Good Morning, Sleepy Head

I get to wake up to this face every single morning. How lucky am I???

Our Very First Christmas Tree

This is the first Christmas that we will be celebrating in our own house, and we couldn't be more excited. One of the things I have been looking forward to for weeks is picking out our Christmas tree, which we did tonight (as a matter of fact, David is busy getting it set up in the living room right now).

An important thing to note -- I do not do fake trees. This is not a dig at any of my many friends who do. Believe me, I understand the appeal. They are convenient. They are cost-effective. They come pre-lit. I get it.

It's just that, to me, one of the big occasions each Christmas is for the whole family to go down to the tree tent and walk up and down the aisles of trees, debating and overanalyzing the merits and shortcomings of each and finally settling on the first one you said you liked. For me, a lot of the feeling of Christmas comes down to the tree -- hauling it home, setting it up, remembering to water it. The feel, the smell, the way the needles drop all over the place...it just isn't Christmas without it all of that. Somehow, hauling a bunch of green plastic pieces out of the attic, assembling them into a tree and plugging it in just doesn't have the same holiday feel!

Anyway, we picked a great one...about seven feet tall with a beautiful shape. As soon as we get it all set up and decorated, I'll be sure to take pictures and post them. For now, these will have to do!

Sam had a blast...this first one is blurry because I couldn't get him to stop running around long enough for me to snap it!

Tiny man in a forrest...a little ironic that his shirt says "Big Guy" ;)

And he's off!

I love this picture. He just looks so confident...like he's off to start a revolution or change the world or something!

This one was Sam's favorite. It was not the one David and I ended up getting. What can I say...every now and then, you have to re-establish your authority and show 'em who's boss! ;)

Cheesin' for the camera!

Thanksgiving

Yes, I know Thanksgiving was more than two weeks ago. That is how behind I am. But still, I could not let the year end without posting about one of my very favorite holidays!

This year was David's parents' year for Thanksgiving, so we were in Georgia. We alternate each year -- one set of parents gets Thanksgiving and the other set gets Christmas. Then the next year, it swaps. Close family time is important on holidays, and this is the best way we can think of to make sure that each family gets one of the "big two" all to themselves each year. It definitely works better than the way a lot of people I know do it...fighting every year about how much time to spend with who. This way is cut and dry and fair and easy!

Anyway, David's parents live in an adorable little historic town called Madison (it was actually recently featured in an issue of Southern Living). It has a cute downtown square with an old courthouse and a bunch of little boutique-y shops, and the rest of the town is full of old antebellum homes. It is quaint and picturesque and historic like St. Augustine, but the feeling is less European and more colonial. Pictures below!

Luckily, David's grandmother and his sister and her family also live in Madison, so this trip had considerably less "across town" driving than ones in previous years (hooray). This was a VERY welcome change, especially following the horrific seven-hour drive we had to make to get there in the first place. Really, I guess it went as well as can be expected for a toddler doing a full day in a carseat...needless to say, it is only a matter of time until we get one of those headrest TVs for him to watch!

Once we got there, we hung out and ate and talked all weekend...it was slow and mellow and comfy -- exactly the way a Southern family Thanksgiving should be! One of the highlights of the weekend was when David took me into downtown Atlanta to a playhouse/pub called The Shakespeare Tavern, where we saw an awesome rendition of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and drank artsy bohemian ales. It was a fun, grown-up night out! We also got to see our good friends the Frazers (even if for only an hour or so!), and take a quick fifteen minute ride on their bike -- which, of course, got David itching for another one (don't worry, I squashed that quick!). As we drove away from his family's house, I was thinking to myself "Wow, everything on this trip went perfectly."

Well, that'll teach me to count my chickens before they've hatched. On the way home...DISASTER. Late at night, totally exhausted, baby asleep in the backseat and sixty miles from home...our tire blew out. Well, one of the tires on the trailer we were hauling to carry David's boat. These are the times when I just can't say enough about David. He calmly uttered just one expletive (as opposed to the string I probably would've let out), and maneuvered us to the next exit. Prepared as always, he had a spare trailer tire, an industrial strength jack and all the tools and skills necessary to change the tire on the side of the road in pitch black. As I stood beside the truck, rocking the baby back to sleep in the freezing cold (yes, I am such a Florida girl now that I think anything less than 60 degrees is downright frigid!), I couldn't help but think to myself "This is a real man I married!" And thank goodness...thanks to him, we were back on the road in less than ten minutes.

Other than that, the trip really did go perfectly. Thankgiving is a wonderful, distinctly American holiday, and this year I have so much to be thankful for!



Cute downtown Madison!

Little boutiques...


County courthouse
A little sweet shop where the owner was so nice to Sam that we ended up buying like two pounds of fudge.

This guy is some sort of town mascot. He just sits on a bench downtown, smoking all day and talking to everyone. He asked if I would take his picture, and - of course - I did ;)


Now here are just a few of the beautiful homes I was talking about...some of them were all decked out for Christmas already!

NO TIME

Yet another grad school semester coming to a close. Research papers and book club preparations and exit statements, oh my. In short, gobs and heaps and loads of work making me crazy and taking up all my time.

Taking up ALL MY TIME.

No time to prepare for Christmas. No time to shop for the perfect outfit for my work party this weekend. No time to hang the pictures leaning up against the walls in my entryway that I've been meaning to hang for months. No time to catch up on Desperate Housewives or Brothers & Sisters (thank heaven for DVR!). No time to daydream, to relax, to unwind.

Definitely no time to blog.

My apologies to my readers (all four of you). I'll be back up and running after the end of my semester (Dec. 15). And oh, how much there will be to talk about! We're taking another trip to Disney World next weekend. Christmas and New Years are right around the corner. Our eagerly anticipated Valentine's trip to Ireland is mere weeks away.

So if any of you still exist, hang in there! In the famous words of good ol' Arnold, "I'll be back...."

First Shower

I can't tell you how many times I have told this kid to "stay out of Mommy and Daddy's shower!" So finally, we decided to just let him try it, thinking that maybe he wouldn't like it and it would act as a deterrent. Take a look at the adorableness that ensued. You can officially call me "Captain Backfire."

Happy Halloween!!

Now, if this isn't the cutest monkey you've ever seen, I think I'm going to have to call you a liar!! Although this wasn't Sam's first Halloween (last year, you'll remember, he was an adorable bumble bee), this was his first trick-or-treat experience...and what a dramatic night it turned out to be!

Because of how hot it was (yay, Florida!), and since his costume was pretty furry, we dressed him up and let him run around inside for awhile, getting used to his costume and letting us take tons of photos. The cutest thing was when he saw his own reflection in the mirror -- he thought it was hilarious! He giggled and pointed and clapped -- whether he understood it was him or was laughing at that goofy baby dressed as a monkey, I'll never know, but it was adorable.

As most of you know, this kid is a great sleeper (thank God) and will fall asleep -- come hell or high water -- by 7 p.m. So we ended up going trick-or-treating at about 6:30 (which is why it's still daytime in all the photos!). He was already exhausted, so we mostly just pushed him around in his stroller. He didn't really understand the whole thing, we found a coiled up pygmy rattlesnake on one of the front porches (near death experience for the year? check), and I started to get really sick (which has now been diagnosed as strep throat). For all these reasons, as well as the fact that I'm on Weight Watchers and not super into the idea of gorging myself on candy, we only ended up hitting five houses before we called it a night.

Next year, he'll be older and able to stay up later, I won't be dying of strep, the neighborhood wont be infested with venomous snakes (hopefully), and it won't be so hot. Next year, more candy, more houses, more more more. But for this year, given everything that happened, I think we were troopers! Enjoy the photos :)

Monkey and Mommy :)

"Do you see this crazy monkey kid in the mirror?! Who is that nut??"

Happy Monkey!

Monkey and Daddy :)

He's pretty much always yelling, this one.

Pushing his own stroller. Why?? Because he's independent, that's why. He can do it himself. And don't you forget it ;)

Finally getting the hang of actually getting the candy out of the bowl...

"Hey, where'd my candy go?!"

Our very scary pumpkins (both carved by David)...and Sam's little painted pumpkin!

Carving Pumpkins

Tonight, we carved pumpkins for the first time as a family! Sam did a lot of helping...and by "helping," I mean making a huge mess and eating a bunch of raw pumpkin. David did most everything while I shot these photos (hope you enjoy!). Pics of the final carved pumpkins will be up after my Halloween post.
David showing Sam the top of the pumpkin...

...which he promptly licked...

...and didn't like very much.

"Hey, Daddy, make sure you cut it over here"...already a little supervisor ;)