ho, ho, ho and merry december!
it's been a busy month already and we're barely half way through.
the final Fancy Flea of 2023 took place in a town just 10 miles away from us on the first saturday of december. luckily our basketball games didn't start until noon so i drug chris up the road when the show first opened at 9 and we had a delightful time visiting all the vendors. my mission was to find a christmas present for my sister in law in alabama and i'm happy to say that mission was accomplished. i made a vow last year that i'd attend every fancy flea in 2023 and i almost accomplished it - only missed 1 - so i feel good about how i brought a little more balance into my life by doing things that *i* like.
we made it back into town just in time for the game. for once we didn't have to pick up the kids and the ex because, wonder of wonder - miracle of miracles, she now has access to a car and can transport the kids when it's her weekend rather than have us drive out of our way to go get all of them and cart them around.
and it's actually not all that much out of our way anymore since they moved back in with her mother right before thanksgiving but that's a whole 'nother story.
we had a lot of basketball games on that day - J had 2 and C had 1 and we weren't out of the ymca until after 3 but, although we didn't know it at the time, that was the end of our ymca basketball experience. the season lasted until the 16th but we were out of town the following weekend and then the ex decided to take the kids to a birthday party rather than basketball this past saturday so they never got to play again.
i wouldn't say that i'm happy there's no more basketball...oh hell yeah, i'm ecstatic there's no more basketball!!!
last saturday we got up at dark o'clock to head to alabama to visit my family and watch my brother in his 41st performance of the nutcracker.
i look forward to this every year! last year i had to go alone because chris chose basketball over me; this year he made a wiser choice.
but before we got to the ballet we stopped by my brother and sister-in-law's house so that she could put on a wonderful, decadent afternoon tea for c and me and my little sister, lisa.
there was so much food and it was all delicious and i wanted to honor all the effort she'd put into the afternoon so i ate a little of everything which turned out to be more than a little too much. i was fine during the performance but i got little sleep as i was sick at the motel that night and then felt like crud on the very long, 7 hour drive back home the next day. it was all worth it though, i do love a good road trip, i love seeing my family and i wouldn't miss my brother's performance for anything. it was a short visit, just overnight, but even a short road trip is better than no road trip at all. i do love to travel.
i was still feeling pretty poorly as i worked from home on monday. i needed to be close to town so that we could go to c's last middle school basketball game at 5pm. it was an away game and it was clear the school had a lot of money (more than c's school) but for some reason they couldn't put any of that money into getting their basketball net fixed.
the game went by pretty quickly and c's team lost which means they lost every game this season except the one where the other team forfeited. c seemed to take it all in stride and ended the season happy to have participated. i don't know if she'll do it again next year but right now she's almost as happy as i am that we're through with basketball.
we were going to stay for the first half of the varsity game as required (all jv have to sit through half of the varsity game to cheer them on) but all of a sudden i felt a ton of cold water going down my back because the lady standing behind me had spilled her beverage. it was an unpleasant feeling and although she offered to get some paper towels, chris just said that we were leaving and i certainly didn't object.
and now, with basketball and road trips behind us, we're heading full-steam into the christmas season. we've done most, if not all of our shopping, and even have the holiday ham in the house so i'm not feeling much pressure. i'm going to have a hot cocoa bar set up with crockpot hot chocolate and little bowls of toppings (like mini marshmallows and crushed up candy canes and whipped cream) all around. c has asked if we could have the grinch punch we had at our wedding (green hawaiian punch, sprite, pineapple juice and lime sherbet) so i'll have already mixed up so we can all help ourselves during the day.
because of custody arrangements, we have the kids on christmas day from 10-6 then they go back to their mother to spend the first week of winter break with her. we will get them the following week which includes new years eve so i found a fun party to go to with dancing and a fireworks display. i plan on dancing my booty off, haven't done that in years but i'm more than ready to party my way into 2024.
then i'll work from home the first week in january until the little angels go back to school. i've found that the key to having a successful week of kid vacation is menu planning so i've already mapped out meals for the 10 days and have a grocery store order ready to pick up later this week so that i will have all the food in the house and won't have to drag a couple of kids around the store while i really should be working.
so here's to the next couple of weeks, may we all survive and have a very merry christmas.
