Catchup post

Hello, thought I would preserve for posterity our trip to San Francisco over the holidays. I know, holidays are over, move on, but I do want to remember it so here goes anyway:

We flew to SF and got there Thursday night (the 20th). Brought grandma along so she could watch MLO and hubby and I would get some time to do stuff ourselves too.

We arrived to find the hotel room not what we wanted. We had gotten a "Junior Suite" but what it really was, was a room, slightly bigger than a regular room so they could fit a love seat and coffee table in, in addition to the beds, the usual desk, dresser and TV. After some discussion we decided to leave it be and we would be fine.

Friday we worked (great start to the holiday right) with MLO and grandma playing back at the hotel and hubby and I at starbucks, getting on-line and finishing up some work before the holidays.

Friday night we went to Fisherman's wharf saw the huge Christmas tree they had covered in blue lights (MLO had fun running under the tree and looking up and coming back out).

We went on a horse and carriage ride which MLO loved. We paid for half an hour ride and when we were done MLO didn't want to get down from the carriage.

Saturday was an hour drive to see family and get our "holiday" family party over with. My mom has three sisters, they all have kids and so it isn't a small party. MLO was the highlight of the party with my 14 and 17 year-old girl cousins asking people how they could be doing anything else but playing and watching MLO.

Sunday we went back to Fisherman's Wharf and thought we were going to make it to the Aquarium they have on one of the piers. But nap time and eating didn't work out before we had to leave to catch our plane back home.

We ate at Rainforest Cafe which MLO also loved, we stayed there two hours (part of why the aquarium didn't work out). Then walked along Pier 39 and MLO went on the carousel at the end of the wharf.

It was a great trip, not to stressful, plenty of relax time, we could easily change our plans as needed (something you must be able to do in order to enjoy it when you have 2 year old along).

MLO at Karaoke

We went to a friends house on New Year's Eve where a Karaoke party was happening.

My hubby was smart and sang right at the beginning, before there were very many people there so didn't have to sing to a huge group.

I, on the other hand, was trying to just get out of it all together (I can't sing people, really, except really simple songs or ones that I have known forever and then somehow I manage to stay near to the right key in my shower).

When the pressure first began on singing I managed to get out of it by having MLO sing. You see, they had a children's Karaoke CD and on it was the ABC song. MLO had so much fun singing it into the microphone that she did it twice.

Of course it was the most adorable thing ever and everyone was clapping and hooting and MLO had a big smile on her face. She had so much fun she wanted to go again after some other people were singing.

I ended up trying to sing My Boyfriend's Back because my sister and I used to sing it when I was little and I thought I could pull it off. No such luck, would have been better to put the mic to someone strangling a duck.

Happy New Year

Wow, when I went to write that title it already knew what I was going to write (guess I haven't gotten any more original since last year).

Well, Happy New Year to everyone, may you keep some of your resolutions (maybe not all, but hey, put some easy ones on the list too).

My resolutions:

* Enjoy my daughter every day
* Remember to tell my husband how much I love him constantly
* Spend more time with my dad before we lose him
* Start our plans for remodeling of our new house (get at least one room done)
* Go out to more parties with friends

and the ever famous theme:
* Lose all the weight I gained while pregnant

Still kickin'

Left for San Francisco on the 20th and just made it through the Christmas festivities in one piece.

Got to catch up on some work and will be back to record all the fun stuff for posterity. Our horse and carriage ride, my daughter's amazing haul of goodies (glad I cleaned up just before), the insane amount of food I ate (how I blew my diet by gaining back 5 pounds of the 25 I lost), our family party, our separate friends party and why though I haven't gone grocery shopping for two weeks I have enough food to feed us for the week.

Some great talent

We successfully donated toys

My car was packed full of bags and boxes of toys and clothes (some of my clothes too). Some items I saw in the garage and knew I would never need. A few things that I passed in the house and realized I didn't have any good reason to keep and so on.

We then drove to goodwill and gave it all to them. They were very happy and graciously took everything (though I don't know if they will actually want all of it).

I feel a little proud in that this is the first time I have dropped off an entire car load (and this is an SUV we are talking about - something else I have considered changing for environmental reason, though I love the car) to charity.

MLO hasn't missed anything as she still has more toys around than she could possibly play with. I did hide a few more toys thinking that we can either "discover" them later or maybe they will end up in the next car load.

Another good indicator, I haven't missed anything I sent away yet either.

Presents under the tree

Last year every single present under the tree was pulled out by MLO and she stood on them (as soon as I figured this out, had to pull out some that this wouldn't work with).

So I was a little worried what she was going to do this year with them.

We wrapped a bunch of presents (none for MLO, those are still hiding) and put them under the tree while she wasn't home.

She came home and saw them and yelled, "presents!" Grabbed the closest one, took it to our coffee table and tried to open it. I had to take it away and explain that the present wasn't for her, she would get hers later.

The next day she saw the presents, went running over and I was prepared to wrestle them away. She stopped, touched one of the presents, looked at me and said:

"Present?"

I nodded.

"Not for me?"

I nodded. She nodded back, smiled and walked around the tree looking at all of them.

Though the same drill is repeated occasionally, all presents are now safely sitting under the tree.