The first Christmas.

Our holidays involved driving. A lot of it. And a lot of people, all up in Hazel's face, telling her how cute she is. And she is, it's true, but baby girl does NOT care for people to invade her personal space, nor does she care for cutesy loud voices, and quite frankly, older women scare her.  So with that, add in the following things:

-Barking Dogs
-No naps
-a few LOUD family members
-TEETHING (top front teeth)
-A cold (for her, for Trever, and now for me)

And you get a hectic five days of chaos and crying. That's right, FIVE days. Next year, that ain't happening, no sir, sorry family. I'm not sure how it is that we are expected to drive all over, but I think it may have something to do with the fact that we live in apartment and not a house, and the people with houses have more space? but also dogs. And it's not that I hate dogs, but I don't really like dogs, especially when they bark and jump and smell.  I don't want everyone to come over here, either. But perhaps we can combine visits a little better next year so that we aren't driving down to the south shore three days in a row.

As far as gift giving, we gave out magnets of our little goon's face. They were a hit. We didn't have much money to do things for people, and really, no one NEEDS anything. So the only actually presents that we gave were to the kids (there are two aside from Hazel) and a little photo album to Trever's grandmother. I wish people didn't give us gifts. I know that sounds ungrateful, but we just don't have the space for more knick knacks or things to hang on the wall, and also, I like to pick that stuff. It's my space, you know? I don't want my surroundings to be based on feelings of guilt over gifts. Does that make sense? I get it, it's nice to give gifts, but I feel terrible creating a donation pile right after Christmas. I would much rather people just keep their money, or give us $10 to put in the bank for Hazel, instead of buying her terrible clothes made of fabric that I don't like touching. It's not like I can tell people this, either. I can tell my mom, and I HAVE told my mom, but clearly it hasn't sunk in.

I swear, my family is TRYING to make me a hoarder, like they all basically are.  IT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, PEOPLE.

Other stuff happened that was also dramatic/traumatic over the past couple weeks that I won't get into, but everything seems to be calming down a bit, for which I am thankful. We have big plans for New Years, to stay home and play Monopoly, and I couldn't be happier. I love my little family and I can't imagine ringing in the start of 2014 with anyone else.