Holty Holidays 2011

I kind of forgot to recap our holiday season . . . not that anybody really cares all that much, I mean, you all had your own holidays to enjoy, ones that undoubtedly were more organized, picture-perfect and family-functional than ours were. All you hip, young families with modern, smiley blogs make me green with envy. (You all know the type of blog I'm talking about, right?) And you also make me tired. Very, very tired.

Case-in-point that our holidays were not picture-perfect, here's a snippet of our Christmas Day dialogue:

Grandma: Hey Mandy, Lucy is playing with a plastic bag.

Me: Oh man! *taking it away* Wonder where she found that? Oh, she must have gotten it off of that electrical cord.

A plastic bag and an electrical cord? Wow. Please note, however, that the (neatly coiled) electrical cord belonged to to a newly unwrapped panini maker that was sitting on the floor, but still . . . . allow me to introduce myself yet again, I'm the Mother of 2011. *curtsy*

But in general, I will say that Holty Holidays 2011 were a success. Had some very fun times with both our in-town relatives, but also our out-of-state loved ones and my main blog readers, Aunt Liz and Great Grandma. Kids were spoiled with gobs of lovely things. Matt had some nice time off of work. Threw a somewhat crazy New Year's Eve party. And I called less than five family members "assholes", and it wasn't even to their faces. Yay!

And for those of you who are long-time readers -- Hi Liz and Grandma! -- and remember my pre-Christmas flip-out, below is the Tiny Prints card that we ended up with after much obsessing that bordered on obsessive compulsive behavior:

Inside text

Matt, 32

Completed 10 years with XXXXX and is proud of the fact that he has taken full advantage of their free soda offerings. He estimates he has imbibed 4,862 cans of Dr. Pepper thus far. One of the best (and most exhausting) parts of his year was coaching Patrick's preschool soccer team.

Mandy, 29 again:

Left the ad agency she had been with for seven years to stay home and keep things in order. She is happy to report that she has only misplaced the car keys 104 times and the children twice. Coffee is one of her best friends.

Patrick, 4 going on 87:

Doesn't like being turned upside down, reminds other kids to wear their bike helmets and uses phrases like, "I've had quite enough candy for one day." He continues to love all things cars and dinosaurs. When asked what he was most thankful for on Thanksgiving answered, "Lucy".

Lucy, 8 months:

Was born one day before her mom's birthday, which was lucky for her since Mandy has a really hard time sharing. She enjoys clapping, babbling and following Patrick’s every move. If she were able to talk she would wish you the happiest of holidays and a lovely 2012!

Loved Tiny Prints and will use them again, for reals. Sorry if you didn't get a tangible card from us, but think of it this way, it's just one less card to make that tough January decision about: Keep or recycle?

Wait, am I the only one who throws away cards? Yes? Oh, um . . . if you sent me a card please forget you read that . . .