...And To All, a Good Night

It is with some bitter-sweet relief that we come to the end of this memorable holiday season.  I can say that I have successfully survived two full weeks of hooplah, and  now I'm completely wiped out.  We have had so much to celebrate, so many people to gather with and parties to attend that we've been running like crazy.  The result is that my kitchen hasn't been totally clean for the entire duration of the holiday.  Finally today we had our last fling: our annual Saturday-after-Christmas Preslar Family Party.  (You can see the girls above sporting the jammies they received from wonderful Uncle Rick and Aunt Tonja.  Okay, they were offically from a couple of their cousins, but let's face it, we all know Tonja did the shopping! ) When we returned home around 2 pm I started cleaning the kitchen and didn't get all the way done until 9 pm this evening.  Of course there were many disturbances during that seven hour stretch: a brief sleddding trip in the back yard plus another meal to prepare set me back, but fianlly, finally, I have a clean kitchen.  Okay, it still needs a good mopping and scrub down.  But the dishes are all put away, which is more than I have been able to say for a fortnight.

Much has been going on - I'm going to attempt a holiday round up in a hopefully not momentously long post.

I don't think I even blogged about Christmas Morning.  Shame on me.  We had a lovely morning.  It started nice and early - the kids were up around 6:30, and it was so fun to bring them into the living room in the traditional way of the Romneys - lined up youngest to oldest, eyes closed, hands on the sibling in front of you, and marched in by your father.  Both of the big kids had something big to see when they opened their eyes.  Stomper got an easle to encourage his artistic efforts, and Bitty got a vanity table.  Now, Bitty has been mentioning a vanity for quite some time, and I've had my eye out for one.  Well, I'm sure I could have found one for $250 at Pottery Barn Kids or something, but I didn't even look.  And Toys R Us has a crappy plastic one with a Disney gal on it; no thanks.  So I asked Troy if it would be hard to throw together a table out of 2x4s and some plywood - he said it would be fine and probably not a big deal at all.  Uh, duh, I forgot that Troy doesn't ever go half way.  He built Bitty a really beautiful table, even if it is pine and plywood. It is awesome.  Poor Troy missed out on several festive outings because he was slaving away in the garage.  Good man.

Roller skates for Bitty, an Elmo for Bundle, and a variety of dragons for Stomper were also big hits:

Chirstmas day was wrapped up with a nice simple dinner with all the co-laws (that's how I refer to both sets of grandparents at the same time) over at our house, and after they left our little family hunkered down and watched Toy Story 3.  Bundle was kind enough to let me watch the whole thing, and of course I loved it.  Yes, I cried.

Let's get back to the subject of My Good Man. The other big event this week was that Troy and I celebrated our (get ready...) THIRTEENTH anniversary.   Of course, we share our anniversary with The Becky and her husband, and they got married a full five years before we did, so whever I start to feel a little weird about how time is careening along at breakneck speed, I can just remind myself that The Becky has been married for 18 years.  This makes 13 seem like not such a big deal.  Troy and I were lucky enough to have Bundle's favorite person on the planet vollunteer to babysit.  That would be my friend Adam Grundvig.  He brought along a friend and they kept my kids laughing and totally content for almost three hours while Troy and I visited a friend in from out of town and then waited a very long time for some very good food at The Bombay House. Usually we get in, get our food and get out all in about 20 mintues and then realize that we were so fixated on the deliciousness placed before us that we forgot to have a conversation.  Luckily the restaurant was totally packed and we had to wait for a table, wait for our waiter, and wait for our food.  Lots of waiting.  By the time the food came we had actually had a lot of very nice conversation.  I love my man, yes I do. 

Okay, enough.  I think the rest of the updates can wait another day!