lxforever

“It’s been a hard day’s night! / And I’ve been working like a dog! / It’s been a hard day’s night! / I should be sleeping like a log”

—Beatles

“I have a quote for you. How about ‘killer boots, man’?”

—Jeff, 12/24/14…no.

“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.”

—Burton Hillis / aka William E. Vaughan

“Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!”

time 11:04 pm feeling GREAT!!! wearing Christmas PJs ready for treats and bed, probably in that order next treats?

(17! Yo. 17 yrs of this update, that is.)

OK I give up on the quote. So…I am sitting BY THE FIRE in our NEW HOUSE, by the TREE, listening to Xmas music while Jeff plays his videogame and it is AWESOME!!! Let me just say…
it was pretty cool being pregnant at Christmas…
and it was pretty wonderful having a baby at Christmas…
but it is AWESOME having a toddler at Christmas!!!

Our little gal is just the absolute light of our lives right now. Not that she wasn’t, but, wow, what a Real Person she is, and what amazingness that is. YEAH!!!

Basically I just had the Best Day Ever. And so it deserves…

EOTD (edited for privacy, as usualllll).
6:30am. Woke up. 7am. Woke up for real. Finally getting light out, sort of. Had some things to do for work quick so fired up the laptop while I made some extreeeeeemely strong coffee and did some sun salutations. NOTE TO SELF: my body and mind feel 100x better doing even just 2-3 sun salutations in the AM. Something about it just makes the body feel good. Must continue! Anyway. Got coffee, cookie, banana and vitamins and set up on the couch by the Christmas lights to do work. Work. Irritating to have to do but I am feeling very good about my job. And therefore very lucky. And it was quick. Anyway. Heard 1YO but continued working, eventually Jeff got to it and I got my work done. SCORE.

We all got dressed and had snacks and put on shoes and headed out. Jeff forced me to pick where to go and I picked Sunstreet Breads despite it being superbusyallthetime. There was a Safety Bruegger’s across the street, after all. BUT! Got to Sunstreet and not only was the line short, there were tables!!! A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE. I have wanted to go there as a family for approximately the entire time 1YO has been alive. Got biscuits, potato balls, a Downtowner for Jeff(!!!), fresh-squeezed OJ, a loaf of bread for later, and the most amazing fruit bowl ever (because of its amazing orange – seriously we all fought over it by the end). We were all very pleased and satisfied and also enjoyed the people watching. A most EXCELLENT breakfast, possibly EVER!

Then! Off to GOOD TIMES PARK. God I cannot CANNOT get ENOUGH of that place!!! It was an absolute blast as always. Nothing terribly notable, just a, well, GOOD TIME for all! My favorite MN winter destination. Lots of hopscotch number jumping, yeah. On the way home stopped at the videogame store for Jeff’s Christmas game and a couple stocking stuffers (Zelda puzzles). We were SET! Also for cheap gas. AMERIKA!

Home, I got to making cinnamon roll dough and the other two got to lunch followed by a small meltdown followed by Mommy getting to rock her baby and sing Silent Night for awhile, then nap. Nap began and I was going to ride my bike (warm and melted snow!), HOWEVER it was 1. hanging from the ceiling 2. I instead got caught in a cleaning FRENZY OMG. I went absolutely crazy on the kitchen and cleaned out the entire fridge INCLUDING wiped it down I have no idea what happened. Except. It was sorely, SORELY needed. Hooray. I also cleaned up the playroom and dining room for the first time in 2 weeks (it’s been a crazy couple of weeks). Lookin’ good! Yeah!

This cleaning crusade left much less time for moi, including finishing roll dough, finishing making 1YO’s blankie (C-mas gift), and working out. I gave up on the other two things and instead got to work on the blankie. Very very messy outcome but I still call it a SUCCESS because I am very proud of the end result, since it was fun to make and looks cool, if messy! I hope she likes it. If she does not…I’ll use it. Ha ha ha. A very fun way to spend the afternoon – somehow it is oh-so-satisfying to see a little project like that come together, even at 33, I like to be able to say to myself, “I made that” (like, a website! or a blanket). Yeah!

Took a long (6 minutes instead of 4 minutes, F-Y-I) shower with lavender soap and 1YO woke up. Unhappy. Needed a cuddle! Which I gladly gave. Got dressed in sparkly gold shirt and she put on (OK I put it on) her Christmas dress which was my dress as an infant. NICE. Totally adorable. The MN grandparents began to arrive, bearing gifts and food. We started a fire in the WONDERFUL new FIREPLACE and sat around drinking wine and eating cookies and chatting. Got the dinner started and got to opening gifts. 1YO caught on very quickly and soon was in heaven distributing, opening, and playing with said gifts. It was a little Christmas miracle to watch her happiness in action! So much attention and love for one person. It’s great.

Sat down to eat dinner, which was wonderful, then passed the rest of the evening talking, laughing, eating treats, feeding 1YO treats (she is a cookie monster), playing with toys, etc. Cleanup was easy and speedy and 1YO stayed up late being happy and cute. YEAH.

I then finished up the dough, did some dishes, trolled Facebook and the like, and now am writing this update. We have had an absolutely crazy last two weeks with big work projects and lack of childcare and let me just say we totally kicked ass and it makes this holiday/break time even more sweet. As if it could get sweeter?! This year has been ridiculously good to me, and I’m just going with it. Tonight was simply awesome and tomorrow will be great too. It’s our first Christmas spent at home just the three of us and I cannot wait!!! So weird and wonderful to build our families and grow into our own lives. I miss my sisters very much, and my parents, though luckily I’ll see my parents in a few days, but I’m also proud and glad to have created the life we have. We are truly outrageously, criminally lucky. And so many people aren’t. So I try to remember to be grateful.

But right now I’m just so, so, so happy. So happy. One of my very happiest moments, just being here, in our home, with my husband, in our life, with our healthy(healthy!) family and friends. What a wonderful year. Merry Christmas!!!

ETA: I found a quote!