Christmas Eve & Christmas Day Morning at HBHQ
For the first time, maybe since we’ve owned our home, we stayed home Christmas Eve and woke on Christmas morning to a visit from Santa. The tone of Christmas this year felt much more relaxed and having this time together was really sweet and exciting. Maggie is at the perfect age for everything Santa and got right to work on putting together a Lego toy from opening gifts the night before. Audrey really, really loves New Baby lately and Santa brought a small wooden cradle and she spent quite a bit of time being a Little Mama by herself. Barry and I drank like 4 pots of coffee.
Earlier in the day, on Christmas Eve, we went on a walk at Richmond Beach and then had an early and quiet dinner at home before exchanging gifts between the four of us. The following pictures loaded backwards, I don’t care enough to fix it. If you’re a chronological person….start from the bottom.
Brag Talking
Last week our computer up and decided to partially die and it pretty much freaked me out because I have an infinite number of unfinished photo projects on it. We think we’re backed up, but I pretty much NEVER want to lose anything.
Barry had gone surfing and I needed to get our gigantic computer to the mall on a SATURDAY. First, I hate the mall and try my best to avoid it, but the Apple store is at the mall. Second, our computer is a huge 27″ beast and there is no way to make it smaller. I tried a rolling suitcase, a wagon, and the only way I was going to get it to the store was to carry it. Third, and finally, Audrey isn’t really old enough to know when the best times to stay close/hold hands are….maybe when she’s 15.
Since I needed my hands, I decided to pile Audrey into our huge backpacking bag and hope for the best. As we were walking across the parking lot a friendly lady asked to assist us. I told her there wasn’t much she could do because if she dropped my computer, I’d never forgive her….and I didn’t even know her. She walked with us the entire way, just for her peace of mind, I think. We were early to our appointment, but thankfully the guys at the store took the computer off my hands immediately.
The guy (not quite a man…not really a boy….) was super helpful as he ran some diagnostic tests to determine that it was most likely a broken video card. Audrey fell asleep in the backpack and I’d passed my phone to Maggie and she proceeded to take 89 selfies. Ninety minutes later, we walked out of the store leaving our computer there into the fresh-air walking area. Audrey had woken up at the end and was voicing her distaste for the backpack, so we got out at exactly the right time.
Before we’d left home, I’d stuffed Maggie’s vest pocket with pennies for the fountain and the girls spent some time letting them kerplunk into the water while I contemplated our next move. I’d also packed lunch, but I was feeling brave and we hit up Blue C Sushi. The girls consumed California Rolls and I sipped on some tea while I reflected on our morning.
It isn’t often that I feel like I’m doing a good job at this mothering thing….there’s always something that I feel like I’m totally sucking at or irritated with. I really don’t enjoy taking my children to stores or even restaurants, mostly because it means more work for me managing them and their behavior. But while I was watching them cram Cali rolls into their mouths, with our huge backpack sharing Maggie’s side of the booth, I felt pretty good about it all. I’m full aware that a day will come that a quick trip to the mall and lunch before heading home, won’t feel like I’ve scaled a mountain, but that chilly day last week, I let myself have that moment.
And our computer is back home and running just fine.
I let Barry go pick it up. Alone.
