The One Where I Play 2012 Catchup – The Christmas Wrap Up

Ahh! It’s the 31st already! And I feel like today is the last day I can blog about Christmas stuff and still feel relevant. So much catching up to do!

(Yes, I’m feeling “better” in that I am 95% over the flu -which seriously took 10 days- and am back to just feeling pregnant. 4 weeks away from the 2nd trimester, and CRAVING the productivity levels I hope come with it.)

So I never got to share our holiday cards with you, but don’t feel left out! I didn’t get to share them with anyone.

Yup, these puppies are still shrink wrapped in the packaging they were shipped in. Not a single one addressed or handed out. Just a lone card framed for our holiday mantle.

I’m thinking of sending them out at random times throughout the year, like St. Patties Day. That’s a holiday with very little stress for me. I’ll put them in green envelopes.

This year, instead of stressing about buying coordinating outfits and taking our family to my favorite field where the children could escape us, I got holiday jammies for the whole family from Lands End (with a coupon during a sale, that worked out to be less than a new outfit for just myself would have been).

Then I put my camera on the tripod at the end of Kendall’s bed – the only one that doesn’t look like it belongs in a frat house or a nursery – and used my remote to get some family pictures.

Templates by Birdesign

 Of course, even though the children couldn’t escape, we couldn’t stop them from jumping on the bed. Oh well, we went with it.

Then there was the country Christmas at my mom’s the weekend before Christmas. I’m really glad we were able to make it. It’s the first time my siblings and I have all been together at the holidays in about 10 years.

But the drive? That was rough. 6 hours in a car with first-tri morning sickness is not a fun experience.

All worth it for the kids, though. I mean, it’s not like they would have been able to play with explosives had we stayed home.

Pictures by my brother because just looking through a camera viewfinder made me want to hurl. 

And I got to take in the beauty that is my mom’s deer antler Christmas tree. I laugh at how “cool” taxidermy is these days, and how much people will pay for a deer head spray painted white.

I ate plenty of dinners in a dining room surrounded by dead deer, vowing I’d get the hell out of that town someday and into “civilization” with Starbucks and stores that would never sell animal heads for walls.

Oh wait.

But this particular look works well in my mom’s country home. And she did a great job making it, the ornaments, and the rag star that tops it, in my daughterly opinion.

Want to make my mom’s day? Pin it. You know, if you’re into deer antler trees like that.

I really love those blue bonnet pinecone ornaments. Truly Texan.

You can buy those antlers super cheap in my home town. I’m half tempted to stock up, spray paint them neon colors, turn them into towel hooks and sell them on Etsy. MUWAHAHAHAHAHA! All the hipster monies are belong to me.

And then there was Christmas, which we had at home after a 6 hour drive back north from mom’s, and spent the whole day in our jammies.

There have been very few days between then and now that we’ve not spent in our jammies. I guess I’ll make that my solitary New Year Resolution – to get dressed more often. Surely that’s setting myself up for success.

I’m looking forward to 2013 and all it has in store for us, including adding one last kiddo to our crazy bunch. I’ll finally be able to order matching, monogramed stockings next year, knowing our mantle is complete!

It will be the close of a few chapters of life for me, but the beginning of so many more.

Happy New Year, everyone!