No-Show November

 my blogging has been non-existent lately. I wrote more in the week after Emma was born than I have the past two weeks. 

No serious excuses for this, I just haven't made it happen. 

So let's play catch-up with the Holding Family:

We took Lexi (and only Lexi) to a family wedding in Lawrence a couple of weeks ago. She loved the 'prince and princess' getting married, the dancing, the cupcakes (which she and her cousins pre-tasted for everyone), and the photo booth.  

Oh the photo booth . . . . 

We set up our Christmas-ness last weekend. 

The small children love it. 

Emma points at everything that lights up and says "Please" extremely loudly until her demands have been met. 

She is insistent but so cute.

When I was little, it was a big deal to get to put the tree topper on, We had to take turns. Scottie had odd years, I had evens. Kelly was too cool; she didn't care about tree topping. I tried to get Lexi excited about being the tree-topper-helper this year, but she was not all in. She like the idea in theory, but she ended up being scared of heights. I guess there is a difference between being 6 feet in the air (when my dad would hoist us up to crown the tree) and 10 feet (we have a large tree and Paul is part-giant).

 I guess Daddy gets even years.

 Our finished product:

 IF I sent out Christmas cards - this would be the winner. 
But I don't send out Christmas cards, so  . . . . .

Other happenings:

 - Emma has 4 teeth coming in. It's painful and sleepless and cranky. And that is just how I am feeling. She is less than pleasant right now, also. 

 - I got my haircut. Finally. 

 - Paul submitted a request to participate in Movember (similar to No-Shave-November, but the boys grow mustaches instead of just beards). Naturally, this was denied. Mustaches make Paul look like a serial killer.

 - We hosted Thanksgiving here for our little family plus my parents. It was pretty good, but I still managed to burn a pan to it's black black death. 

 - I tried to go early black Friday shopping (Thursday night) to find an $8 crock pot and a new pan to replace the one that died in the Great Gravy Armageddon of 2012. Mom and I drove to Target, saw the line wrapped AROUND THE WHOLE BUILDING, laughed a lot, then said 'no', went home and drank more wine. 

 - As a diocesan teacher I have to take religion classes the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving. This year I chose a class about exorcism. I haven't slept in 6 days.  

 - My Etsy business is keeping me hopping. Which is great - it allows me to keep shopping! Coincidentally I am 3 gifts away from being DONE with my holiday shopping. What the what?