i'm a weenie, i know

short and sweet:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
it's 11.25pm here and i'm hitting the sack. this is the latest i've stayed up in a while, and i can't keep my eyelids open anymore. new years is just no fun when you can't drink. and when your hubby's working. oh well, we'll just have to make up for it next year!
but i hope you are all doing something much more fun than i...
and i promise fun photos and updates of how we did this year with the christmas festivities and such...SOON...
g'nite!

my daughter's take on christmas

so, i think i already said this, but this is the first christmas soren is really, i mean really into it. everything is so magical for her. it's great. and she's very politically correct about it. she talks about santa AND baby jesus equally; what santa is going to bring her and role-playing the baby jesus (though not the immaculate conception). her baby previously dubbed cassie has been replaced as baby jesus (although, it doesn't look quite arabic enough) and she, of course, is mary. and any boy who happens to be in the room is joseph. she even wants you to run and hide with her and baby jesus from the "bad guys who want to kill jesus." her comprehension scares me.
so, the other day some friends were down and they'd returned from taking the hubby snowmobiling. soren, being the social butterfly she is, grabbed one by the hand and directed him to observe the baby jesus sitting in the corner. "why is baby jesus in the corner?" he asked. "i had to spank him. he said some bad words" was her reply. where does she get this??
the funniest one, though, was when she was playing with a little nativity set my mom got her. you only open one box each day as you get closer to christmas, and inside each one are the various characters. so far she's opened the angel gabriel and mary. since she couldn't play the typical mary and joseph running away from the bad people scenario, she was playing gabriel giving mary the good news. the following is verbatim how it went down:
gabriel: "you're going to have a baby, mary, and it's going to be jesus!"
mary: "oh shit."

in case you were thinking of getting me something

hope it's not too late. here's my wish list in no particular order:

--a new ipod (mine bit the dust, inconveniently before i'm about to fly off to the bahamas!)
--a sane mother
--attachments for my new kitchenaid stand mixer
--scrapbooking tools (yes, i'm one of those dorks)
--bloc party's new album (you'll have to pre-order it, it doesn't come out until february)
--basically any music i don't already have
--sheets for a king size bed, or
--a duvet cover for a supersize king comforter
--a maid to cook and clean for me until i pop this kid
--a disco ball air freshener (wait, i already got one of those from luccy!)
--new reading material
--any sedaris on cd
--little miss sunshine on dvd (it comes out tuesday!)
--a russian language tutor for myself and my daughter

okay that should give you enough ideas. what's on your list?

another year bites the dust

i recently had a birthday.
now, i wish i was the kind of person who could shrug and emit an "eh" about my special day, but i'm not. i love my birthday. love my birthday. i don't love it so much that i wish it were everyday, because i know too much of a good thing makes it, well, not a good thing, or at least not as special.
my husband and i acknowledge a birthday week, so you (supposedly) get the entire week during which your birthday falls to make any demands or requests you like (though, that doesn't mean they always are granted, but you definitely have a better chance of having them fulfilled during your birthday week than during any other given time). this year my birthday fell on a saturday. lucky for my husband, he works an awkward schedule which requires him to be asleep most of the daytime during the week, so he got out of a lot.
the friday before my birthday we took our daughter skiing. she did really well, made a lot of pies, and was enthusiastic all day long. she didn't have the early throw-in-the-towel attitude she did last year, and her body coordination has greatly improved. it was a lot of fun. the day of my birthday we went and cut down a christmas tree (where we always take our family photo that accompanies our christmas cards) and then went sledding. this soren equally loved and we had so much fun we were pretty pooped by about 3. we made the hand-off with soren to the grandparents, and that night my husband took myself and my friend out for fondue (we'd invited more people, but apparently we don't have as many friends as we thought we did). the fondue was great and we came home stuffed and fell asleep on the couch watching a movie.
i guess because i didn't have much of a birthday week the week during, i had an extended birthday into the following week. my buddy spoiled me with a trip to the hot springs over the pass where we stayed in the resort, allowing us 24/7 access to the hot springs pools (there are about 15 i think) and robes to don whilst making our way from pool to pool. it was a real treat; the rooms were nice, the pools great, and we even had massages. i felt pampered, and more importantly i felt quite sexy, something that starts to happen a lot during pregnancy but i hadn't experienced this go-round until our visit. to be honest, i've felt more like a bloated, beached whale than a sexy, baby-making goddess, but perhaps that's starting to change.
it was a great birthday. and next year promises to be even better.

a tip

for all you denver-ites out there:
two places i would HIGHLY recommend for hair stylin' action.
numero uno) my sister at the aveda institute on california! she's got a great eye for stylish cuts and the best part is, you get your haircut for cheap! (since it's a school and all) aveda has great products, too, and don't forget to TIP!!
numero dos) molly at the parlour on wynkoop. this girl is amazing and they really take care of you at the parlour, though it is considerably more pricey than at the institute. you can sip on a glass of wine or beer while you wait and you get a head massage with your shampoo. (my sister will be working here, as well, after june)

check it out!

pow pow nar nar

We got SNOW! Thirty-something inches of it! And I went snowboarding for the first time this season. It was glorious, in the words of one friend, pow pow nar nar. Though, snowboarding always uses muscles I'm not accustomed to using, so I'm a bit sore from it, and, from skiing.
Yes, I went skiing too, but only to better help my daughter, who is quickly learning. It's a bit difficult to take a kid down a hill when they're on skis and you're on a board. She did so well for her first day back and is excited to go again. I'd like to get her up there at least once a week. The nice part about my husband's job is we can meet him when he gets done with his night shift and take some turns together.
I'm going again this Wednesday before my buddy takes me over the pass to soak in the hot springs for a night. That will be a real treat. And then the rest of the week is filled with Christmas activities galore. Should be fun.