And with this post, vacation is over

It's Sunday night. Like any other, I'm doing some laundry in prep for the upcoming work week. We went out this afternoon and picked up some cold cuts and took inventory of what we had in the house for work snacks. We put Ish to bed and cleaned up the living room and play room. New sheets on the bed, new towels waiting for us tomorrow. Just like any other Sunday night.

But with this Sunday we don't just say goodbye to the weekend. We say goodbye to Christmas vacation. Even though I went back to work last week, it was a short (and I have to say boring!) week that started on Tuesday (thank you snow day on Monday!) and ended somewhere around 4:30 on Thursday. Matt has been off for the past two weeks. He played Mr. Mom while I was at work last week and kept young Ish occupied. They enjoyed their time together - can you tell?
We all enjoyed our time together snowed-in last Monday. Hanging out in our pjs and eating lots of yummy leftovers.
And we hit the stores this weekend to see what bargains we could snag. I bought my boys matching outfits for next Christmas.
We spent our mornings laying in bed watching Special Agent Oso and eating Lucky Charms (well, me and Ish ate the cereal - Matt is crazy and thinks it's too sweet - TOO SWEET??!!). We lounged around and set our own schedules for the days. It was nice to say the least.

But now the Christmas decorations are down. The outside lights are down. Everything Christmas has been boxed up and put away. The house almost seems empty without our wall art and all our random holiday decorations. It seems dark in here without the lighted garland on the staircase. And it breaks my heart every day when Ish asks to go see the Christmas lights of our neighbors that we've seen for the past month and I have to explain to him that Christmas is over and everyone put their decorations away. I know he'll ask again tomorrow.

Matt and I aren't big on New Year's Eve. I think we've stayed up to midnight only once since we've been together. This year I was in bed by 9ish. I left Matt in the living room watching whatever sporting event he was watching. It's just not a big deal to us. But in retrospect - we've said hello and goodbye to a lot of great years and a lot of heartache. From getting married, to having Ish. From dealing with genetic testing to dealing with a year of unemployment. It's certainly been quite a roller coaster we've been on these past few years. And while 2010 was quite alright (a new job for Matt, finding out we're expecting another healthy little boy), there is quite a lot to look forward to in 2011 (most importantly the arrival of our little Noah sometime late April).

So, I'll bring my rambling to an end now. Even though it makes me sad to say goodbye to these past few weeks and this past year, I'm also glad that time is moving on, bringing us closer to new milestones for Ish and meeting our little Squish.

Hello 2011. Nice to meet you. :-)