Now I'm really back!

I know that a couple of days ago I said I was back, but now I'm really back.

What am I rambling about?

THIS...

I finally finished the puzzle my Grandma got me for Christmas!! AHHHH! It feels so good to be done with it and before the babysitting kiddos come back!

Now for some updates:

New Year's Eve, we took DH's parents to see the amazing Christmas lights we found completely by accident a couple of days before Christmas. It was really fun, most of the lights were still up and we were home and had the boys in jammies by 8.

Then, we watched Invincible with Mark Wahlberg (better known to my generation as Marky Mark... such a good vibration!!). It's a great movie! I highly recommend it! DH even teared up a little and I haven't seen tears in his eyes since Steven was born.

The boys were determined to stay up till midnight. I think they think its some kind of magical happenings that take place and they didn't want to be left out, so (much to my chagrin) DH obliged them. We put them in Matthew's room about 10:30 and set the sleep timer on the TV to turn off after midnight.

THAT was fun! I sat and tried like the dickens to make some headway on the puzzle. The boys stayed in bed for the most part. DH had to remind Steven a few times that he needed to settle down or he'd be in his own bed with no TV on, but not too bad overall.

At midnight, we heard them both yelling, "Happy New Year!" We went in to give them kisses and tuck them back in. Matthew was out in less than 5 minutes... Steven... well that took a little longer.

Now DH and I are rarely up till midnight anyways, so we were ready for bed right away. Steven thought he'd just snuggle up with us, but nothing doin' if you ask me. Knowing it was so late and that I had to be up and have my chocolate pies in the fridge by 9 to have them chilled and set before our gathering at 1, I shooed him back into Matthew's room. It didn't take long for him to be back in our doorway whimpering about sleeping with us. I value my sleep too much to accept knees in my back all night when that night will be less than 8 hours in the first place.

I'm all about my sleep!

Realizing his efforts were futile, Steven finally lay down in the hallway and plain-gave-up. I'm just glad he did it before I fell asleep or he'd have stayed there all night. I scooped him up and put him in with his brother.

No sooner did I fall asleep (or that's how it felt. It was really 5 AM) here he came digging his cold little toes in my lower back and stealing my pillow. UGH... I was too tired to fight at that point and I gave up. On the bright side, I was all ready to get up and make my pie filling...

New Year's Day involved a trip to DH's brother's house and a few hundred fights over Gameboy games. The food was good, the kids were wound up and overtired and there was a lot of sitting around and chatting. It was a blast.

What more could you ask for?

We ended the day with a trip to one of our favorite stores, Gander Mountain. We can't go near DH's brother's house without a trip to Gander or Kame's (another sporting goods store). This time, DH let me have his gift card to buy a sweater. Isn't he sweet? Only, I ended up buying myself a pair of jeans instead. I rarely buy myself new jeans; I almost always buy mine at Goodwill because I am constantly on the floor picking up toys or playing with the kids or washing them in the tub and I wear out the knees FAST! It's nice to have some new duds!

So that's our New Year's celebration in a nutshell. Hope yours was just as enjoyable!

I'd like to wish you all a wonderful New Year and for every good deed you do, may it be returned to you tenfold! I wish you all good fortune and happiness and I hope you will have a wonderful year in 2007!