CeCe gives it her best shot!

I don’t even know how to title this blogpost. It’s days after Christmas and a lot has happened. All good of course, but so many potential blogpost topics! Since many of you have said you think I’m funny, well maybe I’ll stick with a little humor today.

As you may recall, I left last Tuesday to go to Pittsburgh to have Christmas with Katie and her fellas! The traveling up there was uneventful and for that I was grateful as I knew the impending winter storm was rolling in and may impact my trip home.

I met Katie at the entrance of her work party. She invited me to be her “plus-1” and I loved meeting her co-workers. She provided me with a sequenced, cone-shaped Christmas hat and began to introduce me to her friends around the room. At this point, I had on my crossbody purse, my locket necklace, a mask hanging from my ear, and the band from the stretchy hat! Plus, as luck would have it, I had a turtleneck on.

Knowing all of the above information is important because about halfway through the party, when I could no longer stand the stretchy band around my neck, I decided to take off the festive Christmas hat. This is the exact moment when I knew I was going to be on funniest home videos or take my last breath.

As I decided to settle into a seat for the moment, I lifted the strap of my crossbody bag over my head, which tipped the Christmas hat. In an effort to catch the hat from flinging across the room, I reached up, only to grab my necklace and the strap of the mask hanging over my ear, at the same time. All I could think about was trying to gracefully put everything down without making a scene. The harder I tried, the more twisted I got. The elastic band from the hat was totally entangled in the necklace and the Somehow, my purse strap did as well, and I could not put my purse down. I turned my back towards the majority of the group, and continued to “un-do” myself. I was getting warm, flushed, and a little concerned about the outcome. I was a hot mess. This seemed to be several minutes but in actuality it was probably about one minute. Finally, somehow, everything was untangled and I regained my composure to hear, “You took off your hat!” Too soon, was how I felt…little did that person know how difficult it was to simply remove that hat!

At any rate, the evening continued and I told Katie about my mishap when we got in the car to go home. It seems my story was good for a laugh.

The next day, we decided to go to a Christmas exhibit with the boys as a festive outing. Getting the boys in and out of the car is no easy feat for two people. When I think of Katie doing this alone, and knowing she has mastered this, I am in awe. This day, I realized that I needed a serious lesson in car seat accommodations.

While Katie got Adrian (the baby), I told her I would manage Gabriel (3-year-old). Gabriel and I were talking about what we would be doing…we had stopped for pancakes first! As I struggled to un-loosen his car seatbelt, he wiggled out, making my job easy. Unfortunately, there was a 30-minute wait and with two little ones, that wasn’t going to work. So back to the car we went. I was having a hard time getting Gabriel back into his seat properly and Katie came to my rescue, explaining that loosening up this particular strap first would make it all so easy. I observed her and thanked her for the tip.

When we got to our destination, again, I offered to take care of Gabriel. I pushed the “loosen-up” button and pulled on the straps trying to get Gabriel easily out of his seat. Evidently, I had pushed the wrong button as the loosening wasn’t happening. Katie came to my rescue again, after getting the stroller out and getting Adrian out and into the stroller, buckled up and ready to go…poor Gabriel, said, “Mommy do it!”

Even after my lesson, I had failed miserably. We enjoyed our little outing and headed back to the car. Katie watched me carefully as I tried to loosen the strap. As it turns out, I was pushing the wrong button for loosening. Hmmmmm…Katie was frustrated, no doubt, that her mother couldn’t master this skill, but all she could do was laugh. Then I laughed, then Gabriel laughed and soon, Adrian was laughing too.

This CeCe felt so dumb. In all fairness, I have not had to take Gabriel anywhere in the car seat and until recently, I put Adrian into the car with his seat…basically just snapping it into the base located in the car.

Thank goodness, seats were not so complicated when I was a young mom.

My last little comment about this trip is about my travel day. Due to the snow, I waited until Saturday to depart (I was supposed to leave on Friday). Greg (Katie’s Dad/my ex-husband) was arriving on Friday, but decided to come early due to the weather. So…once again, we were in the house together. It wasn’t planned and it wasn’t exactly how I would have chosen to spend my Christmas break, but it worked. Some people may think I’m nuts and trust me, sometimes I think that myself. Somehow, we make it work, together, and I know Katie appreciates it. Times like that could make me sad, but I’m learning to manage to keep it together and accept the situation for what it is.

Of course I tried to get a picture of the boys with me and thankfully, got one that was good enough to post. For those of you who haven't seen it...I included it here!

I arrived back home after a slow 9-hour drive from Pittsburgh to Louisville and although I missed my babies, I was glad to finally be off of the road.

As twisted and awkward as moments of the trip were, it was a good one and my little Christmas at home was also good. Things were different this year for a variety of reasons, and I’ve learned that some of our traditions are changing. The days of all of us being together (kids and grandkids) are gone. The absolute chaos is gone too. It’s kind of sad, but it is the story of life and families…we grow up and we change. We are further apart in distance, work schedules, sick kids, and any number of things change things up.

With Mom and Dad, staying close to home is an absolute must. People come and go during the days before Christmas, visiting and dropping off thoughtful gifts, but Mayford Way is where they will be for Christmas.

I’m still working on Christmas cards. My room is decked out with packages to put away and items to return. It’s my own chaos. Fortunately, I’ve been off this week and will be home until next Tuesday, so hopefully, I’ll get things in order. No pressure…just wishful thinking!

So what would you have titled this post? I finally thought of something…but most of all, Happy New Year friends!! Love to you all!!!