Dec 14, 2015 | Holidays, Uncategorized |
I started the week off feeling festive and in the best Christmas mood. I played Christmas carols all morning and made AB a felt tree to decorate. I wrapped gifts and watched a Hallmark movie.
Then Thursday rolled around. I spent all day trying to get my nativity characters to stand up instead of falling onto each other and Jesus. I was so fed up with my tree being crooked that I tried to fix it and the whole thing went crashing down. It was like a slow-motion scene in a movie. I saw it falling and my arm went out to stop it three seconds too late.
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| “Oh dear. Oh dear. What a mess, mama. Oh dear.” |
What’s that they say about Christmas being all calm, merry and bright?
Saturday we went to a Christmas cottage to see Santa. Annabelle wasn’t feeling her best but the celebration must go on. We waited in line for about twenty minutes while I talked up the cottage and how fun it would be. We could almost taste Annabelle’s excitement.
The cottage was beautiful. It was about the size of a postage stamp and decorated from top to bottom with snowmen, reindeer, a mantle and stockings, a tree and a train chugging around a track attached to the top of the wall. Unfortunately I didn’t get to take it in as much as I wished because AB, who kept telling us she was going to see “San-ta Caus”, got petrified the second we walked in the cottage and wouldn’t let go of me.
I find this picture much more entertaining that I should. Poor Belle Belle is saying, “I DOE YIKE IT! I DOE YIKE IT!” Santa is looking at us like he doesn’t get paid enough for this (it was a free event so he didn’t get money from me) and I’m all “This is so fun, AB! Look at his beard! Look at his pretty suit! Smile for the picture!”
(Speaking of his beard, in an attempt to get her to stop crying I almost pulled Santa’s beard. I was this close to reaching out and pulling at it. I don’t know what came over me. Noticing that he had glittery eyeliner on to make his eyes sparkle startled me into good behavior.)
It may not have been as picture perfect an event as last year but it was memorable.
Dec 8, 2015 | Holidays, Uncategorized |
Last weekend we set up our Christmas trees.
Sesame and I scoped out the trees at the garden store Friday morning then we all went back to pick one out in the evening. We set up our plaid and deer themed tree first. As we were putting it together I kept thinking how beautiful Christmas lights are and wondering why we don’t have them up all year long.
Twelve minutes later I was fighting with a clump of half broken lights on our fake tree and declaring that I can’t stand Christmas lights. How quickly my tune changed. It would be stating the obvious to point out that we had a major tree malfunction.
We couldn’t find the fake tree stand and the tree itself was falling apart so we threw it out and got a second real tree for the rest of our ornaments. I love Christmas trees and I love our tradition of having multiple trees, but this year it hasn’t turned out so well. In our last house we had an upstairs and a downstairs living room so we put a tree in each and it worked out perfectly. We only have one living room in this house so we have a trees in opposite corners of the room. We have two trees, two couches, two bookcases, a tv stand and various toys all in the living room. And the living room is far from large. In other words, there’s almost no room for us in our own house. It’s like walking into a furniture filled forest. I’m seriously considering moving a tree to another room because there’s nothing relaxing about all these huge trees. Is it weird to have a large tree in a bathroom? I’m asking for a friend.
Opa sent us a bunch of Christmas cookies and AB took the basket they came in and made it a bed for Baby Belle. She keeps holding the bed up to the tree so her baby can see.
Try not to slip on the puddle my heart made on the floor.
Dec 4, 2015 | Holidays, Uncategorized |
Last night we set up the first of our Christmas trees. It has exactly twice the number of decorations as last year.
We put it up in Sesame’s room. I was all this is so! fun! Best! day! ever! and she fluctuated between excitement and uncertainty. She loves Christmas trees but like most children in a first world country, she’s not used to having trees in her room.
We had planned to pick out our tree tonight but it’s raining so we rescheduled. Every year we have a theme for our fake tree and this year is plaid and deer. I found the deer ornaments at Lowe’s today and let me tell you, I have never been so excited in a home improvement store. They’re perfect.
Our larger than life Jesus has made his yearly appearance. Obviously I remember from previous Christmases that’s he’s huge but every year it cracks me up and I have to take a picture. I have at least three identical pictures. It’s become a Christmas tradition.
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Jesus: “I have arrived.”
Mary: “No wonder my back was killing me.”
Joseph: “I don’t know how to handle kids. I’ll just stand in the background with the light.” |
Nov 3, 2015 | Holidays, Sesame |
Last Halloween I really hit it out of the park. I peaked on my first year.
This year I went back and forth about dressing her up since I don’t even like Halloween, but I’m a sucker for a baby in a costume. She was going to be a basket of flowers but I lacked both motivation and time to pull it together. She’s so into Winnie the Pooh right now and we already had the tutu from her birthday so I slapped on some tights intended for a seven year old and called her a honey bee. She was obviously very enthusiastic.
I love the way she’s holding her hands. She can be so proper at times. Other times she gets ketchup behind her ears.
We have a clump of trees behind our house that we call the Hundred Acre Wood (Pooh’s home). Almost every day we go out into the woods and look for Tigger, Piglet and the others. I brought her Pooh Bear out and she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She really believed that Pooh somehow made it from the tv to her backyard.
Just a girl carrying her bear through the woods.
(Let us have a moment of jubilation over that fact that she has enough hair to clip a bow into.)
Jul 6, 2015 | Holidays |
Christopher had Friday off so we kicked off our Independence Day celebration early. Our time here is quickly coming to an end and it seemed like a good day to cross visit Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace off our lengthy to-see list. I dressed AB up in the first of her three patriotic outfits and off we went.
The cabin Abe was born in is located inside a replica of the Lincoln Memorial on the farm where he spent his first few years. Except that it’s not the actual cabin he was born in. For many years they believed it was, but in 2004 it was confirmed that the logs were cut down when Abe was 40 years old. At this point the cabin was already inside the memorial and it’s my personal belief they decided to leave the fake cabin because it would have been too much work to remove it. (For what it’s worth, I also believe they could have figured out it wasn’t THE cabin maybe, I don’t know, 100 years ago. How hard is it to count tree rings?)
The area surrounding the memorial was very pretty. Annabelle entertained herself by pulling the flags off the plastic flagpoles.
She used the flag as a tissue immediately after this picture.
Yesterday we took another trip to a recreated 1880’s village. Annabelle was wearing THE CUTEST ruffled red shirt and blue pants with white stars that Christopher said made her look like a Vaudeville dancer. Whatever. Everything was going great until we were pulling into the parking lot and she threw up all her over my freshly cleaned car, her brand new car seat and the outfit that I never got a picture of. Between our TX trip and yesterday I have cleaned out enough gross car seats for the next decade. I told Christopher that I was really growing as a person by not being completely distraught over the fact she was now wearing a pink onesie with a bear on it instead of the outfit I bought her in April. I can still be a good mother even if she’s not dressed to the nines. What a lie. Three minutes later I saw children in red, white and blue clothes and I was singing a different tune. I almost taped a sign to her chest letting the whole place know we she had just experienced an unexpected and catastrophic wardrobe malfunction.
Somewhere along the way the people at Patti’s 1880’s Settlement got confused about what the 1880’s were really like. Not one thing about the place was historic in any way, shape or form. For starters, there’s was a mini golf course. I may not have been alive in the 1880’s, but I’m fairly certain there wasn’t much putting going on. There were a bunch of animals, a few shops and a little playground, but they all screamed “Built in the last 20 years.” The only thing truly 1880 was the temperature. I’d say it was around 1,880 degrees.
Due to car difficulties we didn’t make it to church today. That didn’t stop us from breaking out outfit #3. You can’t see it, but the white I wore was two new white hairs I found while doing my makeup.
Let’s take a brief trip down memory lane to last 4th of July. I don’t know why I always do this to myself. I swear we just took this picture last week.
I hope the skirt fits her next year. If not maybe I’ll make it into a headband. What better way to celebrate your independence than a giant tulle bow sitting on your head.
May 11, 2015 | Holidays, Motherhood |
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| Look how tiny she was back in October. Somebody make the growing stop!! |
Don’t act like you’re surprised we’re matching. I planned our wardrobe weeks in advance. Even Christopher got on board by wearing blue to church.
Two years running and our mother/daughter matching game is as strong as ever. Excuse me while I shed more tears over tiny AB. (Also. Can we discuss how exhausted I looked last year? Good grief.)
I love this picture. She’s telling me I’m her favorite mom, she loves me so much and she wants go celebrate the day by showcasing her new screeching ability. As a cherry on top, she will drop her food on the floor and pretend it’s confetti.
After church Sesame and I went on a little date to Dunkin Donuts. She already loves their hash browns so I feel my job of training her in the way she should go is complete. When she got up from her nap we went strawberry picking with Tiffany. She looks as cool as a cucumber in November while my offspring and I are a lovely shade of Glistening Red.
Annabelle was obviously a big help picking berries.
When we got home I brought Annabelle out to swim in her pool and play with Harriet Tubman the cat. (I don’t know why I specified Harriet Tubman is the cat. It’s not as if the original Harriet Tubman would make an appearance on our porch.) While we were playing, Christopher assembled my gift- a jewelry armoire that is so beautiful I could stare at it for hours. I was Shocked with a capital S. I would have been perfectly happy with flowers and a hug but they (mostly the baby, naturally) went above and beyond. They’re pretty good people. I guess I’ll stick around with them for a few more decades.
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| You’d think we could have utilized the timer on the camera to take a family picture.
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