And now for something completely different...: A Very Goopy Christmas 2012

The rain has been relentless these past couple of weeks.

But, finally, there was a break!

We decided to venture out on Christmas Eve Day to hit a playground.

It was plenty cold, so we were the only ones there.

Some of us needed to work out a little energy.

"That'll be 2 dollars for the ice cream, please".

Huzbend decided to conquer Beef Wellington for Christmas Eve dinner.

It took him something like 4 or 5 hours to cook it up.

It took ME 4 or 5 loads of dishes to clean up after the various stages of meal creation.

That's the truth.

Final product.....

.....Delicious.

The kids did not partake of the beef.

I think Katie had potatoes and green beans while Mikey had mac n' cheese.

But everyone finished up their version of dinner and it was time for our Christmas Eve tradition.

Apple dippers.

The "Excited for Christmas" shot.

The "Hey! Who farted?" shot.

The "Obligatory Ninja" shot.

And then, the next day, it was PRESENT TIME!!!!!

Katie has the best, "OMG! This is JUST what I wanted!" pictures.

In case you were wondering why our daughter looked a bit, uh, clownish.

She got some organic kiddie makeup for Christmas this year.

She applied it herself.

Mikey's gift-opening excitement is usually limited to a brief but poignant,

"WHOA!"

Then he studies them for about 5 minutes.

Here they are in action.

We were invited to a neighbors house for Christmas dinner.

Our neighborhood is just too awesome.

The neighbors are so friendly they make me feel shmuckish most of the time.

The food was great and the entertainment.....stunning!

The evening was topped off with a rousing rendition of the repeated chorus of Jingle Bells accompanied by piano banging.

The kids were fading fast, so we headed home to begin conquering the Lego sets.

OH! Did I mention Legos?!??!

Yeah. Legos.

The kids ended up getting a million Lego sets.

Actually, it turned out to be a dozen sets.

A dozen sets that Huzbend spent the next three days building.

Here's some of his handy work......

Katie built and populated the beauty shop below.

Even Pythor P. Chumsworth needs a makeover now and again.

It's freakin' Lego City right in our living room.

Anyways.....

Here's Darth Vader in his underwear.

And here's what was left of the gingerbread house.

A few other things happened over Christmas week.

The day after Christmas, I came down with another cold.

And, as luck would have it, I picked up pink-eye (aka conjunctivitis) from somewhere.

Yay me.

By Thursday I wanted to itch my eyes out of my head. But, I had to wait until Friday to get a doctors appointment.

I was supposed to go to a preschool Board dinner on Friday evening, but had to miss due to the eye grossness. Bummer.

But, it was a good thing I stayed home. A lot happened Friday night.

Huzbend bought a board game he had played as a tween called, "Dungeon".

It was a precursor to his playing Dungeons and Dragons.

The kids LOVED it. They played for about two hours Friday night.

Where's Mommy in this picture?

You will never in a million years guess what I was doing. So, let me tell you.

Right around Christmas Eve/Christmas Day we started noticing a gross smell coming from the kitchen sink area.

It started to get worse on Wednesday.

It got even worse on Thursday.

I tried cleaning the garbage disposal. Still stunk.

I cleaned out under the sink to see if there was food down there. Nothing.

Maybe it was sewer gases leaking back up the pipe due to a bad trap? Nope. Trap all good.

Went down into the crawlspace to see if the stink was down there. Nope.

On Friday the smell was downright unbearable.
For me.

Huzbend was nonchalant about it. The kids could care less.

We got a drain cleaner in case there was grease stuck down in the pipes. Used it. Still stunk.

By Friday evening, I was ready to cry. The stink made me want to vomit.

It had to be something dead. There was no other explanation.

While Huzbend was playing the game with the kids, I decided to go look in the crawlspace again.

I wanted to pull out the insulation that was under the sink.

I did.

Some hard pellet things fell down. I picked one up.

(Gloves on my hands, of course. I was touching insulation.)

Oh man.

That's not mice poop. It looks like mice poop, sure. But twice as big.

Okay. Kept pulling.

The insulation came out and a dead rat fell out with it.

Plop.

Dead frickin' rat.

I'm guessing if he was alive he woulda stretched out to about 6 or 7 inches (not including tail).

The smell left the house, but is still lingering in the cabinet under our sink and in that section of our crawlspace. I am NOT sticking my head up there to see what Mr. Rat left upon expiration.
Nope. Not gonna do it.

I guess the bigger problem is how did that MoFo get in here?

How do we keep any more from getting in?

Sigh.

So, after the rat removal, and getting over the skeevies, I was finally able to relax.

Katie stayed up late with us to watch a Food Network show - Cupcake Wars.

The teams had to create cupcakes for the Nutcracker Ballet in New York.

Katie asked me when WE were going to see The Nutcracker in Seattle.

She had watched the NYC Ballet's version of The Nutcracker in music class and really liked it.

As soon as she went to bed, I checked online to see when the show closed for the season.

The last show was the next day.

I bought me some tickets and off we went!

In case you were wondering about goopy-eye. The doc had okayed excursions after I was on

antibiotics for 24 hours. I did, however, have to give myself eye drops in the bathroom at the show and Katie announced to all, "Hey! Mom? Is that the stuff you use to get ridda da pink-eye?"

"CHEEEEEEEESE"