Super Chill New Year’s Eve

Remember how I was hoping Emerson would sleep in today? No such luck, of course. We were up a little before 7am, and playing with Moana toys soon after…

And then I popped a pan of cinnamon rolls in the oven, and they were super delicious for breakfast this morning. And then we spent an hour or so just lazing about, playing a little, drinking coffee, and watching videos together.

Emerson and I loaded up in the car, and ran a few errands together, to the post office and to get our Walmart grocery pick-up order.

And she was super thrilled when I asked if she wanted a project. I threw all the plastic bags in the floor, and she stuffed them in our little bag-keeper.

While Daddy and Emmie played a little bit, I chopped veggies and browned a pound of Italian sausage. Then I dumped those with the spices & broth into the crock-pot, for a creamy tortellini soup for dinner.

Emmie had cheese noodles for lunch, and then went down for her nap right after noon. While she napped, Jeff and I ate some sandwiches for lunch. Then he worked on some laundry, and I worked to catch up on my 1 Second Every Day videos, which I was about three months behind on. I also took this photo to go along with my blog post all about my 2019 book recap.

We had taken her sheet off this morning & thrown a load of her laundry into the washer. But it didn’t get dried in time, so she got to sleep on a special quilt for nap-time, and she thought it was the best thing. (Also, right after getting groceries earlier, she declared it was nightgown day, and made us change her clothes.)

We had some more playtime after nap time… And she ate a little bit of a blue candy cane her school teacher gave her.

Remember when you were little, and your parents or grandparents would close their eyes and you’d tell them to wake up? And then they’d say something like, “I’m not sleeping, I’m just resting my eyes.” It always sounded like the silliest thing growing up, but as the parent of a very busy 2.5-year-old, I know exactly how they feel. I laid my head on her giant chicken and rested my eyes while she played right next to me with her Chewie Tater Head, and after about 10 minutes of just resting my eyes, I really did feel better! 🙂

And then we decided to get out of the house and go to the park! I asked if she wanted pigtails again today, and she went crazy for the idea! Unfortunately, I’m not super great at it, and it’s really messy and I always hurt her when I’m trying to put the rubber-bands in, but the little piggie tails are so stinking adorable!

On the way to the park, she had her cell phone with her, and said, “I’m calling my family! It’s Papa on my phone!”

And then we had a perfect park visit! It was just a teeny bit chilly, and there weren’t too many people there and it was just so lovely!

There is a dog park at the park we go to, and we always walk over for Emmie to see the doggies. This one is there literally every time we go, and he’s always just barking away like crazy. He comes over to us at the fence, and is literally like, yelling in her face, and she just squeals and giggles and loves it!

Matching purple sweatshirts & sunglasses 🙂

After about an hour at the park, we came home so I could finish up our soup. I dumped in the dried cheese tortellini and the milk, and after stirring it up, left it to sit for 45 minutes, while I wrote this post and Daddy & Emmie played together. Then all that was left was to add in a few large handfuls of fresh spinach leaves to let wilt while the garlic bread baked in the oven. And then we were ready to eat!

She wanted us to sing “Jesus Loves Me” as our dinner prayer tonight, which we did, and it was so precious.

And YOU GUYS. This soup was soooo good! Super easy, super delicious, very hearty & cheesy & lots of veggies. I loved it! I ate two bowls.

And the recipe made a TON of soup. Clearly, both of these containers are filled to the brim, even after we all ate dinner tonight. I’m actually going to give the larger, white dish to my parents tomorrow, so they & Grandmommie can all help us eat the leftovers.

After dinner, Emerson helped Daddy with some laundry, and picked out her own jammies for bedtime. We started hearing fireworks going off, and she was asking “wut dat noise, Mommy?” So we told her all about fireworks, and then she kept saying she wanted to see them. We told her they wouldn’t be big until after she was asleep, but instead, we could watch a video on YouTube. So we found a good video and she was completely engrossed!

She was super sweet and easy at bedtime, and I got her down with no trouble. She’s started this new thing though, when I finally leave the room (after books, lullabies, back scratches and “Jesus Loves Me’s”), in the most pitiful voice imaginable, she says “bye-bye Mommy,” and waves her tiny little fingers, without even lifting her hand off the bed. It’s the most pitiful-est thing and it’s so precious it almost breaks my heart.

I had a sink full of dishes to wash, so I set my 20-minute timer to do as much as possible. But when the timer went off, I kept on working, and got everything done in an additional five minutes.  It only took a few extra minutes to write the rest of this blog, and the ginger-peach hot tea is already made. Once it cools down enough to drink, I’m gonna wrap up in my new blanket from Christmas, and Jeff and I will have a super chill New Year’s Eve together, juts chillin’ in our living room! Which sounds perfectly perfect to me.

2019 has really been a good year for us. (See the recap here.) There are always ups & downs of course, as with anyone, but I’d say overall the year has leaned towards “up” for us, and for that, I’m truly thankful and grateful and feeling incredibly blessed. I’m not going to get all reflective and whatnot now, but I’ll just say, “Bring it on, 2020!!”