Making Lists, Checking Twi— Or Just Freaking Out.

You guys, CHRISTMAS IS COMING. I have lists coming out of my ears. Some of them are not even written down, they’re just in my head, because seriously, who has time to even make the lists?!

MY LIFE IS CRAZY. I am loving all of it, but IT IS CRAZY.

This space is so neglected that I’ve almost wondered if it’s worth coming back to at this point. Does anyone care? Do I care? Will I EVER get back into the swing of regular posting? Is it better to post just a handful of times a month, or does that just look like a pathetic effort? These are the questions that circle around in my head lately. But honestly, I haven’t even had that much time to worry about it.

We got back from Florida. Thanksgiving happened. Then Christmas season came rushing in and I feel like I’ve had no time to even breathe.

Work.
Preschool.
CrossFit.
Holiday activities.
Dinners with family and friends.
Parties.
Cleaning.
Tons of online shopping.

Plus, I did two family photo shoots for friends before we went to Disney, so I spent a lot of my free time within the past several weeks editing those photos and getting that all squared away. Now, I feel like I’ve been spending every free moment buttoning up last-minute Christmas shopping because OH MY GOSH IT SNUCK UP ON ME. (And I know “snuck” is supposed to be “sneaked” but I can’t get behind that English. Sorry, grammar gods.)

So let’s catch up quickly on the highlights of the first half of December, shall we?

We went Christmas tree hunting on the day after Thanksgiving, per our tradition.

It was really freaking cold, but still pretty enjoyable. The kids were good and we found a pretty tree… even if it ended up being bigger (wider) than expected when we got it into the house. Oops. By now, it has grown on me and I don’t mind the fact that it’s taking up more space than I anticipated.

I love sitting here in the living room with it all lit up, diffusing my festive essential oils in the evenings. If I’m going to be up until 11:30 every night online shopping and stuff, at least I get to do it in a relaxing environment.

We got the tree into the house and the lights strung on it while the girls both napped. We woke up Nora after a good snooze (we almost always wake her up from any naps she takes, since if she sleeps too long, she’s up way too late), and let her help us with all of the ornaments. Vivienne eventually woke up and we brought her down to take a look. She was fascinated and did a lot of touching at first, but she is actually WAY better with the tree than I expected her to be. The novelty has worn off a bit, I guess, because she rarely fusses with it now. She’s generally into EVERYTHING these days so we were expecting the tree to be a source of great amusement for her, but nope. Thank goodness.

A couple of weekends ago, we had our monthly dinner with a group of our friends. Afterward, we went to a parade of lights in the nearby village. All of the local fire departments decorate the trucks with lights and the kids get a pretty big kick out of it. Nora enjoyed herself immensely, most because of the hot cocoa we brought with us for her to drink (girl LOVES her hot cocoa).

The next day, we sat down with Nora to work on an actual Christmas list for Santa, written by her. It turned out so cute. She’s getting so much better at writing her letters… even though I know most of you probably can’t read half of this (below). Haha! She kept telling me the things she wanted, and instead of spelling them all PAINSTAKINGLY out loud for her to write down, I wrote them down myself and let her copy it onto her own list. She was excited about the list, but not so excited about posing for my pictures.

Then it was off to brave the mall to see Santa. Nora was nervous about it before we even left the house but she was a pretty good trooper. Absolutely refused to even attempt to sit on his lap, and we didn’t push the issue at all. Vivienne handled the characters at Disney pretty well, so we thought maybe she’d be friendly with Santa, but…

…NO. I guess Santa is still too creepy for most toddlers! :) As soon as we got close to him and motioned like we were going to put her down on his lap, she FREAKED OUT and would not stop crying, even with Michael holding her. Oops. Poor kid. Just another year of scaring the crap out of our children for the sake of posterity, I suppose. Fingers crossed for next year.

Nora did enjoy putting her letter into the mailbox for Santa. I was a little sad she noticed the mailbox, as I kind of wanted to keep the letter as a keepsake, all cute with her little handwriting. But at least I did get pictures of it!

Afterward, we ventured over to Build-A-Bear for our first ever experience there. Nora got a gift card for her birthday in September and we almost never go to the mall (HATE!) so this was a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

Of course, Nora LOVED it (what kid wouldn’t?) and wanted to spend approximately $1 million on accessories for her new Clarice reindeer (whom she renamed “Jingle” at the birth certificate station).

We managed to get out of there without paying for any extras except for a dress, so I think that was “winning” for us, at least at Build-A-Bear. Whoever came up with that concept is a FREAKING GENIUS. And very rich, I’m sure.

When we got home that day, we realized that Vivienne had a fever, and it turned out to be a pretty relentless one that wasn’t responding to meds. She acted pretty normal despite it on Sunday, but needless to say, when she woke up Monday morning and STILL had that pesky fever, she won herself a day home. By that point, she wasn’t eating anything and was acting a bit clingy and rundown. I enjoyed the extra snuggles immensely. While I was soaking it up, she was sitting quietly with me on the couch. Suddenly, she felt a bit heavier in my arms and I looked down to find she had completely passed out. SO SWEET.

I put her up in her crib and she proceeded to take a FOUR AND A HALF HOUR NAP, y’all. That’s pretty impressive, I think. I can’t remember Nora ever sleeping THAT long, even when sick. I thought there was no way she’d ever sleep at night, but sure enough, come 7:30, she was passed out again and slept all the way through until morning. We ended up sending her back to Mary’s after another morning lingering at home, and she was fine. No other symptoms ever surfaced besides that fever and the major decrease in appetite.

On Wednesday, we had a sizable snow storm. I think we amassed about 18 inches of snow over the course of 48 hours. It snowed non-stop all day Wednesday so I worked from home.

Then, Nora woke up on Thursday morning burning up with a 103-degree fever herself. *sigh* ANOTHER day at home that week, and we kept her home on Friday, too. She, too, never ended up with any other real symptoms, so it must’ve been the same bug. Our friend’s son (whom we were with for the parade of lights the weekend before) was diagnosed with the flu that same week, but I feel like it would’ve lasted more than two days if that’s what they had? I don’t know. But I swear, this (current) week has been amazing just because it has been NORMAL!

Anyway, that’s the last few weeks in a nutshell. We’ve got a lot more to squish in the next six days before Christmas. SIX DAYS. Eeeek! I am not even quite done shopping yet, and have not done a lick of wrapping. Somehow, I usually end up waiting until Christmas Eve and then it’s a huge wrapping marathon instead of the relaxing Christmas Eve by the fire that I always have pictured in my head.

If you celebrate Christmas, where are you at with the whole process? Completely finished (I kind of hate you)? Almost there? Tons left to do?

We are hosting dinner at our house on Christmas Day (as usual), so we have that to plan for, too. This homestretch is always kind of stressful, but I love it so much, too. Happy Holidays, everyone!