not necessarily in this order

Well, we made it! It was one of those weird life moments where the day itself was significantly less stressful than it has been in past years (weighed down so much by logistics and illness), which made us all feel incredibly guilty for enjoying our “all pajamas, appetizers and dessert forward, sad-and-fun-and-small ” Christmas. We felt our feels and had some laughs and memories and had a lovely day together, which was the best part.  I had leaned in on prioritizing bakes to give us things to do. I stand by this strategy; however, we could end up with a significant amount of desserts for only three people. It is what it is. I’ll start with the random one: on Christmas Eve Eve, Luke and I decided we needed a cake-like dessert for us to eat because we are not going to eat the one Lil Momma was making (a favorite of her and my mom, but too sugary and cool whip-y for me and too peppermint for Luke. We have been watching the Christmas Masterclass episodes of the Great British Bake Off with

What a week, what a week… I have been seeing all these memes about the audacity of people still sending emails and work tasks when it’s basically the limbo that is Christmas week into New Year’s and I feel like life doubled down to make it super real to me!     Work has been oof the past few days as I found out me (and a bunch of us) are  losing our assigned workspaces  in the office and need to be cleaned out by mid-January. I always knew it was a possibility, but such a bummer to hear about this of all weeks (and with no warning / appeal) (and right before my 10 days off) and have to communicate to 30+ unsuspecting folks I sit nearby. I mean, I have no intention of going  in 4 days  a week just to ensure I can be assigned a desk again, but it’s hard to deal with change when there’s no good reason. This all may be my hatred of packing, too, haha! There are worse things, but airing a small grievance felt right? Random penguin to transition into holiday topics, haha!   We are entering

  To kick things off, a win for Lil Momma who conquered her nerves and sang her solo and duet verses so well at her musical theater school’s holiday concert! There was a lot of drama leading up to it: She got herself sent home from school on Friday, we discovered the white sweater we had bought would make her melt because of how hot it was onstage and had to do a desperation shopping trip the morning of the concert, her coming clean about both being nervous and incredibly, vividly sad that her Nana wouldn’t see her sing  ❤  but,  we rallied ! Her replacement outfit looked adorable and we drew blue hearts on our wrists (in honor of her Nana’s blue eyes) before we left.  She was just fearless up there and did such a great job  with her song – both a confidence booster and an emotional win for this bumpy holiday season we’re having.    I also came home to a  surprise from Kathrin  ( formerly blogging at  coellefornia.us , which I used to read!! ) for the  #SecretSANtaSwap2023  ! LM firs

  Lil Momma has a   solo verse in her musical theater school’s holiday concert   (followed by a few lines of a duet). Although she was THRILLED when chosen for this, she has been freaking out about it this week and we are at the point where we don’t know if I am going to be able to get her out of the car for the rehearsal tonight, much less to the actual concert tomorrow, sigh. I know it’s such a good life lesson for her (and have a feeling – or a hope! – that she will rally and really enjoy the moment she’s wanted for a few years), but it’s hard to navigate the big feelings when we already have so many big feelings in the house. Random Bella pic to fit the vibe! My tea advent calendar got me all messed up this week, so the next set of reviews will come next week! After the 7 different teas I opened the first week of the month,  the next 2 teas were repeats  (which made me think the rest were repeats)… Turns out, it’s just a mixed bag (haha) of flavors with some repeats (and it’s a puz

 One year ago today, I published my first post here.  In retrospect, it seems wild that I started this space because I thought my life had calmed down enough to give me time to think and write and be creative. Oh, past Lindsay, little did you know! It’s obviously been a hard year and a harder last few months, but I think my biggest lesson of it all that having something solely for me, a place to get back to writing, and wonderful friends out there in the interwebs who I get to chat with in the comments really was such a perfect gift for the year I got to live (the good and the oof). In looking back on the year, it’s hard not to just see what I didn’t get done… But, there were also moments of joy and adventures and good bakes and watches and listens ( at some point, I need to write about my Doctor Who 60th Annviersary Specials feelings!! ), as well as parenting conundrums, Lil Momma mischief, and all the day to day stuff, too   To stay in that vein, here are a few scenes from last weeke

  It kind of is right on brand to not have any “hot goss” to spill (as my daughter refers to it) but have actual tea reviews to share, haha! But, two things from this week first to balance off the tea reviews below!   Lil Momma had   December recital   #1 of 2 last weekend! Her dance studio walked in a local parade and then she performed with her jazz and hip hop teams. It was pretty epic: for jazz, they did   the Heat Miser song   from   A Year Without a Santa Claus   (dressed as the Heat Miser) (they kind of looked like Beaker from The Muppets, which was amazing!) and for hip hop, they did a   remix of Ice, Ice Baby , a seminal song from my youth. LM has been walking around randomly saying “to the extreme!” for weeks and it was so great to see her having such a wonderful time dancing on the stage. I’m   back in the office 3 days a week   after being in and out of remote work since we lost my mom; I usually go in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so it was a bit weird to come back in after a

My Lil Momma and Luke both are creatures of routine and love Christmas something fierce. Although we have been challenged with a lot of life in recent November/Decembers, I do my best to rally the troops and focus on these rituals that they thrive on - even though giving up our nightly   Taskmaster   watching for holiday movies is making me a little Grinch-ish, sigh, haha. Last year, for the first time, I got each of us an advent calendar to brighten up our cold December mornings; mine was Marvel figurines, LM’s was Harry Potter figurines, and Luke’s was  A Christmas Story  figurines.  You might note the amount of figurines there… It was a lot. Just so many. And what do you do with them after?!?!!   This year, Luke has horror movie figurines and LM has rubber ducks (she felt so strongly pulled to them), but I decided to something different for myself:  a month-long tea trying adventure! Although I love tea and it’s part of my daily habits, I haven’t tried a lot of flavors . I tend to s