What's up, 2013?

I realize we are almost a week into the new year, but with all the Christmas catch-up posts and such, I haven't publicly acknowledged it.

So...Happy New Year (a week late)!

I typically make a few resolutions, but I didn't this year. I think I have accepted that I never really keep them anyway, so what is the point?

Plus, last week my parents had Amelia with them, so Darryl and I pretty much feasted on fattening food and restaurants all week, so while most people were cutting their carbs and going to the gym twice a day, we were eating steak, risotto, chicken parmesan, Mexican food (not at the same time). This week is a "getting back on the wagon week" for us. I'll just say the scale was NOT kind this morning.

Yikes.

ANYWAY, I feel like I have been on Christmas Break forever, and I'm not complaining...but it is hard to get back into the routine. Amelia went back to school today (technically, her school started this past Friday to make up for the "hurricane days" last fall, but she was still with my parents), and I go back next week. And guess what? I have done very little to get ready.

Again, yikes.

If you have made it this far into my blog post and are still awake, kudos. You might also be wondering what the point of this post is. Really, I don't have one. I think I'm just delaying the many things I have to do.

Better get to that to-do list...

Christmas: Rounds 1, 2, and 3

Round 1: Christmas Day

We spent Christmas Day here. It was a really low-key day, partly because that is how we wanted it, and partly because the weather was too terrible to do anything else (rain, wind, tornado warnings).

At about 6:45 that morning, Darryl and I were so excited that we woke Amelia up to see if Santa had visited, and indeed he had! Amelia had asked Santa for a tent, Princess and the Pop Star Barbies, and some superhero ("super-here-e-o") toys, and she was excited to see that he had delivered!

Amelia was so fun this Christmas season. Christmas night, I let her stay up past her bedtime so we could watch The Polar Express (again!) together...mainly because I just didn't want the season to end. Everything this year was more exciting, shinier, brighter -- MAGICAL. We loved every minute.

At least there was a little more fun to look forward to...

Christmas: Round Two

Two days after Christmas, we went to Florida to visit our families. On Thursday, we did Christmas with my parents. We had a great time devouring ham and all the fixings, and of course, Amelia was pumped to open presents.

My mom had given my dad an iPad for Christmas. Let me tell you something about my dad: he HATES technology. (This might lead you to ask why the iPad would my mom's choice for a gift for my dad...well, she -- and the rest of us -- are determined to bring him up to speed, at least a little.) He now has an email address and has discovered Netflix, so he might admit to liking technology at least a little bit.

Christmas: Round Three

The next day (Friday, for anyone who is trying to keep track), we did Christmas with Darryl's side of the family. We spent some time hanging out outside around the firepit at Darryl's sister's house, and then we had dinner across the street at Darryl's brother's house.

Darryl's sister, Ashley:

Amelia and Avery making a hot chocolate toast. (They did this on their own...cracked. me. up.)

Our niece Savannah--she is growing up so fast!

Ashley, Amelia, and Avery

The fam just chatting around the table

Our nephew Cameron (also growing up so fast) and Avery

This photo makes me laugh. The girls were anxious so open presents, so Darryl set a timer on his phone and Amelia and Madison watched the minutes tick by. Oh, the anticipation!!

All the cousins

It was a fun, lively evening!

Other Notes:
1. I assure you that Darryl was very much a part of all our Christmas festivities. However, when I point the camera his direction, he does things like this:

For all we know, that is Dr. Evil behind that iPad.

2. Another fun part of Christmas in Florida was that on Saturday, my mom and I ventured out to see the movie Les Miserables. Y'all. Loved it. It is not a flawless movie (ahem, Russell Crowe), but overall it is a wonderful movie. I want to see it again at the theater.

Also, if Hugh Jackman proposed, I would say yes. That is all.

I really have more to say about it...that might be another blog post. Or not. Who knows.

3. And that wraps up the season for us. Amelia has spent the week with her grandparents, so Darryl and I have enjoyed a week of being lazy, having nice dinners out, and watching movies and football...but we miss our girl and look forward to her coming home Friday!

Christmas Catch-Up: Everything BEFORE Christmas Day

My goal this week is to get caught up with the blog so I can make a fresh start next week...so expect a random hodgepodge of stuff.

I took Amelia to see Santa at Bass Pro. This was also Amelia's last day of school, and when I picked her up, her teacher had given all the kids elf hats, and Amelia wanted to wear hers for her photo. :-)

While she didn't see all that pumped about seeing him through most of the season, she was really excited while we were standing in line. She seems to warm up to him a little more each year. (For the record, I HATED sitting on Santa's lap. I think there might be two photos of me with Santa.)

Another fun Christmas-y thing we did was take Amelia ice skating the Saturday before Christmas. This might have been one of my favorite things we did this season, even if my arm was super sore for three days from holding Amelia up. :-) The lighting kept us from getting really great photos, but here are a few.

That last photo makes me laugh. While we were there, Amelia made a new friend (actually two, because we also skated some with this girl's sister). At one point, the little girl was skating with her dad and grabbed Amelia's hand...Darryl asked me if if this was my new man/family. The photo does make me laugh because we do look like a cozy family of four, don't we??? I don't even know their names, but the little girls were SO sweet and we had fun skating with them.

Amelia also had fun the Sunday afternoon before Christmas when we invited her next-door neighbor friend over to decorate sugar cookies. I will not be surprised if Amelia's senior yearbook quote is "You can never have too many sprinkles."

I'm pretty sure that in this house's last days -- however many years from now that might be -- there will still be some remaining sprinkles in some floor crevice from the Christmas Cookie Decorating of 2012.

On Christmas Eve, we had our friends Rebecca and Damian over for dinner, and then we went to the bonfires in Grammercy. I had no idea this is a big tradition, but it was pretty cool. And loud.

And here are Rebecca, Amelia, and I being goofy on the way home.

When we got home, we got all ready for Santa to visit. We had already sent our letter via Princess the Elf, but we were sure to scatter reindeer food and leave some heavily sprinkled cookies for Santa.

This was such a fun Christmas season. Sure, it was busy, but we made lots of fun memories.

And yes, I'll be back with a Christmas wrap-up as I tell you about Christmas Day and Christmas in Florida!

Christmas Fun: The Nutcracker, Christmas Shopping, and More!

We've had some more Christmas fun this past week.

On a side note...as I type this, it is rainy and windy. Yesterday the high was 78. This weather is the opposite of Christmas-y.

Anyway, Friday evening I watched my Buford Wolves claim their first State Championship in football in Class AAA, which they just moved up to from AA. (However, this was NOT their first championship ever, not by any means. I could look up the stats right now, but I'm too lazy to do that.) I was thrilled for them to win. To say BHS has had a tough 2012 would be the understatement of the year, so it was wonderful to see them win and celebrate something good and fun.

Our next-door neighbor gave us two free tickets to see The Nutcracker: A Tale from the Bayou Saturday afternoon, so Amelia and I went to that. I was very curious about the "Bayou" part, but it ended up just being part of a very brief frame story. (But might I say, my drama teacher friend Kim would have been very impressed with their bayou set. Seriously.) The rest was the "real" Nutcracker, and it was amazing. Amelia enjoyed most of it, even though she (understandably) got a little restless about halfway through the second act.

Sunday, we went to church (our church hunt deserves another blog post because YES, we're still looking), and that afternoon, Amelia had a birthday party to go to. Here she is with her friend B...AFTER I caught them sliding together down an inflatable with a hula hoop around them. I told them I didn't think that was a good idea, not to do it again, and they both said, almost simultaneously, "It's okay. We didn't get hurt."

Monday, Darryl and I went to New Orleans to Christmas shop while Amelia was in school. This was something I had told Darryl I wanted to do as far back as the summer. WELL. Aside from shopping at a Disney store for some things (we don't have a Disney store in Baton Rouge), we didn't really find any shop that we didn't have access to in Baton Rouge. So we decided that at least we could have a really good lunch somewhere spectacular. We had a list of several places in mind. And guess what? Apparently almost all the "notable" restaurants in New Orleans are closed on Monday.

Interesting.

So we ended up at a BBQ joint that was just okay.

And for Darryl's co-workers who read this blog...don't you miss seeing this mug every day?

I must leave you with this one Amelia story.  Monday night, I was doing various things around the house, and I saw Amelia like this:

I asked her what she was doing, and she said, "I'm the Elf on the Shelf." Then, when I wasn't looking, she would move to another location and sit perfectly still like that. This went on for at least thirty minutes. It was hilarious!

And a little creepy.

A Loss for Words

I feel that I can't -- and perhaps shouldn't -- continue to blog about Christmas baking, The Nutcracker, and festive events when something of an unspeakable magnitude, of unimaginable horror, took place in a small elementary school in Connecticut on Friday.

The truth, though, is that I really have no words. I have nothing new to bring to the conversation. If I'm being completely honest, I've watched the news reports in bits and pieces, unable and maybe even unwilling to let myself "go there" completely. I can barely stand to look at the photos of kids who have the same grins full of those tiny baby teeth and those eyes that sparkle with happiness and/or mischief, much like my own daughter's, or the photos of the school administrators and teachers who obviously took their jobs to heart and were advocates for their students even in their last breath. I have a choice in what I read, watch, and allow myself to experience; my heart breaks for grieving families and loved ones who are forced to face a nightmarish reality.

Last night before going to bed, I read an email that Amelia's principal sent to all the parents of the school. She was transparent and honest about how difficult and confusing these days after this senseless tragedy have been and will continue to be. The email ended with a prayer that I found comforting and reassuring, and I will end with it as well:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. 
Where there is hatred, let us sow love; 
where there is injury, pardon; 
where there is discord, union; 
where there is doubt, faith; 
where there is despair, hope; 
where there is darkness, light; 
where there is sadness, joy. 
Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; 
to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. 
For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life.  

Amen.

The Christmas Season Thus Far

I know I've been focusing on catching up on past events, but I also want to talk a little bit about the Christmas season up to this point...or else I'll be catching up on it in February, maybe March. :-)

This season has been a ton of fun so far, and it has been a good balance of doing fun things and just chilling out at home and watching Christmas movies and baking goodies.

I'm doing another December Daily album this year (this one is my fourth), so most of the photos are from that; if you see something fancy (and for me, "fancy" is a collage or words on a photo, as you see in the photo above), that is why.

We kicked off the season by going to a Family Fun Night at Amelia's school, where we watched The Polar Express on the playground while enjoying some snacks and hot chocolate. Oh, and food trucks were there as well. Amelia enjoyed hanging out with her friend G, and here they are after about four cups of hot chocolate EACH.

The next day, we broke out our Christmas decorations and decked the halls. I must confess it was fun decorating a new (to us) place this time around.

Last week was a busy week at Amelia's school. I helped out one day at the Book Fair. Here's Amelia's class listening to a story. (Y'all. I've always loved a Book Fair. When I saw it as a volunteer opportunity at the school, I signed myself right up.)

Another day, I had lunch at school as part of the Book Fair promotion. (They take this Book Fair seriously, y'all.) I took out my phone to take get a photo of Amelia and me, and her friends wanted to get in on the action.

And if you ever wondered what 4- and 5-year-olds like to talk about at lunch, I can tell you: they LOVE to talk about pee-pee and poo-poo. And the various places one can pee-pee and poo-poo.

Gross.

Let's change the subject.

Friday night, Darryl and I had a date night. We went to eat and then just strolled around Perkins Rowe shopping center. My favorite decorations were the Christmas Alligators, seen here in the bottom right photo.

Amelia's next-door friend A spent a lot of time with us Saturday while Darryl helped her dad move some palm trees in their backyard. These two girls kept me hoppin', but eventually they settled down with their dolls and stuffed animals to eat some popcorn and watch a Barbie movie.

Saturday night, we went to the Christmas parade downtown. I'll just say it wasn't our favorite parade experience, but Amelia was happy she caught some Mardi Gras beads. Apparently Mardi Gras beads aren't just for Mardi Gras anymore.

Sunday, we went to church and lunch with my friend Martha and her family. That night, she met us at her church again so we could take Amelia through the live Nativity. I think Amelia's favorite part was a cage full of baby bunnies in a makeshift petting zoo. (The church had brought in live donkeys and such, so I think they just brought in a few extra animals for the kids. Unless I'm forgetting something about rabbits as part of the Christmas Story.)

 

A couple of nights ago, Amelia was in her first little dance recital. She is taking a VERY informal dance class at her school one afternoon a week (really, all she cares about it is putting on a tutu and dancing around), and they had a little program. Y'all, it was HILARIOUS. Here's Miss Amelia getting her groove on to "Jingle Bells."

And that brings us up to date on Christmas season, I think. We have a few more fun things planned...and I REALLY need to get a jump on some Christmas shopping. And some baking. And...

5 (The Actual Birthday, not the Birthday Par-TAY)

Amelia turned five on November 12.

I can't believe it. This birthday was a little more difficult for this mom to take than the ones before. Five just seems so...old, like some landmark birthday that is the transition from little girl to big girl.

Amelia was SO excited to be turning five. When she woke up on her birthday, she sleepily walked into the kitchen, where I was sitting, and she said, "Momma, I'm turning five years old today!!"

The birthday girl and I managed to fit in some doughnuts before school that morning.

I took cupcakes to her school. She has been into superheroes lately, so she requested superhero cupcakes.
Also, at school, she got this rockstar crown.

(I think next year, I want a crown like that with a big "40" on the top.)

That evening, she wanted to eat at Chick-fil-a and then go to the mall to ride the carousel. And since she was the birthday girl, that was what we did.

This isn't the greatest photo of Amelia (look at the camera, girl!), but I had to include it. She named this pig "Tickle" and said it was her brother. Um, okay...

 For dessert, she picked out this rainbow cookie. Girlfriend loves rainbows.

Here are some things I am loving about Amelia at this age:
--She is open to anything...meeting new friends, trying a new Sunday School at a new church, trying new experiences.
--She is affectionate. She is a HUGGER. She hugs her friends when she sees them and then again when she tells them goodbye. (If her friends are a lot smaller than she is, she also likes to lift them off the ground when she hugs them.)
--She loves to make books. She is always drawing pictures, writing some words over them, and then asking me to staple the papers on the side to make a book. Love it.
--She loves to dance and sing. Loudly.
--She's funny...usually when she isn't trying to be. :-)

Anyway, we had a wonderful day celebrating our girl. We love her so much!

A Catch-Up Post: Thanksgiving '12

We had a great Thanksgiving!

My parents stayed with us for Thanksgiving this year. Actually, they came the weekend right before Thanksgiving so they could attend Amelia's birthday party on Sunday. They enjoyed getting to spend a lot of time with Amelia...they even braved Chuck E. Cheese with her one day. That is love.

Our week got off to a rousing start when our fridge of over ten years decided to quit. Convenient timing, yes?

But now we have this beauty hanging out in our kitchen, and we're getting along very well.

Here's a photo of Amelia and my mom just hanging out, having coffee and hot chocolate.

My dad enjoyed some light reading.

He isn't serious all the time, though. Sometimes he likes to play with Power Rangers.

On Thanksgiving Day, there were several attempts made to fly a kite, but the wind seemed to mock us and stop blowing as soon as we'd run out there to try. (I say "we"...I just stood by with a camera in my hand.)

We ate WAY too much food, and Thanksgiving night, Darryl and I had a movie date night and went to see Argo. GREAT movie.

Friday morning, my parents went home, and my friend Rebecca and I kept up our tradition of doing some Black Friday shopping. Here is what you should know: 1) We do not get up at some ungodly hour (like 2 a.m.) to do this. 2) To be honest...we shop mainly for ourselves.

(I look like I am wearing a fancy hat, but it is a pedestal holding a purple high-heeled shoe. Everyone needs a purple high-heeled shoe, am I right?)



While I'm on the subject of Black Friday shopping, can I just say that I HATE that the sales and the shopping start Thanksgiving Day?? Can't we just have Thanksgiving Day, for Pete's sake? (I think Charlie Brown would agree with me on this one.)



And thus concludes Thanksgiving 2012. A good time was had by all.