Nobody's Fool

We had a New Year's Eve party for the playgroup buddies on Friday. There was eating, drinking, chatting, all the fun stuff- and a countdown at twelve.

Noon, that is.

Judging by the look on Johnny's face, he was not at all pleased that we didn't manage to darken the house to at least give the impression of midnight to him and all his toddler friends. We're a mean and oppressive bunch, clearly.




Tomorrow for the real New Year's Eve, T and I are slapping some ribs on the grill and hanging out with my family. After Johnny goes to bed we'll head to the neighbors for game night. I love game night. I love that I can spend New Year's Eve in pajamas if I feel like it. I love that my neighbors are a fun bunch of folks who live on either side of us, and we get to hang out with them at midnight. Wow, for a second there I stopped my incessant complaining of the last month or so, didn't I? AM I STILL RECOGNIZABLE??

I feel that I need to state for the record that I don't hate Christmas as much as it must sound like I do. I just get stressed out. Stressed out by the shopping, wrapping, planning, hosting and cleaning up of it all. However, I am grateful to have so many family and friends to shop, wrap plan and host for. The cleaning up can bite me, Christmas or not.

I'm grateful that Gramp and Cortney feel better. That Johnny is a great kid who makes my life so fun and joyful more often than not. That my husband is my best friend in the world who makes me laugh hard enough to get hiccups. That G reads all the stupid books I tell her to and never gets annoyed when I cancel our movie date at the last minute. (Or just pretends to not get annoyed). That S is S. What the hell would I do without S? I'm grateful that Matt calls more often than he gets a call back, because I know he gets it. That mom and Paul are so close and think Johnny is just as amazing as we do. Truthfully, I am inundated with love.

This year, I plan to remember that. Always remember that.