Unbelievable!

I can't believe it's 12:30 AND I'M NOT ASLEEP. We went to bed tonight before 9:00, Anja had a restless beginning to the night, (we reeeaaallly need a humidifier in our room, she gets so dry and stuffed up--we all do) I finally around 11:30 got her to sleep in her carseat where she's still sleeping, and here I am, WIDE AWAKE. Grr! Martin had some NyQuil before bed, so he's out cold. I'm so jealous.

We've had a pretty nice and relaxing weekend. Saturday was Dickens of a Christmas, but we didn't go. Sunday was the Christmas Parade, but we didn't go to that either! On Saturday morning we woke up early to a gorgeous snow, bundled ourselves up (well, Martin didn't bundle, he more stripped down) and drove over to the YMCA for him to run in the Jingle Bell 5k. DUMB IDEA. I mean, the race was fine, Anja had a good time being there (we hung out in the gym for the whole thing) but Martin had been fighting off a nasty cold for the last few days and running 3 miles in the snow tipped him over the edge. We came home and while I was baking the Snickerdoodles and Anja was napping, he fell asleep on the couch. I was able to wake him awhile later for warm cookies and milk though--a PERFECT treat for such a cold and snowy day!! When Anja woke up and had lunch we met up with our friend Matt at Vienna for just a little bit, then headed home again. We didn't really want to go out at all that day, but we'd promised Matt days before that we'd hang out on Saturday, so we were kind of locked in. When we got home Martin was feeling worse so he went to bed and didn't wake up until 7:00 when Anja went down for the night!! Crazy! He was feeling a lot better by then though; we had some tea together and hung around then we both hit the hay.

On Sunday we went to the 9:30 mass again where we slipped in next to our good friend and Anja's godfather, Matt Spencer! It was good to finally see him again. Anja was a total crabcake and Martin spent much of the mass in the back with her. They sang "Comfort Comfort"!!!!!!!!!! That song still gives me goosebumps, even after all these Advents. *sigh* Letsee... after mass Anja went right down for a nap that didn't last very long, then we decided to get a head start on our Christmas shopping. We went out to Once Upon a Child looking for specific things for Anja, and hardly found anything at all, I was SO disappointed. And since it was the Christmas Parade (we hadn't realized that until we were driving away from downtown and saw the crowds) we didn't want to drive back downtown until it was over--so we called our friend Matt and were going to meet him at Barnes & Noble but ended up meeting him at the mall instead, where we didn't need to do any shopping, so we just kind of wandered around for awhile. In the end we got coffee at Panera and went home. Our plan was to go to Von's to continue our Christmas shopping but by this time it was late afternoon and Anja had had about enough and we were cold and tired too, so we gave up and went home. I was starving so we ate dinner right at 5:00, Anja went down for bed at 7:00 and Martin and I had hot chocolate and then followed soon after.

And now here I am!

I realized this afternoon that all of my instruments (except my best guitar) are stored back here in the Big Back Room. The thirty-degree Big Back Room. Yikes. This could end up being a big problem. An equally big problem is that I have no place else to store them. Hmm... I imagine that any cold weather damage is already done and at least the temperature isn't fluctuating, but still... how careless could I be?

In other news, Anja wore a most adorable dress today and she's getting pretty good at the "c" sound of "cat" but now she's started calling everything "cat." Today she played happily on top of a box for a really long time. It's so weird to see what she finds fun or clever.

Okay, maybe going from this cold room up to my warm cave upstairs will make me sleepy enough to fall asleep. Here's hoping!

P.S. Has there ever been a more perfectly snowy start to winter? Not enough to come over the tops of your shoes, but just enough to feel Christmassy!