Well, I have it now – I don’t feel great, but I’ve felt worse. I skipped knitting group tonight because the last thing I want to do is infect folks right before Christmas! I also skipped Brownies (I hated to miss it, our holiday party) and decorating gingerbread houses with Max. It was to be a full day.

I did, however, get most of the relationships worked out in a set of databases I’m designing for our school auction. There are 7 related databases that store bidder info, item info and four different types of auctions going on simultaneously (silent, live and 2 raffles). It felt good to get the relationships validated.

And today I caved. Every day Hannah says, “How many days until Christmas?” and I tell her and she says, “Woohoo! Only X days until Santa brings me Kit!” She has such faith that Kit’s coming on Christmas. I’m never extravagant, always so careful, and damnit, I want to have a little extravagance for a change and get my daughter a real treat for Christmas. You can tell how hard I’m trying to justify this.

I bought the doll.

Well, thanks to a good blogger friend who sent me a discout code, I saved a bit on the doll. My mother’s chipping in a little, too, so all told it’s just a little more than Max’s bike was (okay, quite a bit more). If any kid deserves this doll Hannah does – she’s so happy with anything that I ever give her, I want her to really have something nice.

I remember SO clearly the Christmas that I got my bike – coming downstairs to the tree and seeing the bike set up – it was amazing. I’ll never forget it. I’d like Hannah’s Christmas to be like that, too! And I remember the year I got my “Jane West” doll – anyone else remember those? Chief Cherokee?

Maybe I can design a few “American Girl” hand knit outfits and write it off?