The Breeders: No Presents for Baby's 1st Christmas

Yep, we did not buy our child any gifts this Christmas. We're taking the opportunity to make his first Christmas about more than a butt-load of gifts delivered by a jolly home intruder.

Besides, the kid is six months old. Yesterday, his favorite toy was a dishtowel.

Your Friday Awesome: Everyone Wants Grandbabies

This is family. This is love. This is pretty much the exact same reaction I got from my mom.

Rick Perry and the rest of the homophobes can suck it.

The Breeders: The Cleavers of the New Millenium

Who is that second kid? Foreshadowing...

We are in what may be the worst economy since the Great Depression and my husband just quit his job. 

He hated it. It was not his “calling” and the benefits sucked. I actually like my job and the benefits are great — not only does the entire family have medical, dental and vision coverage, but I had six months of maternity leave for cryin’ out loud.

We decided it made sense for Adam to quit his job, for one very simple reason — economics. It may sound counterintuitive — to decide to have less income does not seem like a smart economic decision — but daycare is expensive. Very expensive. Almost more expensive than our rent.

On average, a nice daycare will run you about half of one of our monthly salaries. Add in bus fare, lunches, maintaining your work attire, sick days for the inevitable daycare colds, and it didn’t really make sense for Adam to spend forty hours a week away from the kid just so we could afford to have someone else take care of him for forty hours a week.

And while I may be the only one with a dependable salary and benefits, Adam’s talents will also be bringing in some income. More importantly, he gets to spend time with the kid while launching a career he actually likes.

So, now I bring home (the majority of) the bacon and my husband fries it up in a pan. Surprisingly well, I might add. But he also does the laundry, mops the floors, illustrates and paints commission projects, and makes sure the kid is not only in one piece by the end of the day, but is enriched and happy.

I may have gotten the easier end of the deal.

Also posted on Alameda Patch.

The Breeders: Shop Local This Holiday

I was up at 4 a.m. on Black Friday, but rather than elbowing shoppers away from doorbuster deals, I was trying to convince the kid to go back to sleep ... again.

I've never participated in the Black Friday consumer extravaganza since I'm not really that big on shopping to begin with. Department stores are overwhelming and I have yet to be convinced that the deals are worth digging through the overstock discount stores.

Sure, I do love a good Target run (one-stop shopping!), but if I had the choice I would do all my shopping online. Amazon's free shipping has led to something of an addiction.

But, this year we've decided that we will eschew Target and Amazon and do all of our holiday shopping here in Alameda. We can reduce our carbon footprint by walking to the stores and not having anything shipped. And, we can support the local economy by doing what we already enjoy: walking through our adorable (albeit temporarily treeless) downtown, saying hello to friends and supporting our neighborhood businesses.

Of course, with a husband who is an artist, my love of holiday baking, and one very cute new expense, we'll also be giving a few homemade gifts.

...speaking of that artist husband of mine, if you want to join us in our local economy boost you can do that and support our schools this Saturday at the Alameda Education Foundation's Holiday Fair. Come by the Elks lodge and get really local by supporting your local mommyblogger's family economy and buy paintings and ornaments from her husband. The kid and I will be there between naps.

Also posted at Alameda Patch.