Tormenting our Child

We recently took a trip to North Pole, Alaska where even the fire hydrants are xmas themed.

Can you get cooler than that? How about this? (Please excuse the rainy and blurry photographs!)

Imagine giving directions. Get off on Santa Claus Ln and turn right on St Nicholas Dr....SO NIFTY!

While we were out-of-season for the "real" Santa Claus photo op, we did get to see...

There was a lot of cheesy and tacky aspects to the place. However, the cute signs and murals that decorated the main xmas shop were adorable.

Best of all, I got to take pictures that I'm sure will torment baby E long into his teenage and adult years. I just couldn't resist because he was so stinking cute.

Rudolph!

Santa!

Overall much fun was had! I can't wait until Christmas!!

xoxo

socially acceptable

Today is the first day that it is socially acceptable to be excited for Christmas. So today I give you a big WOOHOO as the tree is now up!

Since my side of the family didn't grow up celebrating Christmas, it still seems like a novelty to me to have the cheery decorations strewn about the house. For my parents, it's still a relatively new thing to help me decorate the day after Thanksgiving. So, I think it's kind of special. Grin.

I absolutely abhor shopping with herds of people so on Black Friday I happily hide in my house while others wait in the freezing cold. Have at it people! Enjoy those bargains. I'm not really sure how much we are buying for Christmas this year. Last year we kept it really low key as we were in between IVFs 2 and 3. This year will probably be the same with some small things for each of us. Even with baby E, I don't want to clutter the house up with a billion things he won't use. So we'll get a few first Christmas toys and just celebrate being with him.

My ta-tas are now tingling so I'm off to pump...moo. Christmas is coming!

xoxo

Merry Christmas!

This morning I woke up in my bed, reveled in its snuggly warmth and went back to sleep. Hubby came in a little while later to get me up to show me the white coat of snow on the yard. While it has snowed a little here, it hasn't really stuck until today. So, Sweetpea got her first experience with snow which she loooooved! She bounded through the snow with glee which is the perfect essence of a Christmas morning.

This morning seemed all the more perfect in contrast to our trip home from California. It started off with a delay of our flight, standby for another, getting seats on that plane, but then being pulled off after we had settled and even buckled our seat belts! By the time we finally made it to Minneapolis, we found that our connecting plane also delayed and still there! After booking it through the airport, we slammed against the window where we could see an open door to the plane but alas there were no attendants to let us in! We stood watching it taxi through the snow, standing there, the picture of dejectedness. Thankfully the airline gave us a hotel, where we showered and napped until it was time again to try to get home. My main worry was getting home before the kennel closed since it was the last day of our reservation and I imagined my dog turned out onto the streets (ha, a little dramatic right?). The next morning our plane was delayed two hours followed with another two hour drive home. We pulled up to the kennel only to have the employee on a smoke break tell us that they were closed early since it was xmas eve. Umm, no. Seriously, you gave me the wrong time on my phone message? I can prove it suckers! Thankfully, they chose not to mess with us before I broke out my kung-fu on them to rescue Sweetpea from their clutches.

So today is all the more sweet since we are safely tucked away in our warm house with our dear girl. Our only plans today are to venture out to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie which I am waaaaaaaay excited about! We've already opened our simple presents this year....all of which are usable by both of us along the themes of cooking and home protection along with a few movies and books.

Whatever you are up to today, Christmas celebrator or not, I hope that you have a good day filled with the warmth of being surrounded by those you love.

xoxo