Thursday Ten: Christmas Eve Eve Day Edition

1. Tomorrow is Christmas eve – I can’t believe how quickly it’s come – and how utterly unprepared I feel, even though I know that I’ve bought every gift I meant to buy (don’t ask me how much of it I’ve wrapped though, because…blergh. I’ll be wrapping presents all night tomorrow). Tomorrow, the girls and I will continue our yearly tradition of making monkey bread. Christmas morning, while we’re opening gifts, we’ll warm the monkey bread in the oven – and once all the gifts are open, we’ll frost and eat monkey bread for breakfast. Yes, most of my holiday traditions revolve around baking. You’re not surprised, right?

2. The awesome folks at Oceanhouse Media have given me some iTunes codes for their apps to share with y’all. Oceanhouse makes some of my favorite iPhone apps to share with my kids – WE LOVE the Dr. Seuss story apps – it allows my kids to either read the story to themselves – or it will autoplay to read the story to them. I have seven codes for seven different apps – and I’ll give ’em on a first come – first serve basis. If you want one, let me know. Some are holiday related (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph Camera, etc) – some aren’t (Hop on Pop, One Fish Two Fish). They’re awesome though, and they’re yours. Just ask.

3. We’ve nearly made it through the first week of the kids being home on holiday break – we’re finding our groove – which is good. Monday? Was rough. So was Tuesday. Yesterday? A wee bit better. I figure by next Friday we ought to be golden… you know… just in time for them to return to school after the first of the year.

4. This morning over breakfast (everything bagel with REAL butter and a glass of cranberry juice), I allowed myself a few more pages of one of the gifts I purchased for myself for Christmas. Karen Walrond’s The Beauty of Different is beautiful and rich and the essays are meaningful and thought-provoking. I’m just enamored by this book. If I’d read it earlier in the holiday season, it would have been a gift I shared with family and friends for sure. I bet I’ll be gifting it in 2011.

5. Pumpkin has two volumes: Yelling and Sleeping. As I type, she’s sitting on the stairs, yelling at the dog about something (she gives him far too much credit – I’m sure he has no idea what the hell she’s yelling about). Yelling drives me bonkers – so lately, on a mission to curb the volume, I’ve told her that I won’t respond if she’s yelling for no good reason. Biting my tongue is awfully difficult. {“STOP YELLING! STOP YELLING! STOP YELLING! – There. I had to get that out of my system.}

6. If you came over because of my interview with @MeetingBoy this week, I hope you’ll stay and hang out awhile. Delurk, say hello, put up your feet and have a drink (don’t forget to use a coaster).

7. I have been road testing a Dell Inspiron One over at BD – and I have to say, I think I’m in love. The touch screen is pretty awesome – and I’ve had a blast exploring its features. Keep an eye out in the next week or so (don’t worry, I’ll remind you), as we’ll be giving one away on BD. Trust me, you’ll want to win one. I’m pretty amazed by it. As I’ve mentioned over there, I received it for review from Dell – and the opinions are my own and only my own (Well, the girls have an opinion too – their opinion is that I’m the best mom ever because my computer is so cool).

8. Remember when I posted my lovely pictures of holiday lights? I needed some Christmas cheer this year so we got some indoor/outdoor lights and I thought of how much they would uplift me to have these colorful bulbs framing my windows. Yeah, well. Those suckers get hot. No more lights. Also, I may need to work a little upholstery mojo on this chair.

9. Sooooo, that Skype outage yesterday… That sucked, didn’t it? (Raise your hand if it made you even a tiny bit twitchy)

10. Alright, so I’ve shared some of my traditions with you (Sugar. Sugar. More sugar). Do you have any holiday traditions? Tell me about ’em.