Every time I go to someone’s house during Christmas and spy a Christmas tree, I immediately run over to scope out their ornaments. I love elegant trees with white lights and ornaments. I think that trees adorned with bows and berry garlands are deliciously elegant. But there is a special place in my heart for [...]
Dec 232011
- Remembering the Christ child, laying in a manger, sent to free us from bondage.
- Being together with family.
- Reconciling differences with family and friends.
- Spending time remembering years past with loved ones.
- Giving and receiving graciously.
- Good food, warm drinks, cozy pajamas.
Whatever it means to you, I’m sure one thing that we all share is that Christmas is a great time to make memories and to reflect on the memories that we’ve stored away from years past.
I was hit, square in the eyes with a memory as I wrapped presents last night. My dad and “bonus mom” dropped some presents for the kids off on their way to their Christmas celebration yesterday. They had not had time to wrap the gifts and asked if I would do the chore. I absolutely LOVE wrapping presents so I was happy to oblige. We said our good byes and I took the presents to our “Wrapping Room” to get to work.
One of the presents for Madilyn is a Cabbage Patch Surprise Newborn. I didn’t immediately make any sort of emotional connection with it as I looked the box over. The doll comes in a squishy head of cabbage with a bonnet covering its locks. You don’t know whether or not it is a boy or girl until you pull the baby out of the cabbage head to reveal a pink or blue diaper, (how ELSE do you think they should prove the baby’s sex? with a sewn on penis or vagina?) and the baby also comes with a “surprise outfit” for it to change into. You don’t want a cold baby!
I put the baby doll back in its bag because Grady woke up hungry and then went about my day.
It happened suddenly last night as I was folding clothes: A sudden, vivid memory of a baby doll that I got for Christmas when I was 9. I remember it was the one thing that I wanted that year and Santa delivered. I had never been a big fan of baby dolls but that year, the Magic Nursery baby doll by Mattel was at the top of my list. There was something so exciting and mysterious to me about taking the hat off and finding out whether or not the baby was a boy or girl. You could also find out if the baby had an innie or an outtie belly button.
I remember tearing the box open and shaking with excitement about finding out what my baby was.
My sister and I ran to the sink to dip the baby’s hospital gown in water to find out what we were having. The gown disintegrated to reveal that mine was a BOY! I kissed the little heart on his cheek and watched it change colors upon contact with my warm lips.
That was our first Christmas in Alaska. We had moved there in October and it was still new and scary. We lived in a small, 2-bedroom apartment downtown with our mom and her pizza-slinging, alcoholic boyfriend. I found my first “grown up hairs” in that apartment, just after Christmas.
I remember seeing the chocolate milk sky for the first time as it snowed. I remember sitting at the window as the soft, fluffy flakes fell from the sky and watching a woman wearing high heels making funny footprints on the slick ground. Her footprints looked like a sentence: Triangle, period.
I remember the terror of a fight between my mom and her boyfriend that resulted in my mom passing out and the police knocking at our door.
I remember walking home from 4th grade with my friend Elisa, stopping at the convenience store for candy, and walking through Cope Park then downtown to get home late/ OH man did I get in some serious trouble that day.
I remember the Penguins in Florida project that Shane and I made out of salt dough in Mr. Kotyk’s class.
I’ll never forget stealing money from my mom’s boyfriend during Public Market so that I could buy myself a crocheted Barbie doll dress.
And one of my favorite memories: The Christmas Shop. The owners became friends of mine and we remained in contact through high school graduation. My friend Tatiana and I frequented there and one day in particular, John gave us a cob of black corn that you placed in a see-through plastic bag to place in the microwave to pop popcorn. We took that popcorn home and put it in the microwave to watch it pop. I literally peed my pants laughing as the black cob danced around the microwave, producing beautiful, fluffy, white popcorn.
It was a terrifying, new, wondrous, delicious, beautiful, nerve wracking year.
As I lay in bed last night, all of these emotions and memories came flooding back, all because of a gift for Madilyn. It was truly a gift for me to remember it all last night, and quite possibly the best gift of the season so far.
What Christmas memories are your favorite? Are there any that you had forgotten and remembered suddenly?
Dec 222011
Because I was embarrassed with the mustache that our house was sporting, and because I love Sears, and Sears loves me, we gave our house some #SearsRealCheer last week.
We shopped until Madilyn dropped.
We got home and stopped.
OK, let me explain. We got home and Kyle decided that he wanted to paint the living room (he has ADD, remember?). I watched him use our one, tall ladder to slather paint on the walls while I pouted that the lights weren’t getting hung up.
A few days later, he was off work again and I insisted that he put lights up.
He did, while I snapped pictures of Grady, Styles ran around with guns (water, that is), and Madilyn tormented us all.
And now our house has a toupee to go with its mustache. We bought two reels of lights that had 200 lights/reel.
Here’s where you laugh.
We thought each reel was 200 feet of lights.
Each reel was only 50′ of lights.
We had enough to line the house and believe me, it looks a lot better with the toupee than without, but I was going for a sort of Griswold effect and we didn’t exactly get that thanks to our rookie mistake. Plus, the LED lights that I insisted on having don’t exactly match our other lights but I don’t even care.
I’ll be visiting Sears the day after Christmas to buy more light reels for next year.
In other, related news: I wanted to have lights in our yard like the Griswolds and my Griswold-wannabe neighbors so we had to decide between the Holiday Pig and the Purple Christmas Hippo.
What did we choose? Well, my favorite Christmas song is, “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”. SOOOOOOO…..
This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias All thoughts, toupeed homes, and purple hippos are my very own.
Dec 182011
Yesterday marked 7 weeks Paleo. I had lost 27lbs and a full pant size. I feel amazing, haven’t suffered a headache, a knee ache, or a hip ache in almost 2 months.
Yesterday was also the day of my Annual Cookie exchange. I scheduled it months ago, long before I started Paleo, and I wanted to have it still. I considered making Paleo treats for the party but with painting and decorating, the whole mess just kind of got away from me. I went easy and made double chocolate cookies.
I ate dough.
I ate cookies.
And I got a headache. A massive headache that started at my shoulder blade and shot up the right side of my neck and head. I laid down for a nap and felt somewhat better afterwards.
Then the guests arrived one by one, bearing gifts of sugar and flour like I had requested of them.
I picked at plates of cookies for a couple of hours while we enjoyed conversation and coffee.
Then as everyone filed out the door, I walked inside and almost collapsed under the pain in my neck. My right side felt like someone was giving me a massive Indian Rugburn. I felt sick to my stomach, tired, and I wanted to cry.
I had not felt like that since the day before I started Paleo.
NOT that I needed a reminder, but I now remember why I went Paleo in the first place.
Not because I wanted to lose weight, but because I needed to feel better. Because I couldn’t live with the pain any longer. Because my knees were screaming to be used again without threatening to blow out of their sockets. Because my hips were tired of aching. Because my head could not take another pounding, throbbing, vomit-inducing headache.
So here I sit, the day after my first real cheat (I had gluten free chocolate cake on a date last week), and I feel like I have a hangover. I’m tired, my head is pounding, and my shoulder hurts like a crazy person.
I ate my Paleo breakfast and had shredded cabbage, chicken, beanless hummus, and raw broccoli for lunch. I am slowly beginning to feel better but what I wouldn’t give for this muscle spasm to go away!
I’m super thankful my in-laws went Paleo right after I did too. I don’t have to worry about making things I cannot, or will not eat for Christmas!
I seriously doubt I’ll be eating another grain for a long, long time.
Champions for Kids, Disney, & MeSo today was the very last day of school for the kids in the Savannah Chatham County School district which means that it was my day to present one of Styles’ classmates with a Disney themed-stocking. I asked his teacher last week if she knew of any families in need in her class and she [...] |
My House Has a MustacheLast year was our first Christmas in our new house. It was also my second year as a stay at home mom, I was pregnant, and things weren’t going so well at Kyle’s job (not because of his performance, just generally bad stuff). With his future uncertain, we didn’t spend much money on outdoor Christmas [...] |
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Dinner in a PinchI don’t know how some of you moms do it. I feel like I’m constantly picking up, fixing meals, changing diapers, and doing my best to keep my kids entertained, all while keeping a nice house and The Workaholic happy. Yet every time I turn around, I find some sort of sticky mess on my [...] |
Mom vs Tween : Holiday ClothingI don’t know when exactly it happened, but my baby boy turned into a tween. He is independent, wants to tuck himself in at night (though I’m convinced it’s just so that I don’t see his messy room), and has his own ideas of what good fashion is. His ideas on fashion change daily. Case [...] |
Christmas Giving = TimeI LOVE Christmas. No, I don’t think you understand. I really love Christmas. I love the trimmings, trappings, smells, and joy that Christmas means for my children and for me. I want to stick my face into my live Christmas tree and leave it there, sniffing the raw fir smell. I love reminiscing Christmas’ past [...] |
Mission : Replace Lost Christmas OrnamentsI’m a stay at home mom and one of my favorite things to do during the week is to hit the mall with my gal friends. We call it a play date but let’s be completely honest, mommies have to play too! Several years before becoming a stay at home mommy, I was a [...] |
Come to Our Nest 
