She’s Gonna Love Christmas

Sadie thought her birthday was Best Thing Ever, especially the part about having people sing happy birthday to her, and getting to blow out her three blue candles, which she stuck on the cake herself.

I got about half the office moving done that I’d planned, but for the single worst item to move to the apartment, I had Dan’s help, then it made her birthday more special because Dan was here for Chinese food and cake.

In the morning Deb started the cake baking and then Sadie got to unwrap presents.  With Valerie’s help, on the 10-pack of Matchboxes, which they were both excited about.  Sadie opened the three cartoon DVDs, in which Popeye was on top, and exclaimed “a new movie!” She loved the wooden turtle puzzle, once she found out it was a puzzle and there was the challenge of putting it back together.  That’s one of the new class of “take care of it” toys that need to be specifically put away and kept safe from the younger kids.  Sadie got excellent pajamas she was excited about, a couple gorgeous shirts, and a cool pair of adjustable waist jeans.  She wore those and a rose colored shirt the rest of the day.  Valerie didn’t want to open the present for her, also gorgeous shirts from California, as it was much more fun to help open and investigate Sadie’s stuff.  Once they were out, though, Valerie eagerly wore a new green shirt most of the rest of the day.  Sadie also got a gorgeous baby blanket for Dee Dee, her doll, to use for her baby, which alternates between Molly and Holly.  Yes, we have four named dolls and a named rubber duck in the house.  Molly and Holly are cloth dolls, smaller than Dee Dee, who are dressed in green and brown, striking me as Irish and German, respectively.  Dee Dee shares Sadie’s birthday, so a gift was appropriate.

While I was gone, Deb made frosting and finished the cake, which was lemon by Sadie’s request.

I got Dan, we met Bob at the office, and while Bob grabbed two bookcases, we loaded the truck for storage.  I have to remember to bring pliers tomorrow.  I needed them the other day and found no pliers were in the office toolbag.  The matching wire cutters are there, but none of the set of good pliers.  Either someone took them, or I took them out and left them at home when I briefly had the toolbag here.  Bob could have used them in dismantling bookcases, and it was a reminder I also don’t have the toolkit in the truck that belongs there.  The van was supposed to get a toolbox, while the truck got the tool bag full of an extensive complement of tools, and supplemented by a ratchet set and driver handle/ratchet set that also fit neatly behind the seat.  And for some reason I left my giant pipe wrench there, apparently anticipating a close combat situation or need for demolition.  I never completed organizing a set of stuff into a toolbox and getting it into the van, so when I realized I was driving the van but the truck was parked, I switched the tool bag to the van.  Which is now sitting with a ton of tools in it.  And emergency supplies, including a windup flashlight, a big flashlight, and a tiny LED flashlight in a first aid kit, versus a tiny LED flashlight in a first aid kit and a small flashlight with dead batteries in the truck.  Since the pliers in the office tool bag are duplicated by ones at home, having left them home makes no sense.  It was a nice set of blunt and slim needlenose, curved pliers that if straight would look like blunt needlenose, wirecutters, and I possibly something else.  Unlike what I have at home, they were a name brand that actually cost something.

Anyway, I need pliers to pull some funky picture hangers out of the wall, before someone can hurt themselves on them.

Despite how much remains to be done to get out of the office by the end of tomorrow, I could do that without issue… except that Sadie will be expected for dinner and cake at my grandmother’s at noon.  And all the more so because Dan, whose birthday it is Sunday, won’t be there.  The plan is to try to get out of here fairly early, with Sadie, go to the office, load the truck, including a spare 17” monitor to leave at my grandmother’s for someone to take to the church to replace their dying tiny one, eat and have cake, leave Sadie for the afternoon, take the load home, go to the office, load and go to storage, go to the office, load and go to storage or home (I need to make a trip or two with nobody in the cab as there are things that must ride there, though some of that might be able to go to storage temporarily), and as much as possible and necessary, breaking to get Sadie on one trip home and going back for more as needed.

Based on today, the truck actually holds so much that the number of trips may not be that great and the challenge may be in sizes, shapes, and nature of what’s to be moved.  The truck held, without pushing, a large file cabinet, about a dozen boxes of books and such, four museum piece computers and one monitor, several boxes of software, around 1000 feet of raw ethernet cable, and in turn that all but disappeared into the previously underused storage unit.  Conveniently located just one town over and a few miles away from the office, which will no doubt sway me to put more there and bring less home, to the limits of its capacity.

But I digress.

Sadie loved having a birthday so much, she will just go nuts over Christmas.  Not just because of presents to open, but because of the specialness of the day and surrounding period of time; the ceremony involved, for lack of a better expression.  She could have had no gifts at all today, and it would still have made her whole year having cake, candles, and being sung happy birthday.  Chinese food made it even better!  She was so cute, saying “I want meat” when it was about time to serve the food.  She ate a whole beef terryaki, which was what she had in mind by “meat” in that case.  Later she ate an entire chicken finger, dipping it repeatedly and messily in duck sauce.  She pecked at the food on her plate, otherwise, but Val helped with that, eating a whole crab rangoon, then most of what she was served and part of what Sadie was served.  I gave them pork egg foo yong, orange chicken, pork fried rice, and then later they had bits of spare rib.  Then they each demolished oversized slices of cake.  And even ate a lot of it.

This will be Sadie’s first year truly aware that there’s anything special about the day, and able to appreciate fully the opening of presents, and especially of getting anything out of seeing the traditional holiday specials.  That will be so fun.

1. Sounds like she had a great day!  I am excited regarding Christmas for Julia too.  She is already getting “prepared” as she has been insisting on watching her “Dora Christmas” video daily for the past week.

   Posted by Sharon  on  09/30  at  07:36 AM  from  Middleboro, MA
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