DECEMBER ALREADY?!?!? WHAT THE FREAKING CRAP...?!?!?

Alright, so I'm not gonna lie, this whole year has kind of freaked me out a bit with how horribly FAST it's flown by. My daughter just turned four years old! When did this happen? As usual, the celebration kind of stretched out over three days, due to crazy schedules and everyone wanting to give her presents and say "Happy Birthday!"

This year, her birthday actually fell ON Thanksgiving day, so we celebrated with my family on Thanksgiving. She got presents and cake. Then, yesterday, we took the chiddlers to a matinee and saw "Frozen". (LOVED it, by the way. New favorite Disney movie!) Then we went home and gave her her last two presents, the doll versions of the two sisters that the movie's story line revolves around. She loved them. After a brief, 20 minute break, we drove north to go to a children's museum and visit with the chiddlers' OTHER grandparents, (Mickey and Allie, Ty's parents), and AJ got more presents. After a couple of fabulous hours at the museum, Ty's parents took us out to dinner, and then we headed home. Awesome day. A LONG day, but an awesome one.

Today, AJ opened the last of her birthday gifts, from Ty's Aunt Jitter in Chicago. The biggest present Aunt Jitter sent was a frilly pink princess dress, complete with scepter and tiara. AJ, being the princess she is, insisted on wearing this frilly pink princess dress and crown all day long, and carrying around her scepter, ruling the land with stubbornness, adorableness, and charm.

Later in the afternoon, my family got together to carry out one of our most cherished Holiday traditions. One or two days after Thanksgiving, we go bowling. All of us. My parents, all of my siblings, any in-laws that have been lucky enough to marry into our family, (there are three, so far), the chiddlers, everyone.

There's a very important rule to being a part of this tradition, though. When entering our names into the scoreboard, everyone has to take on the name of a character from a Christmas movie. We each usually spend days thinking about what our chosen bowling alias will be, and then we bowl and eat bowling alley French fries. And THAT is how we kick off the Christmas season every year. Oh yes. Awesomeness.

Today was no different from any other year. I was "Arctic Puffin" from the movie "Elf", Ty chose to be "Buddy the Elf", CT was "Rudolph", and AJ picked "Princess Leia". (Don't ask me how Leia is involved with Christmas, but hey--when a four-year-old is rocking a frilly princess dress AND bowling shoes, what can you do other than let her pick whatever freaking princess name she wants? Ty was over the moon about it, I'll tell you that!) My younger brother, Kurt, was Buzz--the bully of a big brother from "Home Alone", and I lost track of who was who on the other two lanes. (We took up three.)

Anyway, things were going swimmingly as they have every year. I got lots of spares, and even two strikes in a row. (Oh yes, applause please!) I'd just finished up another impressive spare when I turned around and saw Ty holding AJ, who was screaming, tears streaming down her face. One thing I know as her mother, that particular cry meant she was hurt, pretty badly.

As soon as I walked over, she reached for me and I carried her over to one of the couches and sat with her as she cried and I tried to figure out what had happened. Apparently, AJ REALLY wanted to play with the pretty purple bowling ball. Unfortunately, the pretty purple bowling ball weighed 11 pounds, and I don't think she was quite ready to support that kind of weight in her hands. She dropped the ball, ONTO HER OWN FINGER, crushing it between the ball and the hard linoleum floor. The finger is quite swollen, and completely black and blue now, she'll probably lose the fingernail eventually. Even if it's not broken, it is very deeply bruised. On the bright side, the injured finger is her right middle finger. So for at least the first hour after the incident, she was flipping off everyone who walked by, and she couldn't get into trouble for it at all.

When AJ's turn came up again, I asked her if she was ready to bowl. She wiped away her tears and nodded, then said: "Can I still have the purple ball?" Well how could I say no, when she had sacrificed her own finger just to get that purple ball? I went over and got it, and since she was just using one of those kiddie ramps and the bumpers, she could just use her uninjured hand to push the ball down the lane.

After the bowling game was over, the kids went to play in the arcade. AJ played for a while, and seemed to be okay. Then we went out to dinner with my sister and her family before going to my parents' house for pie. While we were there, the kids were all playing together in the basement while the grown-ups stayed on the main level and chatted about random stuff. A while later, my sister's three-year-old son, Mac, came running up the stairs, crying his eyes out. Apparently, the kids all decided to jump off of the couch downstairs onto the huge Love Sac (a big soft bean-bag-like pillow thing). Mac over-shot his jump, and landed on the floor. On his face. After crying into his mother's shoulder for a few moments, he suddenly popped up and said: "I'm okay, Mommy. I'm gonna go do it again!" And promptly ran back toward the basement before his mom could stop him. Yeah. My nephews are pretty hard core. Needless to say, all of us were laughing our heads off--except for Mac's mom, of course. Luckily, his dad came into the room and intercepted him before he could go and destroy himself.

After a little while longer, we packed up our two chiddlers and came home. They are now sleeping in their beds and I am writing a blog post. My first in a freaking MONTH!!! Sorry about that! But hey, the good news is, I finished my 15-page paper for my stupid online class that I hate with the fiery heat of a thousand suns. Ugh. I haven't learned a single thing from this class, but I still have to do at least an hour of busy work for it every single week. It SUCKS. And it's not even for my program, it's a stupid general education requirement. Stupid piece of crap class of stupidity and stupidness. Blech. I just hope my crazy professor decides he likes my 15-page paper and gives me a decent grade for it. Goodness knows I've worked my butt off!

And now I'm about to immerse myself in my Language Science class, a Speech Sample Project. This class actually is for my program, so it matters a LOT more. I can't screw this up! After that project is finished, I get to start studying for my finals. Three of them, taking place just a few days apart from each other. I probably won't be writing much more before the semester is over. Whether or not that totally ruins your week, I can't say. But don't you fret. I'll surely be back with more ramblings soon enough.