...and A Happy New Year

                On the way to a recent scout event after a morning at a wrestling tournament.

I can't say life has been boring, but compared to the wild ride our family has been on the last couple of years it's super calm.  I'll take it.

Christmas went off with little disaster.  We went north to the in-laws for the holidays.  Three hours or so into a 9+ hour drive I remembered that Santa's gifts were tucked neatly in my bedroom closet.  I promise that will give you a nauseous feeling quickly.  In coded language Hubby and I made the decision there wasn't much we could do about it and continued on with a plan to go shopping and replace the gifts when we got to our destination.  Thankfully stubborness to outlive video game begging and a benign gift wish list from the kids made the gifts easy to replace and I returned the original gifts (after I unwrapped them) to WalMart today.  Honestly I think we could have come to clean to the kids, after all they are 11 and 8.  I can't really believe Sonny Boy thinks there is such thing as Santa and I'm pretty sure Igor isn't fooled anymore either.  The two play the game well, so I suppose we will too.

Hubby in some grandiose need to plan for the kids decided the family should do it's own Santa Lucia ceremony.  Hubby's grandmother is Swede and Hubby and his sister were part of the local town festival as children.  So we dressed up the youngest three boys as Star Boys and the only girl as Santa Lucia.  I spent a day or two sewing and crafting those dunce hats (see picture previous post) and Mother-in-law planned the doings and baked Lucia buns.  Things went well, kids played along with little fuss and even the wild card niece playing Santa Lucia was cooperative, something we had all held our breaths for.  It was such a hit that Mother-in-law proclaimed next year we do Ukrainian Christmas, potatoes and vodka, I can do that. 

I'm getting antsy, in a couple of weeks I will join Hubby for a week in Paris, France.  I'm really excited and have been haunting travel sites and have no less than four guidebooks beside my easy chair.  The middle of January may not be the world's best time to see the city of light, but at least the crowds will be mild and compared to the well below 0 wind chills forecasts for this week it will be balmy in France.  I just hope my fat rear end can keep up with the massive amount of walking I'm sure we will be doing.  The weather cooperated for a few hours on Saturday so I logged 1.8 miles at a decent clip and my bum ankle let me know about my lack of exercise.  I'd sure like to get out and do more but I refuse to risk frostbite and I no longer have a gym membership.  No, we haven't won the lottery or anything.  Hubby's company has him going to meetings the week before and the week after my trip in France so he'll just stay between.  Easier and cheaper on the company anyway.  I cashed in all his frequent flier miles to boot.

The next couple of weeks I'll spend getting things in order.  You know a mom can't leave without a to do list being a mile long before she can go.  Mother-in-law is planning on coming to managed the kids for the week so I must have things smoothly running for her.

Can't complain, only kid logistics to manage..knock on wood.