At the beginning of this week, we past a milestone that has been a long time – 30 months – in coming.

We finally turned Gunne Bear’s car seat from rear to front facing.

I am sort of astonished that we made it this far. I’m equally astonished that I finally turned him around. 2 -1/2 years of putting him in one way and not being able to see him while I drove is a long time.

Now, when I glance back, there he is, grinning at me and asking me questions about the dashboard, which he can now see for the first time.

We chose to keep him rear facing as long as possible because of some articles I wrote on car seats – the stories I heard were just too gruesome to think about. So we strived to keep him rear facing until he outgrew the height or weight limits, or he hit the 2 years and 30 pounds recommendation.

We actually hit the 2 years and 30 pounds recommendation at the same time that he topped out height wise, so it was really time to turn him.

Probably it was the length of time we had him rear facing before the switch, but this feels like one seriously momentous occasion to me just now.

This post has been a part of iPhone Photo Phun.

I’m not here today. Head over to Mommy of a Monster to read about my Mommy Moment.

Dear Santa,

I wanted to thank you for the wonderful gifts this Christmas. We decided ahead of time to spend a day at home, just the three of us, and your presents kept us all thoroughly engaged all day.

Gunne Bear has still not let go of his stocking stuffers.

How did you find that Goofy doll? We went to four different Disney stores and were told by all that Goofy just isn’t that popular. It is his favorite, however, and the look on his face when he saw Goofy peeking out of his stocking was priceless.

I really enjoyed the chocolate covered espresso beans I found in mine. Perhaps I shouldn’t have eaten them all at once, though, as they all hit me at the same time.

The Viking has already sampled his hot barbecue sauce (he put it on our dinner, even though I was cooking with Creme Fraiche.) and declared it a winner.

We all really loved our ornaments, too. We hung them right away, and I was really pleased to see the bacon ornament, as it reinforces my theory that bacon is taking over the world.

As I’m sure you know, 2011 has really been ending on a sour note for us. But watching Gunne Bear with his new train set really went a long way toward ending it on a better note. The expression on his face when he saw his favorite train and the excitement in his voice when he called out, “Toby!” is something I will never forget.

He really enjoyed his new trash truck, too, and we’ve already read the trash truck book three times. He’s thrilled to learn that we don’t need to return this copy to the library like we did so many times in the past.

The Viking looks great in his new shirt, and we both love the color. He already wore one of his new Cool Max shirts out on a run and declared it a success, as well.

Thank you very much for my Spirit Hood, or what The Viking calls my “ears”. I wore them most of the day. A word, though; while I am proud of my Native American ancestry, my grandfather was not Navajo – he was Sioux. And my spirit animal is and has always been Raven. I do love them just the same, however.

I love my new Japanese tea set beyond all measure. I plan to use it multiple times a day and began last night.

About the Slanket, however. While I do understand that you probably thought that because I like to curl up under quilts while I read, that I would enjoy something like this, I’m afraid I still can’t stop laughing. I’m sorry Santa; I just can’t use it. It’s too funny, and it’s all wrong; I like handmade quilts that drape over my shoulders and leave my hands free to touch their many textured squares. I do not want something polyester with SLEEVES embracing me and leaving my back cold. I did like the skulls, however.

I hope you don’t mind that I will be bringing it to my Mom’s Night Out Yankee Swap – One Mom’s Trash Is Another Mom’s Treasure night in a few weeks. I, um, just don’t see it getting any use here.

So thank you, Santa, for making our Christmas so merry yesterday. I know we’ll be talking about this one for years to come.

Love,
Betsy

I do about 90 percent of my shopping online these days. I hate crowds and people who get too close to me…and mostly I really hate crowds.

Shopping online means that I get to stay home, shop in my pj’s and only have the toddler and the dog get too close to me. Then, things show up at my door and I merely have to bring them inside.

So around this time of year, we start to have a lot of extra packages showing up on the mat (as I wrote this, FedEx just pulled up outside and disgorged a few more). The first few, I merely brought in and stashed in a closet somewhere until I had a few minutes to open. But now that the time to get everything opened, unwrapped and then re-wrapped has arrived, I’ve had to start cutting into those cardboard boxes, and I’ve discovered something:

People are getting really creative with their packing materials this year.

I have opened to date:

• One brown paper bag wrapped up and sealed with green duct tape
• One cereal box that was slit open, turned inside out and then taped up again
• One plastic bag wound around and around with clear packing tape
• Several unpadded mailer envelopes that are doing a really poor job of keeping their contents inside them, one of which was pretty much shouting to the whole world that I bought my husband a belt for his stocking, and what its color and size was

Now I get that people are trying to cut back these days; I myself have slashed our entire Christmas budget down to a paltry sum that made Christmas shopping a game on eBay. But dude. I paid out the nose for shipping and handling costs on many of these items and a quick glance at the shipping tags on them shows me that only a fraction of that cost actually went to the post office. I’m thinking that perhaps better packing materials could have been found than grocery bags and a cereal box. I’m just sayin’.