Barmy Blue's Bland Blog

A cute little donkey.
So cute.

Don’t have anything to say today. Except that for some unknown reason I acquired a super soft furry cushion in a kind of beige colour that I have decided will be my new best friend when certain things occur.
I could snuggle it when I get sad. Because I always get sad at Christmas. I had a brief moment of sad, only a day or two, but I seem to have gotten over that for now so I’m staying positive.
And, before you think it, it’s not time for THAT. That already happened when I thought it would. I have about a week and a half before the safe time. Might happen then. Might not. I’m not going to worry about it.

Since I have nothing much to say I could clear something from my backlog.

Last Christmas we went to my cousins again. I decided to get a pair of silly rubber shark hand puppets for the kids just because. A grey one and a blue one. They also had crocodiles but I figured that would be overkill. Two children. Two puppets. Made perfect sense.
Mum got the main presents for the kids which was a Star Wars Play-Doh set and a My Little Pony Play-Doh set.
I’d steadily been collecting classic children’s books for baby Simon. I’d thought of it with the other kids but figured I’d left it too late. Since the baby wasn’t even a year old at that time I figured I’d get in there first.
He had things like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Dear Zoo. Basically all the things you see in children’s activity corners where they have a little shelf of books. And a few just for fun. The one that started it was a little book about a family of dragons and I also got a pop up book about a garden I think. I got that because it had a lot of things to interact with and I think I read something about interactive books being a good thing to start children getting interested in books before they can even read.

Oh yeah. I was also working on a big cross stitch project that I rushed to finish by Christmas so I could include it. Mum had to go and get a frame for it and she got two. It was a cute birth record with the baby’s name date of birth and birth weight. I’d originally planned to give it to them with the hat and jumper I’d made for our Autumn family thing but it wasn’t anywhere near finished at the time.
There might have also been a stuffed toy or something but I don’t remember.
At one point some of the others were playing Bop It just like the previous year and were getting very loud and when they lost let out such a loud OH! that it startled the baby and made him cry. He didn’t settle for the rest of the evening. He was tired and a bit grumpy anyway so they took him upstairs to sleep and he finally settled.
Later in the evening I decided to exact revenge for him by beating the previous Bop It high score. It didn’t take long once I was able to ignore everything else. Half the family had gone home by then so it was quieter.

By far the biggest surprise of the evening was that one of my second cousins brought his girlfriend who was about six months pregnant at the time and her daughter who’s the same age as the other kids. None of us knew she’d be coming. She’s very sweet and very tomboy-ish. Interest wise she’s the exact opposite of my little cousin (who’s very into pretty, shiny, princess things) but they all play together perfectly happily.
I spent quite some time chasing them with my shark puppets. At one point she tripped running away but bounced back right away.
As soon as she was introduced to us two things flashed through my mind. Firstly I hope she’s defiantly over three years old because the puppets are 3+ (she was) and that I hope she likes sharks because how lucky am I to have brought a little extra something for the kids so she won’t be left out. (because I’m a selfish beast like that.)
I lost one of the sharks because my girly little cousin basically ripped it off my hand. I didn’t mind too much but I had to keep the second one under close guard.

For my secret santa I had the cousin who was hosting that year. I got her a succulent that I cared for for about a month because I decided to get it for her but didn’t want to be left with the neglected plants so got it early/mid December when I could get the pick of the litter. I kept it in the bathroom which is where all our orchids live and it did very well. I got another smaller succulent in a little magnetic pot. I stuck that to the metal table the orchids are on. I also got her a calendar.
She had trouble realising it was for her because I wrapped the calendar, used it as a base, wrapped the pots but didn’t cover the tops of the succulents because I didn’t want them to get damaged and taped them all together. So I could only put her name on the calendar which was not a very obvious place to look given everything that was going on with the whole thing. In the end I tried to subtly hint where the name might be because I was worried she’d miss it. So I might have revealed myself as Santa.

I’m always super careful to remain secret. I make sure to use a different wrapping paper to mum and, if I can help it, a different brand of paper. I don’t write the name myself but even if I did no one knows what my writing looks like anyway and I try to be out of the way when it’s opened so my face doesn’t give it away. As you can see I put far too much thought into it but hey it’s secret Santa.
She seemed genuinely pleased and stuck the little one on the side of the fridge. The good thing about succulents is that they’re hard to kill. They’re the only plants we usually have success with in this household.

During the gift giving the children made themselves useful by taking the gifts from my cousin and walking it over to the relative it was for, mostly the new girl, who, realising that everyone else had a present, she started to ask “Where’s mine?” while still doing her little job. So when I had a moment I slipped the second shark puppet to my cousin and said give her this.
She seemed very happy with it and the children started having shark fights with their puppets.
My only regret about the situation was that I didn’t have a third so only two children could play shark at any given time but at least they all had a present.
I vaguely remember one child particularly requesting either a fruit or vegetable and the other requesting cheese from the food table at one point but without the pineapple because they don’t like pineapple.

Later in the evening, as things were winding down and the girls were playing mum and I ended up playing a game of what am I supposed to be with the boy Basically doing actions or impressions and having the other person guess what they were. I vaguely remember it because at one point he did something that was supposed to be a reindeer and he said he’d gotten the the idea from my ear cuff. (the previous year I took a dangly reindeer earring apart and put it onto an ear cuff, so I had a fun one for the holiday since, as you know, my ears aren’t pierced). It was sweet that he noticed it because no one else had mentioned it. Not that I mind.

Later on, after the children had gone it was time for the baby and his parents to go. They didn’t want to disturb him since he’d finally settled. They got him ready and brought him downstairs in his little car seat. He stirred and couldn’t get back to sleep and still sounded grizzly so, as I was sat next to him, I tried to keep him entertained. Apparently he likes things that rattle to I took off my beaded bracelets (the ones I decided to wear when I first met him) and rattled them for him but tried not to be too exciting because I didn’t want to wake him up more, I wanted to keep him soothed. Of course I made sure to keep them out of his reach. He didn’t make much noise and seemed happy enough so sit there reasonably quietly. It took a while for them to get everything ready to take him home because it was frosty out so the car needed scraping.

I got a metal stamping kit which I found very interesting but currently have no use for. Though I had been watching videos of metal work for about a month prior so the timing was very interesting.
The most fun thing by far was that it came tied with a ribbon.
As most of the family left and the childless stragglers remained my cousin’s cats came in and I spent considerable time using the ribbon to play with one of them. You know how much I love cats. Best gift ever.

So. That’ll do for now.