Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year!

Rewind 6 years ago.

Husband and I were living in Chapel Hill, married for 2 years, still DINKs (dual income no kids) and enjoying ourselves. We had the outrageous luck to be taken to Rome for Christmas and returned back to North Carolina in time for New Years. You can imagine that after having 10 course dinners overlooking the city, New Year's Eve on Franklin Street might have seemed a bit pedestrian to say the least.

So the two of us declared that we were SO over New Years. We didn't need to go out, the hype was too much, it was always a disappointment...yadda yadda yadda...you get the point. We stayed in. And watch a Cirque Du Soleil marathon on Bravo until the boredom had our eyeballs rolling into the back of our heads.

Little did we know at that time that was the last time we would have New Years to ourselves. The next year I was pregnant and had 3 weddings to go to...yes THREE (we only made it to two....one in Miami and one in Mexico) and after that it was all kids all the time.

So needless to say I am excited to have 3 parties to go to today. One for lunch with the high school girlfriends and their kids, one for dinner with friends and a babysitter...yippee! the best kind of party!, and one late night (after 9pm!) with my sister and her boyfriend.

It may not be earth-shattering, but it isn't a Bravo marathon of contortionists either.

Happy New Year! Here's to a good 2009!
XOXO

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Merry Christmas!


Christmas Eve at my parents' house

Little girl LOVED her nana's duck cassoulet. And Nana didn't even cringe when she spilled it on the couch.
Both kids got a kitchen from Santa.
Daddy was just a wee bit tired from putting together the kitchen the night before.
That didn't dampen the kids' enthusiasm.



It was a tie for favorite present between the hiking outfit and backpack outfitted with a compass, rations, water bottle, and emergency kit...
And the marine outfit...aka bad guy/army man. Way to go Duk Duk!
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Monday, December 22, 2008

A Feeble Attempt at Best

I need to preface this post. I love my husband. But....

Our kids have been sick for nearly two weeks. First the little girl got a nasty cold that has made an otherwise happy-go-lucky kid cranky, snotty, and just a regular pain in the ass. After the 3rd day I was really scraping the bottom of the sympathy barrel. I know she didn't feel well, but really did she need to latch herself onto my leg, scream, cry, and jump to get up all at the same time? Then...this weekend the boy got the stomach bug. Luckily this thing lasted only 24 hours, so I didn't run out of sympathy, but I may have run out of Clorox wipes. Nasty.

So today my husband comes into the kitchen and with all sincerity says,

Honey, if you want to get a little time to yourself today, you can take my car to the DMV and renew the registration...while the kids nap.

Wait, I think I misheard you. Did you say that I should go get a mani/pedi, go read gossip magazines in Starbucks, or just go drive around in the peace and quiet? No...I think what I heard was that in my "time to myself" while the kids are asleep or at the very least quiet in the room, you are going to let me go to the DMV for you?

You are so sweet. But things around here aren't that bad...yet.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

NO!

A few weeks ago I said to my husband, "I know it isn't right, but it is so cute when she says no."

You see, she would say it in a wispy little voice, she would shake her little head, and the three curls in the back of her head would shake as well. It was so cute.

Not so much anymore.

Now when I try to put her in her booster seat she screams, "NO" and pushes me away. When I try to put her shoes on she hides her feet and screams "NO." When I serve her food, she shoves the plate right back at me and screams, "NO". When I say it is time to go to bed she runs away (and that little bugger is fast!) and screams, "NO".

Let's add to this that she has been sick for five days, so nothing other than sitting on my lap, sneezing in my face, and rubbing her germy hands all over my face makes her happy.

So let's imagine who is shaking her head, with a raspy voice, and screaming "NO!"

Gingerbread houses

I have tried to do a variety of crafts with my kids this holiday season. A couple of months ago, with visions of sugar plums and gingerbread villages dancing in my head, I bought a gingerbread house kit. I have anticipated this activity with my son since we threw the pumpkins away and have been waiting for the right time to bring it out and enjoy the decorating. Last Friday seemed to be the perfect time. You judge for yourself if it was the perfect holiday craft for our family. Personally, it wasn't so much a craft as an internal struggle of my OCD and letting my boy do it his way. Harder that you can imagine!

Little boy started out strong. He's really into crafts right now so fully embraced the concept of decorating the house. Unfortunately, planning and foresight are not his strong points, so he fell into a fit when he realized that after shingling half of the roof, he was out of gumdrops.
I have to admit that I never anticipated that the little girl would be interested in decorating the gingerbread house. This was clearly a lack of foresight and planning on my part (must be genetic). She was practically hyperventilating with distress when left out of this activity.

Enter her father, the truly crafty one in the family. Who, like MacGyver, swooped in and made a gingerbread house out of some stale graham crackers and leftover cream cheese frosting. Martha would be so proud!

We call it her Gingerbread Adobe.

I ended up letting the little boy do the whole house by himself. Not only was I proud of him, but I was really proud of myself. What I wouldn't have done to make that whole house symmetric and color coordinated!


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Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Holiday Dilemna

Here's my problem.

I love to cook, I love to eat, and I hate to diet. It is really a bad combination.

And it is a REALLY bad combo during the holidays. For as soon as I get a good whiff of the holiday spirit I am baking and making and tasting and basting. I watch the food network all day long. I read all the cooking magazines. I scour the Internet. I try new cookie recipes. I strategize what I am going to serve for Christmas (anyone who knows me knows I have already been talking about this for a few months). I make lists. I go to the store. I bake. I freeze. I head back to the store. And then I bake some more.

It is a great place to be if you are one of those people who just smiles and says, "I'm so lucky, I can eat anything." But that's not me.

But I'm not going to let that stop me.

All that glitters is not gold

I know, I know.

In my last post I professed my love for my blog and then I proceeded to abandon it and leave it without a new post for over a week.

Where have I been? You ask.

Well see, I have been cleaning up all the fu&^%ng glitter in my house. Tis the season for preschool teachers to exact their revenge on the parents. Glitter glitter everywhere, and not a piece of artwork to be found. It's on the floor, on clothes, in diapers, and even in the dog bowl. You can't get away from it here.

You'd think that I'd get the holiday spirit and be more forgiving about the scabs on my knees from crawling around the house trying to peel the individual pieces of glitter out of the grout. But I'm not feeling forgiving right now.

But just you wait, preschool teacher, I'll get you back. I'm going to buy you a mug for the holidays.

Monday, December 01, 2008

My Jamming Blog

So at Thanksgiving my cousin (his b-day today...Happy Birthday Bay Leaves!) took a poll amongst the dinner guests. He wanted to know...who had a blog. I proudly raised my hand (all by myself, no one else had a blog or was willing to admit it!) and stated, "I HAVE TWO!" Hip-hip-hooray for me!

Then he proceeded to tell everyone in the room that having a blog was like having Jams. An interesting analogy. My blog is like the over sized, over-printed shorts of the 80's. Hmmm.


But you know what. I wasn't cool enough to have Jams in the 80s. All I had were homemade knockoffs made by my aunt. And this time around I have not one but TWO authentic blogs. I wear them, share them and care for them with pride.

Hopefully they will have a longer life and be looked back on with greater appreciation than Jams. Because really, if my blogs are like Jams, I'm in trouble.