sarah · dessen

1. After three Christmas celebrations in three nights, a couple of meltdowns, lots of yummy deserts and and endless amount of new plastic toys, Christmas finally came to an end for us. Whew! It was lots of fun, I have to say, especially getting to see Sasha meet and interact with so many of her relatives. It's always so great to me to see how people act differently around a baby. Even someone who has always seemed pretty serious can get all coochie-coo on you, making funny faces and talking in a high voice. Looking back over the entire holiday season now---the shopping, our Christmas party, and the days themselves of gift giving and visiting and obligations---I'm still not quite sure how we managed to do it. It just kind of....happened. It's the way a lot of things are since we had the baby, I realized. I think, "There's no way I can do that," and then it's, "Well, I guess we're doing it," followed by, "How in the world did we do that?" But there's no real time to consider the question because we're already moving onto the next thing. Which is what I should do now.

2. Want to know a fast and easy way to break that holiday leftover snacking habit? Have the thermostat on your fridge break, and all your food goes bad! That's what happened here yesterday. Woke up to a puddle by the fridge, and a bad smell. SO much stuff had rotted overnight, and a lot more was just questionable enough to have to go as well. Can I tell you that I almost wept tossing two Amy's pizzas into the trash? And don't even get me started on the meatloaves I lovingly prepared in bulk so I wouldn't have to cook on busy weekday nights. Sigh. Oh, well. As I said, tossing out the cakes and cookies wasn't necessarily the worst thing for my waistline. Although that pecan pie was so good.....

3. We have a new show addiction: Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America. I've know there was a US version, but I never saw it or Hell's Kitchen, the other US show featuring Gordon Ramsay. But this show I love, probably because I did work in a restaurant for so long. Basically the idea is he goes to failing restaurants and helps them, although help is kind of a weird word considering he's pretty mean about it sometimes. (Okay, a lot of the time.) Still, it's compelling TV, even if I can't ALWAYS understand what everyone is saying. (I know, I know, I'm such an American.)

4. For Christmas, Sasha received an Exersaucer, which is about the craziest thing I've ever seen. Basically it's this circular thing covered with toys, and you plop her down in the middle of it, where there's a little seat, and she can just go to town on it. She doesn't really have the greatest hand coordination right now, so most of the stuff she hits accidentally, but it doesn't take much to set off three different songs and a ton of lights and all kinds of activity. After ten minutes she's glassy eyed she's so overstimulated, but she does really like it. And of course now I have "She'll be coming round the mountain," and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and various other nursery rhyme songs in my head ALL THE TIME. But it's because of the Exersaucer that I am getting to write this right now, so....yeah for the Exersaucer!

5. There are only four days left of 2007, which has me thinking about how I should spend them. What haven't I done this year? So much! There were tons of books I meant to read, places I wanted to travel to, skills I planned to master. On the other hand, I did manage to accomplish a few big things, like finishing my book and, um, bringing a baby into the world. Who knows what excitement 2008 will bring. I can't even imagine. So I guess I'll just eat my collards and black eyed peas on New Year's Day, hope for the best, and wait and see.

Have a great rest of the year, everyone!