December in a nutshell

Holy crazy month! I am ashamed of my blog-keeping performance this month, but vow to do better as part of my New Year's "I can conquer the world" delusion. I had planned on blogging about all sorts of fun Christmas festivities, but as December is almost over and as I don't want to blog about Christmas in January, I'm going to have to stuff it all into one big post again. If you choose to not continue reading this one, I don't blame you. Time is money!

Mid-December, we very much enjoyed McKenna's annual Christmas dance recital in which she was by far the most adorable of all the other little ballerinas who looked exactly like her. It was a crazy show and, for the first time ever, we were forced to stand through the entire thing because every stinkin' seat was taken by the time we got there. People take cute kids prancing around in costumes VERY seriously. And who wouldn't, look at how cute she is! (A completely unbiased statement, by the way...)



Shameful as it is, due to both Brandon and I losing our heads a bit during our busy month, we did not get a single second of video footage of her performance. Our camcorder was dead and let's just say Brandon didn't quite get the concept of pushing the button all the way in on our regular camera to record. Oh well, we hear they offer a DVD at the end of her dancing season and we'll just have to look into purchasing one.

Next on the Christmas agenda was Mathew's preschool performance which was just as fun as always. Gotta love listening to kids screaming singing your favorite Christmas carols. It really does make me giggle and giggle. I really wish I could put up video footage, but I don't want to. So instead, here ya go, a cute picture of the kiddo decked out in his Santa hat. It'll do, right?



The most exciting (but certainly not the funnest) moment of his show was McKenna jumping off a chair at precisely the wrong moment and slamming her chin on her crush's (Bridger's) head as he walked past. We had to rush the melodramatic McKenna out into the hall and attempt to calm her hysterical screams in the middle of the Kearns Library (which is where Mathew's little performances are held). Ah, good times. I'm relieved to report that a good half an hour later, McKenna finally calmed down and other than a very sore jaw and a headache, she suffered no permanent damage. Except I think she lost a bit of her gusto for Bridger, as somehow she concluded that it was his fault that she slammed into him so brutally.

McKenna and I had some truly fun girl bonding moments this month. Not only did we get to see A Christmas Carol, but the following Saturday I left poor Brandon to watch the boys again while I took her and her cousin Megan to see The Nutcracker at Capitol Theatre. Brandon's awesome nephew, Elliot, landed a role as a party boy and we were more than happy to get some tickets to go check him out. Brandon was supposed to join us, but due to an unfortunate episode of the stomach flu, he instead got the wonderful opportunity of staying home with a puking baby.
The ballet was wonderful and I've never seen McKenna pay such strict attention to anything in my life. She shockingly declared during intermission that she wanted to be a ballerina when she grew up. Really...just didn't see that coming. (Sarcasm comes across in print, doesn't it?)

Speaking of the stomach flu, on the 12th, Nathaniel celebrated his 1st birthday in style by spending the entire day throwing up and sleeping. Poor guy. Needless to say, it was not the time for birthday cake. In fact, he just started eating normally again last week, so we still haven't done the cake thing. We're thinking sometime this week...I hope.

Christmas was a fun affair in which, for reasons that can only be explained by extreme lack of sleep, I did not get a single picture taken. My camera is void of any pictures since mid-December. How dare I even claim rights to a blog if I don't take pictures on Christmas Day?? I'm still sad about it, but there's no way I'm re-staging the event for a few lousy pictures. Just take my word for it - it was a great, big, wonderful mess and the kids were insanely spoiled; even though we swore we wouldn't go overboard again this year. Oh, well. They're only kids once, right?

I also still haven't gotten any pictures of the absolutely INSANE snowstorm we got hit with over Christmas weekend. I don't think I've ever seen so much snow. Some of it has melted and it now has the nasty, filthy look to it, or I'd go take the pictures right now.

We're really looking forward to a couple weeks of major catch-up. Brandon is on break from school and my work schedule is back to being reasonable. Maybe now we can get our bathrooms looking like they don't belong in a run-down gas station. Happy Holidays everyone! I'll be back on in a few days to talk about what an amazing year 2009 will be; because I'm going to make some BIG changes...really. It's not going to be like last year...or the year before that...or the year...well you get it.