Like many of you, I have a lot brewing these next weeks. On Monday at Front Range Boot Camp, my coach asked us who was stressed out.
“Not me!” I joyously replied. “I’ve got most of my shopping done and deadlines met.”
Then I went home to my post-holiday inbox. Denial can only last for so long.
A few updates:
- My parents were in town for several days for my mom’s surgery and fingers are crossed it will give her some reprieve. We had a wonderful time during their visit and I did more shopping with my mom than I’ve done in a year. Hence the reason I’m already finished shopping for Christmas. Gift-wrapping is another entirely different matter and I’ll spare you the visual of my den, which looks like a bomb went off.
- My family had an amazing time in Crested Butte for Thanksgiving. Stay tuned for details on this amazing place. And yes, I’m still obsessed with having a cabin there or in Maui. Or both. A girl can dream, right?
- Hadley’s clueless teacher and interim principal are causing me MAJOR stress and I’ve been *this* close to pulling her (I’m sure I’ll write a detailed rant about the entire frustrating situation). Oh, and the principal at Bode’s school quit this week so there are great things going down in Jeffco Schools. I’m touring a new charter school for Hadley today but I’m really hoping we don’t have to switch because I’m already losing sleep about everything.
- My dad’s birthday is Saturday and Jamie’s is on Tuesday. I’m so grateful to have two stable, awesome men in my life when I obviously am not.
- Our kids’ main Christmas present was a trampoline. My dear friends Jennie and Jared have been staying with us during some work-related drama since their move to Colorado a month ago. Now, they’re Texas-bound looking for work but before leaving, they showed up at our house “to serve” and spent the next several hours setting up that trampoline. My dad also offered to setup the trampoline but couldn’t fit it in before they drove back to Canada. Lesson learned: we need more house guests because they get stuff done.
- I’m volunteering at our local Santa House on Friday, which provides gifts for underprivileged kids in our community. I wish I could volunteer every day leading up to Christmas because it’s a wonderful reminder of how blessed we truly are. And that the chaos really is worth it.
- I’ve become 9News’ go-to expert on all-things mom and have been doing a ton of live segments lately. Next week, I’ll be talking about holiday snacks for kids. And experimenting. And doing a lot of eating.
- We invited a bunch of Hadley’s first to see the documentary “I am 11.” It almost made me wish I was 11 again…until I remembered what I looked like.
- I’ve been a very bad blogger and have barely blogged anything the last few months. Did you know I flew to Utah in October for my 20-year mission reunion to Geneva, Switzerland and had the most amazing girl’s weekend with some of my dearest friends. Oh, wait. You wouldn’t know because I haven’t written about it.
- I love that the kids have had minimal commitments in the evenings and we’ve been spending so much quality time together. Our latest obsession: I taught them the card game “Speed” and I am the undisputed champion. Bode even begged me to let him win so “Dad and Hadley will be impressed.” Sorry, Dude. I let them get ahead in many games but I am the Speed Queen.
- I’ve declined more invitations than I’m accepted over the next few weeks and I’m still overloaded. This is why we should not wait until after Thanksgiving to celebrate the holidays. Three weeks is too little time to cram everything in. DO YOU HEAR THAT, AMERICANS?!
- Next week, we’re celebrating Jamie’s birthday, have his company holiday lunch, the kids’ piano recital, Bode has Monday off, I have a Relief Society holiday dinner, our ward Christmas party, my 9News segment and much, much more.
“Much, much more” is just a nice way of saying “There’s a lot more but I’ve already forgotten what it is.”
Denial is a beautiful thing.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 