T'was the night before work

And my vacation is done. I like to think that I've accomplished a lot - in the food department. Turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, crescent rolls, green bean casserole (Just kidding!) fruit salad, mashed potatoes, gravy, milk, kit kats, peanut butter cups, several great american chocolate bars, chex mix, apple pie, chocolate pecan pie, cherry pie, pumpkin pie, cookies, potluck dinners and probably some other goodies. I made several batches of Chex Mix and ate at least 3/4 of it. I helped the family clean up the leftovers by having a piece of pie every single night and some days I had two pieces. I was conservative with the Cool Whip until tonight where I heaped on three ginormous tablespoons before shoveling 3 more in my mouth. I made peanut butter cookies with the kisses in the middle. I was so into following the recipe that the first two pans ended up sans kisses since I squished them so flat. One pan was too brown on the bottom and the other was just right. Both the husband and m.i.l. said, "I thought you were making them with the kisses in the middle?" Yeah, yeah, yeah...that's what happens when I follow directions. The next and last pan came out just fine and I force fed them to the peanut gallery before eating 6 of them myself. Hard to believe I still had room.

I had a super great Christmas as far as gifts go. Our treat to the family is paying off all our debt, property taxes, heat & ac and getting a new washer and dryer. I guess my days, make that years, of drying laundry on a line in the outdoors is going by the wayside. I keep telling myself that I'll still go hang stuff out there but honestly, that's a lie. I'm going to thrill in the ability to lean to one side to throw clothes in another machine to get them dry. In less than 5 hours. Hooray! I got two most excellent pairs of slipper socks. Ladies, if you don't have any I highly recommend wrapping your feetsies inside a pair of these. Your little pigs will thank me, I mean you. I also received my first ever cashmere sweater which I'm excited about and will continue to be until I take it to the dry cleaners. I hate them. Nothing personal, I just don't dig taking my clothes to someone else to clean them and having to pay them, too. Yep, I hate to let a dollar go. I also got certificates for our favorite buffet restaurant which will have to be used before the end of the year. Ahem.. Our little JT made out with some toys and clothes but mostly enjoyed the wrapping paper and learning to stand alone on his own and take a few steps. Okay, the standing alone part is true and the taking a few steps is mostly true. A few times he stood and took a step/lurch forward and we all cheered. He also learned how to patty cake 100 times in a row, give "five" and ate his first french fry. He also attempted to eat a jar of #3 which was chicken vegetable something or another. It smelled like a potpie. Depending on who you are that's a good thing or a bad thing. To me it was bad and I felt bad giving him food that was all mixed together. Heaven forbid that happens on my plate. Well, after several evil faces and near spit outs, we put it away and gave him good old fashioned mushy fruit. That diaper will be nice tomorrow. Good thing I'm headed back to work!



JT's fairy godmother, creator and artist extraordinaire of Sugarluxe, made me this buckle. I can proudly say I'm an owner of a Sugarluxe Original. I swear I've gained so much weight during December that I'm afraid to try it on. I'll be mortified if it doesn't fit. But if it doesn't, that's even more motivation to shed some pounds. This baby weight excuse is over. Nine months on, nine months off. Well, it's been nine months and I still have some extra padding that even breast feeding can't excuse away.

I have more to chat about, I think, but I have a sleepy boy pulling at my leg and sneezing all over my keyboard. He's up for the third time tonight since he went down and I was darn well going to finish this post tonight.

Welcome back to the working world tomorrow if you haven't already gotten there. We'll see you there. And please don't laugh at how tight my pants are.