You Be The Mom: December 2019

Lots of people are posting end-of-decade retrospectives, and while it's true that a lot has changed for me over the last 10 years (moving, two children, buying a house, new friends, hard losses); I don't have the energy to do a thoughtful post about these years. At least not today, the morning after Clare had a sleepover with a friend and someone was doing donuts in the parking lot next door at 2:30 in the morning.

So, I'll stick to recapping the highlights of the last two months.

November was busy with birthday parties, girl scouts, swimming lessons, basketball (Christopher) and of course, Thanksgiving. I also had my Fall girls' weekend away, which was relaxing and much-needed. We spent the entire Saturday of our weekend in our pajamas watching movies. Hard to go wrong.

Christopher's basketball skills have greatly improved since I last wrote! He is dribbling much better. He liked it enough to sign up for the next session this winter. He is also very into Minecraft and Legoes right now. (Lucky kid got five new Lego sets for Christmas.)

Clare and I went to Feed My Starving Children with her Girl Scout troop. It was a great service project, and I am hoping Clare got something out of helping others. The girls also earned their snack badge and their pets badge. Clare is bargaining hard for a cat (have I written about her presentation? Yeah, she did an entire presentation, complete with chore schedule). I am resisting, for now. It is hard to say no. Clare is playing soccer again this winter, but it is only once a week. She was thrilled with the polaroid camera Santa brought her for Christmas, and has been taking many pictures. (She also got Legoes and doll stuff.)

Thanksgiving was here. It went well, and Ben's aunt even emailed me to say it was the best Thanksgiving dinner she'd eaten. I'll take it. Ben took the kids to deliver Meals on Wheels on Thanksgiving morning. This was great for me. It was less great for them, because it wasn't very well organized. At least they tried to do something service-oriented!

December was busy with the usual Christmas festivities. I struggle this time of year. It is fun, and I enjoy the parties and buying gifts, but the emotional load is a lot. I am kind of glad it is over, even though I always feel a bit said when I take down the decorations.

The kids slept over at Aunt Katie and Uncle Andrew's one night this month, so Ben and I got to go to a Christmas party and out for a drink. It was lovely. We also went out to a fancy hotel for my friend Cindi's 40th - the Hewing Hotel in the North Loop in Minneapolis. We had a babysitter and took an Uber, so Ben and I went a little wild. Wild for us, anyway. It was fun to see old college friends.

We also had the Exley family party, a Rae Lane North cookie decorating party, my "Office" party (day drinking with friends) and my friend Sarah's Hot Drinks party. There were also all of the family Christmas celebrations, which actually aren't totally over yet. We had a nice time. We're spending New Year's Eve and New Year's Day just the four of us. I am looking forward to some quiet family time.

And now we are moving on to 2020. It seems impossible, but here we are.

Found on my phone. Or maybe my mom's phone.

Clare and I at my friend Anna's birthday party. We packed boxes for a food shelf.

Clare, in a dog cage!!!! She has come a long way with her fear of dogs. This was when she was working on her pet badge at the Humane Society.

Cousins seeing Frozen II on a snow day. (Clare: "The third grade girls all decided we are not into Frozen any more, but we all want to see Frozen II." Okay then.)