Christmas is fast approaching, and I’m completely unprepared. No gifts have been wrapped – in fact, no gifts have been purchased yet. The tree is up and decorated, but the stockings are still boxed. Some of our outdoor decorations are in place, but we still lack the extension cord to complete the process and light up the yard.

However, today I set out to complete one holiday tradition: see Santa. My friend L. and I packed up the kids and set out for the mall, unsure of what was in store. Last year’s Santa picture was a nightmare, with a screaming, crying child, and a near-tears mommy. I was hoping for something better this year.

The morning already had a rough start. In order to see Santa, Cordy needed a bath, which she didn’t appreciate. Once we got to the mall, she was hungry, so lunch was our first priority. The kids, who begged for food in the car, then picked at their lunch until we finally gave up and threw most of it away. Luckily, the dress remained clean, so in my book it was still a success so far.

As we walked towards Santa, I tried to prepare Cordy to see the big guy. Actually, I had been preparing her for days – letting her watch all of the holiday episodes of her favorite shows. So we’ve seen Dora’s “Present for Santa”(where I proved to her that presents go under the tree) and Diego Saves Santa. In the mall, I told her, “We’re going to see Santa, and I bet he’ll give you a treat!” Cordy seemed excited, repeating “Santa! Santa!” each time I said the jolly man’s name. L.’s son was extremely excited to see Santa, and planned to tell him that he expected a “big Buzz Lightyear” for Christmas.

Once we got there, we noticed the long line, so we thought it might be best to take the kids up as close as possible and let them warm up to seeing him in person. They watched in awe as a little girl sat on his lap, and seemed a little nervous about getting any closer. However, the line wasn’t moving. His “elves” said the camera was having problems, and they were working to fix it, so we decided to let the kids run off some energy in the play area while they fixed it.

Going to the play area, I was once again assaulted with salesperson stupidity. Just like the day after Thanksgiving, I walked past a kiosk and was practically chased down by the man working there. He looked at Cordy, and then said, “Could I have a moment of your time? Our product could do wonders for your daughter’s hair!” I glanced back at the kiosk, and wasn’t surprised to see it was a kiosk for a hair straightener styling tool. (Same product, but a different mall from the first time.) Furious, I shot the man a dirty look and said in my best back-the-hell-off voice, “She’s two. She does not need her hair straightened.”

I was redeemed once we got to the play area. Several other moms stopped me to comment on how pretty Cordy’s curls were, and thankfully no one asked if she had a perm. We spent over a half hour there, playing, chasing, sliding, and having a great time. But then L.’s son remembered Santa, so we got our shoes back on and went back to see Santa.

Once we got there, I was disappointed to see the entrance blocked off. I asked one of the elves what was wrong, and she told me that their computer system was down, so they couldn’t take any pictures right now. Apparently even Santa can’t make a digital camera and computer work together. She did offer to let us in to see Santa if we just wanted to visit, and while they normally don’t allow people to take pictures with their own cameras, she said that if we had a camera, we could use it. Of course, I had forgotten my camera, but at the last minute remembered that my cell phone had a camera in it.

As we walked closer to Santa, Cordy quickly fell into her normal “meeting strangers” position with her head buried into the back of my legs. Santa was nice, and quickly offered her a lollipop. Her curiosity, combined with my gentle nudging forward, led to her eventually accepting the lollipop from Santa. I grabbed my cell phone, while Santa quickly scooped her up onto his lap, and we managed to get a picture.

OK, sure, so it’s a pic of Cordy trying to squirm her way off of Santa’s lap, but it’s better than last year’s pic, even if it from a shabby 640×480 resolution cell phone camera.

And L’s son, who was so excited to see Santa? He also turned speechless and shy when confronted with the real deal. While he did sit for the picture, he was too nervous to tell Santa what he wanted, and barely squeaked out a “thank you” for the lollipop.

So while we didn’t get an official picture (and saving myself $12.99 really isn’t a bad thing), we still got to see Santa, and this was a better year than last year’s visit. Of course, had I known that after visiting the mall, she wouldn’t nap again today (second day in a row), I might have asked Santa to bring back the nap. Please.

It’s the time of year when people tend to think of their fellow human beings, and make efforts to help others. Oh sure, there’s the fact that it’s the end of the year, and a few more tax deductions are always nice, but I was actually referring to the holidays and the spirit of giving and helping others and all that.

If you haven’t heard about Her Bad Auction yet, you clearly don’t read my blogroll. Several bloggers put together this amazing online raffle auction to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy Research in honor of Her Bad Mother’s nephew, Tanner, who is afflicted with the disease. Without major advances in MD research towards a cure, Tanner will most likely not experience the number of years many of us are privileged to have.

The auction features well over 40 donated items, small and large. All would make wonderful gifts if you’re still shopping for holiday gifts. Plus, tickets for items cost either $1 or $5. While it’s hard to sometimes pony up a donation for a charity that doesn’t look puny, a couple of $1 tickets won’t set you back too much, and hey, you might just win a cool prize in return!

I first heard about the plans for this auction right in the middle of our car crisis last week. While I immediately thought, “What an amazing idea!”, I also felt at the time like I couldn’t do anything to help, since I was stuck in my own minor issues that took up all my time and threatened to deal a financial death blow to us.

But now that the car has been replaced, cheaper than we thought it would be, and I can now focus on anything but the car, I see there are a number of ways to help this auction. (I even managed to find something to donate, which I didn’t think I’d be able to do.) First, spread the news. If you want to post about this on your own blog, please do. The more people who find the auction, the more money will be raised for such a worthy cause.

Second, even if you can only spare a dollar, think of the good that dollar will do. Instead of buying your grande mocha tomorrow morning, brew a cup of coffee at home and buy a few tickets in its place. As for me, I sold an item on eBay that went for more than I was expecting, so the extra will probably go to a few tickets, like that cool diaper bag I saw or maybe one of the blog redesign packages.

And finally, if you have no extra money to give, there’s still another way to help. Your children can send letters and drawings to Tanner. It’s already tough to be a kid, but dealing with being “different” makes it ten times harder.

So go forth and be a do-gooder. You have until Sunday night at midnight EST. Make a difference this holiday season.

I have tried to explain to Cordy the intricacies of celebrating Christmas, including presents, the Christmas tree, Santa, and giving gifts to others. But she’s two, and her comprehension of this upcoming holiday is still limited to, “Oooh! Itza big twee!”

This morning, Cordy was walking around the living room holding a gift we were given at a holiday party this weekend. It is a small tub of chocolates with a bow on top. Every few minutes, she would bring it up to me and say “pwesent!” She understands the word “present” now, although I think a present to her is anything with a bow on it. Still, it’s a start, right?

(I should also clarify that she wasn’t offering me the present – she simply wanted to show it to me. Every time I reached for it, she’d pull it close to her chest and run away.)

So I decided that maybe it was time for another Christmas lesson between Dora and Diego this morning. I sat down on the floor near our Christmas tree, and said to her, “Cordy, do you know where to put presents?”

She turned, gave me a puzzled look as if to say, “Go on…,” and came closer to me. “We put presents under the Christmas tree,” I explained, patting the ground under the tree to demonstrate.

Cordy walked towards the tree slowly, examining the area under it. “Yes, we put presents under the tree, and they stay there until Christmas day,” I told her, thinking that she understood.

However, Cordy then locked eyes with me, smiled and said with a laugh, “Nnooooooo! Dat’s silly!” Then she walked away, still carrying her present.

I tried to explain more, including the part of opening presents on Christmas day, but with another roll of her eyes and exclamation of, “Nnooooo! Dat’s silly!” I realized that she thought I was clearly making all of this up. After all, there are no presents under the tree currently to prove my story to her. (We haven’t had the time or money yet to start Christmas shopping.) So in her mind, I was trying to trick her to give up her present with some phony story about putting presents under a tree.

Maybe it will make more sense after this weekend, when there are other presents under the tree for her to see. Or maybe she’ll just think I’m putting them there to back up this fishy tale I told her.

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Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Fennyman: So what do we do?
Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Fennyman: How?
Henslowe: I don’t know. It’s a mystery.
– Shakespeare in Love

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Somehow the pressures and stress of the past week seem to have worked themselves out, although I’m still uncertain how it all came together.

Aaron’s car was dead. As in not worth the money to fix dead. We set out on car shopping expeditions Thursday night, which also continued Friday night and most of the day Saturday. The predicament was what kind of car to get. Before this happened, we had planned to purchase a new car sometime in mid- or late 2007, after paying off a bit of a credit card debt that had accumulated prior to Aaron getting his new job, and larger salary, in July. After paying the credit debt off, we would then save for a down payment, and have a nice cushion on which to afford a new, larger, safer, easy-to-handle-two-children car.

But of course fate doesn’t always go along with what you want. And so we looked to the budget to see what we could cut, and with those cuts, what we could afford. The result was that we could afford something better than a ’95 2-door car with 100,000+ miles and rust, but nothing nicer than an older sedan with at least 50,000 miles or so. Our emergency fund had been depleted to just over $1000, and monthly payments would have to be in the $100-150 range, possibly up to $200 a month.

At that point, as I was giving myself a massive migraine from the stress, things started to work out. I remembered I had an old 401k from my previous employer that I had yet to roll into my current retirement fund. It had been slowly tanking, thanks to the poor investment choices offered by said employer, but it still had some money left in it. (Before anyone starts lecturing me on withdrawing money from a retirement fund, yes, I know the crazy fees associated with doing this, and yes, I know taking money from a 401k just sets any retirement goals back. But trust me, there wasn’t enough in there to do much for my current retirement planning, and in this situation, it seemed like the right thing to do.)

And then there was my mom. I’ve said before that my mother is an amazing help to us. She babysits once a week, buys most of Cordy’s diapers despite my requests not to, and gives us money on occasion (that we are not allowed to refuse). I’ve never understood why she helps us so much, and I’ve told her many times to focus on her upcoming retirement instead of us, but she insists on doing it. I’ll never be able to repay her, and can only hope I’ll be as much help to our kids as she is to me.

Anyway, she called us Friday night, and told me she was shifting some money from her house account to her checking account, and was going to give us money to help with a down payment. The house account is money she receives from my grandmother as rent for currently living in the house I grew up in. (Yes, my grandmother insists on paying rent – the family is very insistent when it comes to money.) My mom refused to let us buy a run-down car that might not be as safe as a newer car, and she knew something with more space would be good, especially with baby #2 on the way. I argued with her several times, trying to turn down her offer of assistance – after all, she retires in just over a year and will need all her money – but she wouldn’t budge. So now we had a significantly larger down payment to work with, and a much better range of available options.

The next stroke of luck came when I found a slightly used 2006 Hyundai on the internet at one of the local dealers. The price was well below what others were selling the same model for, so of course I worried there had to be a catch. We looked it over, had it checked out, and the truth is, there was no catch. The dealer had too many used cars, and had to get rid of some of them quickly. It was previously a rental car, and had the full maintenance record with it. It had only 19,000 miles on it. And it was a certified used car, too, carrying a warranty and free oil changes for three years. Finally, the interest rate we were offered for financing was lower than any rate offered by other dealers, and lower than my bank could offer.

Aaron and I looked it over, my mom looked it over, we conferred with others who know more about cars and everyone thought it was a good buy. Plus, with the down payment we had, the payments were going to be under $175 a month. So late on Saturday, after spending all day between dealing with a sick toddler at home and haggling with other dealers for hours and getting nowhere near as good of a deal, we went back to this dealer and purchased the car. They gave us $500 for our dead car, and even took care of the towing. (I’m just glad they were willing to take a dead car, honestly.)

Amazingly, we managed to get through the business office in under a half hour – no high pressure sales tactics to buy extended warranties, or special insurance, or gap insurance. Which meant that we were able to attend a holiday party our friends were hosting on Saturday night.

I’m still puzzled as to how everything worked out so well in the end. Don’t get me wrong – we still must cut back on lots of luxuries in order to make payments, and our car insurance is higher, but everything is at least do-able. And most importantly, we have a new car that has plenty of room, is loaded with safety features, and should give us many years of reliable driving. Strangely enough, it all turned out well.

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And then, just when I was feeling so stressed late last week, I find out I was nominated by Kristen for her Support a Mom contest at her ClubMom blog, The Mom Trap. I was so surprised by her touching post that I burst into tears reading it. You can read her nomination here, and take a look at all of the amazing and very worthy finalists here. Thank you, Kristen – your post really made my day.

…you take them both and there you have The Facts of Life.

Sometimes life gives you lemons, and you make lemonade. But sometimes you run out of sugar, so you get just a tiny taste of the sweet, and then a lot of sour.

The good news: remember when our house was broken into back in July? There were no fingerprints, and it looked like the criminal might get away with it, except I noticed a very tiny drop of blood on the curtain that covered the window that was smashed in.

Well, we got a call from the detective on our case yesterday to let us know that curtain proved to be the key. They were able to extract DNA from that tiny blood spot, and they know who did it. They have a name (meaning the guy is a repeat offender, since the prison system already had a record of his DNA), and that person lived nearby at the time of the break-in. So now a warrant is being issued for his arrest, and they are working to track down his current location. We’ll probably never see any of our stuff again, but seeing this guy caught and locked up would at least be justice.

And now the bad: First, money has been tight this month. Very tight, as in pray-the-account-doesn’t-bounce until the next paycheck. However, this was just due to bad timing with some bills, and we figured we’d be back in a better position by the end of the month. But this is not as bad as many – all of our bills are paid every month, and we’ve been making good progress at getting rid of credit card debt, which when finished will make life much more comfortable. As I said over the summer, we’re not drowning financially by any means. More like treading water at the top, hoping for no big waves to pull us under.

And then yesterday morning a financial tsunami wave hit us. Aaron’s car left this world for its next life yesterday morning. He had the oil changed at a quickie oil-change place two weeks ago, and then two days ago the oil light came on and we noticed the car was leaking oil. Figuring they screwed up, Aaron was on his way back to the quickie place to make them fix it, when the engine gave up the ghost and stopped.

We took it to the dealer to have the problem diagnosed. They only know the problem is something wrong with the timing belt (probably due to the engine seizing), and it would cost at least $500 to take apart the engine to find out the exact problem. On the list of possible problems, few are anything but catastrophic for the car, and the cheapest possible problem would be $1300 minimum. If you saw this car, you’d know the car isn’t even worth $1300 at this point (1996 Plymouth Breeze), and any expensive fix would only be a band-aid against future problems.

So now we need a new car, and don’t even have a car that is running to trade in. Plus we have no room in the budget for a car payment. We had planned on the car not making it through 2007, and we were trying to pay off our credit card debt to free up money for a new car. But it died about 6 months too early for our liking. We also can’t simply survive on one car, because we work opposite schedules (overlapping, really) and work in different parts of town, and we don’t live near a bus route. Life is feeling rather like this at the moment.

Forgive me if you don’t hear from me for a few days. We’ve got to spend some time thinking up creative solutions out of this predicament, and go car shopping. And while this is very upsetting at the moment, I know we’ll figure out something – we’re good at being creative, and I’ve been known to squeeze blood from stones. After all, between when I left grad school and got a job, I paid for my rent and bills that month by selling Beanie Babies on eBay. (seriously!)

And in this holiday season, I also remember that there are those far worse off than us. We still have our house and heat, we still have food to eat, and we’re all in good health. In the grand scheme of things, this sucks, but it will get better eventually. We’re very lucky to have as much as we do.

But still. Damn.