Do They Really Know it's Christmas Time?

I said when I first started this blog I said I was going to put down what I was thinking about and invite you to comment. I realized I hadn't been doing much of that, so here's the first one.
A large pet peeve of mine is celebrities trying to run the world. I don't mind people like Bono who have a serious track record of trying to help people and change policy. I get frustrated when people like Sean Penn, who only briefly attended Santa Monica College where he studied Auto mechanic and speech, meet with people like President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, a very vocal opponent of the US. There are other celebs who have minimal schooling, but try to influence elections, wars,( don't get me started on Jane Fonda)...
But tonight, on the way home from Target, I listened to the song "Do They Know It's Christmas Time". It was written for Band-Aid, a group in the 80s concerned with global hunger. It's a great idea and worthy cause, but some of the lyrics make me crazy. Band Aid was concerned primarily with hunger in Africa. The chorus says, Do they know it's Christmas time at all? Well, at the time this was written, Christianity was not the prime religion in Africa, it still isn't today. So, they wouldn't know what Christmas was, much less that it was Christmas time.
I know this is nitpicking, but I have always been a black/white kind of person. I must have been an annoying little kid.
What do you think? Do you have some Christmas songs that drive you nuts? (Please don't smack down Grandma got run Over By a Reindeer. I can't help the accent I get when I sing it)

In My Absence

So, we are in our lovely new house. My new Sony laptop died around the same time I made my last post. I called their service number and they knew what was wrong without with an actual examination. Makes you wonder, huh? Does Sony make lemons?
Dear Hubby was kind enough to get me a Dell while we are waiting for the other laptop to be fixed. He and the girls are going to share the lemon.
Things have been so crazy. When we moved into the house, I realized how bad the carpet was. Then we saw all of the marks left on the walls by the movers. Since I am the family painter, there was work to be done. Also, when we were touring the house, the oatmeal walls with cream trim didn't do much for me. First to be painted, Buttercup's. She and I chose this lovely lavender blue color from Walmart. The color is so bright and pretty. I also made a trip to IKEA to buy her a bedframe, nightstand and bookcase. She doesn't know this yet, hubby wants us to wait until Christmas. Plus I figure, if we don't have them up when the carpet layers come we don't have to move them.
Fiona's room is staying the same. She will like the green and the bunnies for some time to come.
I painted the spare room for my little sister, jokingly. She has been voted most likely to come and visit us, so we let her pick the color. She wanted purple or blue, so I got some pretty mauve color (named Naughty Neutral!). Then I painted the hallway and the lower half of the dining room. All of this whilst organizing the house, cooking Thanksgiving dinner and setting stuff out for Christmas.
I have to say that all of this has been incredibly rewarding. Very few times do stay at home moms get verifiable proofs of their labor. I should also tell you the time I got a major bank to push through our home loan in half the time. Even our realtor was impressed.
The girls are settled in school. I absolutely love all day school. It leaves me much happier for them when they get home. I can do what I need to while they are gone.
On a sadder note, Fiona has had some hair loss. She hasn't noticed it yet, but Buttercup did. For a few days it threw hubby and me into some depression. I had to keep reminding us that it's a sign of the cure, not a sign of the disease returning. Sometimes, it's tough. Cancer is such an unpredictable thing. They tell you 75% success rate. Then you realize that's just for 5 years. Then you see the St. Jude's commercials on TV and it's so heartbreaking. I absolutely hate those commercials.
Other than that, we are doing pretty well. Well, all of us, except 'T' the cat. Poor guy. He got a rude welcome to Houston, when on one of his first nights outside, we had fabulous thunder bumper of a storm. I didn't notice, neither did Fiona. We were tired. Dear Hubby, on the other hand, lay awake for most of the night and Buttercup complained as well. T has resorted to hiding under beds and has to be talked outside to go potty. He doesn't stay out there long.

Things I am grateful for

Number one!! I am grateful I won't be sharing a house with Fiona when she is pregnant. I view her steroid usage as a good precursor of what her pregnancies will be like and ugh! I can hear her in there now, " Mama, can I have some saltines, I really need them, uuunnnnhhhhh ( I think she's channeling Pat from SNL at this point). I am glad her wants have been fewer this time because we don't have the groceries that we normally do or the ability to make things for her either. I don't know if I mentioned we unpacked about 3 boxes.
Number 2! I am grateful for elementary teachers and the fact that our children are probably going back to school on Monday. Buttercup hasn't been the most cooperative. Fiona has gone through at least 3 workbooks I have purchased for her. Buttercup, on the other hand, struggles through the 5-10 pages I have her work on each day. It seems like every morning we start from square one, as the previous day's lesson as fallen out of her head. I also got treated to days of old this weekend as I watched her work hard and non complaining on the worksheets with her dad. It took me back to the days when I was just about to have Fiona and desperately wanted Buttercup pottytrained. "I go potty in the pottychair for Daddy"! She pottytrained herself the first week of Hubby's paternity leave, after I had spent months trying to get her to go.
Number 3! This Wednesday we should be signing the papers for the house. It will be nice to be settled and be able to unpack everything and get our Texas plates and licenses and for the retarded bank to stop calling over every purchase on our card!!!! Seriously. Did you guys read about the Walmart pre-Black Friday sale? They had a 50 inch plasma TV for $998 and a HD DVD player for $100. I dropped Hubby off at work, hightailed it over there and waited in line for a bit. I managed to get my hands on both, only to be rejected by my credit card repeatedly!! Thank heavens for the cell phone. I got right on it and gave the card company a piece of my mind. Apparently since we filled the gas tank the night before and then tried to purchase a big ticket item, our card was flagged. Did you know that card thieves will hit the gas tank first in order to see if there is money in the account and then go buy big things? She unlocked my credit card and then I had to call later to unlock the bank accounts. Sigh, then I got a call this morning because we charged hubby's truck in order to get credit card points. They wanted me to authorize that too.
So,I will be very grateful when Fiona is done with this months steroids and we are in our house...it's about a week. PS Check out the hair! I had to admit to something rather selfish. Her curls are so adorable, but part of me is sad that her hair didn't come in like it used to look. Once her hair had grown out enough we could've pretended like the whole two years had never happened....