Thursday, January 5, 2012

Resolution-ary


  Well its that time of year again. The time of year that finds dumpsters filled with dry, prickly christmas trees, which, lets face it, are nothing short of depressing! I always find myself a little sad in the after christmas lull, wishing that the weeks between thanksgiving and christmas could have stretched out MUCH longer than they did. The weeks where it didn't feel blasphemous to watch "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "The Muppet Christmas Carol", and the anticipation of the day that can turn even the most level headed of adults (Me) into a ridiculous, grinning, joy-filled, goofball.
 BUT such is life. I have learned over the years to be zen-like and accept, and move past the 'post christmas blues' so it doesn't evolve into 'post christmas depression'  which has symptoms like; 
  • Sitting on the floor, sobbing irrationally, in front of the christmas tree next to the storage tubs that have been pulled out to put the ornaments away.
  • Becoming nearly catatonic at the mere thought that it will be a full ELEVEN months before you can watch 'a Charlie Brown Christmas'
  • Sneaking around for a few days with Mannheim Steamroller on your iPod.
I have been pretty strong this year.....you know.....for the kids.

Now we have reached the time of year where people feel obligated to make lists of things they probably wont stick with for more than one month fully intend to accomplish in the "new year".
 Now I have been known to make my own little list of "resolutions" and "resolve" myself to do things that  could potentially make me a better person.....or whatever. 
I mean, okay, I KIND OF made an unofficial list, in my head, of things I would like to try to do this year, like, NOT dying on Dec. 21st when the Mayan Calendar ends, and trying out more of the cool stuff I have pinned on pinterest like this!

I totally made this, and I know what you are all thinking about it,
and yes, it is EXACTLY as amazing as it looks!
 Cheesecake, and Chocolate Mousse, topped with Chocolate Ganache
......I had to share it with people so I didn't eat it all myself!
As important as 'New Year's Resolutions' are in January, they seem to dwindle with importance as the year progresses, so that by December, the current year's resolutions are nearly meaningless and NEW, New Years resolutions are already being formed for the next year! Its a vicious cycle!
So I am NOT going to try and write some meaningful blog post filled with bold declarations of "What I will do to make myself  better in 2012" and instead talk about what I DID to make myself better in 2011! (whether or not those things were as effective as I like to think they were...)

In 2011 I :

  1.  Successfully adjusted to being a mother of TWO small children! (no small feat ifyaknowwhatImean) 
  2. Broke my addiction to Oreo Fudgees. (And not a moment too soon, they were discontinued by those cruel, cruel people at Nabisco!)  
  3. Successfully moved to Houston, from Trinity (WITH two small children) and acclimated to living in an area that does not feel like 'Lonesome Dove'.
  4. Started a workout regimen that I actually enjoy, and have been able to maintain for more than two consecutive days! This is the one that I am actually pretty proud of. I am pretty sure that almost everyone sets out to 'lose weight' in the new year. Last year I actually did it! I think it just finally clicked that I DIDN'T want to be the generic, amorphous young(ish), mommy with non-existent self-worth.  (Also, when I quit my job in February, I started going stir-crazy being with my kids so much, so going for a daily run became the saving grace of my sanity)                          
(insert lame Jenny Craig/weight watchers joke here)

 I will keep running this year, mostly because, believe it or not I really do enjoy it. It IS nice to see SOME visible incentive to keep it up though.
   Happy New Year everybody! 
And may the Oreo Fudgees in life, be easy to resist!


Sunday, January 1, 2012

christmas! Christmas!! CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas for my family is more than "just Christmas". It is an event of epic proportions! Proportions SO epic, that...that, well they were just really epic, okay?
    Rob's parents are divorced and both have since remarried, so we had to figure out how to juggle christmas early. Since they all live within a few hours of each other we decided to fit all of our families into christmas (But ONLY because we wanted to make it as stressful fun for ourselves as humanly possible!)
  We begin our Christmas tradition on Christmas eve, at my mom and dad's house in Trinity (25 miles northeast of scenic Huntsville TX. Housing nine prisons and the famous "Wall's" unit which houses the death row inmates!) We spend Christmas eve eating Mom's famous baked potato soup and watch "Scrooge". Then we all go to bed (Except for mom and me who usually stay up wrapping the last of the presents and "assisting Santa Claus" with such things as stockings and such.
  The next morning we wake up and bask in the cornucopia of presents under the tree. This year, since christmas fell on a sunday, we all got a quick look at the tree and the kids opened their stockings and then we promptly got ready for church. We would have done really well and been on time too, if Andy hadn't stepped in dog poop as we were going to get in the car!
   We came back from church and got right to the presents at my parents house. It was (very typically) chaotically, fantastic! After my parents living room was sufficiently filled with unwrapped presents and paper and boxes. We packed up our stuff got into our car and drove the approximately 90 miles to Huffman, where my mother in law lives in her ENORMOUS house.
  We ate, and mingled with the extended family on THAT side before we all sat down to open even MORE presents! I was very happy that the adults (finally) decided to draw names this year. So each adult only got one gift apiece. This may not sound like such a good thing, but we ended up literally FILLING our car with the random things we would get, and quite frankly, it always ended up being too much STUFF!
  My kids however CLEANED up with presents, INCLUDING a nintendo wii for my 3 year old son! (so basically.....I GOT A WII!!!!!!! Which I promptly went out and bought Zelda Skyward Sword for!)
After the second round of present madness, we finally loaded up AGAIN, and went home. We typically would have stopped at Robs dad's house to visit with him and his little family, but he was tired, and so were we so we just went home and went to bed. It was a long, and tiring day, full of presents and food and LOTS of driving.

.....After putting all the new presents away, I collapsed onto my bed.

A Party To (She Probably won't) Remember!

 My baby girl turned one year old a couple of weeks ago, and we had a party for her! Because she was ONLY turning one, the party was more for me than anything else, so I made cupcakes. Not just ANY cupcakes RAINBOW cupcakes! I wanted to join the hordes of crafty mommies on pinterest and facebook who do all the clever little things and then post pictures, of the process and the finished product and everybody posts praising comments and all that jazz.

I made a white cake mix and separated it into six bowls
and mixed food coloring into each.

Then I started layering each color in
the cupcake pan.

This is what they looked like when baked. 



Perfect for my little one year old!


Voila! Rainbow cupcakes!
It was a little labor intensive, and kept me up pretty late the night before, but hey, it was for my little girl so, ya know, it was worth the effort.
  The next day I got my house all pretty and we had ourselves a little party!
Looking like a party now!

Getting ready to open presents!
Good big brother, helped open!
More presents...
And more...
PRESENTS!!

DRUNK....with the joy of new presents!

Girly stuff, and tutu's, and baby dolls OH MY!
Time to blow out the candle!



She was a fan of my rainbow cake!

She seemed to go into a "zen-like" trance as a result of the rainbow cupcake, but then, who wouldn't?