Disappeared again but this time I have a really good excuse. I got jobs. And suddenly I didn’t have time to have dinner with my family let alone update my lovely little piece of the interwebs. My jobs are nothing exciting. I do call screening for a radio talk show one night a week and I work at a crafty store that rhymes with SchmoAnn’s. SchmoAnn’s was scheduling me entirely too many hours during the holidays but has now backed off 2 what looks like 2 shifts a week which is perfect. I mostly took it to help over the holidays so I’m not sure how long I will keep it now that the holidays are done. We’ll see how much they schedule me and how they treat me. Not nearly as much fun as it sounds to work in a crafty store by the way. And there is a special place in hell for people who pick up a bunch of stuff and then abandon it in random places around the store. I used to do that sometimes. Karma is a bitch but I believe my debt is paid.

So since we last talked, Thanksgiving (never picked up the camera) and Christmas (picked up the camera briefly) and New Years (we had the plague) and Steve’s birthday (same as new years) happened. I have little to show you from those events. I’ve done very little cooking so no recipes. The only crafty thing I had time for was a little gift for a secret santa exchange.

And another chicken as a gift for a friend’s mother as well as a couple of ornaments for teacher gifts. Which I don’t have a photo of on my computer. It has been frustrating to be surrounded by crafty stuff and not have time to actually play with any of it. I plan to rectify that soon. The girls go back to school next Tuesday (longest. break. ever.) so maybe next week.

I have a confession to make. I’ve grown to dislike Christmas. It is too stuff driven. I love Thanksgiving because I get all of the warm fuzzies without the pressure to buy stuff. I like going north and spending time with family it is just all of the lead up that I dislike. So each year it feels like a relief when it is over. We went light on Christmas this year and had a nice holiday.  So fun to have a baby in the family again (nephew = 10 months old now).  Neither of the girls had any toy that they HAD to have this year but they had fun with all of the things they received. They still have gift cards to spend from one grandma so I’m curious to see what they choose for themselves.

A rare photo of the 4 of us and all of us looking toward the camera.

Hope you all had a great end to 2012 and a good start to 2013. I’ve spent 2013 trying to get both of the girls healthy. Still losing that battle so far but we are working on it. Some ugly bugs going around out there so keep they clorox wipes handy!