Now this is a scatterbrained attempt at a blog post....

Now that felt like a blogger hiatus.  I think I was only "gone" for three or four days...but it felt like weeks.  And I don't even know why it feels that way...it's not like much has happened.  Aside from Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and all that jazz.  How was your Christmas holiday?  Did you find lots of good stuff under your tree?  Was everyone all cheery and happy and drama-free?

We did enjoy our days of family, food and gifts.  Kinley, she could take it or leave it.



My attempt at another "tradition"--
a family picture in our bed
on Christmas morning before
the tree is attacked.

 She woke up at around 5, and that was just way too early for us, so I nursed her and put her back to bed.  (We have that luxury this year, and maybe next)  She then got up at around 8ish.

Richie carried her out to the tree (where it looked pathetically empty) and she immediately went for Lucy's new tennis balls.  Eh, well.  Whatever.



This Elmo phone was
programmed to say her name.  It
was a HUGE hit.

 We tried to interest her in some of the new toys but she was just like, yeah, cool mom and dad.  What's for breakfast?

It was super important to us that we wake up on Christmas morning in our home, with our tree.  But on Christmas Eve we realized how lonely that made the holiday.  We were scrambling around to do that last minute gift shopping.  So we were busy, but at the same time, we felt that lonliness.  I don't know.  Christmas Eve, to me, is about family.  That is when you all get together as a family and celebrate.  And then Christmas Eve night everyone goes back home to have Christmas morning in their own homes. 

That is how it's supposed to be, in my perfect world.  Living 3 hours from one family, and 5 from the other, doesn't allow for that.  It's the pits.  I guess that once we get into our new home, and Kinley gets a little older, it will feel more like Christmas and maybe family will come up....but this year left us a little empty, I think.

But Christmas is now behind us and we're looking forward to celebrating the new year back in southern IL.  Yes, more traveling.  We'll be spending the holidiay with my in-laws and seeing some friends as well.  I pray that Kinley travels well.  On our three hour trip, it was sketchy.  She slept for 2 hours and cried for 1.  On a 5 hour trip, let's hope she doesn't sleep for 2 and cry for 3.  Otherwise, I may just walk.

We're driving a small rental car in place of Richie's truck right now (he was side swiped about a month ago and it's just now getting repaired) and it's small.  When we travel in our SUV, I can easily slip from the front to the back seat in a jiffy (get your minds out of the gutter, I'm not "well rehearsed" in hopping in the back seat!) to cater to the baby....well, I tried to do that maneuver in this matchbox and I pulled a muscle in my thigh.  That hurts.  So I felt a little gimped up.  Walked a little gimped up too.

So we're kind of hoping that his truck repair takes longer than this week to be finished up so that we can put all of these traveling miles on this rental and not my SUV.  For one, I don't need any more miles on my car.  It's paid off and we're not buying another one any time soon, so this one needs to be handled with care.  Second, mine costs about $60 to fill up, the rental costs a mere $37.  Yeah.  It's a no brainer.  We want to take the rental. 

Ummmm, yeah.  So I can't even believe that NYE is this weekend.  Like *this* weekend.  I'm so not ready to put 2010 away.  Or maybe it's more of a true statement to say that I'm not ready to embrace 2011.  This next year holds so many things for us.  I'm going back to school, Kinley starts child care for the first time, we'll be moving out of this rental and into another, I'll be student teaching.... all of these things that are new experiences and I'm terrified.  I've found that 2010 was the year of my comfort zone.  I got into the groove of being a mom, a stay at home one, at that (which is so NOT easy, btw).  We moved back to my familiar ground, which turned out to not be so familiar anymore.  I was just getting settled and now the game changes again.

I felt bad leaving my mom's on Sunday afternoon.  She knew and I knew that there would be no "see you in a few weeks" as we hugged good-bye.  So we just didn't say anything.  I've said it before, that 2011 is the year that we aren't traveling as much as we did in 2010.  With me back in school, we just can't afford it.  Time or money-wise. 

While I'm afraid of what 2011 brings, I think that all of the changes will be great for us--and great for Kinley.  We'll survive and be stronger for it.

What does your 2011 bring?