Good-Bye December

I usually love December. Christmas is my favorite time of the year, even more so now that we have children. I love all our traditions, the lights, the songs, the anticipation. This year, I felt a bit off. I was just getting in the groove when the terrible tragedy occurred in Newtown. I couldn't think. Not for days. I couldn't process it. I'm not going to write about the tragedy because I still can't form all my thoughts. I don't have words for the pain and anguish those parents and families are going through, the trauma the survivors will face...it's too much. Many others have written more eloquently than I could. I tried keeping things normal for my kids (they still don't know, just that we've been praying for families in Connecticut who need our prayers), but I know they'll never be normal again.

We had a typical crazy, fun, busy Christmas season. We had another American Girl explosion and are capping off December with a short trip to our Property. I've already had to clean up squirrel poop from a squirrel who was apparently pooping his little pea brain out as he tried getting out of the cabin. I hate squirrels. On the upside, no mice. hooray. Sigh.

So, Good-bye December and take your pooping squirrels with you.


Monday Musings

As with most of our free weekends in the fall, my husband took our oldest daughter Em hunting this weekend. They've spent several weeks trying to get her first deer. They even went hunting on our Thanksgiving vacation to the Carolinas. They went out to our Property where she fittingly shot her first deer (strange that there is not a place in her baby book for first deer).

I now have a deer head in a cooler in my garage. Let me repeat that, I have a deer head in a cooler in my garage. I've come to terms that hunting is part of our family life, but let me state for the record that I am not OK with deer heads.

Apparently there will now be antlers in the decor of the girls' room.

We decorated for Christmas this weekend-which means I handle the inside and my husband handles the outside. I think he got the better end of the deal. We have A LOT of Christmas decorations. Which, as he puts it, may be sort of silly since "nobody sees the inside except us." LOTS of decorations. Getting them all out of storage (and a tree) totally counted for my weekend work-out. This is another reason to leave my Christmas decor up until Epiphany. It takes too long to put up, I don't want to take it down!

I am really proud that I've bought almost all our Christmas gifts this season. With one small caveat, I bought a couple of toys online on super duper sale and failed to note the dimensions. Those boxes are ginormous. Whoops. Shipping is going to be a pain. Our friends may just have to wait to get those gifts until we see them!

You know what is almost impossible to find? Cute, age appropriate holiday dresses for 8 year old girls. Holy shopping, batman. I have been to the ends of the Internet and back. Thankfully, my mom offered to buy the girls' dresses, so I leave it entirely up to her. (I wanted blue plaid dresses, which you can find very easily-for 5T and under!- Pffft).

I visited Emily in her newly done house this weekend. She joins the ranks of those friends I have whose houses should be in a magazine. Emily has serious decorating skills. Even her shelves are perfectly done. I noticed she missed one trend- no antlers or deer heads in her house! Or, maybe that's just my house...