Our twelve days of STL Christmas

Considering it’s been a month now since we were back in the midwest for the holidays, I figured it was time to get off my arse and post these photos.  As I begin to write this, C is currently asleep next to me on the sofa and M is running laps around the playroom, flitting from one thing to the next.  This is what life looks like around here at 4:30pm – polar opposite children in their respective elements.

So, without further ado…

The Hubs had to work a few days when we first got into town so we spent our first day back with Auntie J and Baby Z, and the afternoon at The Magic House.

This was C’s favorite – the play vet clinic.  She threw a full-on tantrum on the floor when we had to move on to the next area, claiming that the doggies didn’t want her to leave.

The next day I took the girls to Grandma and Grandpa’s new house for some baking.  My parents just moved back to the STL area this past summer, which makes for easily-shared time with both sides of the fam.

I will admit that I had a bit of a food agenda while in the ‘Lou.  There are certain things that STL is really good at and that I’ve missed terribly, that we’ve been unable to find out here in SoCal.  Pizza, for one thing.  Non-chain, good quality, unique pizza.  The Hubs brought home Dewey’s Pizza one night for dinner.  Oh how I love that man!  We also got Imo’s Pizza takeout for lunch one day.  Hmmm… so good!

Frozen custard is another STL speciality.  We met up with my old college roommate after dinner one night and headed to South City to Ted Drewe’s for custard.  I ordered The Big Apple, which is a slice of apple pie all blended up into vanilla frozen custard.  Two words here people: PIE CRUST.  I do believe it has surpassed my previous favorite, The Great Pumpkin (pumpkin pie slice with custard), but either way those big chunks of pie crust get me every time.

We were also able to get a couple of date nights in, for which we were LONG overdue.  Fulfilling yet another restaurant request on my list, we had a lovely dinner at Acero in Maplewood, where my fabulous brother-in-law waited on us and as always, showed off his mad skills.  I tell you, that guy loves what he does and he easily shines as top notch against all of the other servers there.  After that long and leisurely dinner, we opted for a late movie.  A 10:15 showing of Lincoln.  Which is a a two and a half hour movie.  I will admit here, as embarrassed as I am about it, that I slept through most of the movie.  That had absolutely NOTHING to do with the movie, but that fact that I cannot do late movies anymore.  I don’t know what I was thinking, because it’s no different at home either, so I think we’ve learned our lesson.

We spent Christmas Eve brunch at Nanny’s new place with all the Hub’s siblings and their families and did a little gift opening.

And then did our traditional Christmas Eve later that day with the Hubs family at Papa’s house.

We wear our red lipstick so well, wouldn’t you agree?

The Hubs’ Secret Santa (his brother, Jeff) bestowed upon him whiskey and chocolate – PERFECT!

M enjoying snuggles with cousin, Dylan.

CANNOLI!!!

Poor C hit a wall and was so sleepy.  She hung in there probably a good hour and a half past her limit…what a trooper!

It just wouldn’t be a family get-together without some live music.  We have some amazingly talented family members!

On Christmas morning we explained to the girls that Santa had made a few stops for them. We opened gifts at Papa’s and then headed over to Grandma and Grandpa’s for Christmas, where we stayed for the remainder of our trip.

While at my parents’ house we had a chance to get together with aunts, uncles and cousins on my mom’s side for an afternoon.  To round out our food fest we also visited nearby historic Kimmswick, MO for lunch at The Blue Owl, which is known for its Levee-High Apple Pie.  I personally opted for a slice of peach crumble, but the Hubs took in the famed slice, if you can even call it that.  The lemon meringue that my mom ordered wasn’t exactly tiny either.

The girls were very excited that we were able to see a bit of the white stuff while in town.  We had a couple of inches of snow on the ground and more still coming down as we headed out one evening for dinner with friends to Trattoria Marcella in South City.

Aside from M boycotting all public potties for the entire day of travel on the way to STL (that girl has a steel bladder) the girls were fantastic travelers yet again, and all in all it was a great trip.  We were excited to get back home though, to our Jenna-dog and to a few lazy days of just the four of us before 2013 kicked into high gear.

2013

Yoo hoo?  Anybody home?

Yes, I’m still here.  My extensive hiatus from blogland for the past month or so can be attributed to a twelve-day trip to STL for the holidays.  Yep, TWELVE days.  It was awesome to spend so much time with family and friends and enjoy a nice dusting of snow.  But the planning, packing, shipping (UPS adores me), dog-boarding process just to get us out the door on December 18th and back to SoCal on the 30th led to very little free time to sit, let alone write.  I have much to say and show about our trip but for today I’m focusing on this new year we seem to find ourselves in, the fourth day now to be exact.

Where did 2012 go?  A year ago at this time we were facing a new year with so much uncertainty, about to move to the west coast and experience very different lives – for all four of us, both together and individually.  To a degree, I feel a bit the the same now in looking forward to 2013.  Will we still be in SoCal come year-end?  Will I be stepping back into the work-outside-of-the-home world?  What will life with four-year-olds bring?  It’s been one hell of a fantastic, busy year.

And I am tired.  Worn out.  Spent.

On New Years Day, everyone here was in their pajamas until at least lunchtime and I did something so completely rare for me – I SAT DOWN for most of the day and flipped through stacks of magazines that had been accumulating and repeatedly shifted from pile to pile of what needs to be “dealt with”.  The girls played, the Hubs was fully immersed in football and by goodness I sat on my arse and enjoyed every stinkin’ minute of it.  My busy-ness is partially due to necessity of basic household responsibility and taking care of the girls, but I will admit that the great majority of it is totally self-created.  Lots of random little things on a to-do list – which is a good thing – but not so much when it consumes me and my ability to just chill out, enjoy some downtime and let go.  To know me well is to know that I don’t easily sit down and the I REALLY like being busy.  But the past couple of months I’ve just had enough.

As I’ve formulated my 2013 resolutions there are of course a few of the typical organizational type of things – update the girls’ baby books and mementos, get our massive collection of digital photos organized and into books, put away things once rather than shifting them from pile to pile and room to room.  But the overarching theme for my 2013 is to SLOW DOWN.  Give myself a break.  Sit with my girls and my husband more and just be.  Sleep when I’m tired rather than clock-watching to see how much I can get in before midnight.  Go for a run and NOT care about or even track my time and pace.  Hell, WALK every once in a awhile.  This will be hard for me but it just isn’t a good resolution if there isn’t some challenge in there, now is it?

Bring it 2013.  I’m ready for you.