ramblings of a thirtysomething (& i used to think that was old)

this morning my mother-in-law asked me how i decide what to blog about, and i said, "ummm....i don't know." and really, i don't. a lot of it depends on whether i've taken photos of life lately, or whether i've been waxing philosophical, or whether i've skipped a lot of life on the blog lately and am just trying to catch up. 

these days my intention are to blog, but they are also (besides covering the bases of mommying & wifeing & working) to work out, to keep our house in some semblance of order, to make art, to cook, and so on... usually when i am talking about blogging and i say that i am behind on my blog, the person i'm talking to will tell me something along the lines of, "you shouldn't feel pressure to blog; you have plenty of other stuff on your plate." true and true. 

but blogging is also good for me, in that it gives me some kind of space that belongs to just me. there are no guest bloggers on here; (a. because who would want to guest blog for me anyway and b. because that would entail having enough readers for a guest blogger. my smattering of followers can exercise patience, thank you very much!) this space has me written all over it in its randomness. these days, having a space that belongs just to me is more important than ever. yes, i am super-extrovert. but i also have less and less time that is mine alone, without a small human pulling on me or calling 'mama!' or undoing something i've just done. so, my friends, blogging, even when it falls by the wayside, is good for me.  

(here i am, deep in thought, 

and this photo goes out to daphne, 

who says i always post pictures of everyone else but myself.)

so i started this post not knowing what to post about today (typical) and i guess it is about this in the end: for a long time i thought i'd have life figured out by the time i was 20 or 25 or 30 or 35. guess what, i'm 36 and i still don't know what's next, even in my blog. life keeps changing; i keep changing. i keep thinking, failing, retrying, hoping, and wishing i was better at about 43 different things. i was scrolling through all of the photos i've taken this year (there are so many i don't even know where to start) and i was reminded of so many little moments i'd forgotten already. but somehow, those moments are part of me and part of who i am becoming.

(also, just for you daphne,)

here i am with the three people who are helping me figure out my crap the most, 

whether they like it or not:

hey, this post is timely if you celebrate magi style

(after all, the kings didn't show up until jesus was a toddler, y'all)

last year matt & i decided that we wanted to begin an annual tradition of our kids (and our friends' kids) acting out the nativity story. (i didn't blog about it last year, but my friend amy captured it here if you want to take a peek.) it is not super structured, more of the idea is for the kids to learn the story by acting it out and having it become a part of their own celebration of christmas. there are no set parts- if we have a couple of marys, then so be it (although last year the magi seemed to be hot ticket characters and this year we had quite a few angels). parents can help their kids by walking them through the story as we act it out, or by being one of the characters too. 

one of the shepherds (my mom) intermingles with a wise king (my niece) before we start

our wandering minstrels practice

and then we are off!

matt narrated the story and we all set off to find baby jesus.

first we stopped at one inn...

"there is no room in the inn!"

and then we tried another inn...

"there is no room at the inn! but you can crash over there"

the innkeeper shows mary where she can rest

and a short while later

baby jesus is born!

joseph keeps watch over him

and the young family poses in the hay

post-birth we sang away in the manger

mary & joseph bonded with their baby while an angel took up residence behind them

the lo & behold the heavenly hosts came to the shepherds to give them

 the crazy good news about baby jesus

even the sheep think it's good news

some of the shepherds are in disbelief but they go to visit baby jesus

the angel takes up a post in front of the baby's manger 

after the inn-keeper attacks baby jesus with hay & needs a time-out on the outskirts of bethlehem

we sing some more songs & a couple of years pass...

some kings come from the east looking for jesus

we see a star!

and find him...

and then we escape king herod by a back way, 

that includes singing some more &

 decorating cookies shaped like the nativity

a 3 year old's version of decorating a cookie

one of the angels partakes of a little sustenance

(you can watch the short video here if my play-by-play pictures didn't suck you in:)

we re-enacted the story again on christmas eve and christmas, 

and m knew everything that was happening and what came next in the story. 

i love that each time we do this 

it is kind of unorganized, a mess of random characters and a bit of confusion, 

because really - that is probably how the first christmas really was.

awesome.

my husband gave in and put up christmas lights!

behold the power of a 3 1/2 year old daughter on her daddy.

just saying.

snapshot

round here in photo form

sometimes dreams come true

and people who you know are reading decide to comment. 

i know, i know,

comments don't really matter,

but maybe it is because i am an inherently social extrovert

that your comments make blogging even more fun.

get your bake on

remember this tradition?

well, it's december again, so time to do it again!

(as my friend travis used to say about photos: same people, same poses, different background.)

on your mark,

 get set,

 go!

 yes, i made amy pose with sour cream.

 sally, amy's mom, hard at work
while nancy & i pose
(we are far less productive on these bake days than amy & sally. true story.)

 yum yum

you see that tray of almond roca?
you might as well call it crack, because it's that good.

 the cookie pictures are prettier than the ones of tired moms, but i'll included one anyway:

 we tried to introduce baby samuel to the joys of chocolate

 then we frosted while watching glee
(don't judge)
(sidenote: i wasn't really into glee anymore and then i watched the last couple of episodes and it kind of redeemed itself. note to ryan murphy- showtunes? boring. showtunes & old ballads from 1935 = me not watching your show.)

our lucky neighbors and m's teachers and therapist got all of the treats, except for the ones matt managed to sneak.
hooray for treats!


subpost:
on our way home, i stopped in amy's parents yard to grab a pic of baby Jesus & family.
i like how tired and beat down mary and joseph look.
probably pretty accurate, right?!