Yes, I realize the weekend is not yet over, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm still ready for a weekend. This week was exhausting in an unfortunately not very productive way. It really started off rough, and I just never quite caught up again. See, my little girl had a really bad Monday. Like, awful. She turned one earlier this month, and also morphed into a tantrum-throwing toddler. And what's difficult for me, a new mommy, is distinguishing between her "I'm being a snot" tantrums and her "I genuinely need something and you're not understanding" tantrums, the latter of which I don't really consider to be tantrums so much as I think they're frustrating for all of us. I don't want to reward bad behavior, I don't want to feed the tantrum monster...I want a well-behaved child. But how to get that...well, I don't actually know.
So, to that end, Monday was awful. I ended up carrying her around most of the day, not getting anything productive done at all, and sitting on the floor watching her play. She plays by herself, as long as you are not doing anything except watching her. Get up to check your email, and it's all over. She also took a horrendously short nap (like, less than 40 minutes) so she was also exhausted. By 4 pm, I was so tired of the whining, the screaming, the tears, that I put a movie on and we sat and watched it. Rather, she cuddled into me (which she never does) for about 15 minutes and then climbed down off the couch and walked around the living room, sometimes watching the movie, sometimes playing with a scrap of paper on the floor, for the remaining hour, until I turned it off. Then the waterworks started up again, but at least there was only about an hour left before J. came home.
That night, we had dinner with our neighbors, and we were both so harried that as we prepared dinner, we couldn't help but laugh, out of desperation, at how frustrated we were with our kids. We decided that we could make it to the weekend, and would reward ourselves with a treat.
The rest of the week, to be honest, was not quite as bad as Monday, but not really much better, either. She had one good day where she slept for over 2 hours, but since I wasn't expecting a nice long nap, I got nothing done.
When Saturday finally came, J. asked me what I wanted to do. I find that if I don't set out goals for the weekend, nothing gets done because I let myself loaf about. So, I said I'd like to go out and do some unneccesary (but still productive) shopping. The thing is, I wanted to leave the house without needing to, without needing to be back by a certain time. I wanted to leave because I wanted to. So, we stopped at Lowes and picked up paint chips (for a huge project this summer), then we went to Michael's and picked up a foam wreath form for a Christmas wreath (yep, you read that right...in January!), and we wrapped up at Pier 1, because I'd heard they had all their Christmas stuff 90% off. (Again with the Christmas, I know, I know...). And on the way home, we stopped at In and Out and got a shake and an order of fries to split. A nice treat.
Now, why am I working on Christmas in January? Well, let me tell you. Last Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law, frustrated by the fact that we never go to my in-laws for Christmas, called with a proposition. She didn't say she was frustrated, but more that she wanted to be able to see us at Christmas, and suggested that we host next Christmas. She thought with over a year's notice, we'd have time to prepare mentally and all my husband's siblings would have time to save money for airfare. I like my sister-in-law, so I agreed. And then the panic set in.
See, I'm a frugal, young wife and mother. We've been married for five years, but we only bought our house three years ago, and I've been slow to decorate. (For Christmas or otherwise). We've slowly furnished our home, piece by piece, relying on hand-me-downs in the meantime. It's worked really well for us; we've never spent more than we feel comfortable spending and we're on our way to a beautiful home. But, this means I also don't have a perfectly decorated home at Christmas. We have a tree, and a few things, but the decor is really lacking. And, being a self-conscious daughter-in-law (the only daughter-in-law, mind you), I'm a little uptight about how I'm perceived by my husband's family. So, the lists came out. I wrote all kinds of lists and tried to take advantage of after-Christmas sales. And I got some good stuff...I'm not done, and there's a lot I need to make. And I don't think I'd be worrying about it now except for the fact that I'm a grad student. Which means that in addition to playing mommy all day, I have homework, a thesis to write, and a class to teach. I'm busy. And in October and November, when I would start worrying about it, I should be finishing up my thesis and preparing to graduate, which doesn't leave much time for doing all the sewing I have planned. (Umm...I don't have a tree skirt. Or a stocking for my daughter. Or table linens. (Which I wouldn't sew but am thinking about sewing some table runners). And I would really like to finish a Christmas quilt to go by the fire. And I have a kit for a darling nativity wall hanging.) I've been pretty ambitious in my plans, but I'm trying to be realistic. The quilt and nativity probably won't get done, but I need a tree skirt. And a stocking for my daughter. I figured the only way to get everything done and purchased without completely hating my life is to work on it all year.
One of the other things that I think is probably important is a wreath for the door. Thus the trip to Michael's. I got the wreath form for about $6 (I used a 40% coupon) and then it took me just about an hour to decorate it. I first wrapped it in ribbon and then hot glued old Christmas ornaments over it. The ornaments are what I've used for my tree in the past, but I've felt it lacked personality. I've used a couple of big boxes of cheap ornaments I picked up from Target after Christmas one year, one box in red and one box in gold. I liked the color scheme, but I'm going to go in a different direction this year in the hopes of making it more personal to my family. I've decided, since I have some Swedish heritage, to go with a Swedish theme, so I'll be going with a brighter red and white. So, I took all my red and gold ornaments and used them for this wreath, and then it feels less wasteful to not use them on the tree. I'm really pleased with it, and I think I'll just add a few more ornaments when I think about it, to fill it in a little better.
Unfortunately, now I need to figure out where to store it. I don't have a wreath box. And it's actually pretty big. For now, it's sitting on the dining table. Next to the purchases I made at Pier 1 that also don't have a home.
(Okay, I just have a brag for just a minute.) I spent almost $13 and I bought a roll of wrapping paper, 4 boxes of ornament hooks, 6 pillar candles, 1 box of 30 tea lights, 3 small boxes of "filler" (pinecones, fake berries and fake pine branches), 5 packages of 8 paper plates, and 2 packages of 20 napkins. Nothing cost more than a dollar, and the ornament hooks were 18 cents a piece. Great deals, huh?
Now I just have to find a place for it all.
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