Christmas, New Year's, and Skiing - Oh My

We feel so incredibly blessed to have spent the last few weeks sharing the holidays (and the days just after the holidays!) with our wonderful families. My parents and my sister arrived in Madison the day before Christmas Eve. As soon as the family was gathered together Alissa announced that her boyfriend Zonk had proposed and they were now engaged! She showed off her beautiful ring, which was custom made and suits her perfectly! We are sooo excited for her!!! They've been together for several years so we already know that Zonk adores Alissa, is very intelligent, is great with kids (which means he'll make a great uncle to Ellie and a great Dad someday!) and has a killer sense of humor. Needless to say I'm looking forward to the wedding and welcoming him into our family.
Christmas Eve and Christmas day were perfect with great food, wine, and company. Of course Ellie made out like a bandit with gifts from all the people in the world who love her. Tate and I were blessed with very generous gifts from our parents and siblings, but nothing can compare to the gift of our precious daughter and every single glorious moment we get to spend with her! Did I mention how lucky we feel???
That said, we rang in the New Year in grand style, asleep in our king size bed with our little girl nestled between us. Wait, did I say asleep? I wish . . . it went a little something like this 11pm nurse, 12:30am nurse, 1:20am nurse, 2am nurse, 2:45 wide awake, no interest in nursing, just wants to talk . . . and it kept going like that until about 6am when she woke up for good. I just keep reminding myself how quickly she will grow up and how I will barely remember this inconvenience. We are doing some things to help improve this and it seems to be working, we haven't had a night like that since. We're limiting her daytime naps to two, we're trying to make our daytime a little more consistent, we're experimenting with different nighttimes, etc. I'll keep you posted, that is if I have enough energy after sleepless nights!
New Year's day was my last day in my leadership position with Whole Foods. I was sad for a couple of minutes, then just happy as can be to be a cashier, working 2 days a week with no responsibilities. Yipee!
Then we spent a day packing for our ski trip with the Hemingson clan. This was part of Tate's birthday present and our Christmas present and let me tell you - it was awesome! Even the weather cooperated, clear skies for traveling and 3 feet of powder while we were skiing. The cabin we stayed in was amazing, the perfect setting for all 11 of us to relax. I even got to ski a little while Nana and Lori watched Ellie.
The trip home was uneventful, but we were sure wiped out.
Ellie picked up a bug somewhere alng the way though and she is now sick. Poor baby. She had a fever of 102.9 the night before last, but it quickly came down and has held steady at about 99.5 since. I made a homemade vapor rub of non-petroleum jelly and a blend of essential oils, cranked up the humidifier, and created a steam room out of our bathroom for her a couple of times. She's on nap #3 for today and it is only 1pm! Let's hope we can kick this soon. Her red little eyes, runny nose, and cough are breaking my heart.
Happy New Year's to everyone! In case you're wondering what our New Year's resolutions are, mine is to stop accidentally "washing" my face with my lotion (I do it about 2-3 times a month since the end of my pregnancy) Only a new Mom could make this mistake this many times. The sad thing is that sometimes I don't even realize it as I think to myself, boy this soap feels slippery. I only notice as I reach for the lotion and realize that it is the second time I'm grabbing it that morning. So if I can nip this habit it will symbolize (to me at last) that I'm getting enough sleep and my mind has slowed down to a manageable stream of thoughts and to-do's! I don't think Tate needs a resolution, somehow writing a doctoral dissertation and starting law school seems like plenty to do! I'm deeming Ellie's resolution to sleep through the night!