Did you hear her? Was that the fat lady singing or no?

It is over. The holiday we spend months gearing up for is now sealed up with a bow. After our own madness at home with gifts galore we went to my parents house for dinner to exchange gifts with the rest of my family. After all the presents were opened, we sat down to a lovely dinner my mom cooked and I started to finally relax after my holiday gauntlet (click here for post describing said gauntlet).. I marveled at the thought that my cards got out before Christmas, the teacher gifts were meaningful, sweets were baked and delivered, presents were purchased, wrapped and sent on time, and everyone liked their gifts. Even me! It was a good holiday season and as I settled down with a good glass of red wine courtesy of my brother and sister-in-law, I decided it was time for my long awaited post-holiday season relaxation period. A time when I can get back to my crafty, creative, have time to cook dinner self. A few hours later we piled our family into the car to head home. I sat in the passenger seat and closed my eyes and thought, finally, a good night's sleep without a monster "to-do" list hanging over my head. That is when the cute little 3-year old voice poped up from the back seat saying "mommy, how long till my birthday?"

ARRRGGGG!

Our webby holiday card for all my bloggity friends!

If you have trouble loading it here on my blog you can also find it here.

Phew!

Well I have had a much better day regarding the upcoming holiday. I wrapped most of my gifts, dropped off a dish for a teachers luncheon, delivered gifts to all our teachers, brought in a family tradition activity for my son's class, mailed all my cards, packed up the rest of the gifts that still have to be mailed, and even managed to sponsor a child for Christmas through the Salvation Army. When the kids got home from nursery school we made handprint ornaments for the tree. I feel much better now!

Santa 1: Mom 0

➢ Still have shopping to do.

➢ MS Word ate and then barfed up my Christmas card labels so that each label had the first name of one person, the last name of another person, the street address of yet another person, so on and so forth.

➢ I still cannot locate a few presents I bought back in September and then hid in what I guess is the best damn hiding place on earth.

➢ I got so peeved this morning I actually told my 3 year old that Christmas sucks which he then repeated as a question in his cute little 3-year old voice. Wish I could take that one back!

So as I am walking around my house today trying to keep it in order, and trying to find the time to wrap presents so my kids don’t see and make sure they don’t find the presents before Christmas, something occurred to me. Christmas must have been invented by a man. Why? Because it is yet another thing a housewife busts her ass to do and is something for which she will get no credit. After all the hard work put into shopping and wrapping, baking and giving, smiling and spreading cheer, the children give thanks to a fat man in a red suit.

UPDATE: I think the gods of domesticity were listening. I found $20 in the laundry just now! I know, I know, "don't spend it all in one place!"

Huge Heartfelt Thank you to my Secret Pals!

The last thing I remember was putting the turkey in the oven. After that, everything is a blurr!

All joking aside, I would like to send out a very belated, but very heartfelt thank you to my secret pals. My July Fireflies pal and my CCAI pal are wonderful and I wanted to share photos of the lovely things they sent.

This Ladybug toy was our November gift from my Fireflies pal. It is so cute and I have to keep it hidden b/c L & B wanted to rip it right out of the box. Thank you, Cici will LOVE it!


This brocade jacket was sent by my CCAI pal in November and it is so so so beautiful. Thank you so much. It has dragonflies on it and is going to look beautiful on my daughter!




My CCAI pal has already sent me our December gift of “Socks and Hair Pretties” They are lovely and I am just wild over the bows. I LOVE bows. Thank you so much! L & B would also like to thank you for the chocolate! They love getting sugary treats!

To my 2 wonderful pals- thank you for your generosity and I apologize for the delay in getting my thank you notes out there!

Bowling Bonanza

On Sunday we had L's birthday party with 25 of her classmates and friends. We had a load of fun and she got some wonderful and thoughtful gifts.

Happy LIDversary to US!

Today marks the 5th month anniversary of our LID! I think celebrating the number of months we have been waiting would be more significant if we *knew* how many months we will ultimately be waiting. The CCAA is such a big mystery. I wish we knew more. Nevertheless, celebrating our LID is celebrating our future daughter so I am thrilled to do it every month!