2014 - Week 52

Monday, back to reality, off into another week. But, being Christmas week, at least it was a super short one! Work was pretty standard, but it was pretty quiet around the building. While the hustle and bustle usually helps make the days go faster, sometimes the quiet is nice. Helps you focus a little bit more, I think. Even though I have a short week, I did leave a little early today to do a Target/grocery run. I picked up the big girls on my way home and we settled in for the night. Put everything away, made dinner. Christian arrived home with Eliza and we had a quiet night before bed. With Christmas a few days away, it’s leaving me a little torn. Christmas has always been my favorite time of year…the decorations, the music, the family time, the general feel and magic of the season. Since having kids, I feel like it gets more magical and meaningful each year. This year, I just haven’t been in the spirit. I this being stressed and overwhelmed plays a big part in it, and it’s our first Christmas since my last grandparent passed away, so the thought if not spending Christmas day with them, and my family, is hard. Cut I think it’s also just the drama surrounding it gets more and more every year. We don’t spend enough time with this person, we spend too much time with that person, this person doesn’t appreciate their gift(s), that person is too drunk…it’s amazing most years if we can even fit in our own Christmas at home we’re so busy trying to make everybody else happy. This year will be no different…there’s always something. But, we WILL have our own Christmas here at home, Christmas morning, and I’m super excited about that. And, it’s or last “first Christmas”, so we definitely have to take that in. I think we just need to accept that no matter how old we are, the drama is never going to go away.

Today, we found Buddy on a romantic bike ride with Barbie.

Tuesday was a pretty low key day, before kicking off all of the Christmas chaos. The most exciting part of the day is that our new parking ramp at work is FINALLY done, and today was our first day parking in it. Seriously, I cannot even explain how exciting this is. No more parking in our, literally, dangerous parking lot…my work is not in the best of neighborhoods, and I can’t tell you how many muggings, car break-ins, assaults, etc. there have been in our parking lot over the years. No more trekking it from the lot to the building, especially if you start/go in later. No more snow or having the car sit in the brutal winter wind anymore. The van is literally right outside of our building,  in a covered ramp, waiting for me. I LOVE it! In other exciting news, Eliza is still not crawling or rolling, but she is starting to support herself for short times when standing up next to furniture/tables. Not that I want her to grow up anymore, or any faster, but it’s pretty exciting. I’m still pretty convinced that she’ll just skip crawling all together.

Tonight we found buddy curled up with Barbie on a movie date - two dates in a row, must be love!

Getting so big!

Wednesday, a busy, busy day. Christmas Eve! The girls were all of to daycare – they closed at 2:00 for the holiday. Christian was off to work, and while he didn’t get off early, he got off “on time”, so that was nice. It was my work from home day. It’s always kind of a mystery if we’ll be sent home early on Christmas Eve…it’s not “required”, so it’s up to each individual office director to decide if, and when, they’ll let us go. Well, today I got the note at noon we could log off for the day. AWESOME!!! I think that’s the earliest we’ve ever been let off. It’s unfortunate for those to actually take the day off, they lose out on the “free time”, but I’ll definitely take it! After I logged off, I did some final cleaning up in preparation for the evening, and wrapped Buddy’s last gift for the girls. I picked them from daycare just before close…they spent the day watching movies and having a pretty laid back day. Once home, I got them into their Christmas dresses and looking all cute. My mom arrived around 3:00…we hung out and chatted, played with the girls, she wanted to get a good picture with them in their dresses. She brought some ribs over for us to have for dinner, which Christian started cooking when he arrived home. While those cooked, we all opened presents. For some reason, my mom decided she wanted to keep a few of their gifts at her place, so they won’t be getting those until the next time they go over there for a visit, but she had gotten them some clothes, a couple toys for Eliza, and a couple small things for the big girls. After cleaning up from present opening, we got the girls changed (white, sparkly dresses and BBQ ribs don’t mix well), had some dessert and my mom was on her way home shortly after. The girls found Buddy shortly after she left, so we have them baths and they got into their new pajamas. Then, Christian’s friend Lorenzo stopped over. He’s Eliza’s godfather, so he wanted to bring her a Christmas gift…but, he didn’t feel like he could just get her something, so he also got the big girls gifts too. They went crazy, had a blast playing with their new stuff. They are so spoiled, but it’s fun watching them. Finally, they were off to bed. We completely forgot to make Santa’s cookies this year, oops! Once they were tucked away, I packed their stockings while the boys put together their trampoline – their Santa gift. With that, we were officially ready for Christmas Day. Ready to celebrate our final “first Christmas” with little Eliza.

My little gifts, ready for the day.

Christmas fun!

Santa is a good guy!

Thursday was the big day. MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I swear, growing up, it felt like Christmas would never come, like each one was years between the next. Now, it seems like it’s Christmas every time I turn around! The girls were up bright and early, and were SO excited to find their new trampoline from Santa. They  LOVED it. They opened their stocking, and help Eliza go through hers. Amelia was so funny – she wanted to take a picture with every single thing she pulled out. Olivia couldn’t believe Santa knew what all of her favorite things were. It was pretty funny. We all opened the rest of our gifts, I made some French toast for breakfast, and we proceeded to get ready for the day, one by one. Once we were all cleaned up, and packed up, we were off. First up, we stopped at my Dad’s for Christmas with my stepfamily. Normally, Christmas day is spent at my Dad’s parents’ house, with his whole family. But, apparently, with the passing of my Grandpa earlier this year, that tradition is no longer. So, now the stepfamily Christmas is being held on Christmas day. We got there, the girls played the day away, we chatted, ate some lunch, opened presents. We don’t see that side of the family too often, so it’s always fun to get together and catch up. Next up, we were off to finish the day at my in-laws. Now the girls went SUPER crazy, running around with their cousins like a pack of wild girls. We had dinner, lots of laughs opened WAY too many presents and had a wonderful night. We had to call it a day earlier than usual…the girls had daycare the next day, so we made our way home around 9:00 and we were all off to bed. I can’t believe another Christmas is in the books. While I might not have been in my cheeriest most spirited of moods, it ended up being a wonderful Christmas. Regardless of the chaos, the drama or anything that might be going on, I have my husband and 3 amazing little girls I get to celebrate with and I really couldn’t ask for more.

Christmas Day, wonderful!

My new charm

Dressed and ready - we decided to spare our parents houses the glitterbomb that is their Christmas dresses.

Friday was a very low key day. Christian was off to work, the big girls were off to daycare and it was my Friday off with the girls. I worked a little bit on unpackaging toys and gifts for the girls, and doing a tad bit of cleaning up, but I spent most of the day binge watching on Netflix. I finished catching up on “The 100” (seriously, LOVE it!) and started watching “The 4400” – apparently I’m on a sci-fi kick! I picked up the big girls at daycare at closing, we had some dinner, and we had a (much needed) quiet night at home. Christian and I did start watching the latest “Transformer” movie, but I didn’t make it long before passing out. Old lady alert!

While the big girls were away, Eliza got to play with ALL the new toys. She was a fan.

On Saturday, Christian was off to work and the girls and I settled in for the day. I finished unpackaging toys while the girls played and relaxed. Amelia woke up feeling tired and a little rundown, so she rested for a while. Otherwise, they spent most of the day trying out all of their new stuff, and watching their new tablets to their little hearts content. Eliza took a nice loooooong nap, otherwise, she was not in a very chipper mood. We think we see two little tooth holes on her bottom gum, but we don’t see anything coming through yet. She does seem to be showing a lot of signs lately. As the girls went to bed, Christian and I settled in for a movie night. We watched “Lawless” and “The Wolf of Wallstreet”...as the night progressed, I developed a headache that just got worse and worse. I missed parts of the movies while I rested on an ice pack, but both were quite good – the night was fairly successful.

My babies, I just love them to pieces.

Sunday was another quiet day. Eliza was beyond crabby all day long, poor thing. While she napped on and off, I did manage to get a few loads of laundry done. She is most definitely teething, I can officially feel a tooth popping through! YES, hopefully this will give us a little relief. In addition, it seems to be causing her some nursing issues, which just adds to all of the frustrations. Christian and I managed to take a little nap while all of the girls were down, which does not happen often. I swear, napping just makes me even more tired though. I got a little bit of cleaning done between the crabbiness and the napping. Our friend Sara stopped over with Olivia’s BFF, Bella, and Eliza’s boyfriend, Connor, for a visit before bed. Another week has come to an end, another weekend ticked down and we were heading into the final days of 2014. I can’t believe we’re actually about to ring in another year. Amazing.

Until Next Week! XOXO