We arrived home today after a weekend celebrating Christmas with my family. The dogs are happy to be reunited with us and we have a lot of work ahead to unpack, catch up on laundry and catch up on other housework.
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| Cousin McKenzie and baby Jaspyr |
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| Cousin-in-law Mallory, Kamdyn, Adyson and Cousin-in-law Wayne |
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| Sister Cathy and niece Brylea |
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| Brylea on Christmas with her two new purses |
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| Adyson the budding photographer |
Tomorrow we leave for Missouri so today Joe and I opened our stockings. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that we are like small children at times and already opened our larger Christmas gifts to each other. Of course we justified opening the other gifts by saving our stockings until right before we left town. We both got each other some fun things including new ornaments.
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| I adore the movie Up so when I first saw this ornament in a picture my friend Laura posted I knew this was my must-have ornament of the year. I had actually thought about telling Joe to please buy it for me but then thought maybe that wasn't the most polite thing to do so I never mentioned it. What an awesome surprise to find it in my stocking! |
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| If you know Joe, you know that he is obsessed with pizza. I'm sure he thinks it should be its own food group and the only thing one needs to eat on a regular basis. Obviously when I saw this slice of pizza ornament, I knew it would be perfect in our house and on our tree. |
I have come to realize there is a fine line between being flattered and being annoyed. For me, it's my age. I have gotten a lot of comments recently from people thinking I'm much younger than I am. And maybe if I was 64 instead of 34 that would be flattering but, at this point, I just want to be treated like an adult in my 30s.
A week or two ago, I had the UPS guy bring a package to my door and as I was signing he asked very seriously if I was old enough to sign. "You need to be 21," he said.
Last week my church hosted a ladies' Christmas brunch. While at the brunch, I met a lot of people I didn't know. I am not exagerating when I say most everyone I met that day for the first time asked if I was a college student...and they didn't mean graduate school.
Today Joe and I went to a movie. He usually gets the tickets at the window but today I picked them up...and I got carded for an R-rated movie. Tell me that I at least look 17. (The movie, by the way, was Young Adult...ironic, no?)
All of this to say that the fine line between being flattered and being annoyed has been officially crossed. Afterall, I have gray hair and a mortgage!
Tonight we went to a dessert party hosted by our neighbors two-doors-down. While this might not seem like a blog worthy post, it was a huge deal for Joe and I to receive this hand-delivered invitation. You see for more than a decade I have been a renter and when you are a renter, typically, you're not very connected to your neighbors...more so when you live in apartment complexes. Unless, of course, someone you went to school with from kindergarten through high school moves in next door (true story) or you move into a new apartment complex and realize a work associate/friend lives in the building across from you (true story)...those were such fun days that I have missed so much...but mostly I have gone through long periods not knowing neighbors and feeling very disconnected from the people who live near by. And now we have neighbors we know by name who actually pick up our newspapers if we leave town and forget to cancel them...it's wonderful!
Today Joe and I took the train downtown to go to the Christkindlmarket. This German Christmas market comes to Chicago for the month before Christmas. We went last year on Christmas Eve for the first time. It was so crowded we didn't look as much as I'd have liked but we did eat some really great German food.
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| Life-size nativity at the front of the market. |
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| Joe enjoying his hot chocolate on this cold and drizzly day. |
We have added a new member to the family just for the holiday season - our very own reindeer! Hmm...maybe we need to give this cutie a name. Any suggestions?
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| Unlike a real reindeer, this one smells really good. |
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