Christmas and other ramblings

Much to my husbands chagrin, I am not a huge Christmas fan. I am not a scrooge but I am just not into it the way he is. I am never calm enough to handle the increased chaos to my life that Christmas brings. And I married a man with a basement FULL of Christmas decorations cause he loves it so much he cant stop buying more! But we got out our tree and although I was totally against a fake tree - I must admit this is much easier. Stick it together, fluff it out and plug it in - ready made tree. Add ornaments and it is done. No needles on the ground (part of the ambiance but still...) just generally less maintenance.

Here is a better picture of the creativity that Nate did to his head. It showed up best in the bath.

But we took him to Miss Adair (who does hair...) and she did the best she could. She cut it short enough to try and hide the shave job but long enough to maintain some control of the cowlicks in the back. It is still looks lopsided but the other option was to completely shave it. My poor children are so fair that if we shaved him he would look like he had had chemo.

This is a classic Manda face right now - i finally captured it! She is getting her first tooth so she is biting on her lip. She has chewed on her tongue so much that she has like a little hickey on the end of her tongue. And she is SOOOO drooley!

She has all of her toes in her mouth - she will chew on ANYTHING!

These are the days of my life.

I am saving up for weekend away. I made reservations at a B&B on the other side of town and a visit to a spa for an ENTIRE weekend in February. I am not going with anyone and I will not be hanging out with anyone. I need to be ALONE, quiet, solitary. I want to journal a lot, read, sleep, relax. The constantness of this life I have chosen (and would continue to choose over and over again) is wearing on me. We have a lot of fun but it is a lot of work, mostly emotional and mental. I need to get away to reconnect with myself and refocus to regain some energy. Four children is a lot - I think for me because it was so unexpected. But it is GOOD - great at times. I know this is a season - someday I will wonder where the days went!