I do love Valentine’s Day although now that I’m a married it doesn’t hold near the pressure, in my mind, as it did before. I don’t even care if we do anything on V-Day itself; there are so many crowds to fight that it gets a little out of control. I’d rather celebrate with my husband when it’s less crowded and crazy. This year, we’ll be in Florida for Simon’s conference, so I imagine the majority of the celebrating we’ll do will be minimal.
One of the recurring themes at AltSummit was “stop thinking about it & just do it already.” Because frankly, if you don’t do it, then who will?
And as silly as it sounds, the first thing that came to mind was the idea I’d been tossing around in my head to throw a fancy party. A deck-out-to-the-nines dress-up party. You know the kind – odds are you’ve thought about it, too! Bust out the sequins & glitter, put on those shoes you never have an occasion to wear them to. Heck, even put on that heinous old bridesmaid dress (appropriate since Bridesmaids was nominated!) and let’s give our acceptance speeches as we check out all the fab fashion and toast to the winners. And Oscar night seems the perfect time to do it.
So mark your calendars & save the date for February 26th, OKC peeps. If you’re not local, why not consider throwing your own? We can have a fantabulous Twitter party along the way!
I wrote this post a couple of nights ago, and I hesitate to post it because I try to keep it light & cheery here, but then I realized that it will be good to remember in years to come. So here it is -
It’s Christmas Eve and I’m sitting in the living room near the Christmas tree, and I’m noticing that there’s an entire section of the tree that is no longer lit. Excellent. Pre-lit trees for the win, right? Right.
That about sums up the past 24 hours. There’s something about Christmas that begs for repetition. Sameness. Tradition. Nothing amiss. Everything should be perfect. Just as it always is. And yet life most certainly is never the same, is it? It’s been a tough 24 hours for my side of the family, and it only seems to be worse because it’s Christmas.
My poor mom. She has had the lion’s share of hardship the past six months. You may have read previously how she suffers from vasculitis, a rare autoimmune disorder that affects small veins and capillaries. It’s a chronic thing that flares up and she’s been trying to recover from a flare since June. Then seemingly everything has gone to pot the last few weeks as she also struggled to recover from falling down some stairs (never good) and then on top of it all? She got shingles. Painful, debilitating shingles.
Our family celebrates Christmas a couple of days earlier so that way we don’t have to be rushed and can truly enjoy each other. So it was quite distressing when my sister texted on Friday to say that they were headed to the ER because Mom’s pain was so severe that they didn’t know what to do. Plus, she was really disoriented and pretty confused, which is super scary. The ER kept her for awhile and gave her pain meds, but ended up sending her home, much to our surprise. She was definitely not ok. The meds made her loopy and so out of it. I don’t even know if she recognized us. So there we all were, quietly creeping into her room to sit with her, and I’m not gonna lie – it was terrible. Scary. You just don’t ever want to see your momma like that. It is a peculiar kind of agony to watch your loved ones suffer. I’m watching her suffer. I’m watching Dad suffer because Mom is suffering. And we’re all suffering because we just want her to be ok. We want EVERYTHING to be OK. To be normal. To be as it should, especially on Christmas.
On Christmas Eve morning, after another terrible night, my poor exhausted Dad decided to take Mom back to the ER as she was clearly not ok. We all sighed with some relief. But then, there we were. All of us together, but not really all of us. We ate a sad lunch that Dad has gotten for us and there was a heaviness in the room that was palpable.
But despite all this longing for my Mom, I found there to be a great solace in two things. One: even though things feel out of control and like we don’t know what to do, God does know what to do. He knows what’s happening and He is still in control. Two: when I want my Mom the most, it comforts me to know that I’m now somebody’s mom. Jude needs me just like I still sometimes need my mom. Holding my baby boy and loving on him just like my Mom would do makes me feel close to her.
Update: Mom came home from the hospital on Christmas Day and now we’re working on keeping her comfortable and pain-free, or at least pain-minimized. We spent Christmas Day with Simon’s side of the family and now on Monday we’re headed back out to Mom & Dad’s to help out. Thanks to all who have offered prayers on Mom’s behalf! Ok, a few photos from Friday and Saturday –
The number 1 thing Jude asked for for Christmas? A Flynn Rider doll – he’s the hero in Tangled and Jude thinks he’s the bomb. Does anybody say The Bomb anymore?
Speaking of Tangled and Rapunzel, my niece has such gorgeous long hair.
One of my nephews got a bird for his birthday this year and they’ve named him/her Rooster.
Pompoms make the best snowballs! Even black ones. 
The best thing about holidays when we all get to stay together is when the cousins get to be snuggled up on the air mattress in the living room.
I entitled this photo “FAME! I’M GONNA LIVE FOREVERRRRR!”
This was the yummiest chocolate cake I’ve had in ages.
Well, we made it! Hooray for Christmas. I hope you’re snuggled up with your families and staying warm, wherever you are.
The presents are all wrapped and cookies are baked. Can’t wait to let Jude rip into his presents as we celebrate Jesus’ birth.
Much love to each & every one of you!
Are you relishing in the season or are you overwhelmed by the busyness? I find myself swept in the tide of the latter, but I’m making an attempt to enjoy each day as it comes. Isn’t it funny, though, how we can set ourselves up for failure by expecting perfection? There’s so much pressure, I think, in making memories, especially at big events such as holidays or birthdays.
Take my little advent calendar, for example. I keep thinking, “Oh, how marvelous it will be when we participate in whatever day’s awesome activity together! The memories! He’ll remember it foreverrrrrrr.”
Well, let me just say that I hope he doesn’t remember a couple of them forever because they’ve been complete & utter motherhood failures on my part. Day no. 10 for example. We planned on baking cookies and decorating our IKEA gingerbread house but as it turned out that day, we spent the entire day at my sister’s house helping her stage it as they were listing it on the market w/ Simon this week. Jude had no nap and passed out in the car the second we left at 6:30pm. So when we got home, I thought I’d just put him to bed and call it a day. UM, NO. Cue the sleepyhead epic meltdown as he realized where we were headed halfway up the stairs (TO BED!). Me, not wanting to break a promise, said rather shortly, “Fine. Which one do you want to do? Gingerbread house or cookies?” He woefully muttered through the tears, “Gingerbwead house.”
So I got out all the trimmings and set them up on the island in the kitchen. I was exhausted but had to make cookies later that night anyway for a cookie swap I was participating in the next day. As I turned around, I saw Jude dump out half the container of sprinkles all over the floor. Then as we tried to put together the gingerbread house, it kept breaking & crumbling. It was the biggest disaster.
Just as I tried to attach the roof, one of the two pieces slid off the top and right onto the floor (frosting side down OF. COURSE.) and promptly crumbled into 1000 pieces. Jude’s sobbing, I’m nearly sobbing, then I yelled for him to go upstairs and get ready for bed. MOTHER OF THE YEAR RIGHT HERE.
AND. AND! As he’s sobbing heading upstairs while I’m cleaning up the frosting lard mess up off the floor, I hear a huge thump and wailing. HE FELL DOWN THE STAIRS. I flipped out and ran to him and made sure he was ok (which he was). It was not the proudest moment of my life, that’s to say the least. It was an early bedtime for both of us.
Oh, and the gingerbread house? More like a gingerbread shanty. Or lean-to. Take your pick. See how I tried to strengthen it with ‘Nilla Wafers? Yeah, not so much.
Well, live and learn, no? This week has been a flurry of work activity as I pressed through to meet my Etsy shop deadlines, which was insane. People were buying like crazy, and that is awesome, but I’m not gonna lie – it brings its own fair share of stress, too.
Have you met TomSam? That’s our Elf. He’s a busy little booger. One of my favorite things this year is seeing all my friends on Facebook as they show the creative ways they’re using their Elf on the Shelf. This was TomSam the other day – he got really busy wrapping presents & tying bows on all the packages.
Tangent: Do you like Brussels Sprouts? I think they’re my most favorite vegetable of all time. I simply adore them.
I can’t get enough of this kid. I hope he knows how much I adore him. I just want to bottle his sweetness up. Today he told me, “Mom, we’re gonna have to move the TV out of the fireplace so Santa can get down the chimney. Oh, and I don’t want him to see all the presents that are already under the tree.” Hahaha
Did I tell you that I got bangs? Yup. Lovin’ ‘em, too!
Speaking of beauty issues, I love how red lipstick dresses up even the most basic look. It really is the perfect accessory.
Wow, ok – completely random post, but sometimes those are the most fun. Certainly the most authentic, huh?
Gearing up for Alt Summit – only 35 more days, y’all!
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