December 22nd - Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

Ah, Christmas break. The lights are gorgeous on our street. The presents are all bought. The house finally looks Christmasy. I love Christmas break.

What's that, you say? I'm not presently in the 'workforce', how can I have a Christmas break?

NOT IN THE WORKFORCE? (I smack you now!) ;-)

Tell that to my back and my feet. I think I felt less tired and sore at the end of double shifts at Applebee's in the summer of '02.

I get a Christmas break because BOBBY'S HOME FOR 10 STRAIGHT DAYS!!!

...of course, there's many many things to do and relatives swarming all over my house and a BABY to take care of (who apparently is being tortured by major gas bubbles, poor girlie)...but Bob's home. :-) I get more sleep, I get help w/ Maddie, the house gets more attention, he gets to bond w/ her and see her during the late morning hours when she's actually quite happy and pleasant (as opposed to afternoon when she's virtually comatose or evening when she's gassy and fussy or night when she appears to have taken No-Doze pills).

We're going to make cookies and get the house ready for visitors and make sure we're all ready for Christmas (a few presents to wrap, nothing serious. I'm prepared this year). And then we'll have a very nice Christmas - a very nice Baby's First Christmas (which is apparently a big deal, we've gotten like 10 cards stating the 'special' importance of it...although it's not like she's going to remember it or even be awake for most of it.)

And we're even going out to dinner ALONE on New Year's Eve - Dad already told us he's babysitting while he's here. Sweet.

...and then on January 2nd we'll both be needed a little Zoloft, I think. ;-)

I just starting to maybe possibly be getting into a routine that may one day be comfortable with Maddie now, and by 2nd she'll be 6 weeks old, and hopefully even more established in her comings and goings and SLEEPINGS and FEEDINGS and POOPINGS. But MAN will I miss Bob and MAN will I hate having that empty-house feeling again and MAN will I miss teaching and talking to lots of people and getting out and about and feeling purposeful every day.
And Bob will be majorly bummed about heading back to that joke of a school he works for and putting in another 6 months at least there before the gloriousness that is summer.

Me, I'll have to make sure I get out and do stuff, go to Mom's Club events, Mommy & Me mornings (and perhaps a visit to the dreaded TLC New Mom's group, for safe keeping - see a pattern here?). I officially go back to work March 28th. :-) That doesn't sound that far away. (And how much do I deserve to go straight to Hell for counting down the weeks till I stop staying home and go back to work?)
Bob - well, Bob will have to make the best of a ridiculous situation and start scanning the career pages of the Courier. We'll get by. Sleep-deprivation and all.

But for now, for the next shiny week and a half, it's Christmas, and by God we're going to enjoy it. We finally have the house decorated, we finally got the tree up and trimmed (Tuesday! Shameful, I know, but we'll keep it up past Epiphany if it'll last), and we're going to 'do' Christmas and enjoy Christmas the way we have in the past. One of us will just be swaddling, side/stomach-holding, 'ssshhh-ing', swinging, and letting baby get some good paci sucking in while we Christmas it up. Viva la "5 S's" by the way. Happiest Baby on the Block will be my standard shower present from now on.

So MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL (if I don't get to post again for a while). Happy New Year. I hope you all enjoy the holidays as much as I'm going to enjoy tonight - my first night of gloriously un-interrupted sleep in a while (thanks to a fabulous husband, formula-feeding, ear-plugs, and Tylenol PM).