Someone please tell me how it is Christmas week already??? Could’ve sworn it was December 1st just last week, then POOF, the rest of the month disappeared. So that means we are stuffing in all of the last minute holiday things we can think of, including a company party, present wrapping, one last batch of cookies, all the Christmas movies we realized we hadn’t watched yet and Dempsey’s first visit with Santa! The good news is he didn’t cry but the bad news is that his face rash is back with a vengeance, so he’s looking a little flushed in all of this weekend’s photos. I’m trying not to project my own sensitive skin baggage onto the situation, but it’s hard! Trying to remember that it doesn’t bother him at all and this too shall pass.

Someone was helping unload the groceries on Friday morning ❤ This time of year is nice in the construction world because stuff slows down. Meaning it’s okay to take a half day on Friday to see Spider-Man: No Way Home and then head to a brewery for a sort of last-minute company holiday gathering. Um what to say about NWH except that it was amazing and perfect and everything you want it to be. SPOILER ALERT (no seriously, don’t read on if you don’t want this movie spoiled for you!), but THERE ARE THREE SPIDER-MEN IN THIS MOVIE!!!!!! I’ve actually not seen the Andrew Garfield films but I have seen Andrew Garfield in other things and I LOVE HIM. And I am a BIG BIG fan of the first two Toby Maguire Spider-Man films so seeing him show up made me feel strangely emotional. Also, I was about 95% sure they would both be in this film but to my true surprise and joy, they are in this movie for like an hour?! What a gift! Also, Willem Dafoe is a national treasure. I about died hearing him say “Norman’s on sabbatical, honey!” 😂😂😂

Went straight from the theater to our company party and it was nice having everyone from the office in one place — everyone is in and out on different days so I sometimes go weeks without face to face contact with some of my co-workers — and the beer/food were great!

Feels like there was a point in October or early November when Dempsey was sleeping like a dream and since then, it feels like we haven’t even had two good nights in a row 😩 Inevitably he wakes up crying at some point. Sometimes it’s early in the night, sometimes it’s early in the morning, sometimes he settles himself back down and sometimes he ends up in our bed because we’re too tired to do anything else. Saturday, he was up at 4! Joey eventually went downstairs with him and then we traded places at 6ish. When I got the sense that he wasn’t going back to sleep, we made blueberry waffles together 💙

We all took some naps later in the day 😂 And then we headed to Steve and Lorna’s for our Christmas celebration. I LOVE seeing everyone interact with Demps. Lorenzo and Elliott are so sweet and caring with him and of course, the adults are too 🥰🥰🥰 He got a basketball from his grandpa and Lorna and he loooooves when Joey dribbles it for him.

Our one goal for Sunday was to take Dempsey to see Santa and mission accomplished! I follow Union Station on Instagram and saw that Santa was going to be there one last time on Sunday so after lunch, we packed ourselves up and headed over. The employee holding the “End of the Line” sign said that was the shortest she’d seen it! I think we only waited about half an hour and Dempsey didn’t mind because he got to wander around the terminal with me while Joey stood in line. He got a kick out of seeing his own reflection in the giant ornaments on the tree and so did I 😂 Kudos to the two ladies — I think one of them was Mrs. Claus — manning the line and taking the photos. They really knew what they were doing! Demps did great! Joey is mean and wanted him to cry! Everyone has assured me that he’ll cry next year 😂

Got a few things done back at home and then Joey made us dinner while Demps and I played upstairs. His new favorite thing is to shut the door on us but I peeked through a crack and watched him play by himself for ten minutes and it was absolutely the cutest thing! He brushed his hair, he looked out the window, he played with his toy workbench, he danced 🥺🥺🥺 I can’t even! Dempsey was having NONE of the dinner Joey made but I loved it! After we put him to bed, we fired up Love Actually and how is it that we’ve seen that movie a million times and there’s still lines we feel like we’ve never really heard? Let’s all do our best to stay sane this week, huh?

Happy Monday!

Hello, hello. Isn’t this the best time of year? It’s festive and fun and bright and we’re only semi-sleep deprived because it’s been one thing after another with Dempsey and his sleep schedule 🤷‍♀️ I am forever trying to balance the happiness of the holidays and the stress of the holiday schedule and wanting to fit it all in, especially this year with a 14-month old who wants to see and touch everything. This weekend included decorating our tree, baking cookies, seeing our friends for dinner, getting a facial and seeing West Side Story, which, SPOILER, I LOVED. It was all the very best!

Sorry to be an old boring person but doesn’t it just feel great to be home on a Friday night?? We had butternut squash soup with grilled cheese and not to brag, but Dempsey has his dipping game DOWN. Afterward, we decorated the Christmas tree from the middle up 😂 and Dempsey even helped put the star on top! We put him to bed and watched Christmas Vacation. I tried to explain to Joey how some Christmas movies are “early season” and some are “late season” — I can’t really watch White Christmas or The Holiday until RIGHT before Christmas — but I think he just thought I sounded crazy 🤪

Whole wheat eggnog pancakes for breakfast! I spontaneously decided to try dropping Dempsey and I’s morning time nursing session and he seems totally fine with it, especially if the alternative is pancakes and fruit 😂

Spent the afternoon going for a run and baking cookies. If you guys thought I was annoying when we started feeding Dempsey solids, wait till I get to start cooking with him! Sometimes I’ll let him stir or whisk something and he loves it! He helped cream some butter and sugar together and then just kept trying to dig into the dough while I was rolling the balls. Also, the cookies turned out so so good. Love when a recipe tells you to make each cookie 1/4c big!

We had our friends over for dinner! We maybe sent Andi on a little weekend trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s, so the kids could run around without a dog barking constantly in the background 😬 We ordered dinner from Dio Mio and it was so fun seeing Dempsey and Henry walking around together. At one point, Henry did this little scream and then Dempsey made the exact same noise 😂 Mason had me read him The Night Before Christmas and then he showed the little boys how to really drive that bumper car around! Ended the night with cookies all around and then after the Kings left, we put Dempsey to bed and started The Power of the Dog. Didn’t quite finish though because someone got their foot stuck between the bars of their crib and was having a little freak out about it ☹

Started our Sunday with take out from Sunny’s. Love when Dempsey has French toast in one hand and a banana in the other 😂 We unsuccessfully tried lighting a fire last year, but we figured we’d try again this year and it went way better. Our only mistake was trying to take the log out after it had burned and it was suddenly very smoky, oops! A took off for a facial shortly after and I overhead a guy getting a facial say his skincare routine was to “sometimes splash my face with water” 😂

My sis and Wayne came over that afternoon so Joey and I could go see West Side Story! As a true lover of dance, how could I not like it?? Also Mike Faist as Riff and Ariana DeBose as Anita were just amazing!!! Love love love the way it all looked. Those dresses and the colors were just popping off the screen. Maybe got teary at the end even though I definitely knew how it would all go. I’ve already listened to a podcast that had all kinds of criticism of the remake, so maybe I should avoid any other podcasts…

Got out of the movie and had this picture from my sister of “Boss Baby” working on a change order and directing his assistants about 😂 We sent them home, fed Dempsey three servings of spaghetti, put him to bed and finished our movie. I’m still deciding how I feel about it but New Zealand pretending to be Montana sure is pretty!