Ball and Chair

Our next door neighbors gave us tons  of baby toys, and Minnie's very favorite is this delicious ball.

Seriously, though. All I do is take pictures of Minnie in her chair.

Wearing American Girl sunglasses

My favorite old pajamas of Cooper's.

Such a sweet napper

The kids made these with no help from me

Aaand we are back to that delicious ball

And chair.

 

November: What I read

 I didn't read a lot, and while this not reading made me sad, I also couldn't get myself to read. I blame Plain Bad Heroines which I did not like but could not stop reading. WHY can I not stop reading books I hate? GAH.

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth: Hated it.

The End of October by Lawrence Wright: This is so scary!! About a global pandemic. You should read it.

Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline: I did not love this. But also it is pretty awesome.

Want by Lynn Strong Steger: I LOVED this! So compelling and suspenseful even though it's just about normal life.

The Distant Dead by Heather Young: YOU GUUUUUYS! Read this one.

Minnie in a ridiculously cute chair.

Minnie's Aunt Jen and Uncle Maurice sent her this adorable and ridiculous and ridiculously adorable chair yesterday, and all I did was take pictures of Minnie reclining in it.

And then I put her in the sink to put my makeup on

And she un-swaddled her arms to bash herself in the face and take an 18-minute nap.

I also spent much of yesterday stewing about the enormous amount of work I have to do to prepare for the spring semester and my almost completely depleted capacity for doing the sort of work that requires deep thought. Expect more about that, you lucky readers.
 

Christmas intentions

 I want to set intentions for this season because the fourth trimester has ended, and I need to get back into my health and fitness routine and make more space for work. I thought that NaBlo would help with the latter, but we all know I have been faking this thing. So, here are my daily practices for this season:

1.100 crunches everyday (I started this on Friday, and I can feel my abs again! And they hurt)

2. Yoga everyday (maybe this will be a video of some sort-- maybe it is just a couple of sun salutes-- whatever works)

3. No snacking after dinner (a hard one, to be sure)

4. All spring class prep done before the semester ends (SOUNDS IMPOSSIBLE)

5. Read. EVERYDAY. (I am slipping out of this habit, and it is making me sad)

6. Watch at least 14 terrible holiday movies on Netflix (or another streaming service-- this does not count my usual holiday faves, and Netflix is really the best becauee they HAVE SO MANY GENRES.

Here's a baby tax: Minnie helping me grocery shop:

It's beginning to look a lot like...

 Our Christmas tree farm was awesome. They had TONS of staff working (all masked, natch), and they set up an outdoor pay station. We were in and out with a tree, a tiny tree, and a bunch of branches in less than 15 minutes. AND IT WAS STILL MERRY AF.

SEE? LOOK HOW MERRY!

Also merry

I LOVE these antique ornaments from Ben's fmaily

Harry can reach the whole tree!

More antique ornaments

I got a teeny tree for the front door. I don;t know why. I guess the better question is WHY NOT?

The kids hung these ornaments for Beatrix (the ball says world's greatest dog)

The Santa pics are my forever favorite.

Also the hallway is darling, and of course I WISH WE HAD A FIRE PLACE.

We got a pre-cut tree and still did not notice the weird scraggly side util we got it home.

I love needle-sweeping season!!

Minnie's first Thanksgiving

We started the day with mandatory crafts:

Since the pandemic began. we have clearly let Dorothy go feral.

Minnie wore Dorothy's Thanksgiving dress

We middled the day with crafts as well.

We Zoomed with family

Used a baby nose sucker as a turkey thermometer (UNUSED AS A NOSE SUCKER I feel compelled to explain).

Dorothy made a turkey hat for Min.

More Zoom!

Nailed the camera timer I must say

I loved these Target placemats so much.

Also Cooper's art.

Clearly hand turkeys were mandatory.

We ended the night with Minnie's first family movie night-- Home Alone.

We missed everyone, of course, but the food was great. I got mildly drunk on champagne at 3 pm. My cheesecake was perfect. What more could we ask for??