Oh what the heck, one more contest before Christmas!

Today is Vet Tech Girl's twenty third birthday.

Of the three times I was in the hospital having babies, this one was my favorite. Her birth was a thousand times easier than my son's and I was up and walking in just a few hours. My mother brought in a huge tray of her homemade cookies, and doctors and nurses would drop by all day long to pick out their favorite. It was Christmas time, everyone was in a very festive mood, and my roommate was a friend of mine who'd also been in my Lamaze class.

As a matter of fact we ended up with about four of us from Lamaze in the hospital at the same time and we had a ball! This was when you actually stayed in the hospital for more than a few hours after giving birth. Heck, three years earlier I was in for five days when my son was born.

And even though Vet Tech Girl was Ugly Baby Girl, I still loved her to pieces!

Don't worry! She's a beautiful girl now but I wasn't so blind as to not be able to see that she was an ugly baby then!

She had what are referred to as 'stork bites'. One was between her eyebrows which is a common area. One on the back of her neck at the base of her head, and she had a huge one on her tail bone that scared the heck out of me! The one on her tail bone is the only one that didn't go away but it did end up fading a lot.

She had broken blood vessels all over her face and even in her eyes. And speaking of eyes; hers seemed to work independently of each other which was very disconcerting because oddly, they reminded me of pin ball machines!

I will never forget when my roommate's husband came in our room one night. Their baby was a little pink dream with blond hair (She's still pretty, she ended up with black hair, and I can't believe she's now a young mother herself!) We both had our babies and Husband came over to me and said "Oh, let me see the baby." I pulled the blanket away from Ugly Baby's face and he stopped in his tracks, cleared his throat and said, "Well, isn't she nice."

I laughed at his reaction and told him I knew she was ugly and I didn't care.

Our girls ended up in school together and my daughter, who started out with pitch black hair, ended up becoming a very pretty, black eyed blond.

My other daughter has coppery brown eyes and blond hair, and I'm also a brown eyed blond but Vet Tech girl's eyes really are almost black.

But anyway, everything was rosy back then and babies are sweet but... twenty three years ago I certainly never envisioned this; opening my mail today and reading a letter complaining about a past due account and how the bank is very upset with me, and that they want a payment now....blah, blah, blah!

Because that's what I get for co-signing a student loan!

Vet Tech Girl's birthday present from me is getting the bank off her butt!!

And I thought stork bites were bad!

Parenthood is not for the weak at heart. It really isn't. Here is one of my earlier posts on this subject.

So, what the heck, let's celebrate my daughter's birthday with one more contest.



This is a bag of my own design.

Now keep in mind that it's just a fun bag, something to take out to lunch or dinner. It only has one magnetic snap to keep it closed so it's not very secure.













Although you can use it as a wine bag. We have a french restaurant we love to go to and you have to bring your own wine. This would work for something like that.

BTW, the wine is not included!

Anyway I'd like to get this in the mail before Christmas so I'm going to have a deadline of Tuesday, December 15, at 5:00 PM EST here in the US.

What do you have to do?? Go ahead and just leave a comment that you'd like a chance to win.

If you have a birthday story, or a baby story that's different or funny by all means please share it!!

Keep in mind if you're outside the United States it most likely won't arrive before Christmas (if that matters to you).

Happy Birthday, Happy Holidays, and Merry Christmas, one and all!