christmas & new years
right after thanksgiving, my mom asked me when i wanted to make homemade christmas candy, and pointed out that there were only three weekends left before christmas. i hadn't done a damn thing at that point, and sort of went into panic mode, as i am prone to do. of course, we managed to get everything done. we cut down a christmas tree and somehow found space for it in our living room, amongst all the baby debris. we made hundreds of homemade cookies, a few batches of fudge, and some christmas candies and sent them out to relatives. we designed and ordered custom wall calendars and sent those out to relatives. i did almost all of my shopping online one weekend. i finished up during one trip to the stores, taking a monday off work after the big blizzard. we took stephen to see santa for the first time. i hand wrote and mailed christmas cards to a number of people and included pictures of stephen.
my little grammie from new hampshire flew in on friday the 18th. i hadn't seen her in several years. she hates to fly, but she wanted to meet the babies. we had dinner at my parents house that night. it started to snow on our way home, and over the weekend we got about 2 feet of snow! it was beautiful. i tried to drive to my weight watchers meeting on saturday, but it was canceled. after that, we didn't leave the house all weekend. evan spent hours digging my car out. i had to work until noon on christmas eve. we went over to my parents house around 5 and had lots of appetizers for dinner. then we watched christmas vacation and each opened a present, as we do every year. evan and i went home after that and after i got stephen to bed i finished wrapping everything. christmas morning we loaded up all the presents and arrived back at my parents house around 9 am. we had blueberry muffins, did stockings, and then did presents. stephen did really well, and made it about halfway through presents before he really started to get irritated. i fed him and he took a nap for the rest of presents. there was tons of stuff and it took several hours. evan and i only did stockings for each other this year with the idea that we'll just take a weekend trip or something in the next few months instead of buying any big presents. we probably still spent too much money. he got me some nice pearl earrings, candles, gum, heart shaped muffin pans, etc. from everyone else i got some more jewelry, a cookbook, a mattress topper, an ice cream maker, house on dvd, old navy gift card... way too much to even remember. stephen also got tons of toys and clothes. we made homemade ice cream and had a tasty dinner before we had to get home to the dogs. we actually put just about all our gifts away that evening!
saturday we did a LOT of cleaning. evan's parents, brothers and grandparents arrived around 3 pm. we spent the evening visiting and eating christmas leftovers. sunday they came over after church and brought pizza. we took pictures and opened presents. stephen got lots more clothes and toys. i got a pearl bracelet, a laptop pad, some clothes, and some books. we had dinner at china jade and spent more time visiting. i took monday off work and we had lunch at denny's before they hit the road around 1. it was good to see them all, although i don't know how they manage all these whirlwind road trips.
i had a 2.5 day work week, which was awesome. it was icy the morning of news years eve, so we got to go into work at 10. we had gourmet pizza and cupcakes and went home at 2. easy day! we ordered take out for dinner, and night at the museum 2 on pay per view. we actually made it till midnight, which i really didn't think was possible. we watched dick clark for a few minutes and then went to bed. we spent new years day cleaning and grocery shopping, and today we hit up kohls and costco. the tree is down, all the christmas stuff is put away - we're feeling pretty good! tomorrow we're going bowling and then it's back to work for regular 5 day weeks. boo!
my little grammie from new hampshire flew in on friday the 18th. i hadn't seen her in several years. she hates to fly, but she wanted to meet the babies. we had dinner at my parents house that night. it started to snow on our way home, and over the weekend we got about 2 feet of snow! it was beautiful. i tried to drive to my weight watchers meeting on saturday, but it was canceled. after that, we didn't leave the house all weekend. evan spent hours digging my car out. i had to work until noon on christmas eve. we went over to my parents house around 5 and had lots of appetizers for dinner. then we watched christmas vacation and each opened a present, as we do every year. evan and i went home after that and after i got stephen to bed i finished wrapping everything. christmas morning we loaded up all the presents and arrived back at my parents house around 9 am. we had blueberry muffins, did stockings, and then did presents. stephen did really well, and made it about halfway through presents before he really started to get irritated. i fed him and he took a nap for the rest of presents. there was tons of stuff and it took several hours. evan and i only did stockings for each other this year with the idea that we'll just take a weekend trip or something in the next few months instead of buying any big presents. we probably still spent too much money. he got me some nice pearl earrings, candles, gum, heart shaped muffin pans, etc. from everyone else i got some more jewelry, a cookbook, a mattress topper, an ice cream maker, house on dvd, old navy gift card... way too much to even remember. stephen also got tons of toys and clothes. we made homemade ice cream and had a tasty dinner before we had to get home to the dogs. we actually put just about all our gifts away that evening!
saturday we did a LOT of cleaning. evan's parents, brothers and grandparents arrived around 3 pm. we spent the evening visiting and eating christmas leftovers. sunday they came over after church and brought pizza. we took pictures and opened presents. stephen got lots more clothes and toys. i got a pearl bracelet, a laptop pad, some clothes, and some books. we had dinner at china jade and spent more time visiting. i took monday off work and we had lunch at denny's before they hit the road around 1. it was good to see them all, although i don't know how they manage all these whirlwind road trips.
i had a 2.5 day work week, which was awesome. it was icy the morning of news years eve, so we got to go into work at 10. we had gourmet pizza and cupcakes and went home at 2. easy day! we ordered take out for dinner, and night at the museum 2 on pay per view. we actually made it till midnight, which i really didn't think was possible. we watched dick clark for a few minutes and then went to bed. we spent new years day cleaning and grocery shopping, and today we hit up kohls and costco. the tree is down, all the christmas stuff is put away - we're feeling pretty good! tomorrow we're going bowling and then it's back to work for regular 5 day weeks. boo!