I'm Outta Here....

Heading off in the morning for a five day and four night vaycay in the mountains of Georgia!!!!

A girls' trip with my Mom, Sis, 2 Aunts and 2 cousins. Expecting good food, lots of wine, lots of silliness, hopefully no drama and lots of relaxing. Maybe we will even get some snow --- although that snow that's kind of predicted for tomorrow can certainly stay up in the sky until I'm sitting in front of a fire all snug as a bug.

Y'all have a great rest of the week and weekend!

I Miss It Already

I love the Christmas Season -- the decorating, the cooking, the wrapping, all the preparations that go into it. I love the warmth of the lights from the tree as I curl up on the couch in the evenings. I love how happy my house looks all decked out with colored lights and silly inflatables greeting me as I get home from work. Yesterday, I took down the outside lights and put them up til next year. My yard looks kind of sad now.

I started putting up some of the Christmas decorations on the inside, but didn't get a whole lot done in that area. I had to totally rearrange my kitchen cabinets to accommodate some of my gifts. I've packed up some of the stuff that was old and put it aside for when the Princess has her own place. Some of it is just going off to Goodwill.

I took the whole week off of work this week, and can't believe its gone by so fast. We had a good Christmas -- the family parts were kind of stressful but the parts with just me and the Princess and those we spent with friends were great!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas  -- filled with joy and love! Let's make the good feelings of it last all year!

Hello, Vaycay!

I am officially off work for the next nine days! Woo hoo! Of course I think I will have more work here than at actual work, but oh well......

Tomorrow looks to be my baking day --- I think I picked up everything we need at the grocery stores today -- spent $75 at Aldi and $30 at Publix -- OUCH. But I think I should be able to get the baking done without having to do a last minute store run. Here's hoping at least!

Sunday, I plan to clean and wrap presents. And go out to dinner. Monday is more cooking (if my sis will ever tell me what I'm supposed to bring to the various events!) and then Christmas with my Dad. Tuesday, Christmas Eve at Mom's -- and then Christmas Day at my sister's. Lots of events. Christmas keeps expanding, but I'd kind of like to shrink it back a bit. More events = more stress.

All I want for Christmas is... a stress free holiday.

Welcome to the World, Sweet Baby Girl.....

At 4:47 this morning I received a phone call. Still bleary eyed and with my coffee not yet ready, I realized it was my brother calling. OH! I had a good feeling about this phone call! As is par for the course in our family, I was the only one that answered the phone.... he'd tried our Mom, and our Dad, and he had to tell someone, so I got to be the first to hear that he was on the way home (he'd already been at work -- he owns a Crossfit Gym) to get his beautiful wife to head to the hospital to bring a gorgeous baby girl into the world.

It's a long running joke in our family that I'm the only one that ever answers the phone.... When my brother was serving in Iraq, his family phone list was pretty much in this order: Mom, Dad, Older Sis, then Sass..... because he'd already talked to me recently.... still pretty much every week I got the phone call because no one else answered. (Being reminded of all those missed calls still irks my Mom to this day). Apparently today was no different.....

Anyway, 2 hours and 18 minutes after that phone call, a gorgeous 5 pound 18 oz bundle of beauty entered our lives. She's tiny... and gorgeous.... and perfect. And approximately 600 miles away. Sigh. Not a quick weekend trip. And not a cheap last minute flight. Sigh. I really want to see my sweet niece.... but since Aunt Sass can't say it in person, Welcome to the world, sweet baby, you are incredibly loved.