, but I’m loathe to chop off his curls.

The man got manly things, like firepits and toolboxes and things for the Jeep. Hence the big boxes that caused the poo. I had a totally camera Christmas. Sadly the 50mm lens that I got for Christmas was flawed, so I had to send it back. But a new one is already en route, so no worries. And even with the flaws, did you see that awesome pic I got of Rufus up there? Love it!

But now I’m thinking about 2012. Not in an end the world sort of way, but more in a what do I want to do with the year sort of way. I already have a motto for 2012. And a buzzword. My buzzword is mighty. And my motto?

She believed she could, so she did.

The stockings are actually coming along – believe it or not. The first one is done – here’s a grainy cellphone picture of it:

The second one is in progress even! I’m debating whether to do two designs and knit each one in red and green or do four designs. The fifth one is for the dog, so his will be a bit different. Yes, I’m planning on knitting a stocking for the dog. Yes, he gets presents. No, we are not crazy dog people.

How’s your Christmas knitting coming?

I do have some amazing things coming up soon. I’m very excited about the publication of this secret design, and I’m working on a new e-book, and the first design should premiere in June. So that will be fun – I hope you’ll love the e-book idea as much as I do.

In life news we are quickly approaching the end of the school year. Which I’m excited about – because I love having the boys home with me, and also because (in theory) I will save gas by not driving them to school everyday. Though I’m pretty sure that we’ve got so much planned this summer that I won’t be saving any money on gas. The mom taxi will most likely be in heavy use this summer. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What are you working on?

Yesterday we spent an awesome day at Universal. Our season passes are winding down so we want to get a couple of trips in before they expire. It was a beautiful day at the park – 70 degrees, sunny and bright. And granted – my boys are tall – the older is 5’6″ and the younger is about 5’1″ but how small is the person in this suit?

My younger boy made his acting debut in the Disaster Film flick “Mutha Nature”. We were lucky to get right up front so he could get chosen!

We took some pictures in Toon Lagoon – that’s one part of the park I hope they never change. I love seeing all the old comic strips and characters.

I rode the Hulk with my older boy and the Flight of the Hippogriff with my youngest. The Beetlejuice show was better than usual – and it’s always fun. And we ended the night with dinner at my favorite Orlando restaurant – Uno’s. All in all it was a pretty much perfect day.

When I was a little girl we had a small stack of Christmas albums. And when I say albums, I do mean albums. Real vinyl. I don’t remember the name of my favorite album, but I do remember a few of the songs. One was “Santa Claus for President” song, which of course seemed perfectly logical and sound to an eight year old girl who still believed.

But my favorite, the end-all be-all on that album, was “Snoopy’s Christmas”. I listen to it today and all of the sudden I’m eight years old again. And when I was eight, my sister and I would fly all around the tiny livingroom with our arms stretched out like wings. We were airplanes and we would stop dead in our flightpaths and yell out in unison when the Baron cried out, “Merry Christmas my friend!!!” I did it with my boys when they were little.

So be little while you can. Fly around the livingroom and crash into each other. Make memories. Because you never know when stupid things in life will happen.

Today it was kind a run around like a chicken with your head cut off sort of day. The big boy had his wilderness camping trip this weekend. We packed his bag last night.  So that tonight when it was time to drop him off at the Scout hut, he would be Ready. Yes, that capital R was on purpose. I looked at everything he had laid out and approved it, and it was good.

Tonight when we arrive at the Scout hut at 5:35 (five minutes late) he realizes he has forgotten his Scout book. So I ask him, “Is it that important? Did you remember your hoodie?” And no he did not remember his hoodie. And it’s gonna be cold this weekend. So I raced back home to get him his hoodie and his book. Then I raced back home to prepare this for a charity auction.

Forgive the shoddy picture. It was dark and this was too big to put in my lightbox. It’s the Ultimate Brownie Basket. I put in that nifty As Seen On TV brownie pan, two boxes of brownie mix, Reese’s chips, Andes Chips, and walnuts. All you need to make super delicious brownies. And the man wrapped it up all nifty for me.

But I’m exhausted and tomorrow brings more things to do so I’m to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will include more knitting and less running around.

I was wrong. Dead wrong.

Apparently a bajillion people had the same good idea. There were tons of people there. Tons. People in tank tops and short-shorts. People who didn’t seem to understand that A. it was cold and B. even if it’s chilly outside (55 this morning!) you can still get a wicked sunburn.

The waits for rides weren’t horrible. But that was because most everyone was in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was so crowded that even the  lines for butterbeer were insane. And don’t get me started on the lines for Ollivanders or Dervishes & Bangs. People stood in line (forever!!!) to buy something. Something overpriced that would probably break before they made it to the airport.

In the good news department my 11 year old rode “Flight of the Hippogriff” with me. Rollercoasters (no matter how tame) are not his thing. But he had a blast. Of course he did spout out a few choice words of colorful language instead of shrieking or screaming. “Purple! Yellow! Reeeeeeeeeedddddd!”

Well I’ve been painting giant rockets…

And baking for my family because for some unknown reason I feel incredibly stressed.

Tomorrow it’s back to cranking out the new design and getting the pattern to the tech editor. Maybe I’ll hit the redbox and see what kind of cheesy movies I can find to keep me company!

Then I cleaned up my stinky self and headed over the shop to teach. Fortunately I was prepared for my classes. Unfortunately the vast majority of my students forgot to come. That was more than a wee bit frustrating.

Then I came home and got ready to head out to the Boy Scout Court of Honor and potluck. I was prepared – all my potluck stuff was fixed last night except for the guacamole. But my 10 year old aspiring chef made up fresh guacamole for us, so we bug sprayed ourselves up and headed out.

I took my knitting with me, but I didn’t get anything done. It was just hot to knit with alpaca and silk and cashmere. The dinner was good – if not just a bit too long. It is still very hot out there, and 2.5 hours sitting in a muggy Florida forest was not the most enjoyable. Despite copious application of bug spray, the bugs were still biting. And as the awards and announcements went on and on I found myself very sleepy. Until the closing ceremony.

I know what today is. It is impossible to forget. Everywhere in the media you are reminded. Of what happened. And to remember where you were. Everyone has a story. For mine, I worked at a newspaper at the time. Now that was a surreal place to hear about all that was going on.

But the closing ceremony tonight was a Flag Retirement Ceremony. And suddenly scruffy, smelly boys stood up tall in their Boy Scout Uniforms and paid attention. Each flag was saluted before it was lowered into the fire. Moving words were spoken, and all was hushed and reverent. It was  kind of eerie actually. But as the flags burned I remembered what today is, what it means to our country. And so it was one of those days. The kind of day you can’t define, but are too tired at the end of it to even trek out to buy yourself a well deserved drink. Not a better day or a worse day, but a full day nonetheless.