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Curse you Monday!

2007-11-26 / 12:48 p.m.

I always dread Mondays, but it seems to be even worse after a holiday weekend. Especially if it was a good few days together. Mondays are hard for all of the members of our family. The girls miss their daddy and are used to having him around. Dan has to go back to work, so that's sad for him and I also feel the loss of his presence when it goes back to just being the parent:child ratio of 1:2. I much prefer man on man defense.

The past four or five days have been so nice. Dan and I have really mended our wounds from a few weeks ago and I couldn't be happier. Something has really been bothering me though. I feel like because I was honest in saying that we were going through a hard time, I painted a bad picture of him. And I never want to do that. I don't regret one single day with this man. I can't, and don't want to, imagine my life without him. He is the only person I trust 100%. He is an Amazing husband and father and I love him more than any other person on this planet!

That being said.....we had such a great weekend. We are really getting into the Christmas spirit around here. When Dan came home early from work on Wed. we put the tree together - not decorated - just put together. We have one of those artificial tree that has to be put toghether one limb at a time, and then fluffed to look real. It takes a while, so that is as far as we got for the night. It seemed a little early to me, but Dan came home excited and ready to go, so I didn't want to squash that. The girls had fun helping pull the branches out of the box and Bg1 did a good job at sorting them according to their color code. They both tried egg nog for the first time, and loved it! Which kind of surprises me, but whatever!

Thursday morning was a lazy morning, complete with everyone cuddled in our bed, then up for some homemade cream cheese coffee cake and freshly brewed egg nog lattes. We got the lights up outside while the girls ran around for a while before their naptime. I love Christmas lights. I only wish we could do more outside, but we are pretty limited on our electrical outlets. Later that day headed over to Beth's mom's house. We enjoyed a nice evening of food and games.

Friday was another lazy day at home. I love days like this. Dan got down all the decorations from the garage and we started decorating. First I had to pack up some of our pictures and things so that we have room for the Christmas decorations. So once that was packed up, we unpacked the rest. I almost never put out everything I have - we just don't have room for it all. But, I did put out a little more than usual since we are hosting Christmas Eve this year (story for another day) and I am also having a cookie exchange party in a couple of weeks. I have two absolute favorite decorations that I always get excited about putting out. The first is my nativity scene that Dan has given me and added to every year, so it is really special to me. Secondly, an old cereamic table-top Christmas tree that lights up, that my grandmother made for my mom when she was first married to my dad. I don't know why, but it has always been my favorite. I put the tree in our room and try to leave it on at night because I love it, but Dan usually turns it off. I'll post pictures on Flickr. The girls could hardly wait to get their hands on all the ornaments! We have more than what can fit on our tree. Our tree is loaded with them, and we still have half a storage bin full of the ones that aren't my favorites.

This year, we did something new. I have been wanting to get one of those little pink feather trees for the girls, but Dan thinks is a total waste of money. I know they would love it. But anyways, I remembered that we had a small table top tree in the attic, that we haven't used in years. My mom bought and decorated it for us as a surprise the year we were married - we came home from our honeymoon on Christmas Eve and thought we weren't going to have a tree to celebrate our first Christmas with. Anyways, I used to use it in my classroom and now it just sits in the attic. So I convinced him to let me decorate it and put it in the girls room. He thinks it is silly, but they were so excited to have their own tree! We bought some lights for it and it is all girly and pink and wonderful with all their ornaments from the past couple of years. Again - pictures on Flickr to come soon.

You probably remember that Dan and I disagree on what goes on the top of a Christmas tree - he grew up having a star and we Always had an angel. So we have one of each and alternate every other year. This is a star year. So that left the angel free to be on top of the girl's tree - which means I still get my way!

Saturday we got up, packed a lunch and headed to the Long Beach Aquarium. It was a beautiful day and the girls had a lot of fun looking at all the animals. We couldn't talk Bg1 into petting a shark, but she did touch the starfish and sea anenamies (sp??). It was a really nice day.

Sunday was church in the morning and lots of laziness for the rest of the day. I have to admit, that as much of a homebody as I am, by Sunday evening, I was starting to get stir crazy! I talked Dan into going out to eat and then we did a tiny bit of unplanned shopping. I am starting to panic a little bit about Christmas shopping, but I know it will all turn out fine. I just wish I knew what to get people! I can think of a million things to get myself, my girls and Beth, but everyone else is out of luck! I did find a couple things on-line that I think I am going to order and we are mostly done with my nephews. We have become masters at hiding/buying things for the girls while they are with us, but I know this won't last long.

I don't know what the deal was, but last night was a terrible sleep night for our household. Bg2 was up for Hours in the middle of the night, which meant that Bg1 was wide-awake and ready to go. Nothing I tried worked. She just kept crying, but would let me hold her. Everytime I could feel her getting heavier and I would try to put her down, she would start crying all over again. I finally took her to bed with me - which we Never do - but I was SO exhausted. She never did fall asleep, so I put her back in her bed and let her cry herself to sleep. Needless to say, we are all extra tired and cranky today - with one man missing from the equation - so it's been a rough morning.

What can make that better? The stillness of naptime! And Christmas music playing while I'm writing this post. And the thought of almost being done with Beth's ornaments (hers are different from the rest of the 10 cakes group - which are already done). Also, I'm burning a wreath scented tart and my home smells as if I have a live Christmas tree in it! The sun is out, but it is still crisp! Dan and I had lots of "special alone time" this weekend. And we took a good picture for the Christmas cards and they are ordered. I love my life - even though it is Monday!

crawling * walking

Great weekend! - 2008-01-07