A Holiday Meme...

Okay, so my good friend Erin tagged me for this meme. It's supposed to be 15 things you love about the holidays. Erin only came up with five, so let's see how many I can come up with. I love a challenge!

1) Christmas music. Yes, it's utterly annoying, and yes - there are only so many versions of "The Christmas Song" you can hear in one 8 hour period, but c'mon - admit it! We love it when that Christmas music comes on (at least initally - after seven weeks of it, you may want to throw your radio/TV/DVD player/sattelite radio out the window). But it all comes down to the memories they evoke - which are mostly positive. Well, the first fifty times you hear it the memories are usually positive. Then you just want to gag.

2) Sledding. Here in Colorado (where I grew up) it has usually snowed a couple of feet by Christmas, and that means sleds come out! Granted, all the good sledding hills we used to use when I was a kid are gone - mostly have new buildings in their place. So there aren't any really good hills here anymore unless you go to a ski area. Okay, that's just depressing.

3) Christmas cookies! I loved it when my mom would bake ALL weekend and made about 75 different varieties of cookies, turtles, cakes and breads. But I still want to lose the last few pounds of baby weight, so I will lay off of them this year. Damn, that's depressing too.

4) Here's one that isn't depressing: holiday volunteering. Every year I volunteer somewhere and try to do somthing good for others and focus on others for at least a full day. Didn't do it last year because Aimee was the only person I could focus on. But this year I volunteered to coordinate a food/clothes/everything drive for one needy family here in the Springs. It was a mother with five children and a niece (neice's mom is in jail) and we got them EVRYTHING - hundreds of dollars of stuff - all from my office and coworkersand some neighboring companies. I love doing stuff like this over the holidays. I think everyone should do this at least two or three times a year. Who can be depressed when you see how good you really have it - family, friends, enough food, a roof over your head, clothes to wear - you have everything you need. Don't take it for granted.

5) Vacation. Who doesn't love the time off over the holidays? I am taking a week and a half off for XMas. I am really looking forward to it.

6) Shopping. I do love the shopping that the holidays trigger. Although, since I have less time, I have done a lot of shopping over the internet. Gotta love the uprising of internet shopping. Especially for toys - stuff that your local Wal Mart (which is CRAZY crowded from the end of Haloween until the end of January - hell, it's nuts all year long) is sold out of. And it comes to your door with no shipping costs. How divine!

7) Holiday movies. It seems appropriate for this time of year. I love getting cozy with a blanket in front of the TV watching "It's a Wonderful Life" or "Miracle on 34th Street" or one of those movies. Did you know that the Family channel is having 25 days of good holiday movies? Even new ones with Sabrina the Teenage Witch handcuffing Slater from Saved by the Bell to her car. It's all good, mindless TV.

8) Sweaters. I love breaking out the sweaters. And I love breaking out the holiday sweaters. I don't have too many, but the ones I do have are really cute (and not over the top). They are fun to wear at this time of the year.

9)Getting presents. C'mon - who DOESN'T like this part of Christmas?!?

10) Giving presents. I like giving the presents too. I love watching the reactions. Of course, if your husband denies himself things from September on so he can "put them on his list" and actually presents you with a lengthy list to choose from, it can kill the anticipation.

11)Watching Aimee discover Christmas. She's not fully there yet - next year will be even better, but at 17 months old, she can talk (a little) and point at things and be wowed by the lights and glitter. It makes Christmas new again and makes me appreciate all the little things I love about Christmas even more - because my daughter appreciates them.

That's really about it - I am out of reasons. I just love the holidays.

Since most of my friends who have blogs have already tagged each other, and none of my other friends are bloggers, I will not pass this on. So here you go, Erin - enjoy. :-)

Is it December already?

Good lord - it's already December. Have I mentioned that I hate the holidays? This will be a LONG month.

T-giving was okay. Really, I did the cooking and cleaning, but I knew I would get stuck with that. So, it was really okay.

Aimee was hilarious. Jackson, my two-year-old nephew had the audacity to - GASP - play with her toys. She was not happy, and she let him know it. She was full-on yelling at him, little arms flailing and face turning red. All because he was sitting at her piano. Did he notice? No - of course not. He is a BOY, after all. She gave him what sounded like a blistering lecture (at least I think she did - it wasn't in English). It was just too precious and funny. At least I can say that my kid is no pushover. She'll be doing the pushing around, thank you very much. I think I like that.

Now, Christmas is another story. Thanksgiving is all about family, but Christmas (at least for my dh's family) is all about shopping. And giving the appropriate amount of gifts (last year we spent about $700 on gifts for his family, which I think is beyond ridiculous). I made a list for Aimee's toys, given all the recall scares. I thought that was a nice and prudent thing to do, but my mil is already griping about it. Says she can't find it online. So I send her the links. Then she told me there's too much shipping. So I tell her if she buys it from the links I am sending, there will be no shipping.

I have no idea what her problem is now. I am weary of it and getting to the point where I don't care much faster this year than last. She took my hubby out to shop for four hours today. Last minute. Again. Nevermind the grocery shopping and house cleaning that usually go on Sundays. So I got to handle all of that solo, along with a very stubborn toddler. I am almost at my last thread with this crap.

Sorry this post has gotten so down, I need to go chill out with a glass of wine (or some of that sparkling cider left over from Thansgiving and a hot bath.

How was T-giving for everyone else???

Suckered again...

Ah, yes. Coming into my favorite time of year (and yes, I am being sarcastic - this is the most trying time of the year). Once again, there's the whole fight over who's parents we will spend T-giving with and who's P's we will spend Christmas with. Keep in mind that both sets of parents live within a four-mile radius of our house. This really shouldn't be this hard, should it?

But now that we have Aimee it's even harder.

Usually my family has a BIG shin dig up in Denver at my uncle's house. However, this year they decided to go to my aunt's family instead of having the party (smart woman). So I am having Thanksgiving at our house. Now, I don't mind the cooking, cleaning - none of that bothers me at all. What bugs me is that I am getting the whole "Who are we inviting" thing and when I said "Everybody, of course" I get whiplash back from that.

My hubby's mother doesn't want to do dinner with us, she wants it at her house so that the dog can come in the house (I refuse to let my brother in law's dog inside our home - it's bigger than my daughter and dogs just should not be allowed inside in my book - period) so the fighting has already begun. Why can't things just be easy?

Why does this have to happen on every holiday, every birthday, every anniversary? I have to say I am really beginning to hate the holidays.

Bring on New Year's - I will need a good, stiff drink (or ten or twelve) by then.

All is quiet on the home front...

I have really wanted to write more often, but I have a huge problem - my life just isn't very exciting. I read the blogs of all my friends, and they always seem to be doing something cool - hiking, getting a new job (Go Brad), becoming a paralegal (YAY Ms. K!) or generally just doing something interesting. I am really not all that interesting.

Just. Not. Interesting.

Aimee had fun on Halloween (see the picture of my little fairy girl). I love watching things through her eyes. That's been about the most exciting thing that's happened to me after the Rockies blew everything in the World Series. That was embarrassing. Eight days off did them no good at all.

So, with that, I will sign off for now and go back to my oh-so-boring life.

Thought I'd post a new pic of the Aimster...

Sick kiddo!

I was just writing to my good friend Ms K about Aimee's woes. I absolutely hate it when she's sick. I can handle having a migraine for four straight weeks (which I am on week five of now - it's not too fun) but I can't stand it when she's sick. She's too little for that!

Took her to the doctor on Tuesday. When the doctor was putting her stethoscope all over her tummy Aimee kept saying, "All done" until she was practically yelling it at the doctor. Like "Get off of me, you meanie! That's cold!" My kid definitely has a temper and knows what she likes and doesn't like. And she's not afraid to tell you all about it. That will serve her well in life. And it will give her mother a nervous tic.

She's been really cuddly and needy (not the way my kid usually is) so you know she's feeling like crap. I hope this doesn't last too much longer. I don't think Doug and I can take much more.

Rocktober!

My Rockies have finally won! Last night the Colorado Rockies swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in game 4 of the NLCS. The final score was 6-4.

At last! My two teams, the Colorado Rockies and the Seattle Mariners, have continually been underdogs and neither team has ever been to a World Series. Until now.

Nevermind that the game started at 8:18 (no, not making that up - that was the posted starting time) and lasted into the wee hours (and I am counting the post-game ballyhoo in this as well).

I was up for it. WAY up for it.

And to think they did this on a shoestring budget. No A-Rod with his $30 million a year (HATE A-Rod; don't even get me started) or rich owner trying to buy a championship ring. These guys are the real thing. And we, as fans, love them for it.

Now we need to work on the Mariners. They almost had it in 2001, let's shoot for 2008!

A balancing act

I have to say, I'm nuts about my kid. Aimee is a joy to be around (most of the time, anyway) and watching her grow has made me appreciate the little things so much more. Like... balance.

Aimee's learing to walk. She's not all the way there yet (she still needs your finger for "support"), but it's been so fun to watch her figure it all out.

Balance is the key, and the reason she's not quite there yet. She's going to be a sprinter, I think, and she just doesn't take the time to get her balance before taking off with her Frankenstein-like strides. Just like her Mama - deosn't want to take the time to master the boring little things - she wants the big picture right now!

Having Aimee has made me apprecaite my own "balancing acts" and trade-offs that I make every day. I can either have a really big job, that will give me big props and bring in big bucks, or I can have a great family life and satisfying personal experiences with friends. I am still struggling like Aimee. Why can't I have it all????

That Pampered Chef just blew sunshine up my a....

What is a person to say to their MIL if invited to a Pampered Chef party? No? Not unless you want to be drummed right out of the family.

So I went last night. And I have to say, it was grueling, it was boring, and it was expensive.

I am not a Pamapered Chef devotee, and I only have a few of their things (gifts from the MIL, no less). It seems I am in the minority. Just about every product the sales lady talked about had most of the people jumping up and saying "Have it, Love it!". It was hard to remember that there was only one Pampered Chef salesperson there.

We got the spiel about how durable the products are, and how wonderful they are to use...blah, blah blah.

All of the above may very well be true. But I refuse to buy a frying pan for $150. Goes against my grain. I like my money in the bank making me more money, thank you very much.

But then, there was my MIL (and I DO like my MIL) talking about how she'd really like to make her sales quota and get her host prize. So I bought three things.

I spent $90 for three small things. Not my proudest shopping moment.

There's the chopper I bought for $30. I am sure it will do good things. I was looking to buy one because Aimee still needs her food chopped in small bits. Turthfully, I could have bought this one a while ago - I have needed it. But I am really sure I could have purchased one for - oh, around $15.

Then I got a set of "Prep Pots". These are little dishes that you use to measure out your ingredients beforehand and just dump them in your recipe when you need them. I have no idea why I bought these. I think the pressure was too much for me.

And then there is the fluted pan (it's a Bundt pan, but Bundt has a copyright on the name, so it's a fluted pan). Now, there's no mystery as to why I bought this one: the salesperson emailed me several recipes for 15 minutes cakes. (a cake - fresh baked, in 15 minutes - and from the microwave!! Made me want to jump up and shout "Gotta have it! Love it!") I was hungry for cake, so I went for it.

So there I was, $90 lighter and my MIL is beaming at me. Of course, I was one of the few people who spent under $150. AND I told the sales rep that I did not want to host my own party, thank you very much. But I still ponied up a decent amount, so the MIL was happy.

I really, REALLY hope she doesn't get the bright idea to have one of these parties again.

And if she does, please, pease PLEASE don't invite me!

Oh well. At least they fed us.

Only 28 more years to go...

Today has been hard. Okay, not as hard as it's been for the last few days - I actually don't have too much migraine pain today, but I am so bored I could scream.

Don't get me wrong - mostly I like my job. But I don't LOVE my job like I used to.

Before I had Aimee, I had a really high profile job that kept me travelling and in meetings and conferences usually for 10-12 hours a day. And I loved every hectic minute of it.

I loved interacting with lots of people, being a little higher up on the food chain, and never getting into a rut. Now I am just a financial analyst - at the same desk day sfter day, running the same reports day after day, and butting heads with the same people day...after.....day zzzzzzzzzzz.

Does anyone else feel this way? That getting on the "Mommy Track" is a HUGE step down for their careers? It makes me so sad that many women have to choose: be a great mom or have a great career. You can't have both.

Ah, well. Enough bitching. Better get back to it. Afetr all, there's only 28 more years to go until retirement.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

Here goes nothing...

A new beginning. A new and different Cara. I've been through a nasty divorce, a cross country move, snagging a great new job, snagging a great new man, a wedding, a new baby, and (last but definitely not least) motherhood.

Getting back to writing is the last piece of my recovery and rebirth.

I intend to pour it all out here. Get back to my writing habits. Dust off my muse, give her a little spit-polish, and get her in shape again.

So here's my new vow to myself: I will blog at least three times a week. Check in. Write down what I'm feeling and thinking about. Maybe get some insight into some things my conscious self just doesn't have time to think about.

So, as I said before, here goes nothing...