To be honest, I haven’t been posting all that much recently because I haven’t had much to say. At the same time, it’s been pretty busy, for one reason or another. With Christmas falling in the middle of the week, I feel like my schedule has been thrown radically off course for the past few weeks, and am only just now getting back in the swing of things.
Christmas was good, of course. We went to Louisiana, MO for the Baumann (extended) family Christmas on Sunday the 23rd, then continued north to Hannibal for the Baumann (immediate) family Christmas on the 24th. It was odd seeing how much snow was on the ground up there, as we really hadn’t gotten any in St. Louis beforehand. At the very least, it still felt like we got a “White Christmas” out of the deal. After that, we attended our traditional Christmas Eve service back in Louisiana before heading down to St. Louis that night, so that Meg could open her presents under her own tree on Christmas morning.
However, since we didn’t get home until 10:00 pm on Christmas Eve, Meg was quite content to stay in bed until 8:00 am the next morning, meaning we had to wake her up to get her to church on Christmas Day (thus, leaving Meg enough time to open one present before leaving). Still, it all worked out. Meg wanted to play with everything she opened immediately, rather than waiting until after everything was opened to choose something to play with. Perhaps it was better to only get one first.
We typically don’t go to Christmas Day services, but as we were in town, didn’t have to go anywhere, and our new pastor wanted to have a service on that day (we usually don’t), we went along and had a good time. There were even some folks in pajamas, bringing a good “family atmosphere” to the proceedings. It was a short-ish service, but was nice to participate in.
Brooke went to work the next few days, and Meg went to school. I, being the lazy one, stayed home, getting a few things done while watching the Extended Editions of “The Lord of the Rings” (in preparation for “The Hobbit,” which I still haven’t seen!). I assembled Meg’s new “big girl bed” (which she’s now sleeping in, most nights), hung out with a few friends, kept up on laundry, etc. Overall, a good mix of productivity and laziness, so I was satisfied!
We then went to Columbia last Friday for the Linsenbardt (immediate) family Christmas. Jake and Kristen couldn’t get there around Christmas, so this is the first year I can remember where we pushed things off a few days. In the end, it was probably better this way as we didn’t feel as rushed, traveling between towns without much lag time. Still, we had a good time and got to hit up Flat Branch and Shakespeare’s while we were there (making it more than worth the trip).
Meg stayed in Columbia with my parents while Brooke, Edie and I returned to St. Louis for New Year’s. Brooke actually went in to work for a little bit on New Year’s Eve while I took down the tree and did a few other things around the house. We hung out with Adam and Kelley that night, which was rather nice because we typically have them over to our house (as Meg is usually in bed by 7:30, and they live 20+ min away from our house, making dinner a difficult prospect). Regardless, good food and good times with friends, so it was a nice way to ring in 2013.
And now, I’m back at work. I had a good time over break, but am ready to get back to a typical routine, even if it means getting up “early” and putting clothes on instead of staying in PJs all day. We won’t have any easy weekends coming up, though, as my cousin gets married on Saturday (the bachelor party is tonight, and the rehearsal is tomorrow…I’m an usher and Meg’s flower girl-ing…), so we’ve got our work cut out for us.
But thankfully, Cabin Fever is next Saturday. Can’t wait for that one. 🙂