Hello? Is anyone still out there? What day is it? Am I at work or home...or both? These days...it's usually both. I can tell you were I am not yet...in my Christmas happy spot. The place I typically park right after Thanksgiving and idle with the Christmas radio station on until New Years day forces me to put it in drive and head into the new year. I'm not there yet, but I've driven by it a few times, even pulled in once or twice.
This year the lines between home and work, Christmas and work, vacation and work, family and work...everything and work are blurred. Terribly blurred. It's the worst case scenario for a working momma who loves her career but her family more. Who works to live, but does not live to work. I've made choices in my career to prevent this from happening too often, I've happily taken myself off the fast track and enjoyed the mommy track much much better. So while this year is frustrating, what with the blurry tracks and all...it will pass. And as I said, it's not like I haven't told work to take a hike while I stole some Christmas happy spot days...
Like the annual Christmas Cookie Extravaganza. And this year ALL the mommas were in the hizzouse!
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And speaking of mommas...a couple of those stolen Christmas moments have been all about the "mommaness."
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| Lots and Lots of momma smiles up in here! |
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| BFF Mommas:) |
But I digress....the Christmas Cookie Extravaganza! In it's second year, it emerged as a much more organized event. When making 900 + cookies, it turns out it's not a great idea to wing it or go with the flow, which is what we did last year. And after 10 hours of mixing, rolling, baking & frosting...we hit the showers like some very tire, sore athletes.
Not so this year. We took the play book and executed the day flawlessly. Start:
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| Man your stations! Pretty aprons required. |
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| Perfectly clean pallets for a budding artist. |
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To finish. Perfect smells of peanut butter and sugar. Melted chocolate and wine. Pickle dip and turkey supreme on the sidelines like Gatorade...giving the cooks a quick boost before moving on to monster cookies, Russian tea cakes, sugar cookies, ginger snaps, those amazing Ritz crackers/peanut butter/almond bark thingies. What are those called? Anyway, If I could have bottled up the smell of my home Saturday, I'd spray it on every damn day. The rest of my stolen moments away from "the man" look like this: First and foremost...snowy. |
Cozy...
Brunchy...
Wrappy...
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| Betty the bulldog is baby Calvin's puppy dog girlfriend next door. Gamey... |
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Too sleepy to get off my horsey...
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| Liam is always on the cutting edge of toddler fashion. And just really really freaking happy. |
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And today, I brought my toddler to work on a day off to make sure a spreadsheet got done. It's done...I'm done. I've got my Christmas socks on and I'm parked in my happy holiday spot. I'm not moving...not for anyone. |
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The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~Burton Hillis |
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