That's one for the history books

And thank god! Yesterday just refused to end. Wednesday is my volunteer day at the library, so I was there until 10:15 or so. Since Daniel has a long day at school on Wednesdays, I took the opportunity to go do some (ugh) shopping afterward. Health food store, Joann, Michael's, Staples, Home Depot, Best Buy, grocery store, gas, preschool, middle school, home. I grabbed a (gross) sandwich and ate "lunch" at 2:15 behind the wheel.

I immediately made dinner and got it into the oven with the timer, then walked over to the neighbour's to head back north for a last minute shift at the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory. During busy times, they have community groups come in to work a shift, and in exchange, VTB donates the equivalent of $10/hr/person. It's loud, exhausting fun, the line keeps moving and the boxes keep coming. We did bears (dressing, packing) for a while, then switched to PajamaGrams, then back to bears. The angel here was the first bear I did (she's just as beautiful as you'd imagine), followed immediately by the entire Night before Christmas Family complete with monogrammed nightshirts. My last bear was Officer Joe.We stumbled out of there just before 11, into the VERY cold night. The water in my Nalgene froze on the way from the door to the van.

~ Small plug here - if you're looking for an easy Christmas gift, this company is fantastic. And, obviously, they care about their community. The bears are Made in America, and guaranteed for life. End of public service announcement.~



When I got home, this was waiting.

Ah, Sinterklaas. Okay, take care of that, shower to get the bear fur out of my hair (nose, eyes), set the sleep timer on the bedroom tv so I can snore through the weather forecast, and drop into bed. I woke this morning at 6:30 to hear someone out in the hall, incredulous. "We get to eat chocolate? Upstairs?? Before breakfast?!" :o)