Phew, we made it to 2014 and I have barely had the time to sit down and put together a post about all our holiday cheer! But here I am, better late than never (my blog motto)....
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| I come in peace. |
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| Going to pick out our Christmas tree! |
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| the only good shot I got of her at the Yacht Club kids Christmas party- funny face, holding a cheese stick. Appropriate. |
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| with Grammy at the Yacht Club Christmas party |
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| Enjoying a rare and wonderful warm day before the sickness and freezing temps hit! |
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| We finally put up the decal for Anna's wall that we've had for months. I absolutely love it! |
This year we decided to have a low key Christmas and celebrate with just our immediate families. Christmas Eve Doug, Anna and I went to my parents house and we had a
delicious meal, lots of talking and playing with Anna. For the first time all season she actually tried to open some presents under their tree, which she hadn't shown much interest in up until that point. She must have known Christmas was so close! I decided she was still a little young to understand the whole "leave cookies for Santa" thing so we bypassed that, read our Christmas stories before bed and got ready for Christmas morning!
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| Pay no attention to the fact that the tree desperately wants to fall to the right and is tied to our stair railing to prevent this from actually occurring. Looks great otherwise, right? |
She woke up around 7:30 or so and we came downstairs, telling her how Santa had come to see her and leave her presents for being a good girl this year. She was so cute, "oooh pretty tree!" and my absolute favorite "YAY SANTA PARTY!" - which is kind of smart, she understands presents go along with parties and knew this was something to do with Santa, hence Santa Party. It was so cute.
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| opening presents at her Santa party |
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| stocking gifts! |
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| more presents from everyone! |
We opened presents, hung out listening to Christmas music and my parents came down to celebrate some more. We had ceremonial Christmas morning sticky buns, mimosas and opened tons of great gifts. Anna had a blast. She loved each one so much she didn't want to move on to the next gift, another reason I am super glad I went small on my gifts this year. She's got a room full of toys she doesn't play with, why add to it unnecessarily??
She went down for her nap, we prepped "dinner" and Auntie Christina showed up with an enormous gift for Anna and then Doug's parents arrived as well! We weren't sure we were going to get to see them due to Brian's Christmas plans, but it ended up working out in the end! The 7.5 of us sat down for a huge and delicious Christmas meal and it was a really nice, special day. Although I have to say, by the end of the day I felt like it had flown by and I didn't even remember half of what happened! Presents were opened when I wasn't looking, things were flying left and right.... so I have to say to any/all that are reading who gave Anna a gift: Your gift is much appreciated and loved, you are the best and we are so thankful for you :)
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| sweet new Brooklyn sweatshirt from Auntie Christina |
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| Her festive Christmas attire - dress and pj pants. Whatever works! |
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| snuggling with Baba, watching movies to chill out. |
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| Auntie Christina's gift... an enormous dollhouse! Lucky Anna! |
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| The girls doing some present opening |
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| giving hugs goodbye |
The only hitch in the whole thing was just before Christmas Anna started coming down with a cold that I knew was coming (irresponsible parent at daycare, I'm looking at you). She was coughing, congested and overall just not herself. Not really how I envisioned this Christmas to be, especially since she "got it" a bit more, I thought she would have been beside herself with happiness. Instead she was more clingy than usual and whiny, and you could see in her eyes she just couldn't give 100%.
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Every year I try to capture this photo to see how she's grown.
This was the only attempt that I could kind of use. Sigh. |
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| This was from last Christmas (2012) |
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and THIS was from 2011. Try not to fall over.
(not the same jammies, but awfully close!) |
By the end of Christmas it was clear that Anna couldn't go to daycare on Thursday (Doug and I had work both days), but with my in-laws in town, it ended up working out great. They got special 1 on 1 time with Anna, she got to rest and recuperate at home. All in all, a win - if you have to have a sick kid on Christmas, that is.
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| putting the dollhouse to good use |
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| feeling better, and looking super cute |
And then, fun times - I, of course, caught Anna's cold. I felt it coming on at the end of the week and weekend and thought I was being paranoid. But nope, by Sunday morning it was full blown. I haven't had a cold like this in AGES. It really knocked me on my ass. Thankfully I had a couple of days of vacation time I was going to lose, so I took Monday & Tuesday off and sent Anna to daycare while I legitimately laid on the couch all day until it was pick up time. I napped, drank a lot of fluids, and did nothing else. For the first time in as long as I can remember, my only job or objective was to take care of myself and try to feel better, instead of letting the cold kick my butt for another week. But no matter, I thought I was shaking it, but a week later it had turned into a sinus infection. SWEET! So, onto a 10-day course of antibiotics and I am feeling like a new woman. Still waking up with sinus headaches but certainly
nothing like what I was experiencing a week ago!
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| we finally got her to wear her new purple Uggs and we went on an adventure to get out of the house!!! |
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| eh, that's okay Daddy, you go on in and let me know how it is. |
So needless to say, New Years Eve was spent at home on the couch. We made some food, watched TV and I ended up falling asleep just before midnight. Shocked I made it that far!
Soon after that we had a "polar vortex", basically just ridiculously cold and miserable weather. For a few days on the way to work it was 3 degrees. Then a balmy 10. I could never, ever live in a climate that cold and glad this kind of weather only comes in spurts.
Due to battling colds for close to 2 weeks, we really didn't do too much over the holidays otherwise. The weather is crappy (either freezing or raining....or snowing!!) and it's so much nicer to stay home! We did finally get together with Mike, Christin, Sonja and baby John (who is SO not a baby anymore, but since he's the youngest, he gets to be the baby! Anna has currently graduated to "big girl Anna" in Sonja's eyes) We spent the afternoon at their house, chatting and defusing toddler fights (although not as many as I would have thought, being that Anna didn't have a nap that day and that always leads to disaster...) I wish we weren't all so busy and could get together more! I say we try to make it a 2014 goal :)
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| the 3 amigos. This will be trouble soon enough. |
In other news.... Doug quit his job!
...........Yep, and started a new one! (PHEW)
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| YEAH DADDY! |
He always kind of knew that working in the city was never going to be 100% doable for him long-term. The commute was a killer and while he loved what he did, it just got to be too much. A friend of his from back when he worked at Fort Monmouth had started his own company a few years back and had been lobbying to get Doug on his team for a few months. They started more seriously discussing it recently and decided they would aim for the beginning of the year. And then, just like that -the timing was right and Doug gave his notice for his last day to be January 3, starting the new job January 6! And the best part is... he's right here in Red Bank, 5 minutes from home!!! We're so happy for his big change and all the wonderful things he has ahead of him!!!
We made some great updates to the house this weekend, little things that had been driving us crazy till we could figure out the right solution to the issue. First was a frosted 'film' for the sidelights in our front door. We love it. It's the perfect combo of privacy and ability to see outside. My mom also made curtains for the big kitchen window that had been plaguing us since August. I had no idea what to do, but finally found a solution (cafe curtains with tension rods) and we took 1 curtain and turned it into 3. When I say "we", I mean I encouraged her and told her how awesome she was while she worked.
SO HAPPY!
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| the new look of our front door (on both sides) |
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| don't mind the junk, I need to figure out where it should go. It's a real life shot. |
Oh and we also got a carpet for Anna's room - I was originally going to do wall to wall, but it was more money and we didn't think it was 100% necessary. So I went back to the carpet store and got a big bound piece of carpet that essentially fills her entire room. We'll have to do a little maneuvering with her closet door and possibly her main door, but for now it is perfect. Soft, neutral and covers up the awful, ruined floor beneath. Love it! She was so excited yesterday she bounced around the room rolling on the carpet, taking fake naps on it, laughing, having a blast. Super cute.
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| just taking a bear bum fake nap break with Daddy |
So this is our story, and we're sticking to it. Have our first wedding of 2014 coming up this weekend in Rhinebeck, NY to start the epic 7 weddings we've got going on this year.... wow. So happy to celebrate with everyone this year including my cousin Kirsten in April and Brian and Kelly in July! Gonna be a year for the books, that's for sure! :)
