We survived anyway

The week leading up to Christmas was one big whirlwind of cooking and cleaning and finishing last minute craft projects. I think my husband had as many whiny fits as I did….he didn’t understand why we had to cook and clean and prepare things ahead of time and why we couldn’t just sit back and enjoy a nice holiday. Um, because we’re grown ups now and are hosting Christmas, not just showing up at someone else’s place and if we don’t cook there’s no food. After it was over and done with he did say we did a great job pulling everything together, so in the end I think he got it at least. My MIL is a clean freak – like vacuums and polishes every day and with no toddler or rabbit living with her their house is always spotless. I always feel pressure anytime her and SIL visit to have a spotless space! I always know I hit the mark when she says how good the house looks (equally I know it’s a mess if she says nothing ) and she said multiple times how great the place looked and complimented my holiday decor. Score!

Ironically after they left my stove was spattered with turkey grease, there was food dripped down the front of my cabinets, and my air freshener was, for some reason, unplugged and plugged back in upside down. So there was scented oil all over. Ah well.

I had my first of many Christmases to come meltdown when we went to inflate one of Riley’s big "from Santa" presents and it was clearly deformed. We couldn’t come close to getting the air cap to screw on despite my best efforts and it ended with lots of crying right before the ILs were due to arrive. Good times. We decided to use hot glue to try and fill in the gaps/melt the plastic to the air cap and it seemed to work, but when I got up at 6 the next morning poor ladybug was flat as a pancake, so I stuffed a couple comforters in it and called it good for the time being. Thankfully the Ebay seller was awesome and refunded me when I reported the problem and we got a new one shipped the day after Christmas. I had to remind myself the child wouldn’t know or care!

Christmas Eve the 3 of us went on a Christmas lights hayride at a local farm. I’d bought the tickets far before knowing the ILs were coming and was happy to have the family alone time, even if it did almost cause a fight when Phil asked if he could invite them and I said I preferred we didn’t. It probably wasn’t as cold as it could have been, but December in New England isn’t exactly warm, either! We went through the petting barn and saw lots of goats and sheep, a couple cows. The girl loves her farm animals! I wasn’t sure if getting on a wagon in the dark in the woods would scare her, but she just loved the Christmas lights. When we got to the end and the wagon stopped she started crying, awwwww. Santa and a couple costumed characters were at the reindeer barn and we didn’t know how she’d feel about them, but she did so well! She was totally in love with the penguin and kept saying hello to him over and over (he/she kept dancing and clapping for her, it was cute) and she didn’t cry at Santa! The night before we went to the motor speedway to see their lights display and when we tried to do a Santa picture she cried, even with me holding her.

Of course she then cried all the way home about the cow and goat and bunny, she really didn’t want to leave lol.

It was a little annoying doing Christmas Eve stuff with the ILs here, FIL was in her face with the camera and asked her to do a couple things again because he missed the picture. It was after 8 at that point, I just wanted to get her to bed! She was funny with the cookies. I got a plate to leave cookies for Santa and the first one I put on it she picked up and started eating. So I put another one out and she grabbed that one too (my child loves to double fist). I was like yeah no, not right before bed.

Christmas morning I was up super early. Phil has been sleeping in the guest room since I’m a super light sleeper when pregnant and he was continually waking me (he doesn’t mind, it saves him a lot of bruising from getting kicked!) Since his parents were in the guest room he was in with me and I think I slept maybe 2 hours all night. He even got up a little after 7, guess when Riley got up. Nine freaking thirty. She NEVER sleeps that late! She got really excited about her stocking and then the new stuff from Santa, we let her play a bit before opening anything. MIL rushed her through, like I knew she would, but I tried to just let it go. Riley was REALLY excited over everything she opened, even the clothes got an enthusiastic "oooooooh" and she kept bringing me things to open so she could play with them and MIL just kept shoving more presents at her. Finally MIL opened what was left for Riley by herself and let her be. I don’t think any of ours for her even got opened until much later in the day. In the end it was better that was because it wasn’t as chaotic!

SIL and her family came over after lunch, our nephew was psyched out of his mind lol. He’s a year older than Riley so it was a nice look into the future. I guess he barely slept he was so excited for Santa and he was all about opening presents! He tried to open everyone elses for them, too haha. Riley was napping when they got here and was so not impressed at all the people when she woke up. She went as far as to bring me to the nursery repeatedly and ask me to sit on the floor and play in there away from everyone. We finally got her to play a little, but I think she was done. Oh and I was sad she never got to wear her Christmas dress because MIL made her a sweater dress that she insisted she wear. It’s actually a super cute dress, I love it! buuuuuut I kind of spent money on a holiday outfit. Oh well.

Monday I was even dreading going to see my family, but it wasn’t so bad. My brother was out with his friends for awhile and I don’t see my sister often so it wasn’t the over the top noise I expected. My brother talks non. stop. sometimes and I was totally over the overstimulation! By this time Riley was getting good at the present opening thing. We’d let her open one and she’d want to play with it, so she’d do her thing while we took turns and by the time we got back to her again she’d be excited for another. We were there until Wednesday at which point we returned home because I had to work Thursday. Just a crazy week!

New Years Eve was nothing big. I had to work until 10:30 PM and when I got home Phil had crab rangoon dip in the over, SO delicious by the way. I made cheese fondue to try in our new pot and we gorged ourselves while we watched the ball drop. I stayed up WAY too late. It was nice, but holidays like that do always make me miss our old drunken celebrations. Maybe not the hangover the next day, but certainly the crazy adventures!!

New Years Day Emily came up from Mass to do our Christmas exchange. She got here at 2 and stayed until 7? Around 5 I was kind of done entertaining, but we don’t see her often and she did drive almost 2 hours to get here. Being pregnant just makes me a grumpy bitch. This is only the 2nd time she has visited since moving home and both times she has stayed through dinner without warning, so from now on I’m just going to make sure I plan for one extra the nights she visits.

For someone who was so excited ab

out the holidays I’m pretty much just glad they’re over. I’ve never entertained quite so much in one week and of course it’s a lot for a toddler. I’m excited playgroup is open again this week and my husband is FINALLY going back to work!! Vacations are nice and all, but he has been home almost 2 weeks and it really changes the dynamic and routine. Not to mention the last couple days all he has done is play Skyrim and be a grumpy jerk when I ask him to do anything. He flipped out at me 2 aisles into the grocery store because I was moving too slow (ie: couldn’t find something I was looking for) and proceeded to tell me how much faster he shopped when he lived alone. Yes, I suppose buying boxed mac and cheese and frozen pizzas was fast, excuse me for cooking! Yet if I go without him he complains I don’t buy him what he needs so he HAS to come with me. It’s a lose/lose. I will say Riley is a lot worse behaved when he’s with us because she knows he’ll take her out of the cart if she screeches, so that’s stressful. If it’s just her and I she doesn’t even try.

Anyway, this entry has been a lot of bitching and complaining! I’m already tired and hormonal and the last couple days with Phil having no sense of humor have sucked. Especially since when he’s moody it all is my fault because I make everything terrible. He gets mad when I say that’s how it makes me feel because he "never says that" but it’s certainly implied! I don’t hate being pregnant the way some women do, but yeah, it definitely makes me a moody grumpy bitch.

I do very much enjoy my child right now, though. She’s 20 months today, so close to 2!! She celebrated by saying "no mommy" repeatedly to everything. It’s just crazy watching her play and seeing the stuff she can do and understand now. She thinks everything is so funny and man, she loves to talk. A lot of it is gibberish still, but when I can only understand a word here and there it’s even funnier. When we were rocking tonight I got "Mommy? Daddy? *bunch of gibberish* Bunny? And a bunny and bunny jumps!" and she started cracking up at herself. Jumping is her new favorite activity and she has connected it with what Buster does, smart kid. She also loves to "bounce" on her playground ball and "bap" (clap). That one cracks me up because she’s very serious about it and if she says "bap" we better all be clapping. That and snow – if she says snow I’m expected to sing Frosty as many times as instructed. Cheeky. I need to start a blog or something for her, a letters to my daughter kind of thing. I know I’d probably fail miserably at updating it and then feel guilty (baby book anyone?) but it’s a nice thought, anyway. I’m sure she’d love to see my bragging some day.

Now it’s 11 and I got very little sleep last night, so I should probably at least attempt an early night again. Yes, 11 is early 😛 Pictures later!