Ho Ho Humbug

I really hate the end of Christmas. It’s such a let-down. You spend a month getting all ready for fun and merry-making and then it’s all over in a day.

We had a great time. I loved how our trip turned out. Here are the highlights:

• We had snow on our drive up to Tulsa. Not a lot, but snow is still snow.
• Bridget woke up with a cold (or snot anyway) on Saturday, the day we left for Tulsa, and it’s still lingering.
• Booking the hotel was the best thing we could have done. The apartment Jake’s parents have rented in Tulsa (for many reasons too long to get into here) is nice but would never have fit all 10 of us for four days. We were cramped all being in the same place just for the 12 hours of Christmas Day. And the hotel set up was perfect. We did miss some fun because we had to take Bridget home to bed but her sleeping was especially important since she was sick.
• I sat parked in a no-parking zone at the Tulsa airport for easily half an hour on Sunday while Jake helped his grandparents get situated. No less than four TSA agents walked by me and no one gave me a second glance. What does that tell you about security there?
• I learned to make a green bean casserole that kicks the ass of the recipe on the can of fried onions. You’d like me to share it with you and I might. Or I might not. I have never been a fan of green bean casserole - it was never one of the dishes that my family ate on holidays. Recently I’ve had it and it’s been ok, even pretty good in some cases. But the dish I slapped together with Jake’s mom’s direction was to die for. I ate seconds and thirds of it and wished I had made a bigger dish of it.
• Bridget was wholly unimpressed with Christmas. She didn’t want to sit still to open any gifts and she didn’t want to make it easy for any of us to do so either.
• Did I mention that on Christmas Day I found Bridget with a knife in her mouth one time and a screwdriver another time? This is top-notch parenting right here, folks. I should write a book.
• Santa was very good to me. He listened when I said I wanted a spa day. And so very soon, I will find myself at the Nordstrom spa for a six hour stretch of massage, facial, either a body wrap or a hydrotherapy bath, manicure, pedicure and lunch. I also got some fun gift cards, and other lovely things I can’t think of at the moment but I have written down so I can write my thank you notes very soon.
• While we had a good time, it really caused us to think about how we are going to do Christmas for the next several years, now that we have a child to think about. I think our days of traveling for Christmas are over for a while. We really want Bridget to have the experiences we have had of waking up in her house on Christmas morning and all that. The being away from home while trying to maintain some sense of normalcy in a crazy, fun, sugar and attention filled season is only going to get harder as she gets older. At least until the Santa phase is over. Schlepping gifts (wrapped up and hidden one way, unwrapped and possibly already destroyed the other way) all over the United States is just not doable for us. What about the year she gets a bike or a Barbie house? So I think from here on out, we will take the stance that our Christmas morning is at our house and everyone is welcome to join us. Hi Mom! If you are reading this, we’ll talk in July or so about Christmases future. Don’t stress now. Love you!

So tell me, all my internet friends, did you have a wonderful holiday? I sure hope so. And I hope that your New Year’s is full of fun, but stay safe, ok?

I’ll probably be sparse on the blogging for the next few days. I have committed to doing Blog 365 and I need to save my strength for that.

Christmas Greetings from Oklahoma

We made it to Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon, with a car packed to the gills (I highly recommend marrying a man with mad packing skillz, yo) and through the driving snow. Well, it was more flurrying snow, but it was snow nonetheless.  And Bridget cried almost the entire four hours in the car. I think turning to face forward in her carseat may have been a bad idea. When she could only see seat back, I think she bored herself to sleep on long car rides. Now she has a view straight through the front windshield and that’s pretty interesting to a baby girl.

I’ll regale you with tales of sleepless nights, snot and the like when we get home.

Until then, I wish you all a very happy holiday, no matter how you celebrate.  Be of good cheer, eat some good food and spend some time doing exactly what you want to do.

My Favorite Ornaments

I’m shamelessly stealing this blog post idea from Sarah at Life with Lance. But I really liked seeing her favorite Christmas ornaments and hearing the stories behind them so I thought I’d copy her.

Jake’s and my tradition is to buy a Christmas ornament from every trip we take together. We’ve really grown to love opening the boxes of decorations and remembering all of our fun trips.

The first time we did that was in June of 2001, just two months after we were married. We went to San Francisco and bought this ornament (pardon the blurry picture, I didn’t realize it was blurry until I uploaded it and am too lazy to take another)

Another sentimental favorite is this one. Although the ornament itself is goofy, it was our first plane trip after September 11, 2001. We went to Chicago in November and bought this guy from some store on the Navy Pier.

Sometime in spring of 2002, when we were living in Connecticut, we took a day trip to Mystic. No, we didn’t eat any pizza (although we saw the place, it was just too crowded. We opted for seafood instead) but we did tour the slave ship Amistad.

Here is one that Jake brought me back from one of his many, many trips to Denmark. It’s a wooden Viking and he has a string that hangs down. When you pull the string his arms and legs both go up. It’s one of the most fun ornaments we have.

Another favorite from Denmark. Jake found this collection of ornaments, which I can only imagine are like our Hallmark ornaments because every year there seemed to be a new ornament in the series and they are all gorgeous. I don’t think this was the first, but it’s my favorite of that group. (Another blurry one, sorry)

This ornament we bought in Boston when we went for our first anniversary. As a kid, my parents had a similar pewter ornament from when we lived in Boston. Just by coincidence I found the same maker? designer? craftsman? when we were there in 2002 so I bought one for myself. I always loved my mom’s and I love this one just as much.

Thanksgiving of 2002, we blew off turkey and jetted across the pond for a quick trip to London. Stupidly we ended up at Harrod’s on a Saturday, which made me want to put a bullet in my brain. To commemorate the fact that I lived through the experience, I bought this little guy.

This one, I made Sarah, Lorna and R accompany me in search of one very muggy morning near the end of our trip to Hilton Head Island in 2006. I had searched everywhere we went on the island for an ornament only to find a whole damn Christmas shop in the little shopping center where we went every morning for baked goods. What can I say? I was pregnant and airheaded.

And last but certainly not least, is the ornament I bought this year for Bridget. Jake and I both have ornaments with our names engraved on them that we had as kids and I wanted Bridget to have one too. I had planned to get this for her last year, but if you live in Texas you know that you DO NOT venture into James Avery past Thanksgiving Day, and if you want engraving done before Christmas, you better be prepared to give someone a blow job. Just kidding. They are good Christians there. They don’t know what blow jobs are. Did I just mention blow jobs and my daughter’s first Christmas ornament? Top 10 Mom, right here.

So now tell me about your favorite ornaments. Or think of this a photo meme and post a blog entry of your own. C’mon. It’ll make you feel Christmasy.

Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Blog Post….

I was all set to write a blog post today that had nothing whatsoever to do with Bridget, snot or motherhood. Well, I’m not writing about snot, so at least that’s something.

To make up for the complete lack of posts regarding anything besides my child, I’ll post a picture for your holiday enjoyment. Here is Bridget meeting Santa for the first time. I can’t wait to trot this one out when she’s 17.

It’d be sad if it weren’t so funny.

The Previously Undiscovered Circle of Hell

Mall

Santa

Oh my god.

Still having trouble forming sentences.

Kids, uppity and inattentive parents, employees who had obviously come to work under the influence of some heavy tranquilizers (which I can’t blame them for, considering their jobs), the fun just keeps on comin’.

I must say that the Santa was the best looking mall Santa I have ever seen and he was so nice. The  background was so beautiful.  And Bridget was very cute. Until she was set on Santa’s lap. Then she had a level 3 meltdown. But I knew that was a very distinct possibility. We actually bought one of the pictures where she is crying just because it’s funny and we’ll all laugh about it years from now.  When Jake gets home from his business trip I’ll have him scan it so you can all see it - it’s hilarious.

Next year when we do this, we will be sure to be there when the pictures begin so there is less possibility for jackassery.

Now if you’ll excuse me I just realized that Christmas is three weeks from today. For all my pre-holiday blustering, I have gotten very little shopping done. As soon as Bridget gets to sleep, I am going to get my ass in gear and make some lists!

Another Grumpy Bear

I got a decent night’s sleep last night and I feel much better.  But I woke up today with a very grumpy Bridget. She is running  a fever but doesn’t seem to be showing any other symptoms. I think this is a reaction to her MMR vaccine early last week,  but I still hate to see her feeling bad. She slept most of the day which gave us time to begin the decoration process. We got the houses up on top of the cabinets and I went through the boxes of decorations, and even managed to throw out a few things I don’t want anymore. The tree should arrive tomorrow and we’ll get it all decorated. I can’t wait!

I just hope that Bridget feels better tomorrow. Maybe a few Christmas sparklies will make her happy.

Game On!

Y’all, it’s Christmas now! I don’t have to pretend to be all “Oh I’m not even ready for Christmas this year. Grumble grumble bah humbug…” I can come out of the Christmas closet in a full blaze of red and green glory.

Sadly, my Christmas tree did not arrive on Wednesday. Its new estimated arrival date is Monday. Luckily Jake will be in town that day to put it in the stand for me. The trick will be to wait for him to decorate it. If he wants me to. Maybe he doesn’t care. I’ll have to check. But even without the tree, I totally plan to get the mantle decorated this weekend and get my Christmas villages up. I even plan to force Jake to get the outdoor lights  put out. We don’t hang lights since our house is two stories. Instead we use red and green floodlights pointed up the house.  Easy, subtle, Christmas-y.

I want to get all my Christmas movies and specials out. I almost bought the Charlie Brown box set just to have the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas in one box. But I opted to save that $36. But I do have Elf, A Christmas Story,  It’s a Wonderful Life, Christmas Vacation, and a few TV specials I think. Might just have to bust them out tonight. But I don’t want to blow my Christmas spirit too early.

Someone give me a tranquilizer. I’m way too Christmas-y for my own damn good.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas….

First, there is a cold front moving in as we speak. Woo hoo! Yesterday it was 84 degrees, a record high for that day. Today topped at 60 something and will drop. Tomorrow morning for the Turkey Trot, it will be in the high 30s or low 40s. Brrrr…. Now maybe we can finally turn the air conditioner off for good. It is November after all.

I just checked online and my L.L. Bean Christmas tree is set to be delivered today. In a minute, I’m going to go to the garage and dig out the Christmas tree stand so we can get it in water pronto! I might also dig out the decorations so they are out and we can get cracking tomorrow night or early Friday!

I was just at Target and I bought my first ever set of multi-colored Christmas lights. I personally prefer all white lights on a tree. Jake prefers colored. So we compromised and I got all white until we had kids, then we could have the colors for as long as the kid was in the house, then I get white again. Well, it’s time to pay the piper. Due to infertility I had a good long run of white lights only. The one upside, I suppose.

I’m also going to make Jake measure the width of my cabinets because I was handed an excellent idea for displaying my Department 56 Christmas village (I collect the North Pole series). We are going to put some ply wood down on top of the kitchen cabinets and display a few favorites there where toddlers and pets cannot destroy them. He’ll be going to Lowe’s on Friday to buy my plywood, no doubt about it.

Oh, yeah. And Happy Thanksgiving!

Here We Go…..

It’s day one of NaBloPoMo and I’m beginning to panic about how on earth I’m going to come up with something to write about every single day of the month of November. I apologize in advance if it seems as though some of these posts have been phoned in. Because really? Some of them will be. Sorry.

Last night was, of course, Halloween. I had been up in the air about whether I was even going to hand out candy. It seemed like a big pain to be home alone with Bridget while trying to get to the door every other minute. But I finally decided to make an event of it for Bridget. I put her in the Halloween onesie I bought her in lieu of a costume. (I opted against the costume because I didn’t feel like wasting money on it when there was every chance she would refuse to wear it.) We stood out on the front porch and watched the trick-or-treaters walking up and down the street. When we’d see a group approaching the house, I’d say, “Look Bridgie! Look at the big kids!” and she’d start flapping her arms and kicking her legs in excitement until the kids would get to the door. Then we’d give them candy and she’d wave at the kids. It was really cute. But the cute was wearing thin as it got closer to Bridget’s bedtime. So I turned off the light and put her to bed. I was worried about the noise keeping her up, since the kids in our neighborhood have not historically understood the whole “if the light is off, don’t ring the bell” thing, but this year I had not one single ring or knock after the light went off. All in all, Bridget’s first Halloween was a rousing success.

And now… the holidays have started! I’m always of the opinion that the holidays begin with Halloween. Because now it’s time to start thinking of Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, and then New Years. The excitement just doesn’t end until January. It’s interesting because normally I couldn’t care a lick about Thanksgiving. It’s always been more of an obligation than something I’ve been interested in and I’ve certainly not been excited about it. But this year seems different. This year I’m all about the holidays and that includes Thanksgiving. Plus, I have the Turkey Trot to look forward to!

So bring it on! Gifts have been bought! Plans are being made! I can’t wait!

Only 57 Shopping Days Left

That’s right, Christmas is less than two months away.  And I am so freaking Christmas-y already, I can’t even stand myself.

I made two loaves of banana bread yesterday. Tomorrow, I am hoping to try out Swistle’s chocolate-crusted pumpkin cheesecake recipe.  And today, I ordered my first Christmas presents and my Christmas tree from L.L. Bean. (As an aside, I just discovered that there is an L.L. Bean store in South Windsor, CT. I’m hoping that someone can confirm for me that this store was not there when I lived there for two years or else I’m going to be really pissed at myself.)

I know it sounds nuts-0 to buy a Christmas tree online, but stick with me here and I’ll walk you through my logic.  First, I’m pretty sure that all trees get cut on the same day. So even if I bought one here on December 15, the odds are good that it was cut the same damn day as the one that L.L. Bean is shipping to me for practically the same price I would pay some carnie-type person in an RV in the Albertson’s parking lot, and they aren’t even charging me shipping. You can bet the carnies charge you for rope and to bale the thing. Second, we’ve had such bad luck with Christmas trees for so long that I just can’t bear the thought of another fugly tree. So much so that I seriously considered buying an artificial tree to avoid the cussing and hand-wringing when, after a week in the stand, we discover that the damn tree is not taking any of the water we have provided. But I can’t stomach the thought of a fake one. I need the smell. I need sap on my hands or else it’s not Christmas.   If this tree sucks, you can bet that ol’ L.L. is going to hear about it and my $75 will be promptly returned to my bank account.  Lastly, we are going out of town for Christmas this year. Which usually means we take the tree down before we leave to avoid fire hazards and pet damage while we are away. So if I am going to take it down on December 22 anyway, I want to put it up as soon as possible to get as much Christmas delight out of it as possible. I learned the hard way last year that not decorating for Christmas is one of the most horribly depressing things in the world. I won’t ever make that mistake again.  Yes, it’s a hassle, but it’s always worth it.

So tell me, is anyone else as nuts as I am? Who’s been shopping already? I want to hear holiday plans!