Voyages in Parenthood

I'm not on vacation (have to work!) but have sorta taken a vacation from blogging. Too darn tired! Christmas wore us out and now we prep for the big party tomorrow night. Will blog over the weekend...hopefully with video from Christmas morning! Happy New Year!

I'm sure my mother will agree, I'm probably the worst 'kid' when it comes to Christmas. I can't stand the waiting. It's different now, I'm all about the kid! And the husband. I'm excited I get presents too, but not like I was before I had a husband and kid. I get excited about buying their gifts and whether or not they are going to like it on Christmas. And right about now, I'M JUST READY FOR IT TO BE CHRISTMAS NOW!!!!! (Even though my husband already knows what one of his gifts is...I will not be letting Leda know what Daddy's gift is next year..."Hey Daddy, there's no (insert word of thing that is ACTUALLY IN THE BOX) in that present. Nope, not in that box there for you!" Thanks kid!) We are doing Christmas at home again this year. We'll head on over to Rachel's for dinner tomorrow night and we'll have Granddad and Fay over for dinner on Christmas day. Last year we tried Beef Wellington for Christmas dinner and I am so...

Well, this was a busy weekend. I get to relax (sorta) and it's late on a Sunday evening...not much relaxing going on here! We made cookies, decorated cookies, made more cookies, finished our shopping, wrapped the last of the gifts, cleaned house, decorated cookies, decorated the tree...had Granddad and Fay over for dinner and decorated cookies! Whewww! Lots of decorating going on! Oh, and we wished Aunt Aimee a very Happy Birthday! (well, at least Mama and Daddy did...Leda wasn't in the talking mood!) But we are now done. We can relax and enjoy the last three days before Christmas! Well, except for the planning and shopping for our Christmas dinner! ;-) Some scenes from our busy weekend before Christmas.... (clockwise from top: Snickerdoodles, Split Seconds (with added sprinkles per Leda), Gingerbread Men, and Chocolate Chip Cookies (with DARK chocolate chips! Yummmm!) New Penguin Ornament New Wine Glass Ornament Leda's 2008 Ornament Other New Penguin ornament! Not a very g...

Since I completely stopped doing the Friday Random 10, you get 20 this week...Also, not so random because I picked some of my favorite Christmas songs. And no Christmas Song list would be complete without Christmas Wrapping by the Waitresses or any Christmas song by BRRRRRUUUUUUCCCCCEEEEE! I do believe that Leda and I will be listening to this playlist tomorrow while we make Christmas Cookies! We are going to experiment and make Gingerbread cookies tomorrow! Yummmmm! Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town , Bruce Springsteen Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You , Billy Squier I Believe In Father Christmas , Emerson, Lake & Palmer The Little Drummer Boy , Harry Connick, Jr. Christmas Wrapping , Waitresses It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas , Harry Connick, Jr. Feliz Navidad , José Feliciano Rock & Roll Christmas , George Thorogood & The Destroyers Father Christmas , The Kinks Santa Claus And His Old Lady , Cheech & Chong Merry Christmas Baby , Bruce Springste...

Visiting Santa this year was a challenge! Last year, the kid went right up to Santa, climbed right on up on his lap and had a conversation with him while the adults (including her mother and father) stood around looking absolutely amazed that the child was not frightened of the man as every other child her age was! This year, after a false start (we attempted to visit on Monday night but the line was incredibly long and the kid hadn't had a nap all day!), we headed off for the mall again last night and after a quick dinner, got ourselves into line and only had to wait for about a half hour. Santa was on break but we only had to wait 15 minutes for him to return (apparently he was feeding the reindeer!) This may have been the start of the problem...Santa walked in and walked down the line of parents and children and said hello and shook hands with all the kids as he made his way to his seat. Leda grabbed her visual aid (a picture of the ONE toy she was going to ask Santa to bring he...

I think these are pretty self-explanatory... Leda Sings Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer Leda Sings Jingle Bells

I have a feeling this month's posts will not stray far from the Christmas Theme! Sorry! Just a few thoughts about Christmas...or the month of December.... 1. How come you can always find tape any other month of the year, but come December, when you REALLY need it, it is either completely gone, hidden, lost, etc? I always have to buy more! And then, somewhere around June, I will find a HUGE stash of tape, that I will put in a place that I THINK I will remember come time to wrap Christmas presents...you think I know where that place is??? NO!!! Unless it's Target where I will be headed tonight! 2. On the other hand, I have more wrapping paper than I know what to do with. I will not need to purchase wrapping paper at Target! Well, except for the roll that will be used to wrap Santa's presents to Leda because Santa can't POSSIBLY have the same wrapping paper as me! He doesn't shop at the same Target! 3. Each year gets harder and harder...the first couple of years of Led...

The ability to, come December, attempt to purchase EVERY SINGLE THING the child puts on her Christmas list. I've already purchased way too much from Daddy and Mommy and I haven't even attempted to figure out what she is going to ask Santa for! Since Brock is off to a automobile thingy show for the rest of the week, I was with the kid all day today. And since I was so fortunate to schedule a dr. appt on the same day he leaves, and it's not a day when she is at day care, I need to take her along with me! Lovely! (Just a note about my child - she is absolutely the most perfect child! She was the BEST kid today...she really helped me out. I am sure this means that by Friday, I will be wishing I had kept my mouth shut about how good she was today!) Anyway, she announces to the nurse at the drs office that Santa is going to bring her a Prince for her Cinderella, a horse and carriage for her Cinderella and lots of dresses for her. Well, this is news to me! And, the kid isn't t...

I know, I know, I've been very neglectful of my blog the past week....but after a full month of posting, it's hard not to take a week off! ;-) Besides, there's been plenty to do around here. Christmas is coming fast so we are in the midst of getting ready...finishing up the shopping, wrapping presents, getting ready to ship them off to various family members all over the country! Then there's the Christmas cards to prepare and send and the New Year's Eve invites to make and send out! Oh my, and the parties! We attended Miss Paige's 5th birthday party this past weekend (FIVE!!! How the heck did she get to be five already! And does that mean my baby is actually going to be FOUR in a few months?? My goodness!) This coming weekend is my company party in Atlantic City and Brock is off for Orlando for the four days preceding! Leda will spend the weekend with her girlfriends doing things 4 and 5 year old girls do when their parents are away (well, only Leda's paren...

For some reason, this past weekend, I really didn't feel much like blogging. Not much like elaborating upon what we did each day. I felt like relaxing and enjoying what we were doing (or not doing) and not worrying about blogging it. We had a great time. We really enjoyed ourselves this weekend. It was kinda nice to see lots of snow (probably six inches) and keep ourselves warm inside with family. It was nice to enjoy Grandpa and Nana Pam and Great-Nana Rose and Aunt Stacy and Uncle Todd and Uncle Dan and Aunt Maggie. Leda had a great time playing and showing off for the adults. She was the center of the universe this weekend and she pretty much knew it! She enjoyed it to the hilt. She dressed up in her Tinkerbell and Snow White outfits and pranced around on Thanksgiving. She had books for Grandpa to read to her. She played with all her toys. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner. Nana Pam made an awesome turkey and my pies didn't turn out too darn bad...Thanks to Mom for the grea...