I was looking through pictures on my phone and realized I still have so many to share, so much catching up to do. Okay, actually half of the good pictures are in some strange extension that WordPress won’t upload… Because, of course.
The days surrounding Christmas were filled with lots of eating. Which is very apparent from the weight I gained over the holiday season. Only five pounds, but feels like so much more. And today was the first day I worked out in the past almost three weeks. I mostly skipped because my girls don’t do great in new places, thus I didn’t want to take them to the daycare at my gym. They went back to school today, so to the gym I went.
We don’t have a ton of good restaurants here, and plus, with taking a three and four year-old out… well, we don’t go to fancy places! But over the girls’ Christmas break we found ourselves at Texas Roadhouse (they might have worn Christmas PJs), a Chinese place I can’t even remember the name of, for our annual Chinese Christmas dinner on December 23rd, Olive Garden, and Longhorn Steakhouse, just to name a few. The girls have a thing with acting crazy at restaurants, and of course climbing under the booths.
On Christmas Eve we usually go to one of my mom’s sibling’s homes to celebrate, but this year we didn’t. We decided to stay home and just spend the moments with our little family of four. I felt a little left out, knowing others were celebrating, thinking we should have gone, but I’m beginning to realize life is too short to keep doing the shoulds… Why we didn’t go? Well, the obvious, more time with our little family, but I also didn’t want to travel, knowing we were traveling on the 25th and 26th. Our day was spent cooking, decorating our gingerbread village, making and decorating sugar cookies for Santa, and lots of relaxing. The girls opened presents from Eric and me in the morning, so they were busy playing with their new Frozen figurines, magna-tiles, and legos. After the girls fell asleep I wrapped the Santa presents, an ‘Our Generation’ doll for each of them, and a ton of clothing and accessories for the dolls. I figured I’ll wait till they’re a bit older, and gentler with their dolls, before I invest in the ‘American Girl’ versions.
On Christmas day we traveled to my mom and step-dad’s home to celebrate with my side, my sister and her family. Oh goodness the girls got so much, and my mom made so much amazing food! I know we are blessed with so many gifts and I should be so thankful, and I am, but sometimes it just feels like overload, like what do we do with all the toys?? I already packed up some they don’t play with anymore and donated. And we need to donate a lot more. Again, I had a lot more cute pictures, but all in that funky extension. I just went into my iPhone and changed the setting to ‘most compatible’ but clearly it doesn’t update the pictures already taken.
The remainder of our Christmas break was filled with odds and ends, a trip to the library, several to Target, of course, lots of movies at home, and playing in the little snow we got so far this winter.
The day after Christmas, December 26th, Eric took the girls to his hometown to see his mother and grandparents. I offered countless times to tag along, but his response was always no, that I should stay home. He knows I don’t love his mother, but I was willing to travel for his sake, and for the girls. They are getting older and I fear they will start to notice I’m rarely along on visits with his family. I rendered from my conversations with Eric that he was scared his mother might say or do something inappropriate, and he didn’t want me to be there to experience it. He told me she hasn’t been well, and while he can let her rude comments go, he knows I can’t as easily. All that is true, and I guess I have to respect his feelings, but it bothers me that he would take our girls into such a situation. I don’t feel his mother is a positive role model for our daughters in her current condition, and I still don’t completely trust that she won’t hurt the girls in some way, whether it be unintentional or not. But I know I have to trust Eric to some extent too. When they all arrived home from their visit the girls were in good moods, enjoying all the gifts they received, so I guess it was a good day for all as I was able to clean up the house a bit and relax.
Can you believe another holiday season is over???
