greatest hits

i am a christmas machine.

in seven days i attended six holiday celebrations of some kind, two birthday parties and baked approximately sixty mini-loaves of pumpkin bread.

while i find much joy in the doing, the details, the traditions of the holidays, some days (to be honest) it gets the best of me.  and almost always i end up snapping my poor husband's head off and coming down with a mean case of christmas neck.

what is christmas neck, you ask?  it is a term i coined for the stress-induced neck tension that i get every year around this time.  last year i could barely turn my head and had to get a massage.  what the hell is wrong with me?

christms neck started creeping up on me yesterday, but i snuck out of the house to give my dear friend a birthday hug, and it all melted away.  

we are shopped, wrapped, decorated and celebrated.

i am now ready to truly relish in the joy of my favorite season.

and this year i won't even need a massage.

here's a peek at my week:

1) this bug.  i love her so.

2) our annual girls christmas party where we booze it up and collect money for girls, inc.

3) babies turn into big boys in four phases.

there's the first-haircut phase, then the giving-up-the-pacifier phase, the big-boy-bed phase (sniffle).

now who wants to come potty train this child for me?

 4) marcy hosts an annual cookie decorating party for her kid friends.  crosby eats icing like it's going out of style and then proceeds to spin in circles for an hour.  good times.

 sweet finn

 not pictured: ellie grace who was home sick

 marcy and her elves

5) grandpa turned fifty-six years young.

 6) crosby and addy had a christmas program at school.  crosby's class dressed as stars.  and my boy only had eyes for his mimi.

 7) ben's school hosted a sing-a-long, so i took addy and cros with me to share in the festivites.

 when crosby decided to act like a fool three quarters of the way through the program, the art teacher noticed i was in the weeds and swooped cros away to paint in the art room so that i could snap some pictures of ben.  it takes a village, friends.  i love my village.

 8) this year's company christmas party involved eating bbq, passing out those blasted loaves of pumpkin bread, and digging for worms.

9) i may not have a daughter but i have a niece who was kind enough to let me live out my little-girl ponytail fantasy on her.

10) one of my beautiful girls (and fellow aggie) celebrated thirty-six years on this earth last night, and seeing her managed to make my christmas neck disappear.  thank you, leslie (and happy birthday to you).

looking forward to the in-laws arriving tomorrow!  woot!

how was your week?  what are you looking forward to?

have a wonderful holiday, friends.  i'll catch you on the flip-side.

xoxo,

coco