Auburn Gal Always

Santa's the Man.

On Christmas Eve, I asked Stinkerbell to sing a few carols while I recorded her. She agreed and sang "Jingle bells", "Silent Night", "Away in a manger" and "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas". She did her rock-star diva voice and put some real SOUL into her version of each song.

While singing the Hippo song, she heard some bells jingle and a "HO HO HO!!!" come from outside the front door. She stopped mid-"hippo" and listened very carefully.

HO HO HO!!!!

jingle jingle jingle

Her eyes grew bigger than I've EVER seen them. She froze where she was, sitting on the floor.

The Might Hunter brought her around and told her to look out the window and see who was out there. She ran over and didn't see a thing.

He was hiding or using his invisible magic.

She runs upstairs and says "I'VE GOT TO GET IN BED!", but knows she has to have a bath first. So I follow her with the camera and find her in the bathroom, struggling to get her clothes off quickly.

"Hurry up and run the water for my bath! I've got to get in bed!"

So, we do. She gets her bath. I thoroughly love drying her pretty, sandy hair. We giggle and talk about what if Santa heard her Hippo song and thinks she wants a real hippo for Christmas.

"I should write him another note to leave next to his cookies and milk. What should it say? 'No hippo please'"

So she writes him the cutest note and leaves it next to 2 chocolate chip cookies and a wine glass of milk and a candy cane.

"Dear Santa
No hippo please
Thank you
Stinkerbell"

It was a magical night. This morning was wonderful too.

Santa brought her Butterscotch. She loves Butterscotch. I think The Mighty Hunter also likes him/her. Stinkerbell says it's a girl. We've yet to check under her tail.

The other Santa gifts were small and the list was thankfully short.

The Mighty Hunter surprised me with a beautiful cross pendant with chain. I think he said the pendant has almost 3/4 carats of diamonds. I know that's not a lot for some of you out there. But I'm not a big one for REAL jewelry. It was a very thoughtful gift from him.

He got some good brownie points over the gifts he gave me.

But what about things that went wrong?

Well, it just wouldn't be our house if SOMETHING didn't go wrong!!!

I think the thermostat on my oven is on the fritz. Higher temperatures are fine. But when I try to bake something under 400 deg, it doesn't get done on time and the top will get too brown while the inside or bottom stays doughy.

And tonight, I was getting ready to run the dishwasher. The box of detergent was damp on teh bottom.

There was water on the shelf under the sink. The drain line on the left-hand side of my kitchen sink is leaking.

The Mighty Hunter has some great plumbing skills but doesn't stock the supplies to fix this tonight.

So, my dishwasher is full and I can't run it.

I've got to call the plumber that The Mighty Hunter worked with for years and get him to come fix my sink.

I've got to call the appliance repair guy to come and fix my oven.

Is there anyone out there who needs me to arrange to get a repair person out and get the work done?

My sister-in-law set off the house alarm today and the police had to come out to confirm we hadn't been robbed. She was totally embarrassed.

I still haven't found those 2 key-chains I bought earlier this year and put away to keep from losing them.

I now have to find a way to pay for all this.

But it was still a very Merry Christmas.

It was just lovely.

Love Love Lovely