Merry Christmas to all of my loyal blog readers. We had a fun-filled morning, waking up at 2 a.m. and coaxing the children back to bed. It worked, and we eventually rolled out of bed to see the bounty left by Santa at 7 a.m.

After all the hard work, energy, and money I spent on the girls' gifts, the thing they've played with the most so far today is a piece of green yarn tied to a stick. (It's their "fishing poles.") I could have saved so much money... :)

Hope you all have a very fun day, and I hope to post some pictures later!

This year, Christmas came a little early for the girls and me. At Thanksgiving, Aunt Frazzled and Bedazzled left us some Christmas gifts. We placed them under our tree for a day or two before the curiosity (and good timing--no adults watching) was too much for them. They did not rip the paper, but they opened all the gift bags, including my present. Oh well, I should be proud they lasted more than a day! We have since placed all the other gifts out of reach.

Thanks for the great gifts, Aunt F & B!! We loved 'em!

I recently became a published author in the legal world. I wrote a chapter on the federal sector EEO process for a continuing education publication. While mine was the shortest chapter in the book, about 16 pages, I was pretty proud of the accomplishment due to all the obligations in my life. (I even mentioned my twins in my bio.)

If you've seen the Steve Martin movie "The Jerk,*" you can get some idea of the reaction I had when I received my copy of the book. "The new phone books are here, the new phone books are here!! I finally have my name in print! I am somebody!" *Greg, you still need to give me a tutorial on how to post links!!

Parker says to Annie, "you're a genius." Annie replies, "I'm not a genius, I'm adorable." Parker says, "I'm a genius." Annie remarks, "I'm a genius, too."

Grandma and I about split our guts laughing.

Have you noticed the geniuses who advertise on my blog? All the ads I've seen relate to potty training or nursing or something baby-related. Do you think they're trying to send me a message? How do they know I (and even their Gran-Nanny) have given up altogether on potty training?? Are they TRYING to make me feel more guilty?

Guilt. That's something I've learned that comes with motherhood as prominent as stretch marks. It doesn't matter what decision you make, it is always accompanied by a modicum of guilt. I guess we moms just have to do the best we can, get over it, and help our kids find good therapists someday. :)

Here's a good scary story for you. We put our little darlings down for a nap a couple of days ago, and they fussed for 15 minutes and then became quiet. I assumed they had fallen asleep, but when I heard them laughing ten minutes later, I became nervous. Sure enough, as I walked upstairs, I saw a trail of toilet paper coming from our bathroom winding toward the girls' room. Annie and Parker had not unrolled one roll of toilet paper. Being twins, they decided to unroll one APIECE! Bill put on his rubber gloves and unloaded the potty while I held the trash bag and picked up the clean pieces. At the time, I was so distraught, I didn't think to take a picture. Twins can be very dangerous!

Scary tale #2: this morning, I gave Annie and Parker their usual favorite breakfast--toast. After they finished, Parker asked me for pickles. I said, "really, pickles??" She replied with an enthusiastic, "yeah!" I fed her three pickles. She asked for more pickles. I cut her off after six pickles. I think she takes after her Uncle Grey, because he used to eat really wierd stuff for breakfast, too. Of course, Uncle Greg eats wierd stuff all the time...

As you can see, TAOTLM has a new look. It's going to take some getting used to. Not sure I like all the ads that came with the free template, though...