remember that time i had a blog?

Remember it? It wasn't that long ago.

Okay, melodrama aside, my laptop fell ill a couple of weeks ago and despite my incessant need (and stubbornness) to keep babying it along, it finally died. It was at this point I borrowed my sister's old laptop that didn't take long to follow suit. I am totally owning the fact that I'm a computer addict so I found myself a little anxious when there were suddenly no working computers in the house. Thankfully, the holiday season, Ethan and a few other endeavors kept me super busy to the point where this weird computer-less transition became tolerable at best. I can do tolerable. Of course, I missed blogging and writing and nearly fell to my knees in overwhelming joy when I came home one night and my husband presented me with a completely restored laptop.

That's my far too wordy way of saying that I'm back now.

I debated playing catch up but decided to just take things from here. For the most part.

Each year, I like to throw Ethan and his friends a little holiday party. I hold these parties at the park in my parent's neighborhood because the weather is (finally) nice enough to make this happen here in Florida. I thought I kept things simple this year until my mom was super sick and couldn't entertain Ethan while I set up which means I spent two hours chasing a toddler around a park while decorating for his party -- which included cutting Christmas tree shapes into 30 cheese sandwiches. I'm usually one to shun the "Super Mom" title but, dude, I earned it after getting that party but together (by the skin of my teeth) before the cars started pulling up. Anyway, it was a nice little get together with some cookies, milk and other little snacks, some crafts and just playtime. My dad bought a Santa suit to wear to these parties and I was curious how Ethan would do with that. (If you're wondering, he flung himself on the floor and screamed that it wasn't Santa, it was just Grandpa trying to be funny but he wasn't funny at all.)

Here are a couple of photos from Ethan's 2014 holiday party and then I'll consider myself all caught up.

(Oh, it's good to be back.)