Accident Prone

Happy Holidays, from our house to yours! 
In lieu of the lovely 'thankful for our blessings' post I had planned for Christmas this year, which somehow fell off my to-do list, I present you with "Holiday Blunders and Fun, 2006".
On Christmas Eve, whilst the Sullivan Humans were enjoying festivities away from home, the Sullivan Canines were busily eating the Christmas presents we had so carefully laid out to be wrapped.  We arrived home, our hearts full of cheer and our arms full of sleepy toddler, to a house strewn with soggy bits of wrapping detritus, a beheaded bird ornament, partially chewed spice jars, and a paring knife with suspiciously arranged tooth marks.  It was Christmas Eve, the stores were closed, and our pups were looking quite sheepish.  So we put the boy to bed, picked up the mess, and in a moment of true Christmas spirit we did not kill our dogs.  Instead we dug their crates out of the dark corners of our basement, set them up in our bedroom, and decided we need to go back to square one with their training.  If you can't teach an old dog new tricks, let's hope you can refresh an old dog's memory of the house rules. 
We had a lovely Christmas, and it was a joy to see Harrison opening the gifts we had so carefully chosen for him.  Santa was downplayed, and judging by the oohs and ahhhs he emitted Harrison really appreciated each bit of wrapping, each pretty bow, each cardboard box, and, of course, each toy.  After our leisurely morning at home we were off to visit Harry's three sets of Grandparents where he was equally spoiled.  He had the chance to play with cousins Casey and Brian, who were very entertaining and allowed Brendan and I to relax as they chased Little Mr. Busy around. 
On Thursday, after much research and consideration, we decided to return my new digital camera that Brendan had given me for Christmas (mostly due to its sluggishness in taking pictures).  I gathered up the packaging for the camera, and remembered to delete the photos I had taken on the camera's internal memory.  As I watched it deleting I realized it was taking too long, then realized that the memory card (from our other camera) was in it, and that I had just deleted ALL of our Christmas photos.  I am not a technological genius by any means, and this proves it.
Later that day Brendan's brother, Mike, came over with his kids Maggie and Quinn.  Harry loves seeing them, and after lunch and an hour of play we settled the kids down for a movie, rather than try to get them to nap.  During the movie I snuck out to visit my Grandmother and help her with a few things.  I climbed into our new car, backed out of our garage as usual, and promptly smashed into my brother-in-law's car.  Yeah.  The worst part is that when I got out to check for damage I didn't see any, so I continued on to Grandma's, returning later in the day to confess my boo boo.  Only then did Mike and Brendan go out to look at the cars and discovered the smashed tail light and small dent in Mike's car.  To his credit, Mike was very gracious and let me off the hook with minimal teasing.
Today we had a babysitter for four hours.  Four Hours!!! Brendan and I started to work on some projects we've been meaning to get to.  Brendan ripped up and replaced treads and risers on our basement stairs, and I began painting our bedroom.  From the very first stroke of my paintbrush the color looked perfect.  It is exactly the right shade, it was covering well (maybe I won't have to do a dreaded second coat) and things were generally serendipitous.  That is, until I misstepped on my way down the ladder,started to fall, and tried to catch myself by jumping to the floor with my right foot, which landed in the paint bucket, which flew into the air and landed in my lap covering me from the thighs down with paint, which then gushed onto the carpet and drop cloth.  And for about the thousandth time since we bought it I thanked the heavens that we own a steam vacuum. 
With three days of vacation left I am wondering what other calamity might befall us.  If nothing else, it keeps life interesting.  I hope your holidays were as lovely as ours, if less accidental.