I’m on a high, coming off the “BEST BIRTHDAY EVARRRR” according to the boys, and guess what? Today was the BEST CHRISTMAS EVARRRR! Yes, yes, thank you, thank you.

I feel like I kind of slacked doing Christmassy stuff this year, like, not digging Maury-Frank up until the 15th or so. We didn’t go see lights anywhere, I never watched Elf, and I don’t know, for some reason, it just didn’t feel the same. I think maybe it was because Thanksgiving was so late. Yeah, I’m blaming the turkey.

But, apparently it didn’t matter anyway. The boys had a great day, and after all, we did do the LEGO advent calendar (thank god 24 days is divisible by 3),  we built numerous gingerbread structures, and I had my traditional Christmas Eve eggnog daiquiri, which I drank while wrapping presents and weeping over the end of It’s A Wonderful Life.

By the way. Most romantic scene of any movie, ever? This one:

Since we have no storage at our house, I had to hide the boys’ bikes at a friend’s house, so last night, I went to pick them up after the boys went to bed at 7:15. Note to self: tell them Santa comes every night so they go to bed as early as humanly possible. I put big bows on them, and this morning, when they went downstairs, Miles immediately said, “you did this, didn’t you?”

I have a feeling this might be our last Santa year. Especially after some fighting/whining later, when I told one of them that I was going to take his bike back to the store and get my money back. Whoops. I mean, Santa was going to get his money back. Or the elves were going to it for parts. Whatever.

If this post is all over the place, it’s because I’m exhausted after being up late wrapping/drinking frozen eggnog/swooning over Jimmy Stewart and then getting woken at the crack of dawn by three little monkeys who disregarded my instruction to stay in bed until the first number is 7. Sigh.

Our parents came over today, which was a nice change from driving around. Even better, my mom cooked. I did make a flourless chocolate cake, though, and my accidental quintupling of the heavy cream in the cake made it approximately five times better than it would have been otherwise. It was goooood.

We all got a ton of great gifts today. George got me this cool wine decanter thing that also saves your wine if you don’t finish a bottle (bless his heart, as if!) and the boys each got me a bottle of wine. I’m glad their taste is better than mine was at that age.

Okay, I’m exhausted. More pictures…

Merry Christmas, y’all!

Let’s just pretend that Thanksgiving wasn’t a million days ago, okay? There was a lot of driving back and forth last week, and working, and with the boys out of school, well, excuses, excuses.

There were 43 people (give or take, I didn’t count or anything) at my aunt and uncle’s house. That’s a lot. So much yummy food!

Here are some photos for your perusal.

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This week is going to be slightly less busy, but not much. The boys’ birthday is Wednesday (!!!) and their party is Sunday, and lots is going on in between. Mostly involving me hoping and praying it doesn’t rain for their party. Ugh.

Cross fingers!

I’ve been a blogging slacker lately, which is truly pathetic considering my new job…

Evan, Jennifer, and Ellie are in town for thanksgiving, which is fun. Ellie and the boys have had a blast playing, which is beyond sweet.

More pics from the weekend…

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The Tilt-a-Whirl was a big hit, but I was mighty nauseated after the second go-round.

Mr Bingle!

We even took them to see Santa on Sunday because there were no lines. Was I ashamed of myself? Yes, yes I was, a little. Ah well, on to Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to post about some good things. All sorts of good things. Okay, maybe just two good things.

The other night was White Linen Night. It’s like a block party on this street with lots of art galleries. You wear white. Duh. I haven’t been in years, but when I heard my cousin Clark was having a show at one of the galleries, I made it a priority to go this year. Me and Steph went. It was fun.

 

 

(BTW, Clark painted the big mural that I took the boys’ Christmas pictures in front of last year. Remember this beaut?)

And I ran into the boys’ teachers from last year! That was fun.

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Also good? These Greek yogurt bars. I cannot get enough of them. Which isn’t a Good Thing. But they’re only 2 WW points, so heck, even if I eat the whole box (which I totally could do), it wouldn’t destroy me. It also comes in pints. Soooo goooooooood!

Obviously I didn’t mentioned it here, but I went to Virginia this past weekend to surprise Kiki. It was awesome. And do you know how hard it is NOT to give it away? No posting on Facebook, making sure no one else posts about it on Facebook, making sure I didn’t say anything suspicious in our daily phone calls. But I did it!

I arrived Thursday night. My sister and niece picked me up from the airport, and I stayed at their house that night. The next morning, I hung out with Emily and Andrew before they went to daycare, and then Jenny and I went for a run. It was nice and cool, but those dang Virginia mountains hills. DThat was rough.

Met some friends for lunch that day, and then Jenny and I did a little shopping. I got a dress at the Gap (in a size smaller than expected, which is always nice) and some Legos for the boys. And then Jenny dropped me off at my friend Anne’s house. She was in on the secret (having gifted me some of her frequent flier miles for my ticket) and the plan was for Kristina to go to Anne’s and I was going to casually walk out of the basement and surprise her. I didn’t want to give her a heart attack, after all. (Jenny’s idea was for me to hide in the shower, but seriously?)

So that’s basically what I did. And she just stared at me. She didn’t scream, she just was stunned. It was perfect. 🙂 And then we drank lots of wine and ate fancy cheese and went to dinner at a French bistro where we drank more wine and ate rich, delicious food. My friend Chris met us out, which was nice. I hardly ever get to see him.

Saturday was mostly spent recovering from Friday night. We went and saw “This is the End”, which was hilarious. We went to IKEA! We chilled out and ate a yummy dinner that night at Kristina’s house. Sunday, we went swimming at her neighborhood pool, had lunch at my sister’s, and then it was home yesterday afternoon. A nice, chill weekend with friends and family. Can’t ask for much more! (Bonus: My nephew, who is 2.5, loved me! He wasn’t a huge fan at Christmas, so I was delighted that he didn’t run screaming from me this time.)

 

A bit more eventful than even I need…

Saturday started with a meeting at a restaurant about a local blog I’m going to be writing for. I had a post on it at the beginning of the month, and now I’m an official contributor. Exciting!

After I got home from that, I gathered up the boys and we took off for my mom’s house. They did a little fishing…

…a little Chuck E Cheesing with me and Grandee…

…and some Transformers-watching with Larry.

The next day, I got a call from George saying he hurt his ankle the night before. Uh oh. The picture he sent me didn’t look pretty, but I figured it was probably a sprain.

I went to Target to get an ankle brace for him, and remembered it was time for the massive toy sale. Only got one toy for an upcoming birthday party, but what a bargain!

However, by the time we got back home, his ankle had assumed extremely unnatural proportions. He was reluctant to get it checked out, based on his consultation with Dr. Google. But I pulled the wife card (especially after he noted the interesting “crunching feelings” it was creating when he put weight on it) and insisted we go to the ER.

Aunt Tee came and hung out with the boys while George and I went to the hospital. He got photographed

and then the verdict was in. A break. A pretty bad one, too. So it was wrapped up and he was handed some crutches. Good times.

Yesterday was a holiday for everyone, so while George hung out on the sofa or in his cave, I “supervised” while our friends Chris and Tony (nearly) finished off the bunk beds. I have to say, they’re truly impressive. And tall.

Meanwhile, the boys and Liam (Chris’s 8 year old son) played together, which was a really sweet sight. I’ve dreamed about Liam and the boys playing together ever since I was pregnant. It was pretty adorable.

After Chris and Tony left, I did a little painting. It’s going to take some maneuvering to get paint on the top bunk, but I’ll figure something out.

George has an appointment with an orthopedist today, either for a cast or something else. Please cross your fingers that he won’t need surgery!

(A few more random cute pics.)

I haven’t been able to post much because my camera cord is at home, so I can’t upload many pictures, blah blah blah. But we’re still here at my mom’s. I’m so very very grateful we are able to be here, but I think I speak for her and Larry when I say, we need our power back at home, stat. The boys are getting restless. I’m sure my mom wants her house back (my brother and niece were staying here for a week before we got here, so she and Larry haven’t been alone in their house for a long, long time.) and I just wanna go home. To my stinky house. Rain, humidity, and no power for this long takes its toll. Poor George has been there the whole time, pretty much. I think he stayed with friends for a night or two, just to get a decent night’s sleep.

School starts back up on Tuesday. Not sure what we’re going to do if the power isn’t back by then. I have to go back to work. The boys have to go to school. Ugh. Cross your fingers for us.

I shall leave you with some pictures from the other day. (from my iPad)

Miles:

Oliver:

Linus: