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 🎅🤶🎄🎁✨

Whew, the month of December has been a roller coaster! Lydia has been sick, Joey has been sick, I had somehow been spared only to come down with a stomach bug last week THEN get the family cold. Dempsey is coughing too, so I think he and I are in it together. We seem to have something on the schedule every day this month too, so there’s really no “good time” to be sick. We press on! This weekend, we had our company holiday party, a trip to visit Santa, an Avs game for the boys and Lydia’s birthday party. My girl will be two on Wednesday, I cannot believe it!!!!

I worked on Friday, then took my girl to her appointment with the allergist and she did so good! They re-tested all of the nuts, dairy, egg and sesame since she’s twice eaten hummus and gotten swollen lips and sure enough, she’s got a sesame allergy. The good news is, the doctor gave us the go ahead to schedule food challenges for dairy and egg, so fingers crossed! Grandma Lori took the kids for a sleepover because we had our company holiday party that night. We did indoor putt putt and man was I bad but it was fun anyway. I was so excited to just go home and go to bed though 😂

Joey and I were slow moving on Saturday morning (I didn’t even have a single drink the night before 😅) but we finally got up and moving around and I started a couple of the dishes I was making for Lydi’s birthday party before meeting Lori and the kids over at Edgewater to see Santa. Dempsey had been telling us for weeks that he didn’t want to see him because he was “scared he might cry” 🥺 We did the best we could. We got both kids home and down for a nap?! We have not gotten Dempsey to take a nap at home in almost a year, so that was a miracle, but he and Joey were going to have a late night so it seemed essential for him to rest. When the kids got up, we started party decorations and then the boys headed out for dinner and the Avs game and Lydia and I just had a low-key night of dinner ON the table 🤷‍♀️, the end of The Grinch/beginning of Sing and bedtime for my girl. She made sure both our faces were moisturized beforehand 😂 Afterward, I watched Lady Bird and I just love that movie so much. I also got some photo updates from the boys and it looked like they were having a great time. I waited up for them, read to Dempsey and then we all went to bed.

Party Day! The kids slept in till 7:30, if you can believe it! Which meant we got a later start than we probably should’ve — didn’t quite have time for that “good sweep and vacuum” I had planned to do 😅😬 But we did get the casseroles baked, the decorations up and the kids dressed, so I’ll call it a success. I think it was a great time! Our girl got so many good gifts, everyone knows her so well. She also didn’t want to share ANY of those gifts 😬😬 My mom made red velvet cupcakes for everyone and turns out Lydi is a pro at blowing out candles, who knew! My sis and Wayne stuck around for a bit to help clean up and entertain Dempsey, which was so nice and after they left, I went upstairs to lay down and that was REAL NICE. The rest of the day was spent playing, tidying, finishing laundry and making dinner. I think we were all more than ready for bed that night!

It’s another busy week over here, but I’m going to try to make rest a priority, so I hope you all do too 🤍