The post holiday wrap-up

Another holiday season has come and gone. Thank goodness! The holidays always overwhelm me a bit. Too much food, too much drink, too many people, too many things to do, not enough rest. This year was no exception. It was a wonderful time as well, though.

The holidays began this year with Hanukkah at my parent's house. Xaelen loved the lighting of the candles, my mom saying the prayer, the latkes, the Hanukkah songs, the presents. Since he first experienced Hanukkah, he exclaims "Na-na-na" (his version of the word Ha-nu-kkah) every time he sees candles lit. Any kind of candles. All candles. We lit candles in the house one night to have "mood" lighting and he squealed "Na-Na-Na!" when he saw them. Too cute.

We then had Christmas at my in-laws. Wonderful food, beautiful tree, family and friends. Xaelen got to open presents, eat turkey and dance to holiday music. He can say "turkey", but it comes out sounding a lot like when he says "dirty". That's one of his favorite words right now. Everything is dirty. He is constantly commenting on state of things being dirty. Even when things get wet, they are dirty. His other favorite word is "Owie". Everything has an owie these days. He broke a stick, and exclaimed "Owie" for the stick. A grape had a little bruise on it, he commented "Owie". His stuffed Snoopy had a spot of juice on it, thus also having an "Owie". Great. My son is a neat-freak who's obsessed with injuries. Kidding. He's a great kid who is obviously very observant of his surroundings.

New Years was a fun trip up to the central coast of California - Morro Bay to be exact. It was beautiful. We drove up to Los Angeles on Friday night after work to stay with my in-laws. Got up the next morning bright and early and headed north. After about 3 hours we made it to Attescadero, CA to play some disc golf. We played 1 full round which took about 3 hours. There were about 15 of us playing and it was loads of fun. After we proceeded to the house that was rented for the next few days in Morro Bay.

The house was amazing. It was huge. It needed to be huge, as there were about 20 of us staying there. Friends from all over California had converged on this house - people from Oakland, LA & San Diego. There were multiple bedrooms and many communal areas of the house to hang out. We had a small room to ourselves with 2 twin beds. Xaelen slept happily 1 night with daddy and 1 night with mommy, until we realized -Doh! Let's put the dang beds together and make a king sized bed for us all to share.

The food at this house was amazing. Everyone pitched in and we gorged on ribs with all the fixins the 1st night, a giant roast pork with all the fixins the 2nd night, a turducken (for those not in the know, that's a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken. - I really thought it was a gross concept, but on my plate, it looked much like a thanksgiving day turkey and tasted lovely). Large communal breakfasts were had as well. Eggs, bacon, and french toast the 1st morning. Home baked blueberry muffins and banana bread, with grits and gumbo on the 2nd morning. And something that we missed on the 3rd morning. Poor Adam ate virtually nothing. As most of you know, he doesn't eat meat and this was pretty much a meat-fest. I tried making him plates of this and that, but suffice it to say, my poor husband fasted the entire time. Overall it was a wonderful adventure. Xaelen loved being surrounded by people who would play catch with him, read to him and basically oooh & aaah over him. He loves being the center of attention and he was certainly just that.

The actual evening of New Years eve, I was so horrendously nauseated (I swear, I don't know why they call it morning sickness as I never feel sick in the morning). I went to bed with Xaelen around 7pm and awoke at 11:55pm to ring in the New Year with all the intoxicated folks at the other end of the house. At about 12:07am, I was back in bed, toasty and warm next to my favorite little man. I would have been quite content to ring in the New Year in bed with my snoring toddler next to me, but I felt compelled to put in an appearance at the party down the hall . It's hard being around drunk people when you are completely sober. For starters, drunk people are loud. Lord knows, I'm loud when I'm drunk. But somehow it seems so much louder when sober. Another issue with sobriety and being around intoxication is how hard it is for me to relate to people. They are all on this communal high from the champagne and cocktails, and I'm on a totally different page.

The next day, New Years day, we got up early (not by choice - but Xaelen is a 6am riser no matter when he goes to bed), packed up the car and headed back in a Southerly direction. We made many stops along the way, as traveling with a toddler is not as quick a process as one would hope. We saw friends along the way and finally made it home around 6pm with Xaelen totally freaking out in the backseat. I think the kid finally had enough. He was tired and bored and annoyed at being in his carseat for the last 2 hours. He was ecstatic to be home and immediately ran around picking up all his stray balls around the house and throwing them with vigor. He slept well last night and ran to our bedroom at his usual 6am(ish) time slot to have his booby time.

Ah. It's good to be home.