Saturday, January 16, 2010

Promises made, promises kept.

Well already my promise to blog more regularly has failed. Let's not call it a failure, let's call it a "change in focus of management responsibilities". Yeah, that sounds better. Hmm, maybe my many years as a people manager has paid off?

All I know is that the last 3 weeks since Christmas has been crazy. We count down all year until Christmas, then it comes and goes, and the next weeks plug on as if nothing ever happened. Jordan is already asking when it's going to be Christmas again, meanwhile I am thankful I have another year to save up the $ and try to budget in advance (which I always say I will but never do) for next year.

Among the many things I have been thankful for over the holidays, and beginning the new year, is the fact the each year I think I "get it" a little bit more. It may have been a good thing in some ways to have been married 10 years before having a baby, and at the same time it may have been to my detriment. As an adult I think I got used to the fact that I knew how much to spend / what to expect from the holidays. The last 3 years have turned my little "world" upside down. I wouldn't trade it for the world, but I wish I could have done it sooner. Not that I didn't try (as those of you who know me are aware), it just wasn't meant to be. Yet again, I believe that things happen for a reason. There must be a lesson I am supposed to learn from all of this. The "getting it" a little more aludes to the fact that I plan a little better, and budget a little better, and try to make the holidays more about my family than I ever did before.

Jordan's birthday is just about a month away. I have been contemplating what big bash birthday party I can do with all of his cousins, extended family on all sides, etc. Since my focus this year is really to get my family (Duane, Jordan and I) more together I think I might opt for a simpler party idea.

He will be turning 3 next month and while he may remember it, I don't know that he needs some big bash at a party place that isn't really even focused on him. I think I may just do cake/ice cream with the different family groups and then spend the money I would have spent on a big party doing something with Duane, Jordan and I. It is (after all) Jordan's birthday, and his cousins are all so much older than he is. I would rather have a great day with the 3 of us than spend a million dollars making other people happy.

Just the ramblings of a mom who has had too little sleep and who thinks too much about things. I am sure I'm not the only one, but just thought I'd share. If you wonder why you aren't getting an invite to Chuck E Cheese's this year, just remember: it's probably the last year it won't matter to Jordan. And it's probably the last year I'll have him to myself (I mean to ourselves) :-)

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Today was by far my very best Christmas EVER! To have Jordan be so "into" Santa this year has enhanced my experience 1 million times! I shopped til I almost dropped, and still bought absolutely nothing for myself this year. That's the first time I can say that, at least in the last 20+ years. (Wow, I am old enough to do a 20+ years reference?...dang!)

Santa brought Jordan everything he asked for, which was "A backhoe, a shop vac, and a birthday cake". Asked for...received! He couldn't have been happier. I am so glad that this year (which will be the last I think) we were able to beat him out to the gifts and videotape his reaction to the spread. He was so thankful! He said several times "Santa brought everything I ever wanted". Check out some of the pics.









Oh man, once he got that chainsaw, all bets were off. He needed to "use" it to open every gift, and proceeded to show us all the correct way to stand when wielding a chainsaw. Thanks to Grandpa Waddoups, he knows (I guess, I had no idea about appropriate chainsaw handling).

That's a very long story short, but the reader's digest version is that he got the behemoth backhoe he "has always wanted", and pretty much everything else ever imagined. Between Santa, Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, the Aunts & Chris & Kara...that kid is spoiled. There may be no way to possibly recover from it! He woke up at 7:30 and didn't stop until 4:30, at which point he fell asleep HARD, until almost 9. Luckily he played so much that at 11 he was asleep again.

As I've said before he is and will always be the best thing I have ever done in my life. He couldn't have been sweeter today, telling everyone "Thanks so much for the wonderful presents everyone". I wish I could take the credit for how well mannered and cute he is, but he honestly came to us this way. My job is to just enhance that and not mess it up :-)

That last photo is him, passed out at 4:30, with a table of his gifts in the living room. Luckily we had "parked" the 6 foot long backhoe in the garage. He informed me today that he has a lot of work to do in the yard with that backhoe tomorrow...I hope I have the energy for that. Thanks Santa!