Merry Christmas!!!

Hope your Christmas morning was full of fun and laughter and lots of goodies!!

Henry woke us up at 6:40, which I wasn't quite ready for considering I finally had to take some Nyquil at 2 a.m. because I was coughing and couldn't sleep. He and Marc went out to check the stockings and I slept another half hour. I went out, stuck the casserole in the oven, and we played a couple of games of Jenga - a family gift Santa had left - and then declared it late enough for starting in on presents (i.e. the sun was just about up and Harper was starting to rustle).

Henry raked in a couple of Nerf guns, a couple of Bionicle toys, a couple of Lego sets, his taekwondo blacks and ssahng jeol bongs (nunchukas), and a few other goodies. Harper got a Fisher Price crawl-through-walk-around gym thing, some Peek-a-Blocks, a ball tumble thingy, and some soft toys and rattles. I got print-outs of what is on the way to me (Marc, ever the procrastinator!) - a cable release for my camera, a 50mm 1.8 lens, and new wool (plaid!!) Birkenstocks, as well as a book I've been dying to read ever since I found the lady's blog a couple of years ago, a cool glass wine wall art thing and a frame with our names lasered into the wood. Marc got a bunch of geek stuff - t-shirt, sweatshirt, mirror thingamabob, a couple of Xbox games, some chocolate, and a hand-held ham radio that he's been hinting at in a big way (emails with the words XMAS IDEA!!!!!!).

All in all, a great morning.

Henry's happily going through his toys one by one, Harper finally dropped off to La La Land about an hour ago, Marc's digging into his radio manual, and I'm off to read my book. We've officially gone to our own corners.

Hope you are all having a fun, peaceful, family-centered day!

Not a creature is stirring ...

The kiddos are nestled snug in their beds ... Marc is about to start snoring any minute ... the cookies and carrots are out, as is the cup of milk ... presents are all under the tree ... stockings are stuffed ...

Christmas is almost here!!!

A trick and a treat

No, I'm not so behind on things that I still think it's Halloween. I know it's Christmas! In 26 hours!! But still ... work with me here.

First the trick: I've lost 16 pounds in the past 10 weeks and yet my clothes don't fit any differently, I'm not dropping sizes, I still can't button the top button on my pre-Harper jeans. What gives?! Some people lose 10 pounds and they are all, "I need a belt now!" and "I had to buy new clothes!" Yet I've lost 16 and I really couldn't point to any part of my body and say, "Look! It's smaller!" My ass is still wide, my thighs are still trunkish, my chest is way beyond voluptuous, and my belly seems to have accumulated permanent layers since Harper, and all 9 lbs 2 oz of her in-utero appears to have shifted my internal organs north because the area right over my ribs is firm and round ... not the flabby baby skin or jelly belly-ness from around my bellybutton. Why would it be firm if it wasn't something more than just fat?

I quit the Y and rejoined at Lifetime ... come on - a third of the price for New! State of the Art! Spa & Cafe included!! No brainer. (And since when is the YMCA the more expensive option? What happened to the Y that catered to families and low-income people so they could be healthy, let their kids take part in activities, and have a place to go to be safe?) I've been going every day after picking up H from school, and though I have to get Harper used to mommy-free time, I can still manage to walk/jog more than a mile in the short time that I fit in before the childcare workers have to come find me to take my horrified daughter off their hands. I figure at some point she'll be okay for longer stretches and I can add weights or a class to my schedule. Every little bit helps, but I'd like to start seeing clothing get looser as the needle moves to the left. I mean, really.

And for sitting through my whine, here's the treat:

Happy holidays to you all!! I hope it is merry, safe, full of cheer and love, and lingers well into the new year!!

Let the countdown begin!

What a crazy month December turned out to be! Between all Henry's schtuff, my new, ahem, project (sorry ... sworn to secrecy), having non-stop diarrhea for 36 hours (sorry, but true), and Marc's vasectomy on Friday, I seriously feel like nothing has gotten done around here except schlepping, grumbling, and pooping.

Yet last week the world turned white as Minnesota got about 9" of fresh white snow cover. Gorgeous!! I got to sit on the couch and watch it come down, and watch the stiff wind whip it around and into strange drifts off our back gutter that seemed to defy gravity. Henry got to sled and play for hours on end. It was magical!

Now we have the one-week wait for Christmas. The house needs to be cleaned, the groceries need to be bought, the remaining gifts need to be wrapped (or wrapped up), but I'm determined to enjoy this week and relax more and be crabby less. I know the actual holiday, and having Marc home, will go too fast and then we'll get that inevitable Holiday Let-Down. But we'll enjoy this weekend ... the Field's walk-through story and Holidazzle parade on Friday, all our Christmas Eve traditions on Saturday, Christmas on Sunday, hanging out in jammies and being a family on Monday as Marc's home.

It'll be great. It'll be just what we all need. I hope.

Holiday greetings!

I've gone Christmas-nuts around the house in the past two weeks. Every surface I could holiday-ize, I did. And you know what? I'd leave it up year-round if I could!!