Dec 31, 2017 | Holidays, Sesame, Uncategorized |
I’m sure these yearly posts (2014, 2015, 2016) of Sesame’s clothes are a snoozefest to most but I can’t stop, won’t stop until she protests. Even then I might not stop. Those who don’t enjoy smocked dresses or curly hair need not continue reading.
I bought this snowman outfit from a blog friend two years ago and it was dress length. I’m pretty sure this was the last year it will fit her.
I only bought two new Christmas outfits this year, one of which was this smocked tree outfit. It came with the cutest ruffly red pants that are too big and kept sliding off her bum, revealing to all the world that she still wears diapers. Apparently cute is more important to me than modesty because she wore it to church anyway.
This is the other new outfit I bought. It’s a real shame she wasn’t more excited about it.
I think we might get one more Christmas out of my favorite red dress. I bought it when I was pregnant and didn’t know the gender of the baby. It was too cute to pass up so I got it just in case I had a girl. I though the baby was a boy because I have no mother’s intuition. I’m not one bit sorry I was wrong.
Trip down the Red Christmas Dress memory lane.
If I look at tiny bald Sesame I get too emotional about how fast she’s growing. I’m going to go buy outfits for next year to cheer myself up. Long live retail therapy.
Dec 30, 2017 | Holidays, Uncategorized |
Last Friday I was sitting my living room in New York enjoying my Christmas tree one last night. Tonight all my earthly belongings are on a moving truck on their way to Georgia. We’re no longer occupants of the NY house and we can’t get into the Georgia house until Monday. Much like Mary and Joseph, we are homeless travelers and there is no place for us to rest our heads.
That’s not entirely true. Annabelle will always find a place to rest her head.
Last Saturday we said goodbye to our house. I cried buckets because I hate change and Annabelle comforted me with statements such as, “Why should we say goodbye to our house? That’s silly.” I can always count on her to be sympathetic! We left the house and started the drive to Massachusetts for Christmas. It was snowing and we didn’t go over 45mph for hours. It took us 7 hours to reach the NY/MA line. Normally the whole trip takes 7-8 hours but it took over 11. Annabelle was so good. She listened to stories and watched more shows than I normally like but anything to survive. We made a pit stop at Chickfila at 9pm to burn off some energy. AB burned off energy. I wanted to fall asleep on the play area bench.
Fast forward to Christmas Eve with all our relatives. I so love Christmas Eve next door. It’s changed some over the years as people have died or joined the family but overall its the same. We always sing Christmas carols before opening gifts. It’s a different order every year but Grandma insists we end with Silent Night. Baby Ivy helped her dad with the more difficult songs.
The next morning we opened gifts in our matching Christmas pajamas. Annabelle got a building set and woodworking bench from her grandparents. She’s THRILLED to be doing woodworking like daddy.
I barely took pictures Christmas because I was hit with the plague and/or stress sickness and lost my voice thanks to a horrible cough. I try to live a life of generosity and so I shared the plague with those nearest and dearest to me. It’s been the gift that keeps on giving.
This was Sesame’s fourth Christmas in her red smocked dress. I plan on her wearing it until she’s at least 18.
I hope your Christmas was full of joy and free of germs.
Dec 25, 2017 | Holidays, Uncategorized |
I ordered two different cards this year because I couldn’t decide on just one. Some people received both cards. Can you ever have too many Christmas cards? I think not.
Dec 25, 2017 | Holidays, In a People House, Uncategorized |
 |
| We picked bells for our theme tree. |
Dec 21, 2017 | Uncategorized, What's going on |
* Last night Michelle texted me this story. I was laughing so hard no sound was coming out. Stop reading this and go read that. It reminded me of a few weeks ago when we stopped by the grocery store after church. We divided to conquer the store and AB was assigned to me. We picked some flowers for Mrs. Jim’s birthday and I had to talk her out of giving her a get well soon balloon. Mrs. Jim is getting old but she’s still in fine health. We settled on a Frozen balloon instead. (When we brought it over, Mr. Jim looked at Elsa and said, “Well, isn’t she a good looking gal.”) We wandered the store looking for Christopher and Annabelle tried putting the box of cheerios in the cart of five other people. She kept walking up to random people and dropping the box on their food because she thought it was ours. I have never apologized more times during a grocery trip. When we walked up to Christopher’s car I was surprised to hear music playing from inside. I knew the keys weren’t in it so the radio couldn’t be on. I opened the door for Annabelle and her car seat was gone. I saw weird trash in the door. I looked in the driver seat and saw a strange man. It wasn’t our car. ABORT ABORT. FLEE THE SCENE. Slam the door and run. The guy didn’t notice me when I confidently opened the door but I’m sure he heard the slam and saw the lady in high heels dragging a child away from his car.
* It so seldom happens, but occasionally I get tired. Kidding. I’m tired almost every day. I was saying “I’m pooped” but Annabelle is too much of a parrot and she walked around saying it. I’d rather not rush to the potty talk days. Several weeks ago I was rocking AB before bed and ‘I’m pooped’ almost slipped out. I have NO clue why this phrase came out instead but I said, “I’m snoop dogged.” WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN. I couldn’t tell you one thing about Snoop Dogg but now his name comes out of my mouth several times a week. It’s become the new family phrase for when we’re tired.
* Last Christmas we lost the baby Jesus from our Little People nativity. I found another set at the consignment shop and as these things go we immediately found the missing Jesus under the couch. There may be no room for him in the inn but there’s always room under my couch for more toys. Now we have double everything. The two Marys and two Josephs are being run over by all the wise men and huge herd of camels. The two Jesuses are vying for the prime stop under the angel. As if two Jesuses wasn’t enough, AB changed the name of her Bitty Baby from Violet to Jesus. When she was supposed to be napping she called down for me to find baby Jesus and bring him to her. I guess the more Jesus we have around the better.
* I have one million and eight things to do between now and when we leave on Saturday. Instead of packing I spent some quality time painting penguins on Annabelle’s handprint. Procrastinator 4 lyfe.
I try to do a hand/footprint craft for every holiday or season. Look at her little mistletoes from her first Christmas. She likes to tell me how she’s almost four but I plug my ears and LA LA LA NOT LISTENING.
* I don’t care that the snow is as high as the ordering box. I will still get my medium iced coffee!
* Time for bed. I’m very snoop dogged.
Dec 19, 2017 | Holidays, Uncategorized, What's going on |
I’ve been too busy packing, organizing, list making, crying and house hunting to blog much lately. Not to mention that my phone, computer and car all died within a 24 hour time period. I’ve been busy doing adult things which is much less enjoyable than I anticipated when I was 12. I have seventy Christmas things I want to do before we leave and I’m determined to do it all. It’s very important to me that we have as normal a Christmas as possible, even with all the crazy.
We went to a Christmas party at the library and saw our fourth Santa of the year. Sesame is normally very observant but she hasn’t noticed they all look different and that two of them were less than stellar. She told me she brought her sled and reindeer but she had to leave them in the car “to charge.” There was craft making, cookie eating and face painting. Annabelle loves any event with face painting so she was thrilled to become a mini Rudolph.
For the last three years we’ve visited the Christmas Cottage. It’s so charming I want to live there all December.
We went with our Christmas jammies this year, partly because they’re cute and partly because they didn’t require ironing. She told him she wants a marble track and cars. She previously told me she wants luggage so evidently she has multiple lists.
I didn’t think we’d get to do our North Pole breakfast but we squeezed it in. I used my fancy dollar store china plates and found some fuzzy decorations to use as snowballs. We had bacon and pancakes in the shape of snowflakes, gingerbread men and stockings. When AB first saw it she said, “Wow, Mommy! It’s perfect!” A few minutes later she walked through and said, “It doesn’t really look like the North Pole in here.” Such a temperamental audience.
The weather cooperated nicely.
After breakfast we went to Seneca Falls, the inspiration for the town of Bedford Falls from It’s a Wonderful Life which is only my favorite Christmas movie of all time. Had I been born several decades earlier I would have had a poster of Jimmy Stewart up on my wall and dreamed of marrying him. Although to be honest I don’t see why I can’t have a poster him on my current bedroom wall. Surely Christopher wouldn’t mind.
 |
| “George Bailey, I’ll love you til the day I die.” |
By sheer coincidence, earlier in the week we saw the actress who plays Zuzu in the movie at a children’s museum. I drilled it into AB’s head that she played the little girl in the Christmas movie I watch every year. I assumed it was falling on deaf ears but when we were in the Bedford Falls museum she yelled out, “That lady is from your favorite show, Mama!” My job here is done. I have raised her well.
God smiled upon us and sent us multiple feet of snow. The females of the family could not be more thrilled. The male of the family is not as enthusiastic.
The very short trip from the top of the hill to the bottom gives her the thrill of a lifetime.
