Hello. My Name Is Santa Ramsey.

I'm happy to tell you that the Great Baby Boy Coat Hunt of 2010 has come to an end.

And a delightful end at that.

We went out for Round 2 coat shopping today and it began just as desolate as yesterday.  For every 37 adorable pink baby girl coats, there was one third of a baby boy coat, and things were not going well.

Bless my dear friend L's heart, because she stepped up to facing the madness with me, and my crazy was in full swing.  Because if there is one thing my baby boy needs when it hasn't even reached THIRTY FOUR DEGREES outside, it's a coat that will keep him toasty warm. 

The temperature outside today was crazy cold, but it actually made for better coat shopping weather than yesterday's balmy 65 degrees.  I found out fast that the fleece we got him yesterday was not even close to warm enough, and the freezing temps held me accountable to finding a coat that was tundra appropriate this afternoon.

I will spare you the details of the thousands of stores that were entered, the billions of sleeves that were tested, the trillions of times Newbie had to get in and out of various overcoats, and simply state that we found an adorable coat at Old Navy on clearance for 16 bucks and THEN I found that one of the snaps had popped off, got a further discount, and walked out of there at 4 o'clock this afternoon with a coat that cost me 8 bucks.  It. was. incredible.

I can't post pictures yet, but click here to see the GLORY that is the once was $34.50 but is now $8.00 coat.

Do you want to hear about the cherry on top?  We ran into Once Upon a Child and found an Eric Carle board book library with three of my fave Carle books for four bucks.  SOLD!  And Tumble Bumble for a buck fiddy.  SOLD!  Santa is one jolly fat man this year, folks.

Speaking of Santa, the Hubs has officially pulled rank and told me to cut. it. out. on the spending due to my zest and zeal for my first official Christmas shopping as a bonefied "Santa" this year.  That was a good call on his part. What can I say?  I make one enthusiastic Santa dedicated only to the bounty of the presents under the tree on Christmas morning and not the budget.  After my bargain buy today, I'm cutting my losses and putting the kabosh on more presents for Newbie.  No more Santa Claus.  It's Santa Ramsey from this point on!

Forward march!

Have I told you how excited I am for this week?  Because I am SUPER excited.

The Hubs has most of the week off, and we have big plans.  BIG plans.

1. Fix the washing machine

2. Do some laundry

3. Pick out Christmas ornaments

4. Stuff our cake holes with turkey and pie

5. I have always wanted to use "cake hole" in a sentence.  We had a substitute teacher my freshman year in high school that used the term frequently when telling us to quiet down, and I have wanted to use it ever since.  Mission accomplished.

6. Decorate the Christmas tree

7. Sleep a lot

8. Deer camp for the Hubs, decorating G-Mama's house for me

9. Now is probably a good time to tell you that today the Hubs told me he always thought of "Here Comes Santa Claus" as Santa's fight song.  Then he went on to sing along with the radio and end the song punching his fist in the air three times while simultaneously shouting "HO HO HO!"  I think he might be right.

10. That reminds me of my venture down to my mil's basement to look through the boys' old Christmas ornaments last Sunday afternoon.  I busted a gut laughing when I saw the assortment because almost EVERY SINGLE ornament the Hubs had as a kid involved a football.  Santa with a football.  Snowman with a football.  Monogram with a football. You get the idea.  It was hilarious.  He is definitely the son-in-law my dad always dreamed he would someday have. =)

11. Why has this list morphed from weekend plans to Santa's fight song?  Sorry about that. But when in Rome...

12. I love my mil and fil.  They send us home with a bazillion leftovers any time we leave their house. It is dinner time soon and all I can say is: HELLO PULLED PORK LEFTOVERS, BABY!

13. Newbie spit his green beans back out at me today.  It was like he learned his lesson after downing them all yesterday and decided he had better nip that in-take in the bud before I started thinking green beans are actually something he wants to choke down the rest of his life.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that.

14. I am going to go stare at Newbie's new coat because that was one tough little bugger to find, and I need to revel in the glory of a job well done.  Hope y'all have a "I finally found a coat, and for only eight bucks!" kind of evening!