Merry Christmas!

Ok - so Christmas is three days away but I'm just now getting my Christmas cards in the mail. They need a 12 step program for procrastination since I obviously suffer from it. Why do it today when you can put it off until tomorrow? That's my motto! Anyway, for those of you wondering what the Rohlfs' Christmas Card looks like, here's the photo:



Nothing fancy. Although, I shot over 195 pictures to get the ONE where both kids are looking at the camera.

Yesterday I was reading my latest issue of Domino and the editor was talking about their Christmas card and how she was (I'm quoting here) "sick of the photos of people's kids posing like Abercrombie models on a ski slope", etc. I don't remember the entire thing but basically it boiled down to these Christmas cards where everyone is trying to outdo everyone else. I had to laugh because I sometimes feel that way when I get cards where an entire family is poised in front of some ritzy part of their $1,000,000 house and everyone is cleaned and prepped. Can anyone truly live life that way? What about carpet stains? Or, mussy hair, or a janky tree, etc?

Here's the deal. We're not fancy people. Scott and I work hard every day and we barely scrape by with what we have. Everything we DO have we have worked our butts off to get and we can't compete with the Jones'. We're not even going to try to. So, here's our two children that we love dearly and try to give everything we can to. Behind them is our ghetto Christmas tree (see prior blog post for reference) and they're sitting on stained carpet. (Never get new carpet when you have a 2 year old that likes to drink juice!) But, we're a happy family. Messy and all!

Merry Christmas!

Addie in the bath...

Do you remember that scene in Ferris Bueller where he's in the shower and he has his hair soaped up and he's singing? That always cracks me up and every night when I wash Addie's hair, I have to "mohawk it" with the shampoo like in the movie and we laugh and sing. (By the way, she prefers the kitchen sink. She SCREAMS when it's in the big tub. She likes the running water of the sink)

So, here's my girl playing in the bath. She loves to touch the running water. She's growing so much these days - saying a ton of stuff, moving all over the place, and starting to stand when holding onto the ottoman or exersaucer. (She'd much rather play OUTSIDE of the exersaucer than in it) I'm thinking she's going to walk way before Maggie ever did. She'll be nine months on Sunday and last week at the doctor she weighed in at a mere 14 lbs, 5 ounces. Where this kid came from, I'm not sure. LOL!

This is my mom...

This photo pretty much sums up my mom: Grandkids everywhere. Actually, the little one on the right is Ryan, her GREAT-grandaughter. (Yes - my mom has grandkids and great-grandkids that are roughly the same age)

People often ask me how I do it. How do I balance a career and kids? It's simple actually: MOM. She helps Scott and I all the time. She watches Addie, gets Maggie from school, keeps them overnight when I'm traveling and Scott's working, etc. The woman is a machine! I drop Addie off in the morning and Scott picks up both Addie and Maggie from her when his shift ends. She entertains two babies and a six year old almost every day. Trust me - she's a God send.

Thanks for being so awesome Mom! Love you!

(Note: Addie's hair is REALLY long - past her shoulders. So, it's brushed over on her face which looks silly in the photo. Normally it's combed back but how in the world do you hold two babies without one of them getting mussed hair?)

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Here's a photo of our tree. Believe it or not, this year I'm absolutely in LOVE with our tree. Why? Because it symbolizes us and our family. Here's the deal with our tree. It was a hand-me-down. The year that Scott and I got married (1998 if you're writing a book) we didn't have a lot of money because we had just plunked down everything we had for our first house. We were also all of 22 years old, so we were young, poor and in need of a tree. (Ironically now we're older, poor and still in need of a tree.)

Scott's aunt had a yardsale and the tree was in it. Nobody bought the poor tree because who buys a Christmas tree in August? So, she called us and told us to come over and go through the yardsale leftovers (is this sounding hillbilly yet?) and take what we could use. She knew we were young newlyweds and she had nice stuff. So, we got a microwave and the tree.

This is our 8th Christmas with the tree and I still love it. It's got gaping holes of course because it was a cheesy tree you buy at Wal-Mart (the box still has the tag on it) and it's not like any of the new styles that you can buy today. I think that's what makes me like it so much. It's like the Charlie Brown tree. It's not the prettiest one, but it has some sort of meaning.

What else excited me is that this year Scott finally let me put white lights on it. I've always wanted white lights but he always made me go with colored. I LOVE the white ones! So - here's my tree with the white lights, the gaping holes where the branches just don't meet and all of our ornaments. Maggie helped me put them on. There are ones in there from when Scott and I were kids and ones that Maggie has made and I bought a few for Addie this year.

This is what it's like to spend Christmas with the Rohlfs'.

Disappointments...

Wow...it's been a week full of disappointments. Lots of them. So, to hopefully combat it and get the disappointments to go away, I thought I'd list my blessings:

My kids...




S2H...



Good Friends...




Family...

Ever feel like you're not good enough?

It's a pity party day for me today. I now know how Derek Shepherd felt when he couldn't do the surgery to separate the twins. How he felt inadequate, etc. Hmmm... Like when he was basically told by Burke that he was a failure. It affected his ability to function as a surgeon. How applicable to life.



There's my Grey's analogy for the week. Enjoy.