Holiday recap and New Year's Eve

Wow, that was kind of a long break. Where does the time go? We are still sick, but hopefully on the mend...or at least in a holding pattern and not getting any worse. We felt crummy enough this morning to skip church and just putter around the house in pajamas (or "cha-meese" as Daughter calls them).

Anyway. I think I speak for many of us when I say: uuuuuuuuuugh. No more food. No more cookies. No more dressing up. No more viewings of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. No more gifts, even. It just gets to the point where you can't even remember who gave you what gift, and that's just ridiculous.

I feel really weird, like Christmas didn't even happen. Part of that is our total lack of snow this winter. Since that horrible storm in October I don't think we've had any accumulation to speak of. So it doesn't even feel like it was time for Christmas yet. And we're in this limbo where our old holiday traditions are fading away but new ones haven't been fully created yet, so, I don't know...the holiday season doesn't feel complete to me. I got as excited about it as I could for Daughter's sake, and she seemed to enjoy it once she got the idea.

I have lots I could say about how we present Christmas to our kids - really they know nothing of it and we kind of force it upon them from such a young age - but I don't feel like diving into that tonight. Suffice it to say Daughter had fun opening her gifts and she scored some great stuff. The best thing, though, was my youngest sister's gift to my child. She's a stinking brilliant artist and I asked her to paint a little wooden table for playing, tea parties, etc. I figured she'd slap a few flowers on it and call it good. This is what she made:



I know. Just LOOK at that. It's my favorite of all the gifts given and received this year. I think she should make these and sell them. She'd make a fortune. It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen! She does it all free-hand, and she started it on Saturday night (the 23rd) after driving around 10 hours to our parents' house. A-MA-ZING.

So Santa was good to all of us. Yes, I got my cedar chest. Hubby went and bought it anyway, and inside he stuck 2 gift cards to stores I like so I can do something about my pathetic wardrobe. 2 pregnancies and breastfeeding have left me a bit of a different size and shape than I was before, so I have little that fits and/or is in style. So he basically turned his Christmas bonus into gift cards to force me to shop for myself during the after-Christmas sales. Sa-weet!

The giving of gifts was super fun at my parents' house this year. Daughter stole the show, running back and forth from the tree to hand out the gifts to everyone.

So it was good.

PHOTO REMOVED...SORRY!

After Christmas we were slowed down a bit by a serious mucous attack. That's one of the only photos I have of Daughter without stuff running down from her poor little nose. (Side note: I am usually in favor of all businesses being closed on major holidays, but this year I was quite excited to find a Walgreens open on Christmas Day so we could get some Triaminic. We've been so fortunate with her health that we didn't even own any baby medicines besides Tylenol.)

So some of our plans were cancelled for the middle of the week, but we did family Christmas part 2 on Thursday, and then on Friday we drove 300 miles to have lunch at the Olive Garden. Seriously! My college roommate and best friend was home for the week on the opposite side of NY state, so we agreed to meet in the middle for lunch. My sister and my mom came along, and her mom came too. We haven't seen each other since my baby shower in March 2005, and I don't think I'd seen her mom since graduation in '98, so it was awesome to have this opportunity. The best part? We picked up right where we'd left off. She's that kind of friend, and I am so grateful to have her in my life. Who else would I drive 300 miles for? Not many people, I can tell you that. And she was psyched to meet Daughter, who was a squirmy bump in my belly last time she saw us.

PHOTO REMOVED...SORRY!

Then on Saturday night we had SABRES tickets - awesome! I was totally sick and hopped up on DayQuil but it turns out you can get hot tea at HSBC Arena, so it was a-ok. We had seats in the very top row of the arena. Holy moly. I almost puked the first time I looked down...it took me awhile to acclimate. But the Sabres won! And it was almost worth screaming woo-hoo for each of the 4 goals. I could sort of talk today. Sort of.

That's about it for the holidays this year. Today has been a putter-around-and-do-laundry type of day, and I'm just trying to get my family healthy again. We're having a quiet evening at home watching Ryan Seacrest and...Dick Clark? Is he there? Or is the show just named for him out of respect? I don't think we've seen him yet. Huh.

The sewing machine was stashed until the new year, so no sewing was done over the past couple of weeks. It will be fired up again soon, though, to start Daughter's summer wardrobe. I did do some knitting, but I don't have photos. Maybe tomorrow.

As for the new year...well, I have to say I mostly hated 2006. I'm sure you can understand that. But despite the difficulties my family and I faced, we still are so grateful for our many blessings. My one resolution for 2007 is simply to live better. Things fall apart, and things go back together. It's time to pull them back together. It may take kicking and clawing my way up, but I'll get back on top, from eating and sleeping better to being kinder to my friends and family to being financially more responsible to painting the beat-up walls of my house to restoring my physical and emotional health...so many things each and every day, but all one day at a time.

Happy New Year to you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you for seeing me through 2006, and I hope you will stay with me for 2007. God bless you. Be safe tonight. See you next year!