Finally: Holiday Recap

I had briefly informed everyone that they would get to see pic's at some point of our holidays. The downside is that my camera is buried somewhere in the pile of clothes in my bedroom, so alas, you do not get to see 500 pictures of my toddler learning to rip open gifts. On the plus side, I'm sure many of you have grown tired of seeing such pics plastered all over facebook, and also, my phone pic's are much more interesting. So let's begin, shall we?

The Thursday before Christmas was last minute holiday craziness. My first day of 'vacation' from work was filled with list making, shopping, baking, and wrapping. Amelia and I left the house at 11:30 a.m. and didn't return until 4:30 p.m. She did excellent since she took a nice little nap in the car at some point, and it was a good reminder that I should be ever thankful that she is now a fun toddler rather than a colicky baby that has to remain strapped to my body to be happy. Hello, mommy freedom. Here she is kicked back in her stroller when we stopped at our local coffee shop to purchase a few gifts and relax before heading home:

I was crazy enough to try out a Christmas craft/gift that involved paint and baby feet. I imagined that this would be difficult due to the mess it would make. Little did I know that my daughter would be completely freaked out by the prospect of having paint on her feet. How I managed to make three of these pictures for her grandparents and great grandparents while she wailed and kicked her green feet around, I'll never know:

That gold blob at the top is supposed to be a star made with her hand, but she had it balled up in a fist of furry, so it is barely recognizable.

The next day, we headed down to my grandparents that live ninety minutes south of us. We stayed overnight and Miss Amelia got her first haul of toys, with two more yet to come at that point. We made it back to our home by 6:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, I yanked Amelia's clothes off and threw a beautiful red and black dress over her head, strapped her back in her car seat, and we headed off to Christmas Eve service. She was less than thrilled about being confined yet again, but was very pleasant and snuggly at church.

The next morning my husband prepared to go to his parents early while I took Molly for a Christmas morning walk:

It was a little chilly, but a lovely way to start the day. It was quiet and calm, and a great gift to a dog who is constantly stuck in the house with a rough and over exuberant toddler. I could barely get her to sit still for a picture:

We were supposed to be at my in-laws by 11:00 a.m., however, Amelia was sick and had other ideas:

Finally she woke up around noon and we headed off to my in-laws, then my parents. It was a nice day, but I was certainly ready to be home and kick my feet up to watch Christmas movies at the end of the day.

The rest of the week after Christmas was filled with cleaning and catching up with friends. On Tuesday, my dad and I headed to a local butcher shop about 30 minutes from my house to stock up on meat for our freezers. Amelia seemed not at all interested in this at first:

However, the foodie in her must have sensed something because she woke shortly after I snapped this picture and was ready for her grandpa to show her the ropes of picking out the best cuts of meat while Mommy filled the cart with good stuff:

Who knew a butcher shop could be so interesting?:

Honk your nose, steer!

Yes, I really stuck her into a cart of meat in order to get a cute picture.

You may be saying to yourself, yes, that's lovely, pictures of your baby by a meat case, but what did Amanda do for New Year's Eve? Well, I'll tell you. My husband made me Chinese food so I could sit on the couch and enjoy a drink. Then we played some video games together and cuddled on the couch watching TV while Amelia slept. We passed out by 10:30 p.m. and were woke up promptly at 12:30 a.m., bright and early in 2012 by our daughter's hacking cough. Such is the glamorous life of parents. Although when I reflected upon this the next morning, I actually stopped going out for NYE before I was even pregnant with Amelia. I like to throw back a few drinks, but staying up late has never really been my thing, nor is getting all dressed up. I'll take sweatpants and an early bedtime any day.

And so, this concludes the belated retelling of the holidays in our household. Stay tuned for my resolutions later this week!

Holiday Craziness

I'm still here. It's been a week since I've written anything, which is funny considering that last week I thought 'Oh, next week I'm off, I can probably post every day!'

HAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!

I have high aspirations.

I don't always actually meet them.

Since last Wednesday, I have bought and wrapped presents, made cookies, stayed overnight at my grandparents, wrapped some more, visited my in-laws, spent time with my parents twice, went to our local butcher to fill our basement freezer, and today I'm working. Even though I'm on vacation.

SIGH.

I know, I know, it's like this for everyone this time of year. And yet, each year around Thanksgiving I think 'THIS year will be different. This year I will relax and enjoy the Christmas season.

Again: HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!

No, I did enjoy it. I have a wonderful family and enjoy many blessings throughout the year. You just have to wait a week to read about them on my blog while I recover from what can only be described as a holiday hangover sans alcohol. I like to keep my readers in suspense.

Crazy Week

I was totally going to write a post Thursday or Friday, but let me tell you, it's been a crazy week. Someone got their hands on my checking account number and was paying their bills with it, I locked myself out of the car while I was at the bank handling it, and now my daughter has a cold:

This creates horrid sleep at night. Which in turn leads to a crabby, unproductive mommy during the day. Thankfully, my husband took care of her this morning so I could lay in bed and try to sleep. Try. Because my mommy brain is used to waking up at 5:30 a.m. every day and thinking about cleaning, working, exercising, diapers, meal planning, playing, laundry, dishes, etc. Also it occurred to me this morning that I'm running a half marathon in April and I'm going to have to start training for it in a month. Don't ask me why this is what I think about on the rare occasion that I could sleep in.

ANYWHO, I felt like I could be lazy about my postings because yesterday I was mentioned on Life's Crazy Joke. Very generous of Meredith to give some other blogs some exposure and also gave me a break on writing. Check her out, she's a funny lady.

And now, I'm off to try to peel my rear end off the couch and do something, hopefully Christmas related, because did I mention that I have hardly anything made, bought, or wrapped? No? Um, yep, not a thing done.

Thirty One

Friday I turned 31. It was a weekend full of excitement. Friday we went to eat at the new Mexican Restaurant in town. Saturday I started my day with a spinning class with the hardest instructor at my gym at eight in the morning, then followed it with taking Amelia to see Santa read a story at our library (she fell asleep-- clearly not impressed by jolly old Saint Nick), then a haircut and a massage. Sunday was my birthday party with the family.

It was a good weekend.

Now I'm busting my butt to meet a deadline at work and anxiously counting down to Christmas. Not so much because I'm dying to get presents but instead because I need to get/make the presents that I'm giving. I have a ton on my plate right now, just as probably everyone does around the holidays.

In any case, if you'd like to give me a virtual birthday/Christmas gift, click on the banner at the top and vote for me on Top Mommy Blogs! You can vote for me each time you read my blog, so it's a gift you can give me throughout the year :)