Apparently -

I am so bad at this game! I realized I haven't posted anything since well before Christmas, and this post isn't going to be of any substance. We are trying to get ready for our big move (which shall be occurring in less than a month) and things are crazy. Hopefully I'll get around to returning my lay out (which I never even finished Holidizing). Perhaps after the lead guy comes to make sure our home is OK to legally rent out I'll get a chance. Hopefully DH will actually tell me when the lovely army folk are sending the movers, and HOPEFULLY he'll actually take a pass that day so that I'm not saying "Pack this, not that" while chasing an overly friendly 3 year old and a sick 8 month old through the house. Yes yes... both lil' B and I have returned from our Holiday adventures in NY with horrible colds - Yes, Soph and DH are totally fine. How exactly does that work? Hmmph. My new years resolution I do believe shall be to not be a flaky blogger! Happy New Year everyone, and I'll "see" you on the other side in January.

The Christmas Conundrum

This year I am faced with a particularly puzzling situation. For a while now, I have been quite exhausted by the commercialism of Christmas. I feel like the whole point of the holiday is being torn apart by the pressure of trying to do everything perfectly. I know that this is a topic that I've talked about previously, but as Christmas approaches I too am starting to feel the strain. I accomplished my mission of finishing all my homemade gifts. Which covered most people, I got Soph accomplished, her 2 older cousins, my mom and grandma, my MIL and my biological mother. Since Lil' B is so... well little - me crafting something for her would have been ridiculous, so I got her some wooden old school style toys that are NOT a lead risk, and I got some similar type toys for my youngest niece, although she got some homemade wooden puzzles. Now I am faced with my conundrum. DH, my sister and my BIL. DH wants nothing - literally nothing. I can't get him nothing, that's horrible. I'll have to think extra hard for him. My sister is the worst of all though - I asked what she wanted/what she was interested in. Her response - I like coffee and cigarettes. Ok that's not gonna happen, so that was negative amounts of helpful. She assured me that it was ok - I assured her it was NOT. I don't care that those are her interests, I wish she had other interests to make my life easier - but I'm not about to give her a carton of smokes and hand it to her in from of my whole family! Talk about a foot in the rear, I'd get some serious strife for that one. So how am I supposed to stick to my homemade pledge if it would go unappreciated/wanted?! *sigh* BIL wants something that although isn't homemade by me personally, or anyone unless a large machine is handmade. BUT! He wants a set of router bits, so I can probably be ok with that since the router bits would be a tool for him to craft things by hand - so that's my story and I'm stickin' to it! Oh and sorry I've been a slacking blogger. We've been traveling so much this past month that I've barely had 2 seconds. I'll be better - I'll make it a New Year's resolution :)

My new adventure

I have been inspired. Yasmina is a genius and started up a blog of recipes. So, I'm sure she's not the first person, but still. I decided to be a total biter copy cat --ly eager to share person, and start my own. I do love to bake... oh so very much. Especially when it's super chilly outside and I love excuses not to have to leave to go anywhere (what better excuse is there than a pie in the oven? ... that's what I thought!). My goal is to post at least 1 tasty treat a day during the month of December. I even back posted like 4 things, just so I would seem to be with it. We'll see how that goes. So, I have added a link to my new foodie person blog in my sidebar. Feel free to visit, and if you feel like trying something new, and decide to try one of my recipes, do let me know how it turned out! Or! I have a huge repertoire of recipes, so if anyone has any requests hop on over and let me know what you'd like.

Could it be?

Snow before Christmas?! We're supposed to get 2-3 inches of snow tomorrow, which although may seem like nothing to those closer to the lakes or a bit north of us - but for us lowly MD folk, that's not bad. In all honestly we're sissies and that amount will probably cause totally chaos and schools to close - sad I know. I love watching the snow fall and I love how excited Soph gets at the idea of snow. Since this will more than likely be her last snow I hope we get a good amount before we leave. If I recall correctly we didn't get more than 2 ft all winter last year - and it didn't even make it's debut until February (the day we settled on our house, because if the weather was nice that would have made things too easy). I'm (almost) sad to say we've been a bit on the hermit side lately, which is mildly disappointing. Usually I have no problem staying home, but this time of the year it's always fun to bundle up and take evening walks (or even car rides) to look at the holiday displays. However, with 60mph winds and temperatures well below freezing I just can't bring myself to take B out into the elements - not to mention Soph is so darned stubborn that it took me 20 minutes and much negotiation to get her to take off her bathing suit and put on tights. Checkmate came when I told her she could open the door and if she could honestly tell me it wasn't freezing outside she could wear whatever she wanted - if it was cold I was going to pick her attire. Let me tell you, that little girl is stubborn as all heck! I was surprised that her legs didn't fall off while she stood on our porch in protest. Luckily she didn't last all but a minute. Mom - 1 Soph -0. Once she was fully dressed in seasonally appropriate clothing I told her I was packing up her summer clothes for good. I was then informed that she was fine with that because in CA she can wear summer dresses in winter and swimming pools are open year round. Now - I don't know if she figured that out on her own, was "making it up" hoping it was true, or if she has been speaking with good ol' dad - either way I'm sure she's going to enjoy warmer weather. She's not one for being bound much - by my rules or by clothes.

I'm pleased to say that my to do list is getting shorter. I really should put it in the sidebar and cross things off as I complete them - perhaps then I would feel more accomplished. The inside of our home is about 80% complete. The outside needs a bit of love due to crazy style winds, but nothing a few minutes wont fix. I've been working on our Christmas Cards for about 3 days now and my goal was to get them sent out by tomorrow. Well, that's not going to happen. Sadly, DH believed me to be far more on top of things than I really am, and tossed our address book that was damaged in a tragic counter flooding incident. He thought I had transferred all of the address - in reality, I had only transferred the super important ones. That left about 30 that were lost (yeah, that's a lot of family). So after many phone calls, my list is finally complete with the exception of 3 families that moved.

Which reminds me, I have about a dozen and then some left over cards, if anyone out there collects cards to use in crafts or just likes to have pretty card displays this time of year let me know and I'd be more than happy to send a card your way. Alas, it is far too late and I need to save my kitchen from DH's great cake adventures (which was 3 days ago!). For some reason he has decided to start baking - bless his heart for trying. I bake quite a bit and I am still baffled by the fact that he managed to dirty 5 bowls while making a boxed cake mix - and then proceeded to leave the dishes for me. One would think that after many failed dishes boycotts I would learn my lesson. No, I now have a dirty kitchen and I'm itchin' to get baking, so I must take the plunge. I wouldn't be so willing to give in if it weren't December. I do love December.

It's the most wonderful time....

I have been neglectful of my blog. As much as I am addicted to love blogging - the holidays come with such long "To Do" lists that I really just haven't managed to find the time. Shame on me. Most of the past week was spent "winter cleaning". After all - what good is a decorated house if it's dusty and dirty? So after facing my greatest fear (our basement) to lug up boxes of decorations - Soph and I set to work. I am very very picky about my holiday decorating, and since this is our first (and last) year in our house for the holidays much thought has gone into this year's decor. Although the inside of our house is still a work in progress, I'm happy to say that I am so so SO happy with outside. Although I drastically underestimated the amount of garland and lights required (I'm pretty sure the folks at Michael's know me by name), the look is what I consider to be very "traditional". Red and white and garland. Once I find my camera I shall take pictures. Tomorrow is going to be the final day (I hope) of decorating so I can haul the now empty boxes back down to the basement. After all, it's hard to enjoy a warm cozy and festive house if you can't even find a place to sit among the boxes! That and I need to get back in the gift making swing - only 23 days left and I don't want to have to settle for gifts I don't feel are complete - that would be pretty lame of me.

So with all that rambling outta the way - all I have left "to do" is...

1. Decorate out living room/kitchen

2. Gingerbread houses (!)

3. Finish the family gifts. (this is no small feat. I have Soph, Lil B, DH, and 10 or so other people to create for - gosh)

4. Bake, bake and then bake some more.

5. Do the card thing.

6. Wrap presents (this is possibly my 2nd favorite part of giving gifts. I'm a firm believer that careful and pretty wrapping is an outward display of how much one cares about the recipient of the gift - it's almost as important as the gift itself!)

and... 7. Work on the "moving in February To Do" list - which has like 100 things on it.

I love December. I can't guarantee that I'll get much posting in - but I can guarantee that the less posting that gets accomplished, the more we are enjoying our season :)