a christmas break day trip with everyone and no one died

christmas break has arrived and we've broken it in by yelling and fighting and cleaning. the thought of another day at home, while productive, sounded utterly miserable and stifling. so on day 2 i decided to brave a fun day with the kids. monroe, georgia is about 45 minutes from our house and is exactly what you would expect from a small town in the South. a darling downtown full of junk/antique shops and restaurants and wonderful heavy accents. 

i managed to keep all the children happy and content while we ate a little cafe. it was okay food. the toasted bread on my pimento cheese sammich was good, but the cheese wasn't melted at all. certainly not a grilled pimento cheese sammich if we're being technical. but, by the time hersch was restless, we were done!

a big accomplishment was when i had to take the little kids to the bathroom and i was able to leave reagan at the table and he did not get too worried about me being gone too long. baby steps are big steps. in fact, he was annoyed that i was worried he would be worried. "mom, i'm fine. it's not a big deal. everybody goes to the bathroom." well, that's not the tune you were singing before. 

maybe you've heard of the story shop from the news or various forms of social media?  the story shop is a really darling local bookstore that makes you want to read and redecorate your whole house.

i was ready to move in. 

i didn't get the best picture of this wardrobe a la the lion, witch and the wardrobe that opens up into the story time area. hopefully you get the idea. 

beautiful and creative literary inspired design everywhere. 

i have been stalking this rug online for my next big rug purchase i make and they had it in the shop and it was even better than i imagined. 

by the restrooms:

a space for parties. yes, please.

hurray for reading! i bought two books. which is two more books than i planned on buying but how can you not support this? 

after the bookshop, we wandered in the drizzle down to the historic courthouse and live nativity site.

very reasonably priced hard scoop ice cream. 

reagan still loathes ice cream so i paid for this marshmallow stick thing and he picked the m&ms off of it and blythe finished eating it for him.

oreo cheesecake:

snickers:

blythe got an amazing homemade peanut butter sheets in chocolate ice cream. i tried to finish it after she pooped out.

but my poor intestines know i can't handle ice cream anymore. 37 years old and i can't handle my ice cream anymore. go ahead and start digging my grave. what's the point of going on without ice cream? 

just darling. so darling!

we attempted to peruse the state of georgia's largest antique mall, located in a gigantic old mill, but hersch wasn't having it. he was excited by all the junk but not in the same way i was excited by all the junk. 

we drove home. athena blythe heard that terrible hippopotamus christmas song on the radio and was instantly hooked. besides that, the day was a success. i'm going to call upon this memory on days when i have to take everyone places and i don't have the faith or the strength. 

some people are uncomfortable around sequins

this first two week of december recap will be like speed dating, but for blogging. you'll know really quickly how interested you are in my family in the first 30 seconds.

we're trying to participate in "light the world" 25 days of service for christmas. we've missed a few days here and there based on logisitics, but we're trying. day 1 we donated a bunch of food to a local food bank. i hope they like canned chicken. 

day 2 or three or whenever, we took cookies to our neighbors or school friends for "love thy neighbors". it was interesting because most people don't actually want to open their door to you, especially after dark. i'm the same way. showing up unannounced is a lost art. 

 thomas and i went to the temple on friday night. we did sealings. it was lovely. it's one of my favorite things to do. 

 then we drove around a sketchy part of atlanta looking for a mcdonald's with a working ice cream machine. i guess we were feeling pretty confident after the temple because A- there are some pretty sketchy, and not in the arty way, parts of atlanta and B- finding a working ice cream machine after 9pm is like looking for a chipper employee at hot topic. RARE.

i took hersch on a fun play date! i used to do fun stuff all the time with the big kids. i feel like i've failed this baby in play dates. we went to INK gainesville, or interactive neighborhood for kids, with hersch's little buddy benson. 

requisite pictures of hersch sitting on things.

 naturally, we left kicking and screaming. as we do with every place we go. 

wednesday next. we went to the church christmas party. the whole family came along, but i only have pictures of my cute outfit.

some people are uncomfortable around sequin pants. they just are. no one has to like my pants, but sometimes i find people will immediately scoff at my zany attire rather than ignore or compliment or compliment but say they prefer being less dressy. those three options are acceptable. scoffing is annoying. i keep my mouth shut on a lot of bad outfits. i don't care what other people wear, if that's what they feel best in, (except flip flops at church. NO, NON, NYET) anywho sequin pants somehow threaten or disturb some people's psyche. 

as a result of me wearing sequin pants, it snowed in atlanta. really. there must be a connection. hersch was not impressed initially. neither was i, but it really started to come down!

 friday night, during the snowstorm, i was invited to a real live party so i wore my sequin cocktail dress. and my doc martens. i was fighting a burgeoning cold but i pulled through. the hostess of the party makes exceptional food and i wasn't that sick yet. 

saturday snow play. thomas and the kids built the snow man and i hid in the house and prayed for death because of my increasing illness.

thomas sacrificed his georgia sweatshirt to taunt the across the street neighbor, who is an auburn fan and they had just badly beaten auburn in a rematch.

"right? who'd have thunk it?"

third wearing of sequins in two weeks was stake conference. i was full blown sick this day and the sound system in the overflow chapel was not working. we're blessed for our efforts. hopefully.

the next monday, i took the 2 big kids to the mall for some much needed clothes shopping. scarlett has really wanted to do this indoor bounce trampoline harness things for years and i know she's earned it several times but i've never fulfilled my end of the obligation. so now we're even.

this is a project i've been working on for a few weeks. i've been keeping my eyes open for asian art that just needs some love and i found this gem at the ritzy john's creek goodwill for only $6. then i painted the frame and had a new mat cut for $16. i love it!

coincidentally, athena blythe brought home this chinese new year dragon and put on a show for me. 

kung hei fat choi!

i finally went to the doctor. it cost a million dollars. i had to pay a million more for medicine. i'm finally better but i'm kinda kookier than normal and not allowed to drive when i take the cough medicine.

"baby jesus in a monster truck"

thanks for the macaroni

when i was a youth of the 80s, thanksgiving break was wednesday, thursday and friday and the weekend. of course, the weekend didn't count because it was a given. now in 2017, when family time is cherished above education, the school district has the audacity include monday and tuesday of thanksgiving week in the holiday break too. plus, the weekend previous the holiday suddenly counts when you have so many days off in a row. in total, our thanksgiving holiday break was 4905823435 days long. for which i am equal parts grateful and overwhelmed. 

athena blythe broke in the holiday by doing some painting on the deck. she loves painting "cupcake flyers" a la curious george.  that dratted monkey is still infiltrating her mind with nefarious designs. the natural next step is for her to paint the soles of her feet and make footprints on any surface. from there her artistic streak progressed from paper to her feet to herschel's head to his shirt to the side of the house. i have no photographic evidence as i truly lost sense of humor, which is the thing i hold most dear in my motherhood. 

being home all together means we are allhometogether and everyone wants to bewithmeatalltimes. 

i was trying to snuggle herschel down for a nap. everyone joined us. and someone did fall asleep! me. i can still sleep anywhere. the streak continues. 

we did the bulk of the holiday decorating. i pulled out a bunch of junk to get rid of but scarlett convinced me to let her have a go at it and we went to the dollar tree to get MORE tacky stuff and we channeled our best annelles from steel magnolias. we had the best time glue gunning cheap stuff on wreaths. 

our semi-finished products:

i'm headed back to dollar tree to get some more superflous bric-a-brac. this wreath clearly needs more miniature disco balls and pygmy-sized cellophane wrapped presents.

this one actually turned out kinda 60s mod fantastic. scarlett begged to have it put on her bedroom door and i gladly complied since i'll easily be able to fixate on it's beauty on a regular basis from that hallway vantage point.

there is always a glue gun casualty and that day it was herschel. poor baby grabbed the glue gun and squeezed a stream of hot glue all over his little chubby, grubby baby hand. he kept screaming, "a bumble bee got me! a bumble bee got me!" tear out my mother heart!

it's going to leave a scar for sure.

these are my thanksgiving desserts, an OGBC, or ooey gooey butter cake and a peanut butter pie. i made both early and they were still both were better the day after thanksgiving. second day desserts are always better and these were not letting me cheat nature!

we ordered a bunch of barbeque from kansas city and i made several sides. the highlight of sides was this pimento cheese, sausage and bacon macaroni and cheese. it was amazing.

that evening we all donned sweatpants and saw coco. i laughed and cried and i need do one of those DNA tests to figure out my ancestry because the traces of mexican blood in my veins are crying out to be heard. i have an ofrenda in my front room, i love sugar skulls and bright colors, and singing at the top of my lungs. i'm pretty sure my staid nordic and welsh ancestry didn't produce that in me.

after the movie, we all went home and lounged and had seconds and just as i was eating more macaroni and cheese, reagan, full of thanksgiving and then movie popcorn, threw up everywhere. i had to throw away two decorative pillows and i pushed away my seconds. it was officially thanksgiving!

saturday at the gym, i met my hard earned squat goal, 135x10, good form, NO SCIATICA PAIN. then i cried. goal from TWO years ago finally accomplished.