Slowing down.... oops, I forgot that I suck at that.

So much for slowing down for the holidays....

Christmas Eve Eve:

Cleaned up front of house, bought and wrapped the last of the gifts, made rum cake, cranberry apple butter, and loaded mashed potatoes. Flea-treated pets and house to ensure no extra guests for Christmas.

Christmas Eve: Dry rubbed turkey, started ham glaze, made turkey stock, cornbread and biscuits, and sausage balls. Canned apple butter, put together dressing ingredients. Cleaned bathrooms, mopped flea stuff off of floors, washed sheets, and set up front of house for Misfits Dinner.

Took a brief nap.

Then D got home, and we ate in the car on the way to see a friend in the hospital, went to his dad's and saw family there, then had spaghetti dinner at his mom's. Were late to Midnight Mass, which didn't end until 12:30am (it actually starts at 10:30pm), and drove an hour home. Fell into bed.

Christmas Day:

Slept in 'til 9am, since it's our last child-free Christmas. Reheated sausage balls & apple cider, opened stockings. Showered, cleaned up, opened the rest of our gifts.

Started turkey, put together dressing, made chocolate pecan pie. Loaded car with gifts for D's family.

Had a fight about it.

Drove up to do Christmas with in-laws, ornament exchange, and gifts.

Were late leaving D's mom's house and had people at our house for Misfit's Dinner before we got home.

Got a darling friend to break into our house and let in our guests.

Entertained til midnight, then cleaned up before falling into bed.

Boxing Day:

Got up, took care of pets, made scones & sausage balls from leftover dough, drove to Chattanooga (~2hrs) to see D's son and spend the day with him.

Walked all over the TN Aquarium, had a fantastic time hanging out with in-laws and outlaws and meeting my stepson.

Had chai and chatted longer after everyone left.

Stopped at the hospital to see our friend again on the way home.

Arrived home about midnight and fell into bed.

.....and now, shockingly enough, my body has quietly informed me it's had enough of that nonsense, and it's going to get sick to ensure we spend a day in bed LOL

Belly pics!

We finally did a set of belly pictures, and I'm only 2 weeks behind in uploading them!

Priorities

Girl on Saturday wrote this timely post about The Life You Lead Every Day and who you really are.

I started to respond, and ended up writing an entire post instead.

Pregnancy is teaching me my limits, in a way that nothing else ever has.

Not 8mos on crutches while I was in the Navy, not even a broken collarbone, 2 surgeries, 3 weeks of bed rest, and 6 mos in a sling.

And I hate it.

I hate it I hate it I hate it!

I don't have limits, dammit!

Not Ms. Do All The Things!

But I do.

I have limited energy, no sex drive, terrible heartburn, insomnia, and oh yeah- a little person growing in my body who takes some offense to my idiotic schedule and refusal to rest or supply him with enough nutrition.

Shit.

I could ignore that for myself.... not so much for our child.

So I'm learning to cope.

• Lowering my number of obligations on a given day.
• Stretching out my to-do list by the week, not every day.
• Accepting help.
• Napping.
• Scheduling recharge time (those naps are a great example)

So what does that mean in concrete terms?

• No Winter Solstice Party this year- but participating in the church's ritual instead.
• Misfits' Christmas Dinner means I only cook 3 dishes, not my usual 'entire meal'. Also, paper plates this year. I can go back to being a rabid environmentalist on the 26th.
• Asking for help to come over and clean with me tomorrow and maybe help me cook.
• Only hitting 1-2 stores at a time while Christmas shopping, instead of my usual marathon of shopping, baking, creating, and wrapping in one day.
• Asking D for help, even when I feel guilty about it (the man works two jobs, I'm allowed to feel guilty even if I am pregnant!)
• Lowering my cooking standards, and eating frozen bagged meals once a week when I feel like crap.

But there are things too important to me to give up:

• Regular attendance at my church (um, I can haz support system?)
• Having a clean house
• Semi-regular social interaction with people who make me feel good
• My holiday traditions, such as Solstice Tea in honor of my Nana
• Continuing to be known as a good/thoughtful gift-giver

Priorities. We all have them. So what if mine are a little Martha Stewart-ish.... only without the jail time.

I officially suck at updates.

I'll try to work on it. Bug me. Seriously.

It's a boy!

We found out yesterday that we're definitely having a boy. I know some ultrasounds aren't very clear, but our little exhibitionist turned around and flashed us so clearly that D & I saw the outline of his testes & penis well before the nurse pointed them out.

So yeah- Damian Orion is due on February 2nd.

I won't pretend that I'm not a little disappointed- I've always wanted a daughter, and known for years that my first child would be a girl, but these results also weren't a surprise because I've been dreaming for months about the baby and he's always been clearly male-sexed.

Of course, this means that the vast majority of the clothes on our registry will be coming off. Between my friends and my next-door neighbor, we're going to be giving away clothes!

Registry advice needed

We have two different registries up now:

Our primary Amazon.com registry with everything we currently want

and the Target registry my relatives requested since they don't like online shopping.

However, Target's site is currently being infuriating, so here's no link at the moment.

Parents, please take a look through these and tell me if there's anything you couldn't live without that we've missed, or something there that you just never once used.

Be aware that the following items are missing because we've been told we're receiving them as gifts already:

• A pack'n'play
• A breast pump
• Dr Bronner's Natural Flow bottles

Lastly, please don't start shopping yet, unless it's for the stuff we'll need no matter what, like diapers. There's still some stuff we'll be receiving from friends that may come off the registry before we formally release it.

There was a lot of screaming...

I have the terrifying and amusing feeling that I may be having a conversation similar to this in February:

Snagged with pleasure from The Devil's Panties (It's not Satanic porn, honest)TM