One down, 27 to go

We had Christmas with my dad's side of the family yesterday. Ah, the joys of a divorced family. No more one big happy family gathering. No, instead, we must split up and and do things separately. Although even when my parents were married, we still had Christmas with my dad's side separate from my mom's side, but at least my little family was together for all of it. Now it just seems like it's neverending once you add in everything with the in-laws to the craziness that is already my life at holidays.

It's not that I don't want to see the people that I see at holiday functions. On the contrary, it's the one or maybe two times a year I get to see my aunt (who lives in Texas) and my cousin (who lives in Tennessee). And I love them. I also enjoy going to stay with my in-laws for a couple of days. Especially now that we have Cade. I love seeing how much they enjoy getting to see Cade. It just seems like Christmas starts, well, yesterday, and doesn't end until sometime next week when we finally get to have Christmas with my mom and brother. And that's a lot of Christmas. Especially for someone who could really do without most of Christmas.

I know, I know, Christmas is about Jesus being born, and that does absolutely make it a special time. But the commercialism drives me nuts. And the pressure to do certain things also drives me nuts. I don't think that when God sent His Son to earth, he really intended for us to go crazy with the gift-giving for everyone and their dog, and the Christmas tree decorating, and the house decorating, and the list could go on. (Now don't get me wrong...I actually enjoy shopping for Christmas gifts for those I love. Really, I do. I just hate that there are people that I'm expected to buy things for that a. I have no idea what they want, b. I really would prefer that they not buy me anything, and c. they aren't really going to like what I get them because I don't know what to get them!) I think, and this is just my opinion, I think that He intended for us to appreciate the sacrifice that He and His Son made for us. And you know, who has time to do that when there are so many Christmas parties to attend?

I hope and pray that we can model for our children what the real meaning of Christmas is. And as soon as I figure out how to successfully do that, I'll let you know! :)

Crash!

My iPhone crashed. It was horrible. It happened last night. First, it froze up and wouldn't do anything. I finally got it to turn off, but when I tried to turn it back on, it wouldn't come on. I went to find the receipt from when we bought it, and wouldn't you know, the one-year warranty was up. Last week. Of course.

So this morning, Ryan left his cell phone here with me in case of an emergency, because without my iPhone, I have nothing! :) I got up and started reading on the Apple website everything related to crashing. I tried the first several suggestions. Nothing. Finally, I had to force it into "recovery" mode, which wipes everything off the phone. No big deal if you keep your phone updated like you're supposed to. I knew it had been awhile since I had synced it, but when I went to restore all the factory settings, it told me that the last update was October 15. Yikes. Almost 2 months ago. But what else was there to do? I sucked it up and told it to restore.

About an hour later, my beloved phone was working again! Hooray! But sadly, I'm missing the last 2 months of pictures of Cade. I'm sure there are some phone numbers and calendar appointments I'm missing, too, but I'll get over that. Two of my favorite pictures of Cade(amongst others) are gone. Forever. But I learned my lesson. SYNC YOUR IPHONE! I may or may not have synced it twice since then. :)

In other news, my sweet angel baby has decided that he doesn't like sleeping through the night anymore. I know, I know, he's been sleeping through the night for months, I should be appreciative, blah, blah, blah. But it's still not fun to listen to a screaming baby. And let me tell you, this is not crying. This is SCREAMING. Like, if you didn't know better, you would think someone was cutting off his leg. With a dull knife. It's excruciating to hear. One of my friends told me today, "This too shall pass." Which was good. I needed to hear that. But couldja hurry up and pass already? This mama is getting worn thin listening.

At home

Baby boy has been sick this week. He's had a runny nose since Sunday afternoon when he woke up from his nap. It's been utterly pitiful. He hasn't slept well and he can't breathe through his nose. It's just sad. However, in spite of it, he's actually been a pretty happy baby. Shocking, being as that he's been kind of a grumpy-pants lately (due to teething or a growth spurt, who really knows?).

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm going crazy because I have not set foot outside my house since Sunday. And normally, I would have gone nuts by now. But it's been kind of nice. I guess I've been going, going, going for so long that I didn't even realize I missed just hanging out around the house and playing with Cade. And snuggling. If there's one thing a sick baby is good for, it's some serious snuggle time. :)

And I've gotten a chance to play with my new laptop some more. And I still love it. A lot. Even more than I first knew.

So I'm trying to enjoy my last day or two of not having things to do or places to go because that doesn't happen very often. Especially in December.

But it would be nice for the munchkin to feel better, too.