Roses are red...skin should not be

This weekend was Valentine's Day.  It is my least favorite holiday ever.

Ever.

But my sweet N is a bit of a romantic soul and I wanted to make it a special evening for her.  Since we've been on the go so much lately I thought a quiet dinner at home would be exactly what we needed.  I found a recipe for Ropa Vieja and decided to give it a go.  What's the worst thing that could happen?  If it turned out terrible, we would laugh it off and order a pizza.

Well....

I was wrong.

In the middle of prep work, I had a small-ish mishap with a hot pan and some grease that ended with extremely hot grease covering my upper body.  Did I mention that I was wearing a tank top?  I mean, it's December and we don't live in San Diego so any sane person would be in long sleeves.  But my stupid internal thermostat seems to think that it is always 95 degrees so I run around in the least amount of clothing possible.  For the first minute or two, I didn't even realize quite how bad it was.  Then I looked down to see that my arms and chest were turning bright red and beginning to blister.

Thankfully, my sweet friend Sarah was there and she got on the phone with the doctor, got Silvadene called in, and made sure that I was covered in it immediately.  Then she proceeded to load my dishwasher and dig out the aspirin while I laid on the couch trying to convince myself that my skin was not, in fact, melting off.  N got home from work and took over babying me.   We traded our fancy clothes for old pajamas, Channel perfume for medicinal cream.  Our romantic dinner took place on the couch and involved absolutely no candlelight.

But you know what?  This is what life is.  Real life.  Two people getting through an entire lifetime together and realizing that the most important thing is that we were together.  No movie about romance will ever show the lovebirds falling asleep on the couch at 8:30 on Valentine's Day.  But that is exactly what we did and it was glorious.  There will be another day for wine and candles.

Flame-less, battery operated candles.  Just to be safe.

Here's hoping that your Valentine's Day was far less eventful than ours.

Xoxo

Christmas Recap

As usual, Christmas this year was wild and crazy.  Due to work schedules my whole family descended upon the house all at once on Christmas Eve.  24 whirlwind hours later they were all gone.  There is nothing else I can say about this except that I loved every second but I am glad it's done.  Sweet baby girl didn't know that her favorite Uncle was coming so he hid in a box Christmas morning.

Watching her trying to figure out how the unicorn was dancing around in the box was so incredibly funny.  Once she got down to a tear in the box, she pressed her little eyeball to it and declared, "I see a human hand!"  You know because we might not be sure if she didn't specify that it was a "human" hand.

 Clearly she was more than thrilled to see that the human hand belonged to her Uncle Daniel!

 She was also ridiculously excited that Santa brought her high heeled boots as requested.  I'm thankful that she still thinks that half-an-inch wedge qualifies as a high heel because that's all Santa was okay with sending to my five year old child.

 This picture is beyond terrible quality but I had to share it because of the look on Alaina's face.  I could not deny that child is mine if I wanted to.  That is the exact face that I make when I am confused by something.  Or annoyed by something.  Or my patience is waning.  Pretty much about 20% of the time that is what my face looks like.

But this is my favorite shot of the morning.  I look like sleepy death but I am loving my baby and there can never be too many pictures of that.  She looks totally content and secure snuggled up with her mama, as well she should. 

I hope that you all had a most wonderful Christmas with your family and loved ones.  May the coming year bring you abundant blessings.

It's Beginning to Barely Resemble Christmas

It turns out that I liked Christmas tree shopping better when the tiny was 2 and she didn't know she got to have an opinion.  We trekked out last night to find the perfect tree, which for me is anything that doesn't look like the Charlie Brown tree.  Alaina, on the other hand, had her sights set on this glorious 12 foot pine tree that was so perfect standing there in all it's grandeur.  Never mind the fact that we have 9 foot ceilings and it's not physically possible to cram the tree in the house, even if I was inclined to pay for it.  Finally I had to break down and do some kindergarten logic where we played greater than, to get her to walk away from the tree.  I'm not sure she was convinced but the promise of a tiny pink tree for her room got her on board really quick.  The first rule of parenting is bribery people, and I am not afraid to use it.

Two hours, $50 dollars and one million pine needles later, the tree has been wrestled into the stand and is ready to be decorated.  Which shall be taking place on Thursday night.  I need something to look forward to and Shonda Rhimes put all my shows on winter hiatus.  In the words of my beloved Mississippi, "whoever thought winter break was a good idea can jump off a cliff.  We need something amazing to distract us from all the family goodness we're trying to ignore."  So from here on out, Thursdays will be filled with Christmas decorating, present wrapping, online shopping and many, many hot toddies.

Cheers to the beginning of the madness!