The Yay Christmas! post

So really, Christmas was awesome.

We started out on Christmas Eve, by which time we had EVERYTHING done for Christmas. Purchasing, wrapping, grocery shopping. There was nothing that NEEDED doing, which was certainly nice. The kids and I met a very old friend of mine from elementary school (long-standing friend - not an OLD friend; she's the same age as me and I'M NOT OLD! ) ... I digress. We met up with Sarah and her husband and adorable son Brady.

We didn't have a ton of time together but it was awesome to catch up in person for the first time in probably 15 years and have the boys play together. And next time I see her there will be an addition to her adorable family! I should have taken a picture of the bump! Too bad there aren't any girls in the group - no one to follow in their mothers' Brownie footsteps (okay, not too sad; I wasn't on the Brownie bandwagon so much and quit as soon as I was allowed). We later had our neighbors over for cheese fondue. I made the dip and supplied the bread, and Mrs. Neighbor supplied fruit and veggies. It was delicious and fun and laid back - everything I wanted it to be.

After dark we headed out, Starbucks in hand (coffee for us, junior hot cocoa for the little one), in search of Christmas lights and WERE NOT DISAPPOINTED. What is up with the luminaries this year? They are BEAUTIFUL! Spencer was done after two hours but we had great luck finding beautiful lights until then, and then we headed home so Santa could come and go and we could get some sleep.

Christmas came and went, was successful and fun and not nearly as stressful as it has been in past years. The grandparents all came over, all eleven of us had sit-down breakfast of biscuits and gravy and pastry and bacon and breakfast casserole and then the present opening began! It was all a-flurry but the kids were very happy with their loot as were mommy and daddy.

I brought these sprouts to Christmas dinner at my in-laws' house and they were delicious. Delicious. I did burn the heck out of my arm in making said sprouts, but I'd venture to say they were worth it. We had much much much more food and many many many more presents and went home exhausted and happy.

And then this happened.

But I'll choose, in the future, to remember this instead:

Here comes Santa Claus ...

It’s officially after Halloween, and you know what that means, especially for those of us with children:

It’s almost Christmas.

Sure, now holiday decorations have been up in stores nearly since Easter passed, but if you are like me you refused to acknowledge it until at least you have a few dozen pumpkin spice coffees in you (I’m drinking one as I type this). I picked up a hoodie for my oldest and some books for both children at a book fair a couple months ago, but generally I’ve shied away from thinking too hard about holidays (except to plan for my new dishwasher that I’m GETTING on Black Friday. But that is my own holiday. Ha!)

One thing I need to start thinking of is holiday cards. Have you seen the cards at Tiny Prints? I spent the better part of several evenings perusing the options, and I’m in love with their cards.

Like this one? ‘Tis wonderful.

And this one? ‘Tis marvelous.

And this one? This might actually be the one.

This of course means I have find my battery charger for the camera and to take some decent photos. I think I need some more pumpkin coffee for that.

(Bloggers! Visit Tiny Prints for a great promotion!)

Seven of those quick takes for Christmas

Happy Christmas!

-- if you are storing your wife's Christmas gifts in the top of your underwear drawer unwrapped, do your own laundry.

-- The book Charlie Brown's Christmas really isn't very good. Floridian Night Before Christmas is funny. Grinch is still A-No.-1.

-- My house is clean, chicken and dumplings are in the slow cooker, my son is vaguely eating his lunch in his underwear, presents are all wrapped (except those ones in the top of my husband's underwear drawer).

-- I'm finally excited about Christmas

-- I'm not letting anything bother me today

-- We'll hope this continues when I make my final trip to Target soon.

-- I hope you all have a marvelous holiday!

touchy-feely

I am not big on online shopping.

In this day and age, I know that's hard to fathom, but I really like to touch my purchases, to weigh them (literally) in my hands and decide if it's really the item I want to get. I will occasionally order online if I've already found what I want, messed with it in a store, and then ordered it for a better price after the fact.

But then there was this ring by vintageandglam:


Which I fell in love with and wanted for my own. And even though it was only $9 (with free shipping!!!), I couldn't justify buying it for myself until I found this beautiful ring to get for my husband's cousin:

So then I needed to do some more shopping. Enter this necklace by The Chartreuse Room for my MIL:


And then this necklace by jjbinx for my mother:

And I thought I was done.

Then I saw a poster on Jennie's blog, and this was finally the end of my Etsy run for this Christmas:

But that's not all! I bit the bullet and also bought my brother a shirt online. I've been looking at these awesome shirts (ps - I'd love the "Tales from the Jazz Age" one myself). I deem this year's online shopping a success! Now to finish the rest of the shopping.

A weekend of Sundays

The problem with 4-day weekends is that every day after the first feels like Sunday. There's always that slight anxiety of thinking you need to go back to work the next day.

There's also anxiety in this household because we have changed Spencer over to his Mickey Mouse undies yesterday evening. No accidents yet, but it's early. I've been making him sit on a trifolded towel on my bed and asking him 1,871 times an hour if he needs to go potty. We even made a quick trip to Target (groceries, Candyland for $3.99) yesterday with no incidents. I'm cautiously optimistic. (interjection: while I was typing this I made him try to go before he had Teddy Grahams because he always poops in the morning and I was getting nervous that he hadn't gone. He insisted that he didn't have to poop but two minutes later I hear, "I did! I did have poop in my belly!" He was very surprised. He also got a Reece's Pieces (1 piece) for pooping in the potty because I'm not above bribery)

Aren't you excited to read about my adventures in potty training? I feel like I need a Thor hat.

I THINK I am nearly done with child shopping for Christmas and birthday. Spencer's birthday is so close to Christmas that I do the shopping at the same time.

So that he can stay away from my blessed laptop.
There were cuter ones, but he loves The Cat, so hopefully he'll like it.
(still haven't gotten this just yet because I'm trying to get the best price, will definitely be birthday and not Christmas)
Might be a joint gift for Spencer and Henry, even though Spencer's the only one who will care.
Buzz pjs

Doctor set: my one "impulse" purchase (in primary colors)

So the only things I have left to get for S are maybe some socks and underwear and a small toy for his stocking.

Henry is getting some clothes and one toy, but I haven't decided on the one toy. I might stick some diapers and socks in his stocking, but I haven't figured that out yet.

I still have the rest of the shopping to do: Hubby and I have decided on an $80 spending limit for each other to get presents for each other from the kids. I think I'm going to get him an air compressor and maybe something Perry the Platypus. I need to get things for my siblings and my parents, and hubby's parents (this is all my job; hubby waits until 12/24 to decide on things), and his cousin and her husband (the family that we exchange gifts with), and his Grandma (usually fancy chocolates). So ... ideally I would like to get all that done in one weekend and not have to worry about it for the rest of the holidays. Do you think I can do it?

(PS: I forgot to knock on wood - in the half hour after I typed the words "no accidents", we had two accidents - one of each variety. Just thankfully they weren't on my bed. Knock on wood.)