Thursday, January 05, 2012

DELAYED

Friday night before Christmas, Mom hosted our family plus my uncle, aunt and Anne Heaton for dinner. It was fun to be together and kickoff the holidays!

And after the extended family left, we opened our presents. I was super excited to receive a Kindle, two DVDs, a Cam Newton/Carolina Panthers T-shirt, and lots of other fun things, most of which belong in my kitchen: crock pot, bundt cake pan, gift cards, food processor... exciting stuff!
The real highlight of the evening came when Mom unwrapped her last present. Earlier this summer, while my sister was visiting, we went shopping and found this amazingly heinous denim outfit that kindasorta looked like something Mom would wear. It was $2, which we paid for in pocket change, once we were able to stop laughing enough to do math. She kept it at her house until Christmas, when she wrapped it up and we got Mom's boyfriend in on the joke. He usually buys her clothes for Christmas anyway, sometimes clothes she's already picked out. That's what she assumed this was: something she picked out or something he saw and thought she'd like. Au contraire:


Everyone spent the night at Mom's house, which was a nice touch. We woke up Christmas Eve morning and lulled around the house for a while before heading separate ways: Mom to Greenville and the rest of us to join our other side of the family.

We hung out with my other uncle, aunt, cousin, husband and their son Tristan before going to the Christmas Eve service at the church where I was raised. Guess who kept one-year-old Tristan in her lap most of the service? I am going to be such a good aunt next year when we have TWO little boys, full of energy, that need "help" keeping quiet during the service. We had a delicious Italian dinner afterward that my aunt so kindly prepared for us. We used to eat Italian food on holidays all the time, thanks to my Granny. So it was nice to feel like she was there and reminisce about holidays gone by. Once we were stuffed to the gills, I followed my sister and her husband back to their house where I spent the night.

Christmas morning, Jennie prepared a delicious Paula Deen praline french toast casserole that was DIVINE. We got ready and once again, went separate ways: them to Jamie's hometown, and me to lower Alabama to spend the day with Mom. We visited with all kinds of friends and family, including a stop by Mawmaw's nursing home, before dinner with our second family, which has become a tradition that I enjoy so much! After dinner and a game, I drove back to Alabama and was asleep as quickly as I could be.

The next two days were a blur of Kindle reading, TV watching and sleeping in. But I made up for it on Wednesday morning, when mommy-to-be and I hit the ground running to knock out errands for l'petit chéri. We did the same thing Thursday. I think we made 20 stops over the course of two days. Then, it was craft time. Drawer liners from wrapping paper, dressing up some lamp shades, dressing up some mats for his nursery artwork, and my personal favorite: two loads of tiny baby laundry. The only thing that smells sweeter than a baby is a fresh warm load of baby clothes right out of the dryer. We sorted, folded, and tucked them into the drawers. They're only missing one thing now... and he will be here soon!

I left Birmingham on Saturday afternoon. It was nice to have 3 hours in a car on the last day of the year to do some thinking about the year that was and the year that will be. I had fun at Mary Byrne's house, watching the end of the AU game and ringing in the new year with a big group of friends.

But, 2012 is already showing shades of 2011. My car was broken into again NYE. Luckily, I had unloaded ALL of my things from the trip home or something might have been taken. When will he/she learn I don't keep nice things in my car? And just when I think things are straightening out at work, another huge wrench is thrown into the works, leaving absolutely no free time for blogging...

Hope your holidays were terrific and your first week back in the grind has been half as stressful as you thought it would be.

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