I mentioned that this Christmas did not turn out quite as we had planned. Matt, Steve, and I were able to make it to Atlantic Tuesday night, and I think I'm glad that we did that. The weather just went downhill from there. Jake and Emily were supposed to arrive sometime Christmas Eve evening, but because of the weather they didn't make it out of Cedar Falls all week. Boo. It's not like I didn't enjoy the time with Nana and Papa. And I'm sure they enjoyed all of the extra Steve-time they got. I just like spending time with Jake and Emily and it happens so rarely that when our plans are foiled, I feel a bit cheated. Oh well.
Steve's first Christmas was wonderful. Santa came and brought me new Uggs slippers, Matt the Nirvana "Live at Reading" CD/DVD, Papa a fleece Hawkeye blanket, Nana a new winter coat, and Steve a sock monkey. It has been aptly named "Monkey". There were many other presents opened after that. We didn't actually get to go to church on Christmas Eve because of the weather. I suppose we could have ventured out and gone to the Catholic service, but I think it was a better idea that we stayed in. Christmas night we had a quiet dinner with one of Nana's and Papa's neighbors, John. We even sent some food home with him; since we had been planning to have a houseful, we had plenty.
We also didn't get to see Uncle Phillip and Aunt Karen. They were snowed in completely, plus Uncle Phillip had cows he needed to feed and Aunt Karen had to work because other people couldn't get in (I believe she arrived at work on a big piece of heavy equipment, thanks to Uncle Phillip). Hopefully, the next time we head to Iowa we will be able to see them.
Christmas with Grandma Jean happened the Sunday before Christmas, before the Norse Invasion occurred. Steve was also spoiled by her. His best present was his first baseball bat and tee. He can hit it with his hands or use the bat when he gets a little older. He didn't really find it all that interesting, but Eli sure did! It has been appropriately broken-in and is now ready for Steve! Grandma headed out to Alexandria to spend Christmas with Uncle Josh, Aunt Teri, Cam and Sasha. It sounds like they had a ton of fun! We missed them too but maybe we'll see them this spring?
Steve's big present from Matt and I this year is going to be swimming lessons. We (mostly I) don't want him to be afraid of the water when summer comes. The pool temperature never really gets warm so that will also hinder his enjoyment if he isn't prepared. Some friends of ours hooked me up with Mrs. Mac in Kenosha who has a pool at her house and does lessons there. From what I can tell, it starts out more as survival lessons and moves into swimming lessons the older the kids get. I'm excited. Steve doesn't scream any more during bath time, so I hope that's a sign of good things to come at lessons! The trick will be keeping him awake, or waking him up gently when we get there so he doesn't freak out. We'll post pictures and/or videos, I'm sure.
Finally, some New Year's Resolutions. Matt got me a subscription to Parents Magazine for Christmas. I joked with Steve the other night that I needed to read it to become a better mom. Mostly, I am just looking for ideas. One of the ideas that I got was doing something every day of the upcoming year. One of the suggestions was making a different slow-cooker meal. That's not going to happen in our house. Matt is opposed to the idea of meal planning. That's a completely different topic for a different post. Another suggestion that I liked was to take a family picture every day. So, I think we're going to try it. (As if I need more to do each day!) I can't promise that all of the pictures will be posted here, but we will post them to the Picasa site. However, to make it easier on us, we'll only be allowed to take the photo once, maybe twice if it is absolutely terrible. This way we won't spend forever trying to get the perfect shot. Not only will we have plenty of photos to choose from for next year's Christmas card, we'll have a daily account of Steve's growth and changes.
The other resolution I have is to work back into a low-carb diet/lifestyle. Breast feeding won't last forever which means I'll need to find a different way of keeping the weight off. I'm not really good with exercising (and honestly, I really don't have the time for it right now), so I have to watch what I eat. This will mean big changes in Matt's diet as well. I'm sure he'll fill you in on his opinions of that.
We'll be spending a quiet evening at Brigid's tomorrow to ring in the new year. It's hard to believe that just a year ago, we were telling all of our friends and families that we would be welcoming a new member of our family. How life changes...
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