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| First picture with my brand new camera! |
I feel sort of like the reality of everyday life has been suspended in a holiday fog. The last couple weeks have been...hectic, fun, busy, messy. I've been lagging in lots of responsibilities, including (but not limited to): cleaning my house, feeding my children healthy foods, grocery shopping, exercising, blogging, and thinking about my all important New Year's resolutions.
What I have been doing...playing new games and puzzles with my kids, testing out our new Kinect, spending time with family, eating Christmas cookies, scheduling tons of doctor appointments for the month of January, and booking our first family trip of the year.
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| I heart Lucy's new waitress outfit. |
I am so happy to report that Santa delivered and I got a new camera for Christmas. I'm still trying to figure it out, but I'm looking forward to much improved photos in 2012. I also got a tripod, so I'll definitely be playing around with that too. I feel relief washing over me. Seriously. That little pink camera of mine stressed me out in 2011.
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| Well at least they're all in the frame. |
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| Enjoying dessert atop the Renaissance Center |
My kids got some games for Christmas that were childhood favorites of mine. I have been enjoying Scrabble, Battleship, Mastermind, and Sorry with them. My wimpy husband has so far refused my Battleship challenges. I can only assume he knows he will get his butt whipped. I also love our new Kinect, although I will admit it is a bit frustrating and finicky at times. However, it gets me moving way more than the Wii, so I plan on using it often. My friend Tina is going to loan me her copy of Zumba for Kinect, and if it works in my little bitty family room, I will be buying it and practicing lots so maybe I don't look like such an uncoordinated fool next time I go to a real world Zumba class. I got a Kindle too, and I've downloaded a bunch of free titles but other than that haven't played with it much. I just finished reading
The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide, which I've been reading for an embarrassingly long time (Tina, if you're reading this, I'll return your precious tome when I pick up Zumba! Thank you for your patience!). So now I'll feel less guilty starting new books on my Kindle.
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| Watch out Bethany, someone has an eye on your cheesecake! |
I am also the proud new owner of a pair of those toning tennis shoes. I want to put a lot of miles on them this year. Like
a lot. For this I'm going to enlist the help of my friends, because I've come to a point where I find it mind numbingly dull to go walking by myself. Maybe if I lived someplace a little more exciting, I wouldn't mind it so much. But there is really no people watching to be done in my neighborhood, except for the occasional person tinkering in the garage this time of year. But walking with friends is great because it kills two birds with one stone: catching up/socializing and exercise. I live within three miles of a really great walking/biking path, and within a mile of a lakefront park with a walking path, so if I keep my priorities in order this shouldn't be too much of a challenge.
I'm pretty sure all the kids had a pretty awesome Christmas, but for Bethany it was particularly exciting. After begging for a cell phone for years, she finally got one. Chris and I grappled with this decision for a long time, but finally decided to
give in allow her to have one, mostly for our own peace of mind when she is away from home. It's odd remembering life when it wasn't vital to be 100% available 24 hours a day. I mean, if my mom left me at home and went grocery shopping and I had to, I don't know, ask her if she knew where the remote was last seen or something equally as important, I guess I would have had to either #1, have her paged at the grocery store, #2, delay my gratification for an hour, or #3, find the damn thing myself. But seriously, if Bethany can prove to be responsible with her phone, keep it charged, keep it turned on, and answer it every time we call, I think we'll all feel better when she's away from home, be it at basketball practice or a friend's house. My brother-in-law also surprised the heck out of Bethany by telling her that his Christmas gift to her is a plane ticket to Florida to visit him (we still have to finalize the date) and her choice of two parks (did I mention he lives in Orlando?). That pretty much rendered her speechless, and she has been busily perusing theme park websites trying to come to her final decision.
We had dinner at Coach Insignia, at the top of the Renaissance Center downtown Detroit. It's a really nice restaurant, and we saw only one other child when we were there, and that child was actually a sleeping infant in a bucket. But brave people that we are, we brought our kids along. Our philosophy has pretty much always been that our kids will never to learn to behave in restaurants if we don't take them to restaurants, and I would say that with the very big exception of Mathilda, our little gang did a great job of using their fancy restaurant manners. Mathilda had a grand ol' time, so what if she spent about 10% of the 3 hours we were there in her seat and refused to eat a single bite of her dinner? She dug into the bread basket, appetizers, and dessert, and asked to use the potty two times. And she didn't cry once. I'd call that a successful dinner.
Chris's brother was here for a few days. He went to dinner with us at Coach Insignia, along with Chris's mom and step-dad. He and my mother-in-law took the kids to see the new Chipmunks movie. My mother-in-law and her husband also hosted a big holiday party while he was home, and we got to see lots of Chris's family who we don't get to see very often. And we spent New Year's Eve together too, along with my mother-in-law and her husband, and Chris's aunt & uncle who are staying with the in-laws for a few days. Since the kids don't get to see Uncle Robby very often, it was cool that they were able to spend so much time with him during the holidays.
New Year's Eve was low key. We had a wonderful meal together, played some games and watched the Times Square festivities on television. I was shocked that all four kids managed to stay up until midnight. I think that may be a first. Bethany, Connor, and Lucy chose to stay at Meema's house for the night, and Mathilda decided to come home with Chris and I. Although we had a good time, this year I vow to not be sitting in front of a television on New Year's Eve. PERIOD. New Year's Day started with a phone call that Connor had thrown up. Happy 2012! We went to pick the kids up and so far it seems to have been a one time occurrence, with no siblings doing any copy-cat puking. Fingers crossed. The rest of the day has been more or less lazy. Like really lazy. The kids
have two more days off and we plan on utilizing our child laborers to the max during that time. Some school districts around here have the entire week off, and I wish we did too. Our district is being inexplicably stingy with vacation days this year. Short Christmas break, short Spring break, and no mid-winter break. Phooey.
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| Cousins |
We got to spend a little time with friends as we celebrated the 7th birthday of a sweet little girl. Other than that all of us have been on friend hiatus for the past couple weeks, even Bethany - which is really unusual. Although I'm sure she is texting them nonstop. I look forward to spending lots of time with my friends this year.
With Mattie deciding it was time to be potty trained, and Lucy's first two visits from the tooth fairy, it's been a pretty exciting end of the year. I'm putting some real though into my resolutions and will dedicate a post to that subject within the next day or so.
Happy New Year! I wish you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2012!
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| Lucy and Connor with their cousin |
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| Demonstrating her blow drying techniques |
I'm pretty sure all the kids had a pretty awesome Christmas, but for Bethany it was particularly exciting. After begging for a cell phone for years, she finally got one. Chris and I grappled with this decision for a long time, but finally decided to 
We had dinner at Coach Insignia, at the top of the Renaissance Center downtown Detroit. It's a really nice restaurant, and we saw only one other child when we were there, and that child was actually a sleeping infant in a bucket. But brave people that we are, we brought our kids along. Our philosophy has pretty much always been that our kids will never to learn to behave in restaurants if we don't take them to restaurants, and I would say that with the very big exception of Mathilda, our little gang did a great job of using their fancy restaurant manners. Mathilda had a grand ol' time, so what if she spent about 10% of the 3 hours we were there in her seat and refused to eat a single bite of her dinner? She dug into the bread basket, appetizers, and dessert, and asked to use the potty two times. And she didn't cry once. I'd call that a successful dinner.
Chris's brother was here for a few days. He went to dinner with us at Coach Insignia, along with Chris's mom and step-dad. He and my mother-in-law took the kids to see the new Chipmunks movie. My mother-in-law and her husband also hosted a big holiday party while he was home, and we got to see lots of Chris's family who we don't get to see very often. And we spent New Year's Eve together too, along with my mother-in-law and her husband, and Chris's aunt & uncle who are staying with the in-laws for a few days. Since the kids don't get to see Uncle Robby very often, it was cool that they were able to spend so much time with him during the holidays.
New Year's Eve was low key. We had a wonderful meal together, played some games and watched the Times Square festivities on television. I was shocked that all four kids managed to stay up until midnight. I think that may be a first. Bethany, Connor, and Lucy chose to stay at Meema's house for the night, and Mathilda decided to come home with Chris and I. Although we had a good time, this year I vow to not be sitting in front of a television on New Year's Eve. PERIOD. New Year's Day started with a phone call that Connor had thrown up. Happy 2012! We went to pick the kids up and so far it seems to have been a one time occurrence, with no siblings doing any copy-cat puking. Fingers crossed. The rest of the day has been more or less lazy. Like really lazy. The kids have two more days off and we plan on utilizing our child laborers to the max during that time. Some school districts around here have the entire week off, and I wish we did too. Our district is being inexplicably stingy with vacation days this year. Short Christmas break, short Spring break, and no mid-winter break. Phooey.
1 comment:
That about sums up the end of the year!!! Always good to end on a good note.
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