So Long, 2012!

I haven't been the best at keeping up with the old blog since I made my triumphant comeback, but I think that is okay.  It means that my real life is taking a front seat, and that is what its all about after all.  It also means that being pregnant with an almost 3-year old is kicking my ass everyday and its taking every ounce of my energy to sit on the couch and watch tv at the end of the day, much less come up with something interesting to write on ye olde blog.

Its been a few weeks since I updated here, so I'll fill you in on what happened during my absence. 

December was busy.  Long days (and sometimes evenings) at work meant that we cherished every free moment we had as a family.  In the middle of the month we hosted a Bears vs. Packers party for the Chicago Bears/Green Bay Packers football game.  I made a ton of food, including a knock-off of Portillo's famous "Chopped Salad," along with heartburn inducing Buffalo Chicken Dip and a bunch of other yummy munchies.

We also attended the holiday party for hubby's unit, which was held at the post ice rink.  AJ was able to ice skate for the first time ever with her daddy, which was the cutest thing ever.  Overall, it was a fun and low-key holiday party, which is always nice.

That same week we pretended it was Christmas at our house and woke up one morning and opened all our gifts that had arrived at the house.  I got a new phone and a case from hubby and AJ and AJ got a lot of books from us.  We didn't go crazy this year because I knew that our families would get her tons of gifts, and I was right!  She definitely made out!  I am planning to put some stuff up again this year to save for the summer when she hits her "present dry spell" after Christmas and birthday time are over!  Haha!

The weekend before Christmas we packed the car and headed south to spend the holiday in sunny Florida with my family.  My parents have a place by the beach and we were lucky to get some nice, warm weather while we were there.  We spent a few days at the beach, went to the zoo, cooked, ate out, swam, built sandcastles, looked for shells and enjoyed the company of family.

We returned home on the 30th and spent New Years Eve unpacking, doing laundry and relaxing.  We put AJ to bed a little later than normal, but still at a reasonable hour.  Hubby and I watched some episodes of the Walking Dead, ate some snacks and caught the countdown and ball dropping at midnight.  By the time we finally got to sleep it was close to 1 am and I was really regretting the late night this morning when AJ woke me up at 6 am.