Thursday - nothing fancy

I was not tired last night - Rob went up to bed and I really tried my hardest to be sleepy but I wasn't. I watched Top Chef and then turned on George Lopez and Conan - I went up around 1AM. Nick was pulling my arm in my dream but I guess he was really beside the bed pulling my arm - that was bizarre - he ended up pinching my face to wake me up. Nick was up a bit before 7:30AM and I was amazed to find that Ellie was still sleeping when we got up. I let Ellie pick out what she wanted to wear from her newly organized closet - she picked her new candy gymboree outfit - she has had it in a couple sizes now and we found it last Spring in a size 12 and we were so thrilled. She looked so cute with her blue cords with candy up the side and the candy turtleneck and matching sweater and even the candy boots. Nick - well he just wanted to wear what he wore yesterday again but decided that his light up Rudloph shirt would be ok.
Ellie informed as I came down the stairs that we had nothing for breakfast - technically, we had frozen waffles and pancakes, sausages and bacon, bagels and yogurt, oatmeal and cereal - but we had nothing for breakfast. I made bagels for both of them and started some coffee going. Ellie wanted school lunch today - it was salad bar day so she just needed a piece of fruit for snack. Ellie headed off to the bus stop all wrapped up in gloves, hat and scarf - it was cold this morning. Rob left the new paper on the stairs for me so I didn't have to go too far in the cold. I read the paper and had my bowl of coffee - Nick joined me at the table and we looked through the ad's together. Nick chose his sing-a-ma-jig as his favorite toy to take for star student today - too funny because it clearly isn't his favorite toy and he just didn't want to share his fave. I took Nick to school and Mrs. Dunham and I compared surprised looks as Nick went inside without difficulty today.
I stopped by the park district to fill out my North Pole letter from Santa forms - Skokie does such a wonderful job on the letters and the kids look forward to them every year - I got Tony one this year. I then went to the Salvation in Evanston to seek out a couple more wool sweaters to felt - I found some very cute sweaters but I needed to add no more to my own wardrobe so I decided on a couple more 100% wool ones and was one my way. I stopped by Mom's to drop off the Max and Ruby dvd that ended up in my car after Fall trip. I got my T-bone fix while Mom and I talked and I inhaled the El Famous salsa with some tortilla chips - it made my lips and tongue so numb I couldn't feel. I said my goodbyes and went to pick up Nick.
Nick came out to meet me and told me right away that he didn't pass his sing-a-ma-jig around because he didn't want any of the other kids to touch it. We stopped at the produce store to pick up milk and some fruit before coming home and having lunch. We had a nice afternoon at home - I washed my sweaters and Nick showed me all his artwork and then we planted the amaryllis Mom gave us. It was pretty cute Nick was calling the roots the weeds. We got Ellie from the bus and she quickly worked on her homework so we could go to Target and then stop by Mom's to say hi.
We got a couple new dvd's at Target and then some essentials for holiday baking, we picked up Ellie's prescription and we were on our way to Mom's. Tony was still taking his nap when we arrived but Nick went straight to playing with the trains on the floor and Ellie told Mom about her day. Tony eventually woke up and all the kids played pretty well together. I placed an order at Little Wok - somehow Chinese sounded warming for tonight. We left Mom's and Ellie ran into get our food - I like to giver her the opportunity to do things like that when I can clearly see her from the outside. We came home and had a picnic dinner and watched some of the Santa Clause as we ate dinner. The kids had their advent calendar chocolates and then we went upstairs for bed. Ellie read in her bed while I got Nick to sleep and then I tucked Ellie in and sang her a few songs.
Now I am sitting on the couch and have the twinkle star lights on and I am blogging and listening to Grays. It is December - so the Elf on the Shelf had made it sway into our lives - its a retro elf that "watches" the daily activities in our house and reports back to Santa - well he is supposed to move to a new location every night - needless to say I have chemo brain and this will be a tough year to remember to do this every night - I should go and move him now. Visualising my healthy and continually recovering body and the new normal me - whomever that shall be, Tree