I wish I could blame my blogging absence on winning the Powerball

So, as you can tell from my Thanksgiving recap, I ate stuffing until I was stuffed (haaarrrrrrr), realized once again that my mother is a living saint for transporting us there and back (she even concluded each trip with something authentically cheery like, "That wasn't so bad!" Are you kidding me were we even in the same car crazy person), and vowed never to go back again (until Christmas).

Oh wait. Did you miss my Thanksgiving recap? That could be because I only wrote and published it in my head. But take my word for it, it was hilarious. And full of beautifully-staged pictures of food and family who wore something besides stretchy pants to the big dinner. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

Moving on!

We are now in December, in case any of you out there don't own a calendar. (And if you don't, holler, because I saw some in the dollar section at Target, and I always need a valid reason to go to Target. Your not owning a calendar sounds quite valid to me.) Despite the fact that I want nothing more than to boycott every holiday until my honey comes back, I felt it was a bit selfish of me to deprive my children of the wonder of Christmas just because I'm feeling all Scrooge-like. So even though I mailed my Christmas cheer to Afghanistan this past week (along with Christmas gifts that can hardly be considered gifts, save for the festive wrapping paper), I decided I would make up an Advent activities calendar. For the kids. In order to get Steve involved in this grand plan, I made up the calendar sometime in November. (Let's all take a moment and stand in shock and awe at my ability to think ahead this year. It's probably a one-time thing, so let's recognize it appropriately. With a Reeses.) I wrote out all of the activities on little heart-shaped pieces of Christmas wrapping paper and folded them up into little self-made envelopes, labeled them with cute red and green numbers and polka dots, and then mailed them off to Steve. A man who cares nothing about cute and/or cute details. Anyways, Steve then records himself reading each calendar activity and emails me a video each day of himself talking about said activity. I make a big deal of opening up the computer in the morning and letting Sam and Molly (and Odie) listen to what Steve has to say. It's really sweet to watch. Steve is kind of hilarious since he doesn't seem to know what to add to my one-liner about what we're doing that day. Sam only wants to watch it 8 billion times because Daddy's on there talking to him. And Molly just wants to EAT THE KEYBOARD RIGHT NOW GIVE IT TO ME. So while this Advent calendar thing is a HELLUVA lotta self-imposed work for me, and even though the kids don't really get it all just yet, I do think it's a good thing. For all of us. I will try my best to post a weekly recap of what we did and obviously I photo-document most of it on Instagram. (jmr0006)

Welp friends, naptime has apparently come to an end, what with the not-so-subtle summons I am receiving from the upper floor here. Only four hours to bedtime! Huzzah!