Happy Monday to everyone but the iPhone update, which erased my Christmas list and has forced me to exert brain power to remember everything we’ve already bought, everything we still need to buy and everything that didn’t make the cut this year but I was keeping for future occasions 🤪 Anyway, we had a really nice weekend that included our company holiday party, Lydia’s swim lesson and some downtime at home, seeing Frozen with the grandmothers and the kids and then, some one-on-one time with Dempsey while Lydia had her first sleepover at my parents’ 🥺❤️ Oh and Joey and I finished The Summer I Turned Pretty! Finally and never again!

Friday, I forced Dempsey to stop using his new little snow shovel (this kid loves to shovel 😂) and got him to school, then worked until Lori brought both kiddos home that afternoon. The three of us went to pick up dinner from King of Wings then got back home right before my sister and Wayne showed up to babysit. Then I headed out to our company holiday party. We’re a small group and the space was bigger than we needed — we all could’ve sat at our own table! — but it was a really nice time. I ditched out shortly after 8 PM because I promised Dempsey I would be home to put them to bed. They seemed to have had a nice night with Aunt Bean and Uncle Wayne ❤️

Saturday ended up being a really chill day. Joey made us gingerbread pancakes for breakfast and mid-morning we all headed out to Lydia’s swim lesson. It is CRAZY how different of an experience it is with her than with Dempsey. No fear, no anxiety, just excitement and walking straight over to her coach all on her own 🥺 It was nice being there with Dempsey and him just being able to play and watch and say stuff like “oh, I remember I loved that thing!” about his lessons last year. She did so good! Back at home, they wrote their letters to Santa and then Lydia took a nap and I took a walk. Made orange chicken with broccoli for dinner and it was really good. Dempsey ate his so fast! After kid bedtime, Joey and I watched the penultimate episode of TSITP and I think he really loved my negative running commentary and hearing “in the book…” a million times 😂

Sunday, I got up and worked out and then we all had breakfast and played for a bit. We ate early lunch and then the kids and I headed to pick my mom up and meet Lori at the Arvada Center for a performance of Frozen. We bought the tickets so long ago and, at the time, I was thinking Lydia would be almost 3 and so grown up but she’s actually still so little 😂 That being said, she acted to grown up during the show. I was nervous because it said “good for 4 and up” and it had a run time of two hour and twenty minutes but she was SO well-behaved! Even Dempsey was a bit antsy but not my girl 🥰 We all had a great time!

Afterward, we took my mom and Lydia back to my parents’ and then Dempsey and I said our goodbyes. I was worried (again) that she might freak out when I went to leave but she seemed totally fine with it and the report was that she was a perfect angel for the sleepover. Can’t quite say the same for Dempsey. The three of us had dinner then did milkshakes and Home Alone 2 before taking him up for bed and he was NOT okay sleeping in his room without his sister. I was so worried about Lydia that I was caught off guard by Dempsey’s reaction. I ended up having to lay with him until he fell asleep and despite being so tired, it took him an hour to finally close his little eyes. Poor Buddy! He’ll be so happy to have his sister home today ❤️ TSITP finale was as exasperating as the rest of the show and I’ll leave it at that 😋 Wishing you all a good week!