Round Two!

     Second blog update, and I still haven't a clue as to what I am doing. I suppose I will treat this like a journal or diary. However, rather than Diary of a Wimpy Kid, it will be more like Diary of a Neurotic Mom of Two Who Would Like to Lose Ten Pounds but Refuses to get on the Treadmill...or something like that.  Though now it might be more like 15 pounds. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE all of the goodies that people make during Christmas, and if the food is in my house I am certainly going to eat it. I wouldn't want to offend anyone. This year when I was with a group of my girlfriends I sort of made a public service announcement. I told them I would NOT be making them any candy, so please don't feel like they needed to make me anything. That is when I was informed that there are many who actually ENJOY making 14 different types of goodies.  I decided to make this announcement last year when people kept popping up at my door with the most beautiful arrangements. Homemade fudge, numerous goodies in a basket or on a beautiful ceramic candy cane plate (was I supposed to actually keep that plate?) and a book tucked in there for each child. This sort of made my pretzels dipped in white chocolate on a paper plate secured with Press and Seal seem rather lame. So this year I made nothing to deliver. Nada. I still got the delicious goodies, five more pounds of muffin top, and now I feel even more lame for not reciprocating. And the one who gave me the most goodies is the same one who gave me a thong for a Dirty Santa present...I think a theme is emerging. Seriously, we all complain about gaining weight during the holidays. Shouldn't we be delivering a six-pack of Slim-Fast and a bottle of Tums instead? In all seriousness, I appreciate the goodies immensely. I'm a southern girl and food is a sign of love. I'm going to start planning something for next year that is going to blow their socks off. And maybe if I can make all my friends bigger, I will look smaller. I could be on to something.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas with your families. Some of you are probably giving a big sigh of relief that now you can finally relax, while others are getting ready for Round Two with the other side of the family. I happen to be in the latter category, which is why I just made three dishes to stick in the fridge for tomorrow and why I am awake and fidgety. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We had a wonderful Prime Rib prepared by my grandmother or "Gram" for dinner, and then we all gathered around for a story about baby Jesus, a story about our Christmas elf, and The Night Before Christmas. Of course during The Night Before Christmas there were vomiting noises made while "threw up the sash" was read. Okay, and yes, it was actually me making the noises. But it's a family tradition. My cousin and I began doing that years ago after we got struck with the stomach virus for two Christmases. Is it immature? Yes. But I'm 39, and it's still quite funny. All in all it was a pretty "Normal Rockwell-ish" evening, other than the fact that my four-year-old kept talking like a gangster for no reason I could determine, and he also became fascinated by something in the elf story and blurted out "Dang," in front of my grandparents. My seven-year-old is over the "reading out loud" thing, so he spiced things up with different accents, but other than that, things were pretty calm. They awoke early Christmas morning, we all went to see what Santa had brought, and everyone was happy. But right after the last present was opened, something sort of odd happened. While sitting on the couch, I passed right out on top of the dog for almost two hours. I'm not talking about a normal nap. I mean the kind where one minute you are awake and the next you are out like you have been given some sort of narcotic. I wouldn't be surprised if drooling was involved. All I can figure, which I am sure is common with most moms, is that I was mentally and physically DONE. All the shopping, all the preparation, wrapping, planning, Christmas cards, cooking, etc., and we CAN'T stop. No matter how tired we get or how bad that sinus infection gets, Christmas is still coming. So we go and go and go, until we collapse. And I suppose that's what I did today.  So for all of you who have happy kids playing with their new toys, and you can now kick back and relax...congratulations and job well done! Relax and enjoy the fact that there is nothing you have to do. (It's totally acceptable for Christmas decor to stay up until January 1.) And for the rest of us...let's get crackin'!!! But I do think a glass of wine might be involved in tomorrow's celebration:)

Merry Christmas everyone!
Melissa