Those of you who are my Facebook friends already know this, but I just wanted to say here that hermette jinxed me.

Yesterday my sister and I went into Springfield to finish our Christmas shopping. This is about a 45 minute drive for us, because we live out in the middle of nowhere IL. Her little boy was going with her husband to do the guy shopping thing, so Max and I were with my sister and her 8year old and her 3 month old. Things were going just fine, the baby had slept the whole drive, we were listening to the Christmas station on the radio. Lovely start to the day, right?

We pull into the parking lot at Macy's in the mall and before we can even get out of the car. My niece pipes up from the back seat "Max is throwing up!"

So my poor kid empties his little stomach and then I have to strip him down in a parking lot where it is literally freezing (because it is winter in Illinois). Luckily I had a blanket and his stroller, so I bundled him up and snuggled him down in the stroller and headed into Macy's. My poor sister had to clean out the car seat. Fortunatley for her, most of the puke was on Max. Sadly, I had forgotten to pack extra clothes for Max, I usually have them, but he had of course had a huge leaky diaper last week in Wal-Mart and I had forgotten to put more clothes in the diaper bag.

Of course, Macy's idea of sale priced little boys clothes is not really the same as mine. So since the cheapest pants on the sale rack we $14 Nike sweatpants. I went ahead and paid $4 more for a pair of Levi's and got him a t-shirt as well.

Then I had to try to wash his hair in the sink of the Macy's bathroom. THAT was an adventure!

The saddest part was Max rolling through Macy's in his stroller saying "Why I throw up, Mommy?" :(

He was fine the rest of the day and ate like a little pig at lunch.

I think he might have gotten car sick, he had been drawing while we were driving and then his cousin was reading him a book. I have never gotten motion sickness, but Max's dad and his older brother both suffer from it severely.

Today I am going to do some baking at my mom's house because she has envious amounts of counter space in her kitchen and my little sister should be home from the Dominican Republic this afternoon. My parents are in Chicago picking her up now.

I need a kick ass oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. My Facebook plea has come up with nothing.

I would love to find something involving lemon zest if possible. Is that too weird? I have my fabulous muscat raisins that were delivered in a 5 lbs. bulk plastic bag straight from Sunmaid (They even enclosed a hand written thank you card!), and I really want a recipe that will showcase them. They have a really rich and slightly citrusy flavor to them.

If nobody comes to my rescue here I am going to have to start inventing things. I would go for a fruit bread recipe as well, but I would rather not do banana bread just because I basically have no bananas and don't know that I could get enough of them ripe enought to make bread with in time for the Christmas gift exchanges.

Any ideas???

This is totally ripped off from aggiebell90 and hermette who are both fond of the open LJ letter format. Please just take this as a nod that I am also a big fan.


Dear Max:

Thanks soooo much for tossing the $3 a dozen organic eggs out of the shopping cart onto the floor at Wal-Mart. It was so much more fun than when you broke a glass jar of salsa there a couple of weeks ago! I can't wait to see what you come up with next to throw on their concrete floor. /sarcasm

Just so you know sometimes when Mommy doesn't talk to you, it is because she loves you and doesn't want to expand your vocabulary in a bad direction and/or scar you for life.

Love,
Mommy


Dear Fresh Step,

Your cat litter sucks. I have one kitten and your litter makes my living room smell like a pissing contest between two tomcats. How have you managed that feat?? I am going back to the Tidy Cats.

No Thanks,
A Former Consumer


Dear Best Friend,

You can do this. Really. I mean it. You can totally do this. And that other thing, I say we change the motto to “get on the horse again in 2010.” Cause that has so many funny connotations. And you can do that too. Really.

A ton of love,
Me


Dear Husband,

I am seriously stoked that you instructed me not to open the box that came from Amazon. Either you have actually been listening to me when I talk about books I want or you just went ahead and got me a Kindle. Either way, I am seriously impressed.

Much love,
Your wife who got you another video game for Christmas


Dear Grandpa,

You are cold because you are 86 years old and have been diabetic since you were 30. Also you have no body fat and are wearing a short sleeved t-shirt. Put on some more clothes and get another blanket, we don’t have to keep the thermostat set on 76 degrees.

Thanks,

Your granddaughter who lives upstairs where all the heat goes