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For Christmas we did four gifts for each other: something you want, something you need, something to play with, and something to read. We got Little Man a set of die cast Blue Angel airplanes (his current obsession after seeing them at an air show in Detroit this past fall), a book and DVD about the Blue Angels (okay, a little loose about “reading,” but it IS educational), a super huge NERF gun with about a bazillion darts to step on in the middle of the night, and footie pajamas and underwear.

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This limited gifting makes resetting the house after Christmas not such a big deal. Thank God. I keep seeing pictures on social media of, literally, thousands of dollars worth of presents that parents are now trying to find places for in their already jam packed homes. No, thank you. Even with the presents from other family members (mostly LEGOs and Hot Wheels) everything fit into already established spaces. Yay!!!

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But the schedule is a whole ‘nother story. Keith has had a weird work schedule over the holidays, so our daily routine is all sorts of messed up. Add in readjusting to me being home every day and no weekly overnights with the grandparents and YIKES. It’s been, umm, rough, to say the least.

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I had also gotten into a very bad habit of relying on television and video games (aka, “the screen”) to entertain and distract. Part of this was because I had stuff I needed to get done (dishes, studying, cooking), but honestly? Part of it was sheer laziness. I had stuff I wanted to do (veg out on the couch, read blogs, nap) and didn’t want to be bothered. That sounds awful, but it’s the truth. So one of the goals in the new year is to limit screen time. I started that last week, actually, and it’s been working fairly well.

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For New Year’s Eve we tried to stay up until midnight. All three of us. Bad idea. We made it until 11:30 when there was an epic meltdown. So yesterday there was a long nap…and last night we didn’t sleep until 12:45 am. Yikes! I should know better than to mess with the kid’s sleep schedule.

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We have one more family Christmas event Sunday, but it is a low-key dinner thing. Then, Little Man’s birthday next week, and then we can resume “normal.” Whatever that means.

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I’ve been out of the blogging game for a while. Ha ha. But I like to do the 7 Quick Takes on Fridays. Now they link up at “This Ain’t the Lyceum.” Yes, I link to a bunch of Catholic bloggers. It started during my infertility/adoption wait days – it seemed the only people really blogging about it were Catholic women. And it stuck.