I have completely lost track of what day it is but we had a wonderful Christmas Day and a weekend filled with new toys, good movies, home cooked meals and one last holiday gathering. I only have a million photos 😜

We spent Christmas Eve morning at Joey’s aunt and uncle’s, eating blina, playing with all their Disney toys and trying to get four children to look at the camera at the same time 😂 Later on, we had Grandma Lori over for cookie baking, dinner and 8-Bit Christmas. Before kiddo bedtime, we checked the chimney, then set out cookies, eggnog and… a trap for Santa?? 😂😂

Merry Christmas!! The kids slept in, can you believe it? You should’ve seen the look of disappointment on Dempsey’s face when he realized he didn’t catch Santa in his trap 😂 He eventually recovered though and we all got some great gifts, including a voice changer, a record player, headphones for both babies, earbuds for me, a new jacket for Joey and tickets to Monster Jam for all of us! Dempsey is getting so good at taking our family photos for us, using the tripod and timer 🥺🤍

After Lydia’s nap, we headed over to my parents’ for Round 2 of presents. Feeling so spoiled 🥰 Lydia got a baby carrier for her Bitty Baby and such cute shoes and clothes. Dempsey got some light up gloves that are the perfect gift for him, plus a Bluey watch and his first set of Lincoln Logs! They also both got their own kid-size yoga mats 🥺 My mom knocked it out of the park with dinner. Lydi loves prime rib apparently! Meanwhile, Dempsey ate NOTHING 😳 It was so nice having my aunt and cousin in town to celebrate with us. Lydia told Emily, “scuse me, Aunt Tricia,” which is wrong but also so cute! I want them to come every year 😋

Scenes from Friday and Saturday, including Mom and Dad returning to work but skipping out early to see A Complete Unknown, which I absolutely loved! I never miss a Chalamet opening weekend (except for Wonka 😋) and it’s always worth it. He’s transcendent! We also made messes and cleaned up messes and made more messes all weekend with our new Christmas toys, ate some homecooked meals and started prepping for vacation! Joey and Dempsey went to the Nuggets game and had a great time. When they got home, I asked Dempsey if the Nuggets won and he turned around and asked Joey if the Nuggets won, so he really is my son 😂 Oh and Joey and I watched I Saw the TV Glow and even though I had to look up what it meant afterward, it was tonally like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I’m still thinking about it days later!

A Sunday morning Christmas celebration! Dempsey had just enough time to finish his puzzle before we left then needed to pose like the skeleton, which means Lydia also needed to 😂 We had a great time at Grandma’s and the kids and adults were all so spoiled by presents 🥰 Dempsey has been really into his air tube toy and you know Lydia was super excited about her car from Chaddy! We had a chill rest of the day. I got 80% packed and felt really good about it. Made us some chicken tzatziki wraps for dinner, got the kids to bed then took down all the Christmas decorations. We warned Dempsey beforehand but he still was not pleased this morning 😬 I’m trying to keep my head straight while we work, celebrate New Year’s and leave for vacation this week. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

So if a packed December calendar, my daughter’s 2nd birthday, Christmas preparations, the stomach flu and a cold for the entire family wasn’t enough, I was diagnosed with shingles yesterday! It’s going really well over here 😅 In all seriousness, it sounds like I caught it early and I’m really hopeful that the anti-viral medication I’m on means it will be as quick and painless as possible. And we had an otherwise, really nice weekend.

We went to Dempsey’s class party Friday afternoon then picked Lydia up from Grandma Lori’s and went home for a quick dinner. Steak and baked potatoes for the adults, spaghetti and meatballs for the kids. Lydia stole my wagyu! Afterward, we picked up hot chocolates and went out to look at Christmas lights. My favorite 🤍 We saw a couple of really decked out houses in Englewood, a light show that both kids loved and ended at “the house on the hill” in Arvada.

Saturday was our one down day, hallelujah! I made us all buttermilk pancakes and honestly, why do I ever make anything else? Afterward, I took Dempsey to a make up swim lesson and it was so nice to watch him without also chasing Lydia around 😅 We hit up the grocery store, then headed back home for present wrapping (Lydi helped by wrapping herself 😂) and then my cousin Emily, who’s in town with my aunt for Christmas, came over to see us. We ordered in Beau Thai for all of us and just hung out until the littles went to bed. It was very chill and very nice 🤍

Sunday we had breakfast and hung out for a bit before taking a walk to the park. Dempsey set up that little scene with the gnomes and told us it was a movie 😂😍 During our walk, I decided I might go into urgent care for this little patch of red bumps that had shown up on my upper thigh at the end of the week. I was worried it was maybe a spider bite or something and my sister said I should at least go in and make sure it wasn’t shingles. She called it! When I described how it showed up, the doctor had basically already diagnosed it and then when he saw it, he confirmed it was indeed shingles. Fun! I’m not going to lie, my heart was beating so hard when he told me. I have Christmas plans and a vacation coming and two small children, I don’t have time for shingles! But I’m feeling better about it now. Fingers crossed that it doesn’t blister while I’m attempting to wear a bathing suit in Hawaii 🤞

As a good distraction from my distraction, we had my family over last night for a real casual Christmas celebration. Dempsey was enamored with my nephew and they basically spent the whole evening hanging out together, it was too cute! I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas 🎅🤶🎄🎁✨