Christmas Carols & Tiramisu

It wasn’t quite as cold first thing this morning, but we still bundled up this tiny girl in her cute $4 coat, and she was warm and cozy to head into school. However, I hadn’t zipped it up to the very tip-top, and so Miss Priss had to take care of that and zip it up allllll the way.

She wasn’t so sure about this cheddar biscuit at first, and after one bite, handed it back to me saying she didn’t want it.

A few seconds later though, just barely down the hallway, she changed her mind and asked to have it back, and began steadily munching on it.

Today’s lunch was a hodge-podge of just whatever I could find at home – black eyed peas leftover from a few days ago, a tiny, microwavable cup of yellow rice (that’s not as good as the brand I usually buy to make on the stove top), and a couple pieces of string cheese. This didn’t fully fill me up though, so later in the afternoon it was followed by some Baked Lays and a couple cookies from our break room. And I did some more audio book listening while just sitting in my chair. (And I found it’s easier to listen while I drive or wash dishes, because when I don’t have a “mindless” task, I have to consciously try to not do anything else, like check email or scroll Facebook, or else I lose my attention and miss details of the audio book.)

Today, I read this article on Tom Hanks in the NYT, and it’s just so warm and fuzzy. I’m not a super-fan of his or anything (although who doesn’t love “Sleepless in Seattle” or “You’ve Got Mail,” plus others like “That Thing You Do,” {an old favorite of me, Megan & Mama} “Castaway,” and “The Green Mile” which Jeff and I just recently watched), but this article has me wanting to search for any and all of his movies available on Netflix.

Emmie had a good day at school, as usual!

After work, Jeff and I both met up at daycare to pick up Emerson together. We spent a few minutes hugging and chatting, because I wasn’t going home with them but I wanted to see them!

Instead, I went back out to the church tonight, for a special Women’s Ministry dinner for the holidays (combo of Thanksgiving & Christmas). My Mama actually hosted & decorated a table, and all the ladies in our family came, including Megan, who attends a different church! My Mama had done and excellent job decorating her table for the Thanksgiving theme, and it was a lovely event! There were the six of us ladies from the family, plus two very sweet older ladies that are friends of my grandmother’s. We sang a few Christmas carols, heard from a few special speakers, and ate delicious food.

Italian-catered dinner from Mom & Dad’s restaurant was really yummy. I really loved the Caesar salad (I actually got a second helping of salad), and the tiramasu (with decaf coffee) for dessert was delish. (There’s something about having coffee with dessert that feels like such a grown-up thing, but also like such a special treat.)

While I was at the ladies dinner, Jeff and Emmie had dinner together with Nana at Village Inn before heading home.

Emerson was supposed to be asleep by the time I got home around 8:30, but she was still wide awake and all hyped up. Apparently, Daddy had given her some chocolate ice cream for dessert, and she was wired from the sugar. So it took a little bit more work to get her calmed down and ready for bedtime (and a couple of tried from me and once from Daddy), but we did eventually get her laid down in her crib.

My Aunt Jane (who’s really my mom’s best friend but we’ve called her “aunt” for 15+ years now), surprised me with a bag of goodies at the event tonight. She moaned me this set of WWII novels that she loved and thinks I’ll enjoy (she’s probably right), plus some of her favorite flavor of loose leaf tea. I couldn’t find our little tea leaf steeper thing though, so we’ll have to buy a new one of those before we can do a taste test.

Glad I get to just wrap up in my warm & cozy robe now, and enjoy the rest of the evening, with no dishes to wash or any chores! (Well, there are certainly chores I could do, but I’m choosing not to.) Just made a couple mugs of hot mint tea (brought to you by our HGTV mugs from “Home Town” & “Fixer Upper”), and now as usual, we’ll watch some TV before bedtime.