Post Holiday Hurrah!!

Normally folks talk about the post holiday blues.......not me, not this year. I am so glad they are over. Not that I didn't have a good time, I just wasn't really in the mood for it this year. I've got the gettin' through the day blues, why would I want to subject myself to a big forced happiness time that although can be a lot of fun, usually just ends up costing me more money than I intended to spend? Anyways.......the recap......

thursday 12.20.07: My Grammie arrives from Montana. Thank god she was flying into Salem directly, a snow storm delayed her in SLC so she arrived very late. But safe and she and my mom slept very soundly that night.

A note about my Grammie - she is great and I love her dearly. She is also 87 and deaf with hearing aids that only seem to work when you say something you actually don't want her to hear. She also talks a lot, and I mean a lot and has very strong opinions which take an act of god and the republican party to change......so you see that although I enjoy my time with her, I am also exhausted by the time I leave her.

saturday 12.22.07: Tree Trimming Party at Christina's........so, I made several mistakes the night of this party.......#1: I started with a glass of wine.....then moved onto the rum drinks....oops #2: I let Carter mix my drinks. To be fair this wasn't really a mistake as Carter makes very good drinks, the mistake was not really thinking about the fact that it was Carter mixing, and that his drinks are maybe 2 to 3x's stronger than normal drinks. Mistake #3: Drinking said carter rum & cokes way too fast. I had three. And I was feeling good. But then.....I wasn't. I did end up giving back...which I did very quietly and politely apparently and then went to bed. I woke up for the first time in my life with a hangover. Now I know I am old. Normally I either don't drink enough to get a hangover, or I give back enough to not have a hangover. Not so lucky this time. the bright side though was that I was in no way the drunkest person there. C's brother in law was wayyyyyy more trashed than I and everyone remembers him as the party drunk and not me. The party was a good one though with fabulous food (I missed the ravioli though....sad) and fun ornament making activities and a not so traditional and annoying gift exchange. What did I get in the exchange you ask? Alcohol of course.

sunday 12.23.07: Mostly a nice quiet day at home....only holiday activity being the visit of the father in law with Mitch's two younger half sisters. I like Mitch's family, and I really like Allie and Charlotte, but I don't get to see them much and don't really know them very well these days. Allie is turning 16 this year, and she has gone from somewhat snotty tween to a rather pleasant and very adorable teenager. Charlotte is now in that tween stage - she is still sweet as she has always been, but is slightly more demanding and unfathomable as girls that age are. With them came their mom - who is my father in laws wife, maybe. We aren't quite sure - they have been separated for a long time and live in different houses, but seem to spend a lot of time together. It is all rather confusing. The verdict is also out on whether we like her or not. At times she is great and we have no problem chatting and getting along, she is charmed by Miles so she has some taste at least. But other times she has been that annoying stepmom too. Other than making the stepmother tear up when I talked about my oldest bro-in-laws wife leaving and how it really is a good thing, I think the visit went well.

12.24.07: Christmas Eve. Traditional brunch at McGrath's with my mom and Grammie. The food as always was very very good and we had a great server. Afterwards Mitch and I did some last minute shopping and spent most of the day at home. Miles took a very long and much needed nap. After he woke up we decided to go to the carousel and called the mother in law to see if she wanted to join us. She got there first and they were closed (the bastards). We had checked the website and nothing indicated a closure - but a sign on the door stated an early closing for the holiday. We were bummed. Did take a walk through the park and look at the Willamette Queen (not the drag kind, a big paddle boat) before heading to a store to look for gloves for Miles. When we got home we loaded up the wagon with a well bundled toddler and took a walk in the neighborhood to look at lights. That was a nice way to spend our evening and I hope we always live in a neighborhood where that is possible.

12.25.07: CHRISTMAS!! Miles made out like a bandit this year. His favorites are his "Cars" toys and his trains. We opened most of the tree presents and then headed over to Grandma's where luckily we didn't have a ton more to open but just got to eat some good food and spend some family time. This is the first Christmas without the evil sister in law and both tyler and Toby seemed to do pretty well. It was much more relaxed and we were able to be somewhat chaotic and just relax. ( I will explain more about her in another post, she isn't really evil, but I am not very happy with her...)

Home for a nap and then off to my mom's house for more presents and dinner. Miles really got it good here - his favorite is his Lighting McQueen shirt that lights up when he moves. He also got a great little rocking chair and some more buildings for his train set. Dinner was mexican and we not only ate too much but had my mom's fabulous margaritas. This is a weird recipe so I have to put it in....1 can frozen limeade concentrate, then fill can with tequila, and another time with beer. Light cheap beer usually works best. Basically equal parts of all three into a blender with some ice and there you go.....they are incredibly delicious.

12.26.07: The day after. Mitch took Miles to the mountain with Christina and some other friends to sled while I went shopping with my Mom and Grammie. We all came home exhausted, but we all had a good day I think. Grammie likes to buy christmas presents in the sales so we always go shopping. She got Mitch and I a new food processor which we are very excited about since I broke out last one.

12.27.07: Not much on this day except going to see "P.S. I love you" with mom and grammie. Saddest Movie Ever!! well done, but sad. I cried through pretty much the whole thing. The ads talk about how funny it is and what a great date movie, etc...but even though I did laugh at times, I cried more. Basically the main character loses her husband to a brain tumor in the first ten minutes and it goes from there. It had to be a brain tumor didn't it? Sheesh

12.28.07: Grammie left bright and early. I think my mom slept in the blissful quiet of her apartment for the rest of the day. I can't really remember what we did....oh yeah. Mitch spent the night before in Vancouver with Carter and I basically took Miles to daycare and then goofed off all day. I did start to slog through the disaster that was our house though, that was good. Oh, and I dyed my hair. Egyptian Plum...not as dramatic as it sounds, but I like it.

12.29.07 to 12.30.07: Quiet and lazy. Just the way I like it. Our big outing was to take Miles to the newish indoor playground. He was timid at first and then discovered the huge sandbox and had a lot of fun. We will definitely take him there again. I really want to take both he and Loki so that Loki will be the fearless leader that he is and get Miles to try out the bounce house. Although then we might never get them out again......Mom in law came over in the evening with Toby so that the boys could play. One word: Wii

12.31.07: We took Miles to his Grandmas where his cousin Toby also was, Loki to join them later. The crazy woman that she is offered to keep all three boys while we had a party at Tyler's place. Mitch and I went to Portland early so we could head to the mall and shop the Fredericks sale, I got the coolest corset for 50% off. Its blue and is fairly simple with the eyelets up the front and the lacing in the back. I love it. The coolest part is that in a corset all that extra fat can be arranged pretty much however you like and I can look like I have much bigger boobs than I actually do. The party was awesome. I chose to not drink this time and I remember it all that much more clearly. We basically just had tons of food and hung out and talked and played games and all that. Our friend Charles was injured (a ski lift bit him) so Christina led the girls in a round of body shots to entertain him. Carter got a great picture of Christina taking a lime from my mouth, if he ever chooses to sell it he said he would give us the cash :0) Around 1am Mitch and I drove home to Salem - there was surprisingly little traffic and we slept soundly in our own bed with no toddler to wake us.

01.01.08: New Years Day. Getting tired of reading yet? I am posting all this mainly so that I will have a record of the holidays, otherwise I will forget it all.

New years day is traditionally spent at the O'Mara's - the parents of our friend Heather. A very laid back gathering with homemade meatballs and the closest of our group of college friends. This ear was the first time that we had all three little boys there. Grayson, Loki and Miles are so close in age, its fun to have them all so close to each other. Unfortunately though Miles wasn't feeling well. We thought he was just tired but by late afternoon he was feeling feverish. We took him home early and not only did he spike a temp of 103.5 that night but also had a bit of a vomiting spell. Poor little guy.

That basically brings us to today. Kept Miles home yesterday since he still had a fever. He just woke up this morning and is fine, so I will be taking him to daycare...yay!!! Mommy needs a break.