It's Been Awhile

It's been so long since I last posted but this Christmas holiday has got me beat. It's funny but when I read about people having a relaxing Christmas holiday I laugh. Ours was go go go. I guess we took advantage of being off work since the 24th to get things done around the house, see our friends and family and just keep busy with Samantha. We had our Christmas party at our house on the 22nd and since that day it was go go go. I did that artichoke dip recipe and I found out that cutting artichoke hearts into fine pieces is a long process but thankfully about 5 minutes into that job I remembered that somewhere I had a mini food chopper which did the job in 3 minutes!

The next day we had friends over and it was nice to see Samantha playing with their kids, even though they were much older. She enjoyed following them around and they loved reading to her and playing with her.

After that Christmas Eve with my mom, Christmas day with my inlaws, and Boxing Day with my dad. I don't even feel like writing about it. That's what happens when posting is scarce. Everything gets saved up for a massive post and even then I've lost the energy to post about it. What I need is a laptop so that I can post at whatever time I please. I'm always composing posts in my head and I never find the time to transfer them over. This actual post I wrote while playing with Samantha on paper. Also the fact that in the past 8 days or so Samantha has napped only twice. Makes for great evenings as she goes to sleep around 7 but by then I'm wiped. Are there any 2 year olds out there that can entertain themselves for more than 10 minutes, and that's not counting the TV? Right now Samantha is watching her boyfriend, Diego save the penguins, while her pasta is cooking and I'm typing. She had her regular nap today thankfully as it's New Year's Eve and we're going to my brother in law's house where hopefully we can stay until at least 10:30. Although truthfully I'd rather be at home snuggling on the couch with a good book or movie.

Speaking of books I have 5 of them on my current reading list and at the snail's pace that I'm going I should be done by next October.

• The Mistress of the Art of Death by Arianna Franklin (currently reading right now)


• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (got for my birthday)


• The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds (got for my birthday)


• Lord John & the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon (picked this one up at her book signing in September)


• Nefertiti by Michelle Moran

We've also been organizing the clutter that we keep accumlating in rooms, mostly by me. Samantha's toys were pretty out of control. I finally put away toys that she doesn't play with anymore as well as the toys she received this year that she's still too young for. We got this neat system from Ikea and it really helped with the clutter and walking through the room much more easier and less likely to step on something and go sprawling. Not that that's happened to me ;)

Joe's project this week was putting together a new TV console so his anal obsessive personality can watch TV in peace and not worry about the 150 wires that he sees behind the TV. He's been bugging me about those wires for at least a year now and finally he went out and got the TV stand so it all can be hidden. Now I just have to find the time to hook up all 4 units.

Enough for now, it's almost time to go to my brother in law's for the night, hopefully in the New Year I'll try to write more often. Especially about the new goal I've set for myself, again, in the weight loss department. 15lb by August. Do you think it can be done??