jonathanhickman.com

Small town charm

Our office closed for lunch today, so we could have our Christmas dinner. We forwarded the phone, locked the doors, and hit the road.

Except we didn’t lock the door. And when the mail lady came by and noticed no one was here, she dropped off the mail and locked the door behind her!

When will I get to play with my new toys?

I miss being off the day after Christmas. Maybe next year I should save up a holiday for the 26th of December.

Today, Katie is at home cleaning, and I hope C is being helpful; the house is absolutely trashed. But I’m back at work.

I’d so love to be at home cleaning, holding the baby, and playing with my new toys. At least this is an easy week at work.

I love this girl

Other than the antlers of course

Whaddya think? Does C look like Katie at eight months?

Empty house

It looks like C is down for her long nap of the day, so Katie left me here with the baby while she took the kids to their dad’s for the rest of their Christmas and break.

This morning we were up before six (although I cheated and went back to bed an hour and a half later). The house is trashed. I’d take a picture, but it wouldn’t do it justice. And I’m too lazy to find the camera under the torn wrappings, empty boxes, and other Christmas detritus. The kids partied hard, Christmas style. They played with loud games, and ran about the house, and tried out their new pogo sticks and rip sticks. We even had a helicopter flying around the house, in between chargings.

And that’s why it feels extra quiet in here now. Before there were three lively and boisterous children bounding about the house. Now the only sounds are my fingers on the keyboard and the baby lightly snoring in the other room.

Tonight Katie is working until 11. She has tomorrow off, and I’m hoping she’ll be able to find our coffee table under the rubble. I’m also hoping she won’t be too sad in this suddenly quiet house.

Ahhhh

You know, don’t tell my wife, but holidays aren’t really my thing. I’m bigger on day-to-day stuff. I like weekends, vacations, and hanging out with family and friends. I’m never sure what to make of holidays.

But this morning I got to clean the house, hold the baby, have a great breakfast of eggs and bacon (thanks, Katie!), hang out with the kids, pet the cat, listen to music, sit by a nice fire, and generally have a nice time. I did have to let the fire die off after a while because I can’t justify the wood when it’s so warm outside. But that’s ok.

While holidays aren’t my thing, it’s a ton of fun watching the kids get worked up. And it’s fun remembering how excited I used to get. And the Christmas decorations sure do look nice.

Conflicting desires

You can’t have me time and fireplace time at the same time.

In the spirit of Christmas

In the spirit of Christmas, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Oops!

The mute button on my other keyboard is right where the off button is on this one….

Now with baby

I convinced Katie that I should take the baby to work with me today, so I’m happy. She’s sitting beside me right now in her little bouncy seat, although I can tell its usefulness is waning. Katie is going to spend the day running errands in the car C hates, and I think C wouldn’t love helping her mama coordinate E’s school Christmas party, either.

But she’ll love hanging out with us at work today. Yay.

Four day weekend

It’s funny. I just realized yesterday that I’m going to have a four day weekend. But because it’s Christmas, I won’t be getting any more sleep than a regular weekend. Katie has to work on Monday, and I’ll bet C will have me up by seven at the latest. And something tells me we won’t be sleeping in on Christmas morning.

Note to self: talk to Katie about Christmas morning!