Friday, December 9, 2022

Week in Review: Christmas Card Fail, Gingerbread House Win, and Dancing Like Nobody is Recording

Google Photos is at it again, showing me this picture from 10 years ago today:

JP was 9, Andrew was 8 and Eamon was 6

I really liked Ellen's comment from last week where she replied to the google photos making me feel sad:

I watched a minimal mom where she talked with a psychologist about decluttering digital photos. It was fascinating and I'm not sure I'm all on board but the idea was that we take way more pictures than at any other time in history, that pictures are a fairly recent thing, and that our brains are not equipped to handle frequent visual trips to the past. That we are meant to live more in the present. The speaker said that when he cut down on having his kids' baby pictures all over or on a screen saver he felt more able to love them and be present to them in their current adolescent stage of life.

Interesting stuff for sure.

Andrew (age 18) got his first college acceptance!  With a wonderful scholarship and financial aid package to boot.  It literally pays to have two kids in college at the same time.  Well, then we also have to pay them, but you know what I mean.

Now for the Christmas Card Fail.

I designed the Christmas card late this year, so I ordered them from Walmart's 1 hour option.  When we picked them up, the 5x7 cards were really 5x8 so they didn't fit in the envelopes provided.  Phil brought them back and they cut the extra inch off the cards so they would fit.  Then we realized that they did not give us 80 envelopes for our 80 cards, so he had to go back to get more envelopes!  And finally, the writing on the bottom is so miniscule that it looked like it was written for ants:


Seriously though, I'm embarrassed and know I'm going to hear about it from everyone.  Get your binoculars out when you see our card coming!  I do feel better when I remember that my good friend, mom of eight, accidently cropped one of her kids out of the Christmas cards one year.  Classic.


One final note about Christmas cards.  We have only gotten TWO so far and I'm wondering if everybody is a little late like me this year, or are people not sending them (the cost!).  I have some extras so if anyone wants one, email me your address :)

My team unofficially won the gingerbread house contest at work.  It wasn't really a competition, but I didn't agree with that and ours was the best!  

Look at Santa in the chimney!

Look at the bears having a snowball fight!

We also had the cookie exchange and then I served up a smorgasbord of cookies for the next two night's desserts which made my kids very happy.


Eamon (age 16) has been pretending to be on his phone but actually recording Brendan (6) dance, and it's just the best.



I hope everyone has a productive and relaxing weekend, make sure to plan time for both!

10 comments:

  1. My husband LOVES that movie and quotes that ants line all the time.
    But this made the laugh the hardest: "my good friend, mom of eight, accidently cropped one of her kids out of the Christmas cards one year. Classic."
    That is hilarious and what a fantastic story for the family history book...
    Postage is a bit shocking these days!

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    1. Oh yes it was very funny but she was mortified, understandably. The son who was cut out made his own Christmas card that year if I remember correctly!

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  2. I am so behind on addressing Christmas cards! Sorry your cards were a fail, at least you can laugh about it for years to come! Brendan dancing is just the best!

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    1. I just print labels out from my Christmas address list, not as personal but not as time-consuming!

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  3. That IS a cute photo. Most of the photos I have on Google photos is photos of the tots I sit for over the years. Also, I don't think I get these flashback looks from Google photos.

    Thanks for explaining that the gumdrops were having a snowball fight. So funny.

    Cropping a kid out of the card is so funny. Oops. This is the earliest I've ever had my Christmas cards done - and when I say done, the envelopes are printed, the cards are here (have been for a week), and the poem is at the printer, hoping to pick up today. I hope to spend most of today finishing up notes to insert in the cards and get them stuffed and in the mail soon-ish. I credit my ahead-of-sechedule-for-me with the fact that we no longer have Irish dancing, the world's biggest time-suck.

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    1. My husband stuffed and labeled the cards this year! Maybe you can convince yours as well?!?!

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  4. I feel like a bit of a celebrity being quoted (quoting minimal mom) on your blog! Wasn't that an interesting idea? Like somehow too much looking back isnt helpful. As moms we already live with the loving and letting go each day.
    I am sorry your Christmas cards turned out to be an aggravation. So many people love getting the photo cards and staying in touch that way. Hard when it doesn't turn out as we hope. I bet folks will still appreciate them though.
    Our sad story is that we took a fantastic family picture at the beach in early fall this year and i made my husband promise to keep it secret so we could surprise everyone for Christmas cards. Then i forgot about it and chose another one instead that only had the kids. It is not every day we get all 6 of us and i like how i look too.

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    1. Oh man, too bad you forgot about that photo! I only send Christmas card pictures of the kids because I hate seeing myself in cards and then having people watch me age year by year :)

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  5. He's got the moves like Jagger!! 😃
    I love your gingerbread house; the bears are a clever touch!
    I really thought you were going to say that one kid was cropped out of your cards. Hey, you can only fit so many, right? I generally always do mine on Shutterfly and one year I had them finished early and as I was signing them to mail off I realized I had put the wrong year on them; so I had to start over with a new order. :(

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    1. Oh having to start over would be terrible. I actually complained to Walmart and got the cards free, so we are using them but at least I didn't have to pay for their mistakes!

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