What we've been up to!

We haven't had too much excitement lately, and this past weekend was nice and low-key which is a great change of pace. And the end of last week was nice because it was BOGO at Starbucks, so a coworker and I treated ourselves to the new Chestnut Praline Latte that I was so excited to try...it was very tasty!!  Not too sweet, but just sweet enough to make me love it :)

E-M-M-I-E....close enough.

Brian headed up to Erie for his annual fishing trip with his dad and some family friends.  Unfortunately for him, Erie looked like this over the weekend:

 Yikes!  But they had a good time anyway.  I always give him a hard time because they go on this trip every year, Brian has yet to actually catch a fish and Danny sometimes catches some (but not this year!) so I tease him and ask him why he goes.  But I know that it's for the experience and the time with his dad....it's the same reason that I love Black Friday shopping with my mom and mother-in-law so much, and why I love going to girls nights with my friends...it's not about what you're doing, it's who you're with.

 The kids and I headed to Washpa for the weekend to enjoy some time with GG and Pappy while Brian was gone.  For the most part, we just relaxed, but on Saturday morning we headed over to my friend Cortney's house and the kids were excited to play with her daughter, Liliana.  We hadn't seen them since over the summer so it was nice to catch up and the kids had a blast and even made some Christmas ornaments.

 

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out with GG and Pappy (I talked GG into watching the first Christmas movie of the year with me..."Let it Snow"...it was just ok)

Pappy was in charge of bedtime stories

GG helped with homeowork

Gracie caught up on naps:

We headed home Sunday morning and had to face the reality of stuff like doing laundry and finishing homework...blah!  My mom had got the kids these cute little turkey door hangers so the kids worked on that when we got home so that I could unload all of our stuff:

We have a busy week ahead of us this week with some evening commitments....I'm already counting down to the weekend!!

Sometimes a mama just needs a night away.

I think every mama can agree that as much as we love our kids/husbands/families, we can all use some time away....time to take off the wife and mommy hat, and replace it with the friend hat.  I did just that a few weeks ago when my BFF and I went on our yearly sanity saver girls weekend.  In previous years (including last year), we've gone to NYC, usually in January or February.  With my birthday falling in December and hers in January, this was always a good plan.  This year we decided to change it up and try out Deep Creek, Maryland in the spring instead...and we're so glad we did! (especially after the winter we just endured, who knows if we would have even made it into NY in January??)

Here's what we concluded: in NY, we felt this pressure to go go go.  It was the pace of the city, and just the fact that we felt like we were dishing out money to be there, we'd better take advantage of it.  But in Deep Creek?  There wasn't much to do, and that was part of the appeal of it for us!!  Don't get me wrong, there was plenty to do if you were interested, especially in outdoor activities (and we might have done more had we been there with the hubbies and in the summer) but as it was, we felt zero pressure and we LOVED it.  This was our view off the patio of our room; what's not to love?

Our activities consisted of: manicures, lunch, hours spent talking and catching up while enjoying a gorgeous view of the lake, more talking, wine, dinner, more talking, night out at a bar watching a cover band, sleeping in, coffee, breakfast, shopping, talking. 

Perfection. 

My advice to all fellow mamas: take that time to get away!!  As you can see, it doesn't have to be anything fancy to be great.  It doesn't have to be a huge time commitment....it doesn't even need to be an overnight.  But find something, anything, that enables to you remove your other hats for a brief period of time, and connect with your friends.  I promise, you'll come back feeling refreshed and happy.