Zooing it up

 We had a run of insanely warm weather for about a week. It was 72 on Christmas day!

 The kids are chaotic, the house is a disaster and I was keen to get us out of here.

 I usually take them to the zoo in October to take the annual birthday hippo photos, but we never made it this year.  Better late than never I suppose! (They have even painted the hippo recently.)

A nice break from the house.

it is BRRRRRRRR degrees here now, it was nice while it lasted!

We decembered

December is almost over and we've done all the December things.

We visited Santa.

 We saw the nutcracker.

 We decorated.

We churched.

 We had presents.

 We saw lights.

 I bought things.

 We decorated cookies instead of gingerbread (BEST MOVE EVER).

 I did a new Santa tree (LOVED IT).

 We saw the Krampus.

 We visited the Christmas traditions festival twice.

And we admired Christmas windows.

(And this mommy busted her ass and is so glad it's all winding down.)

Green eyed monster

I’m not really sure it is the green eyed monster if we are being truly honest, or if it’s that time and age have brought me to the social media breaking point.

It’s incredibly hard to watch people on line who cry for their mothers when they are sick, have parents who help with everything, who go on week Long Beach vacations several times a year, and just generally post all the things I’ve never been able to have. Mostly I am a “it is what it is” girl, but the thought of losing what little I do have in my mom has really thrown a big monkey wrench into that.

This year this was doubly compounded by my fathers somewhat random refusal to come to thanksgiving. He says it was because I hadn’t called, but oh hey, the seven days leading up to that were pure hell. And, btw, the phone works both ways.

Right now I am attempting to just sit with it all. Watch a movie, sew a stitch, read a book, make a meatloaf and just let it all settle in around me. I have moments where I feel like I can do it, and moments where I would still like to just put on my shoes and make like Forrest gump. My flight or fight was SO INTENSE for a few days that every day I actually did ponder just starting to walk every morning until I could walk no more. If nothing else, I would eventually have been too exhausted to think.

Instead I finished putting up the Christmas crap.

(My current urge is to resume driving everything we own to the goodwill.)

2019 Christmas cards

 When I saw these deer jammies in target I grabbed them on a whim and realized Christmas cards could be so easy this year with them.

So cute.