December 26

Hope you all had a joyful holiday!

Remember me?

I know it's been a while. We've had quite a week... three holiday class party (that I volunteered to plan - what was I thinking!?!), a brownies holiday party, playgroup holiday party, brownies retirement home caroling (yes, separate from the holiday party)... shopping, wrapping, getting ready for out of town visitors over the weekend... it's been a whirlwind of pre-Christmas exhaustion.

But now it's Monday. The kids are home on break and we have no company for now... and while I have cookies to bake for Josh's office party, a smidge of wrapping left to complete, and a run to the grocery store on the agenda for today, it feels eerily un-busy compared to what we've been juggling.

Wishing everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

(And, as promised, some pics from Riley's gymnastics holiday performance!)...

'Tis the season to be busy!

Forgive my lack of blogging... but this may just be the BUSIEST holiday season I can remember. With three children and their activities, school, parties, sports, it's been hard to keep up. Add to that Josh's new position at AIG and travel over Thanksgiving and my family fun night planning, and we're about 2 weeks behind schedule where Christmas is concerned. I'm sure it will all get done, as it always does, but it's crunch-time.

In other news, Quinn made the transition to his new big boy bed last week. He's been fantastic. Here are a couple of cute pics.

I'll have more pictures shortly... some of Riley at her gymnastics holiday performance that i haven't downloaded yet but are adorable!

... and now - Christmas!

Did you hear that? That big sigh? Oh that was me. Because my family fun night event is OVER! After lots of work and hours and phone calls and planning and math (ticket sales, deposits, making sure we stay under budget - and people, math is NOT my strong suit), and decorating, and shopping, and runningback and forth to the school almost everyday... it's OVER! And even better, it was another huge success. I am patting myself (and Shanna!) on the back for this one...

So now I move onto Christmas.

What we've been up to...

Let's see... Quinn's Thanksgiving Day program at school, Wiggles Live!, a visit to the firestation with the playgroup, a night out in Columbus with my best friends from high school, and a trip to see Santa.

And now we rest... NOT... because we also have Bascomb Family Fun Night (why did I volunteer to chair this position for the pta again!?!), Christmas shopping and baking, holiday parties for school and cub scouts/brownies, Riley's holiday gymnastics performance, Conor's basketball games, Josh's new position at AIG, and our general crazy life. :)

Catching my breath

Wow - it's been a whirlwind November at our house. I can hardly believe we'll be heading north to celebrate Thanksgiving in just 10 days!!!

Conor has finished up his baseball season and started basketball. Riley is still focused on gymnastics, and Quinn is FINALLY potty-trained! Life is good! I'm busy with my first Bascomb family fun night event of the year (I co-chair) and staying busy with our playgroup and book club, and running as usual.

And in case you think I have it all under control, I'm sharing a picture of Quinn I took this morning. I heard him yell "mom, help me" and this is what I found.

RAK

Kristen, this is a random (well sort of random) act of kindness in response to your blog... my gift to the world today is a smile at my expense. So here you go.

Josh was the "mystery" reader in Conor's class today, so he was at the school and came home earlier than he normally would. Quinn was napping, so in honor of the BEAUTIFUL day, I decided to take Nesta for a nice walk. I was armed with a poop bag and a leash, and off we went. Well, of course, about oh 1 minute into our walk, the poop bag was full. Oh well, happily I continue to stroll along, talking to my mom on my cell phone as I walk, poop bag bouncing all around in my hand. Until things started to get stinky... like abnormally stinky for a closed and tied bag of dog poop. I continue to chat with my mom and look down. Oh my.

Of course, in my pantry STOCKED with stupid plastic bags that I don't throw away, I picked the one with a hole in it... and my half-hour of walking with this plastic bag filled with dog poop with a hole in it has bounced back and forth onto my pant legs for the entire time. I was covered in dog poop and about a mile from my house. The horror. The fear - please don't let someone I know walk by enjoying this beautiful fall day and want to stop to chat.

So I walked in record time, back home, to Josh who I thought just might pee his pants when I showed him my jeans and told him the story.

Later at dinner, I said something, and he looked at me and said "okay poopy pants." The kids think it's awfully funny. For me it was just awful. So instead of hiding in my shame, I'm coming out with it. Can't get much kinder than this - I know you're laughing, whoever you are. :)